Cruel Reviews

Sorcerer's Spring: a Tale of Exia by WritersOfExia

30-8-2019

This is my fifth review and it's for Sorcerer's Spring: a Tale of Exia. Keep in mind that this review may no longer apply after a while, if the writer happens to edit their stuff eventually. I am reviewing the first chapter, which is quite small so possibly this review will be too. Possibly I'll do a review of the next chapter as well if this doesn't feel sufficient.

I want to get a few grammatical errors out of the way. 

Had led me, not lead. The current story is being told in the past tense, therefore what happens before that needs the past perfect tense. Neither past nor present would be suitable here.

Have again confounded, not had again. In one case, the protagonist is thinking in the past tense and in the other, the present. This needs to aligned to one tense. Either could work but I would suggest the present.

There are no spelling errors that I could find, to the writer's credit. 

And now the writing. So. The writer is versed in the dramatic grammar forms native to fantasy writing and at no point does this congruence break. The descriptions are heavy but they manage to avoid feeling overdone. The vocabulary is impressive but has not been misused as is so often the case. There isn't really dialogue, but I suppose the protagonists thought process could be considered as such and that flows smoothly and commits to a single personality. 

This is excellent writing.

The plot is simple so far. A user of magics is hunting someone around a settlement called Fenora. They are attempting to use their powers to pinpoint his location. No backstory is given so far, thrusting the reader right into the action, which is just perfect.

Not so much information was given about the time of day or the location. It was only at the last word that the reader finds out that its night time.

Now though the plot did not give away much, it did hint at things to come and the reliability of the protagonist. And when the writing is this good, it does generate a great deal of faith in what the author will do next.

That brings me to the end of my review. This is a collaborative effort only now starting off and the amount of detail the writers have poured into just the preface is very endearing. This review was for only the first chapter. GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR FUTURE WRITING WritersOfExia!