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reviews_and_ramblingsThe Fantastic Fluke by Sam Burns
The story opens strong, engaging from the start, and continues in a charming way to the end. Charm isn’t easy to write, but then the main character is a social mage (not a socialist!). The title itself, “The Fantastic Fluke,” isn’t particularly compelling. It would not have caught my attention if I wasn’t asked specifically to read the book. Our introduction to Gideon is funny and sweet. Iris is an appealing character as well. Beez is OK but we simply don’t get enough of her to truly connect. The father is rather flat as a character, but that doesn’t mean he’s not believable. Some folks are just horrible human beings. I did like how the more we learned about the father, the worse he became. In that sense, there was still character development. I anticipated Grandma’s golem assistance, but the author still introduced it into the storyline in an unexpected and charming way. The one sex scene is well-written and not cliché. It was perfect near the end to have Sage figure out the big spell on his own (other than Fluke’s insistence he use the knife). I suspected who the villain was early on, but I didn’t feel cheated by that. I’d hoped that we’d learn the stepfather who killed Sage’s mother had done so because he’d been forced into it by a spell. Perhaps that will come out in a sequel. There’s still more to that incident to be revealed, I’m sure. I did not like that the book ended with a cliffhanger. I’d have preferred this to work as a stand-alone, even if it’s part of a series. Overall, the writing is confident and controlled. I noted no more than two or three awkward sentences in the entire book. A truly enjoyable read all around.
https://amzn.to/3pFL9y7
The story opens strong, engaging from the start, and continues in a charming way to the end. Charm isn’t easy to write, but then the main character is a social mage (not a socialist!). The title itself, “The Fantastic Fluke,” isn’t particularly compelling. It would not have caught my attention if I wasn’t asked specifically to read the book. Our introduction to Gideon is funny and sweet. Iris is an appealing character as well. Beez is OK but we simply don’t get enough of her to truly connect. The father is rather flat as a character, but that doesn’t mean he’s not believable. Some folks are just horrible human beings. I did like how the more we learned about the father, the worse he became. In that sense, there was still character development. I anticipated Grandma’s golem assistance, but the author still introduced it into the storyline in an unexpected and charming way. The one sex scene is well-written and not cliché. It was perfect near the end to have Sage figure out the big spell on his own (other than Fluke’s insistence he use the knife). I suspected who the villain was early on, but I didn’t feel cheated by that. I’d hoped that we’d learn the stepfather who killed Sage’s mother had done so because he’d been forced into it by a spell. Perhaps that will come out in a sequel. There’s still more to that incident to be revealed, I’m sure. I did not like that the book ended with a cliffhanger. I’d have preferred this to work as a stand-alone, even if it’s part of a series. Overall, the writing is confident and controlled. I noted no more than two or three awkward sentences in the entire book. A truly enjoyable read all around.
https://amzn.to/3pFL9y7
