The Soulstealer War: The First Mothers Fire

---

Hoggmand currely resides in central New Jersey with his wife and daughters. When not playing his day job or writing at night, he enjoys spending time with his girls, digging in their organic vegetable garden, exploring the wields of the nearby Sourland Mountains, and telling tales on the front porch to what he knows will be the next generation of dreamers and writers. Back News Back Fandom Risingshadow. Back Recent Topics Search. That encompasses the genres of science fiction, fantasy, science fantasy, horror, alternative history, and magic realism.

Edited by Darkki Online 1 member and 58 visitors Eija Newest member: Despite my consideration for the author's work and for his amability in sending me a copy of his novel, I have to say that I stopped reading the book after approximately pages. I usually like to finish the books I start reading, but sometimes I make exceptions.

I don't think writing a review is the right thing to do, since I didn't finish the novel, but I think that an explanation for my reading interruption is normal. So far as I read, Kenneth McNarry, a law school graduate, hikes on the Appalachian Trail trying to figure the future course of his life. Here, he is transported through a natural portal in a fantastic world, a world threaten by a magic wielder race, named Nosferu. Why I stopped here? Because I found Ken's wandering through the new land very slow and almost nothing happens for nearly half of the book.

He meets Aldren, one of this land denizens, and saves him in an encounter with the Nosferu, but besides that, nothing much happens. Beside the slow rhythm, I found Ken annoying, he is always expaining us what he sees and why that things are as they are, even the obvious ones. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. Jul 20, Shaun Duke rated it did not like it. It took me a while to figure out what to do about this. I mulled over it for several weeks, trying to consider all the different ways I could deal with this.

The decision, obviously, is that I'm going to talk about this book because that's what I'm supposed to do.

Very rarely do I drop a book completely. It takes a lot to really irk me enough to drop something and most of the time when I do drop a book I make plans to go back to it again to see if it grows on me perhaps I wasn't into the book be It took me a while to figure out what to do about this. It takes a lot to really irk me enough to drop something and most of the time when I do drop a book I make plans to go back to it again to see if it grows on me perhaps I wasn't into the book because I was too stressed, or the story wasn't what I was prepared to read at the time.

Hoffman's first book in The Soulstealer War series called The First Mother's Fire is a self-published novel that looked like it had a lot of potential. I've agreed to take self-published novels under the condition that such novels will be read the same as any other novel from a legit press, which is why I'm talking about Hoffman's novel today. The novel follows Kenneth McNary, a recent college graduate who has decided to head off to the Appalachian Trail for some hiking.

On his hike he discovers a strange pool hiding in the brush, which turns out to be magical and, well, beyond that I don't know. You get a glimpse in the prologue of another world where things are going bad, and according to the synopsis on the back, that's where he ends up. But, I couldn't finish it. It was too much for me. The problems with Hoffman's novel stem from poor style, poor characterization, and poor plotting.

See a Problem?

I'm trying not to be mean about this, because I get the impression that he put a lot of work into this book. The cover is beautiful and the book itself is put together very well. But it's a difficult read.

Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews Index

Not too long into the book I already hated the main character, not because he was a bad guy, but because he was annoying. Kenneth periodically goes on random rants about, well, just about anything so long as it sounds intelligent philosophy, history, etc. He not only does this in thoughts italics , but also in dialogue, even though he's the only person out on the trail. He talks to himself, to the trees, etc. If Kenneth is wondering why the trees are the way they are, then just say that he's wondering and move on.

The Soulstealer War - Book One: The First Mother's Fire

We don't really need a history lesson or to listen to Kenneth talk to himself about how he's curious about the trees. Additionally, the narration follows a similar pattern, delving into Kenneth's past to bring forth things that are just as useless.

Blog Archive

Almost nothing happens and by the time something "interesting" happened I just didn't care anymore--not to mention that it shouldn't have taken so long for something "interesting" to happen anyway where's the hook? I was so irritated by Kenneth and his random rants that there was no point in continuing and I sort of wished he would just die so the author could give us someone more interesting and less annoying.

There are also huge problems with the story. Maybe it becomes more "original" later in the novel, but again, I couldn't get through it.

The First Mother's Fire

The prologue suffers from "old speak" or "ancient speak" or whatever you want to call it when an author has characters who talk like they just graduated from 15th century nobility school. The result is that the whole opening chunk feels very antiquated.

Again, the novel looks beautiful. The art must have cost Hoffman a fortune, but what's inside is what counts. What's inside is not nearly as lovely as what's outside. And that's all I can really say about this. Feb 20, Donna added it Shelves: I was talking to the author at BEA last year and he was explaining the premise to me and it just sounded so neat. Stuff that might be explainable. It was different from a lot of the fantasy I'd read so I snagged a copy.

It sat in my reading pile since then simply because it got buried and I just didn't get around to reading it until last week. Or attempting to read it is more like it. It was like wading through sludge up to your neck. This is pure mas Sounds interesting, right?

• LORD CURZON: THE WISEST FOOL IN HINDUSTAN?
• Dr. David Yonggi Cho: Ministering Hope for 50 Years
• The Broken Boy
• Boxen: Childhood Chronicles Before Narnia
• Feed Management in Intensive Aquaculture
• Stolz und Vorurteil und Zombies: Roman (German Edition)