Wizard Rising - Toby Neighbours

I'm afraid to say that this book was average at best. There are a number of reasons for this and I shall go into those in just a moment. I'm going to start by saying something positive though. I like to find something positive in everything I read, sometimes this is easy, sometimes this is most difficult. Here goes...

I enjoyed the main character in the story most of the time I was reading about him. He was a well rounded individual with enough flaws and insecurities to be mildly interesting. He learns through the novel and there was some growth in there as well. I particularly liked the developing relationship between the hero and his father. It worked well for me. The world building was also decent. Neighbours had put some thought into it and it showed while I was reading. Well done!

Now down to the niggles and there are a few of them. I found more than a handful of spelling mistakes in the book that would make even my top year 5's cringe. To find them in a book I have purchased is a bit of an insult if I'm honest. There were multiple instances of words being duplicated, put in the wrong place or omitted, which made it hard to read in places. Continuity was a bit of an issue as well when the heroines hair changed colour half way through the novel, it started off black but became blond at the end of the novel. Another issue, the one that got to me the most was the phrase 'off of' as in 'get off of him'. It is sloppy and could be replaced with something much easier to read, for example, 'He couldn't take his mind from her.' What this book really needs is another final edit to pick up on these little mistakes. It would make the books grammar a lot tighter and it would be a better read.

Let's move on to another issue I have with the book; the plot. It all seemed a bit generic and dull, I've read a lot of independent novels now and a lot of them have very similar plots to other fantasy stories. I know you can only do so much but there are infinite possibilities and ways to put your own spin on a tale. This book falls a bit short of the mark, making it just another fantasy story.

The secondary characters were okay in places, dull in others. The antagonists seemed like generic conniving wizards without any real reason for their power hunger. It also seemed a bit silly describing a huge power struggle between them - taking sides and making alliances, when there are only four of them. It didn't seem to work that well.

Wizard Rising was not the worst book I have ever read, it's not even in the top ten, but it isn't the best either. Maybe after another re-write it will be but that's between the author and his words.