Gingerbouf Does Books

The Chaos Crystal by Jennifer Fallon
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

The most infuriating ending to a series EVER!!! My God I don't think I've ever been so disappointed, mainly because I know the author is capable of amazing things a but also because this was just ridiculously sub par!! It's shocking to think that the author of this is the same woman who gave us the staggeringly brilliant and epic Demon Child Trilogy. I feel like crying. Never did I think I would be giving this kind of review to a book by Jennifer Fallon. But I cannot lie, as much as the truth pains me. Here we go.

So, the specifics. Firstly, for a properly published novel, there were a ridiculous amount of errors. Not so much the grammatical, though there were a few extra words here and there. No, this book had the sort of mistakes that really shouldn't have made it to final print. Full stops and commas in the wrong places, words given capital letters after commas...it gave off the impression that the book was still in the drafting stage. Not what I would expect from a novel printed and published by a quite well known publishing house.

Then there was the writing. Now I'm going to be mentioning a bit, but one of my favourite series EVER, is the Demon Child trilogy by the same author. It is quite simply spectacular. So I know what this author is capable of. Her prose might not be elegant or lyrical but it is extremely gripping and ridiculously readable. But in this series, it's like she's lost her touch. Nothing really flowed. I got the overwhelming impression that perhaps the authors heart wasn't really in it. Maybe she had her mind on other things and wasn't solely focused, but again, it felt like the story was still in it's early stages of development. The author had got as far as laying down the basic story, but was waiting to go back through it with a fine tooth comb to add the wit and sparkle that I know she can produce when it accidently got printed before it was finished.

And my God, did she repeat herself a lot. I wish I had counted the amount of times we were reminded that Immortals don't feel the cold. Every flippin' paragraph there would be a mention of the weather and without fail she'd pop in a little reminder, just in case we'd forgotten. We are not morons!! There were other occasions as well too numerous for me to go through them all, but in some cases the repetition would come in the same goddamn sentence. That's the only reason why this book's as long as it is, because it's just the same points made over and over again.

The characters weren't up to her usual standard either and I can't help but feel that the author thinks that the only way a female character can be strong is if they had some sort of shady past that either involves being raped or selling themselves. Which is so completely and utterly WRONG!!!

And the problem with Arkady, the female lead, is that despite the fact that we were supposed to see her as a strong, independent, intelligent woman, she was actually anything but. I can only speculate, but if a woman sold herself to men the way Arkady did, rather than go on and on about it whenever we were reading from her perspective, she'd be so ashamed of herself that she'd want to push the memories from her mind and never think about them again. She's supposed to proud, unwilling to submit to the men that would govern and rule her, a scientist full of curiosity and brimming with her own ideas and opinions, but the amount of times she seems to think the only way to get herself out of trouble is to offer up her body, is just ridiculous. If she's supposed to be so smart, surely she could have figured out other ways to outsmart these stupid men that all seem to lust after her. To me she came across as weak willed and a bit of an attention seeker. 'Oh poor me, look at all the bad things that have happened to me, feel sorry for me and love me and think I'm wonderful because I've managed to persevere,' blah, blah, blah. It got seriously boring, ridiculously quickly. In the end I just wanted to smack her for being so pathetic and spineless.

WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK YET AS I GIVE AWAY QUITE A LOT OF THE ENDING!!!!

(view spoiler)[Then there's the ending. Oh boy, what an ending, and not in a good way. We've spent four books in the world Amyrantha, getting to know the cultures of all the different nations. Then there's the sheer number of characters, all whose stories we've followed and personalities we've got to know. Despite the many flaws of the female lead, there were a few that had really grown on me.

So when she killed them off all bar a handful, it came as quite a shock. And I'm not just talking about the characters she killed off. The author destroyed the entire planet. THE ENTIRE. PLANET!!! What was the point of me reading all of those frickin' books when you're just going to blow them up? When I think of all the hours I spent it makes me want to rip my hair out, then cry, then throw things.

And that's not the worst part. All through the series, we've had the ongoing saga of who Arkady was going to choose, her childhood friend or the charming if suicidal Immortal Prince? I spent four books reading as Arkady kept bouncing from one to other. At one point I thought maybe she was going to stick two fingers up the pair of them and tell them were to shove it, which whilst being slightly irritating, would have made a refreshing change. But oh no, the author had something really special in store. There was no final showdown, no final choice and happy ending. In fact we get diddly-fucking-squat. Nothing. By the end of the book, to two blokes haven't seen Arkady in a while, shall we say. I'm still waiting for the fateful meeting between the three, but it never comes. At the end of the book, they still haven't spoken to her, she still hasn't made her choice. In fact, and this is a ridiculously major plot spoiler, Arkady has spent the last few million years stuck in a magical spell induced paralysis trapped in a meteor that was once a part of Amyranthia IN SPACE. IN FUCKING SPACE!!!!! In the last few chapters we find out the Immortals are now inhabiting Earth and apparently have them to thank for wiping out the dinosaurs and quite possible for the climate being well and truly buggered! WHATTHEFUCK?!!!!!! (hide spoiler)]

The ending was just beyond ridiculous. It was frustrating, unsatisfying and quite honestly, just plain crap. Ahhhhh, it still makes me angry. The main problem? The author leaves it completely open, as if she's going to back to it and continue the story. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? I'VE JUST HAD TO READ FOUR BOOKS WORTH OF POOR WRITING, TYPOS AND IRRITATING CHARACTERS, FOR AN ENDING THAT'S A COMPLETE AND UTTER LET DOWN AND YOU'RE EXPECTING ME TO READ MORE?...NOT A FUCKING CHANCE.

In conclusion if you are thinking of starting this series DON'T. Read the Demon Child Trilogy instead, it's miles better than this!!!!








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