Author: P.T. Dilloway
Publisher: Solstice Publishing
Publication Date: February 6 , 2013
Genre: Sci-Fi
Buy this book on Amazon
Author's Website
Author's Goodreads Profile
Synopsis from Goodreads:
SUIT UP AND SAVE THE WORLD!
Dr. Emma Earl never wanted to be a hero. But when she finds a magic suit of armor that can deflect bullets and turn her invisible, she becomes part of an ancient war between good and evil.
My Thoughts...It's up to Emma as the latest incarnation of the heroic Scarlet Knight to save Rampart City from the fiendish Black Dragoon and his plan to rule first the city and then the whole world.
This was a pretty quick read for me, I think I finished it in about 4 hours total reading time. It's pretty fast paced once the story gets started and that makes for a quick read for me. The premise is promising, albeit not terribly original. Dr. Emma Earl is a promising young prodigy who at only 19 has graduated with her Doctorate and is starting a new job as a lab assistant in the Geology department at the Plaine Museum in Rampart City.
Rampart City, the name alone clues you in on what type of story this is going to be. The first thing that popped into my head was Gotham City! Rampart City is the perfect name for a sci-fi/comic book city. This book is a throwback to all the old comic book series like Batman, Superman, etc... It has that feel to it and honestly I think it would make a great graphic novel. I think that it would present as a better overall story in that format.
So, things start to fall apart on Emma's first week at her new job. The man she works directly under is a day drunk and honestly, just not doing his job. She meets Dr. Dreyfus who works in the archaeology department and is immediately attracted to him and vice versa, but Emma is determined to obey the non-fraternization policy that they museum upholds. He brings her an artifact that he can't identify and asks her to research it to see what she can find on it so that keeps her busy for awhile. Suddenly a co-worker suffers a terrible loss and at the funeral things start to get a little crazy for Emma.
I was a little taken aback when on the first page we learn that Emma has a size 15 foot! I don't know why this was revealed other than in an attempt to let us know that she is tall without coming out and saying it, but I will say that it turned me off to her character a bit. I kept picturing her with these huge clown feet and it kind of took away from her character for me. Now give her an 11 and she's still tall, but not gigantic!
I liked the fast pace of the story, how the Black Dragoon and the Scarlet Knight were revealed and how their characters developed. I wasn't surprised when the identity of the Black Dragoon was revealed, I had it narrowed down based on the events. I had a problem with the portrayal of the police force, particularly Donovan. There were times that she's all hard ass and pushy, calling names and being brutal then she handles a murder scene and suddenly she's all sympathetic and girly. I HATED how everyone, not just Donovan, kept calling Becky "fatty" or "the fat girl". To me, even in a book, that's not acceptable unless it's to make a specific point. This was not the case, they were just being mean and it was worse when it wasn't just the mean people doing it!
So, I gave this a 3.5 star rating on Goodreads and I stand by that rating. I enjoyed the story, but I had issues with it that I just couldn't look past. I think that if you enjoy a good sci-fi story with comic book potential then you may like this book. It's not a read that everyone will enjoy, but I don't feel, at all, like it was a waste of my time.
*Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of this book courtesy of the author in exchange for an honest review.*
No comments:
Post a Comment