Jem Matzan
Autor von The Hero
4 Werke 14 Mitglieder 2 Rezensionen
Werke von Jem Matzan
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- Matzan, Jem
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NancyNo5 | 1 weitere Rezension | May 15, 2013 | I got interested in this book because of this post by the author. I figured, after all these comments he makes about other books, this book must be fantastic! Partly, I wanted to like it, on the other hand my expectations were high. I guess both things influenced my opinion...
I'm not unequivocally positive about this book. I think the author has some nice ideas (see the post mentioned above). And the story was not bad at all. Still, I had some trouble with it. Every time I started reading it, I was surprised that it was not as bad as it had gotten in my mind, yet after reading a while, I started getting fed up with it. So what was the problem? Since I wanted to write something sensible in this review, you can imagine that I gave it some thought. In the end I came to the conclusion that it was two things: 1) the book is too chaotic for me and 2) the lack of chapters.
As to the chaos, the protagonist was constantly walking around, talking to this person, getting attacked by that bandit, or fighting with bears. There seemed to be no line to the story. I think this was probably done on purpose. One of the author's peeves (if I understand his post correctly) seems to be the lack of realism in other books. I imagine his argument would be that there is no real line to life either. And I suppose he would be right about that. On the other hand, this is not life I'm talking about, it's a book. And it so happens that books are better to read if they have a line to them. The result was my getting fed up if I read too much at one time: I could take the chaos in little bits, but not in large chunks. Which leads me to the second point: the lack of chapters.
I found this lack of chapters really annoying. It's not so bad while you're reading, but it is inconvenient when you want to stop reading. Chapters make a good stopping point. Moreover, in an ebook you can easily find where they are, so you know how many pages you still have to go until you reach the end of the chapter. On this you can base your decision whether to keep reading or find an earlier stopping point. In The hero, there are no chapters. There were a few breaks, but you didn't know where they were beforehand. So every time I had enough of the chaos, I started looking for a convenient place to stop the story, but I couldn't find one. Because of that I read on too long, got an overdose of chaos, finally stopped at an inappropriate place, became reluctant to pick up the book again, and then was confused by the time I did pick it up, since I hadn't stopped at a natural stopping point.
Apart from this, I didn't think the story was bad. Although I didn't entirely like the way it was told (see above), and there were some little glitches, I do like the idea of it. There is a lot about what it means to be a hero. Unfortunately, there is a thing in the story (for the spoiler see the review on Goodreads, because they DO have a spoiler font) that causes the main character to have limited depth. On the other hand, for the story he doesn't really need it.
I think The Hero was a nice experiment based on a good idea, that had a few glitches. Some of the ideas the author had (see the link to his post above) probably worked well, but I find it difficult to comment on them, since, if they really work well, you don't notice them. Like the fact that there is not much description of how a person looks. I guess there wasn't? But I'm not sure, because the whole idea of this is not to distract from the story, which I suppose it didn't, since I didn't notice it... So hereby my compliments for the things I didn't notice...… (mehr)
I'm not unequivocally positive about this book. I think the author has some nice ideas (see the post mentioned above). And the story was not bad at all. Still, I had some trouble with it. Every time I started reading it, I was surprised that it was not as bad as it had gotten in my mind, yet after reading a while, I started getting fed up with it. So what was the problem? Since I wanted to write something sensible in this review, you can imagine that I gave it some thought. In the end I came to the conclusion that it was two things: 1) the book is too chaotic for me and 2) the lack of chapters.
As to the chaos, the protagonist was constantly walking around, talking to this person, getting attacked by that bandit, or fighting with bears. There seemed to be no line to the story. I think this was probably done on purpose. One of the author's peeves (if I understand his post correctly) seems to be the lack of realism in other books. I imagine his argument would be that there is no real line to life either. And I suppose he would be right about that. On the other hand, this is not life I'm talking about, it's a book. And it so happens that books are better to read if they have a line to them. The result was my getting fed up if I read too much at one time: I could take the chaos in little bits, but not in large chunks. Which leads me to the second point: the lack of chapters.
I found this lack of chapters really annoying. It's not so bad while you're reading, but it is inconvenient when you want to stop reading. Chapters make a good stopping point. Moreover, in an ebook you can easily find where they are, so you know how many pages you still have to go until you reach the end of the chapter. On this you can base your decision whether to keep reading or find an earlier stopping point. In The hero, there are no chapters. There were a few breaks, but you didn't know where they were beforehand. So every time I had enough of the chaos, I started looking for a convenient place to stop the story, but I couldn't find one. Because of that I read on too long, got an overdose of chaos, finally stopped at an inappropriate place, became reluctant to pick up the book again, and then was confused by the time I did pick it up, since I hadn't stopped at a natural stopping point.
Apart from this, I didn't think the story was bad. Although I didn't entirely like the way it was told (see above), and there were some little glitches, I do like the idea of it. There is a lot about what it means to be a hero. Unfortunately, there is a thing in the story (for the spoiler see the review on Goodreads, because they DO have a spoiler font) that causes the main character to have limited depth. On the other hand, for the story he doesn't really need it.
I think The Hero was a nice experiment based on a good idea, that had a few glitches. Some of the ideas the author had (see the link to his post above) probably worked well, but I find it difficult to comment on them, since, if they really work well, you don't notice them. Like the fact that there is not much description of how a person looks. I guess there wasn't? But I'm not sure, because the whole idea of this is not to distract from the story, which I suppose it didn't, since I didn't notice it... So hereby my compliments for the things I didn't notice...… (mehr)
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zjakkelien | 1 weitere Rezension | Mar 2, 2013 | Statistikseite
- Werke
- 4
- Mitglieder
- 14
- Beliebtheit
- #739,559
- Bewertung
- ½ 3.5
- Rezensionen
- 2
- ISBNs
- 6
I liked this story very much. Was it a grand epic? No. I just found it to be a good story with strong characterizations and a solid plot.
Our Hero (no name is ever given, from what I understand this is why the author changed the byline to Anonymous to emphasize this fact) is a reluctant hero. His quest was begun on the behest of another. The Captain, as he is known throughout the book, has to deal with many psychological issues one of which seems to be his underlying suicidal goals.
I liked this character very much. The author draws a clear picture of who the Captain is. We are shown his mental struggles, how they came about and how he needs to deal with them.
The story itself although set in what is assumed is a 'medieval' time, deviates from the classic Tolkenesque fantasy novels. There are no goblins, dwarves, elves, etc. You have normal people trying to make do with the present situation of their lives. You do have a wizard but he doesn't do any spells, he is more of a wise man.
It is this normalcy that I was drawn to. There are no clear cut good guys or bad guys, even our Hero realizes he has killed many people in his quest and questions the morality of it. This empathy is a strong theme in the novel which makes it more believable. Kudos to the author on this point.
This is a good story written in modern language. Very enjoyable.… (mehr)