Luke, an elf whose wings are clipped, teams up with Omar to work his way out of the wretched Gates District and onto the high seas. This is a world of fantasy, where magic works and dwarves, centaurs, elves, and other types of original creatures abound. I give three stars to encourage a beginning writer, but for me it was two stars. I kept being bumped out of the story by the writing errors. For example, the point of view (POV) character is Luke, with whom we are supposed to identify. However, the author keeps moving into the head of other characters and letting us read their minds, which is a POV jump. Sentences are overblown: at 9%, "He turned and looked out the front doorway and saw the man they had come to know as Red Hook walking towards the inn" should be "He saw Red Hook walking towards the inn." At 10% Luke confronts a centaur guard and simply yells at him, whereupon the centaur cowers. Why? How does Luke know to do this? We are never told. At 12%, "The girl... was a welcome site." We get six pages of Riftkin rescuing a girl named Twil from the lizard men, but she betrays him without hesitation or reason. At 30% Luke gets a knife in the back deep enough to do organ damage or to cause death by loss of blood(his own words). Yet, without medical attention, he recovers and is soon gambling. I hate to pick, but at 35% "The server SAT down another small box [on the table]." Something "peaked his curiosity." That last error is very easily made (should be piqued) but a writer should know his craft like a mechanic knows his wrenches. Commas are badly mistreated in this novel, usually by their absence.
I apologize for the picky review. At $0.99, it's still a good buy for reading by the pool.
