Dawnthief / Noonshade - James Barclay


Recently, I read Dawnthief and part of Noonshade by James Barclay. I was in the mood for a fat fantasy, I wanted warriors and wizards. I wanted continent spanning wars, ancient evil, magic, and yes, damn it, why not, some dragons! Bolstered by numerous internet recommendations and the rather nice new covers, I decided to give Barclay a go - after all, PS Publishing have a novella out by him, his writing must be pretty good right?

Wrong. I can't even be bothered reviewing Dawnthief; to do so would be an exercise in complaint, and while I do like a good moan, to rip this abysmal book to shreds would require that I actually think back to the contents to back up my arguments. Frankly, I don't want to ever bother thinking back to this story - it's right down there with the awful Shannara novels, but at least I read them while still at school (didn't think much of them then either come to that).

To be brutally honest, I only finished Dawnthief because (a) I'd already laid down cash for the sequel and (b) there was a heatwave and I have no air-conditioning. Until now, I had always thought that if you can't sleep you might as well stare at a printed page rather than the ceiling. There, that's it - reading these books is inferior to staring at the roof, unable to sleep, during a heatwave.

Posted: Wed - August 20, 2003 at 01:42 AM        


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