I really had a hard time trying to read Chosen by C.A. Milson.
In the sleepy little town of Winmont, an ancient evil has awakened, intent on enslaving humanity. The fate of the world is in the hands of one man, but can he overcome the forces that dare to challenge the bloodline of the gods?
I am not usually this blunt but there it is. I have been trying to read it for the better part of a month now and I really can’t get into it. In the beginning, I felt lost. I was thrown into the story with characters that had no meaning to me and was given no sense of a conflict (besides one of professional suicide) from the characters that were telling there story. I became confused with whether or not the other interviewer was a girl or a boy. And then it cut back and forth between other characters that I didn’t know. There was some needless death also; from what I could gather it was needed for a sacrifice. There was a lot of dialog going on in the characters head, but not much to each other.
You get some background with the telling of their story at the conference, but again, it did not instill the importance of actually remembering any on it. I am half way through it, I am hoping it gets better. I will not give up and I will not surrender to my immense need to delete the book. If I can read Crime and Punishment I should be able to read this. But I couldn’t finish it.
Also reviewed by:
Amberkatze Reviews
Dark Scribe Magazine
Bitten By Books
Alternative Read.com
Being one who has read both Crime & Punishment and this novel, I find it peculiar that you would draw a comparison to Milson and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who was the author of Crime & Punishment.
Dostoyevsky has influenced many writers including Hemingway, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. The novel has also been adapted into film several times since 1923.
Saying that “If you can get through Crime & Punishment” is not only the review of someone who does know appreciate classic literature, but has no understanding of real literature, nor has done any research on book.
Comparing Milson’s work to Fyodor Dostoyevsky would be the same as trying to compare Shakespeare to Ben Stiller. And we both know that would be far from the truth.
I was directed to your blog this morning, and I must say that this review is grossly full of errors.
Although the reviewer claims that they “Have been trying to read it for the better
part of a month now”, the PDF was only supplied to the host of this website on June 30th, which in fact makes 3 days, if you count today.
Other errors in this article include: “professional suicide”. If the reviewer would have read the book accurately, they would have seen that the main characters mother committed suicide after the death of her husband and after battling depression.
The interviewer in question I am not certain who that is as in the conference room it clearly states that there are 3 men on stage, and during the seminar, a “young woman” calls out a question which the chairman is unable to answer because of his own personal convictions.
As for the Synopsis snippet, this was also not the one that I supplied. The actual Synopsis provided was:
“Synopsis: From the time that the Darkness ruled the ancient tribes, The Elders prophesied of a time when a descendant of The Gods would arise. Tonight, in the town of Winmont, an Ancient Legion has been awoken to finish what they started many millennia ago. Now, the fate of humanity is in the hands of One, but can he overcome the forces that dare to challenge the bloodline of the Gods?
Alex Manning is The One. Born of a heritage that was once a powerful civilization before it was destroyed by the Giants that once walked among men. Now tonight, in a small town, after thousands of years of being bound in the Dark Realm, the Ancient Darkness has been unleashed, and they set about to finish what was begun. Only Alex can stop the Dark Forces from destroying this town, but will he fulfil his own tests and sacrifice his life for those would seek to betray him?”
Although I do appreciate reviews, I would appreciate the reviewer actually READING the book before they make a review based on excerpts or other reviews they have seen online, and getting their facts (and grammar) accurate.
Oh, and BTW: The title is “The Chosen – Rise Of The Darkness”. NOT simply, “Chosen”… Another error I would like to point out.
One more thing. The Link is also inaccurate. The link provided was:
http://www.amazon.com/Chosen-~-Rise-Darkness/dp/1409281361
Sorry Chris, that link is correct since this is NOT the book you just recently sent us. This was the copy of THE CHOSEN that you sent to me last fall, on October 11th to be precise.
That is also the synopsis found on Amazon, which would be the one anyone checking the link would see.
Edited to add: Was the book redone or further edited and this is why you think this is the same as the one you recently sent?
Thanks for reminding me because I have been meaing to read Crime and Punishment.
settle down guys.
Anne: I think the comparison was fair; not for writing style per se, but because she considered Crime and Punishment a dry and boring book, yet she still plowed through it.
Maybe Rayna just didn’t *get* it… but from what I’ve seen the book got mixed reviews from others as well.
Chris, as a fellow author, I understand that you don’t want people badmouthing your baby, but you’re taking the wrong approach. Find out WHY she didn’t like it, don’t attack. Don’t attack people for being truthful- the truth hurts yes, but facing it is the only way to make the next book better.
Oh,one last thing- I’ve ready several books over the last few months that jackie wanted a review for, but I just couldn’t bring myself to write them. And they were GOOD books- To Kill a Mockingbird, The God Delusion, and several from the Ender’s Game series. Yet when I reviewed The Last Plague, it was painful to write because it simply wasn’t that good (and honestly suffered from some of the same problems that Rayna complained about). Yet I still wrote it. Why? Because people already know To Kill a Mockingbird is worth reading, but they’ll be blindsided by how ____ the Last Plague was.
Bottom line, she’s entitled to her opinion. Don’t browbeat reviewers, otherwise you may come off like Alice Hoffman, and we all know how that’s turning out.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the review; however, we strive to be honest in our opinions on what we read. We’re not going to like everything and we don’t pretend to.
Literary Escapism was born because I wanted to share my thoughts on what I was reading. In the last year and a half, it’s grown to include more, but the initial goal hasn’t changed. All of the reviews on LE are the opinions of just one person, and each person says what they honestly feel about what they’ve read. Telling both the good and the bad is what we do since we give our opinions, not what someone else wants us to say. I’ve received too many compliments on the honesty and integrity of LE’s reviews and I’m not going to change that now.
Rayna has had the book for several months now, ever since you sent it to me on October 11, 2008. As I had said in my initial email, there’s no guarantee when reviews of ebooks will be posted and Rayna (my ereviewer) has been reading it over the last few months. As neither of us consider this a full time job, she just recently finished it and has not had the time to get to your second novel that was sent a few days ago.
As for her opinions on your novel, that’s all they are – her opinions. Saying clearly the gender of the interviewer on a page does not mean that a reader can’t get lost or confused when trying to follow multiple conversations, which may have lead to her confusion. I’ve had this happen to me in the past with other books and it never helps the reading experience. I do have to disagree with you on one point. Just because Rayna only saw the conflict being one of professional suicide, it doesn’t mean she didn’t read your novel. It just means that was all she took from it. I’ll be honest, I believe that a dramatic life changing event doesn’t always make a very interesting main conflict (especially in a paranormal novel) and is better served as a catalyst or a supplement for the main story. I’m sure we disagree on this point, but Rayna may have felt the same way as I do.
Again, I’m sorry you didn’t like the review, but we don’t write reviews just to write them. We write them to share our opinions and since this is what Rayna honestly feels, I’m standing by it.
Jackie:
Edited to add: Was the book redone or further edited and this is why you think this is the same as the one you recently sent?
The book was revised and re-released due to the errors in it and far too many scenes were cut and alot of stereotyping was left in, on recommendation of an editor.
The version I submitted to you on the 30th was the new version of the book, which was re-released in April 2009. Edited and chopped scenes were added, and storyline cleaned up.
The former version is no longer available.
okay, i will read the new version today.
Well, then that’s probably a lot of the problem you had with our review. We were going off of the copy you had originally sent us. We didn’t know that it had been redone or a newer version was available. I assume that The Chosen: Rise of the Darkness was a sequel since it had a new title and was sent to me eight months after the first one and nothing was said to the contrary..
I dont normally wade into these sort of things but this does hit close to home for me. I reviews books. Not for Jackie’s great site but another one. My thought process is very simple, I review a book based on my opinion. Thats what a review is. One person’s personal opinion. Its great when an author likes it but if they don’t, I’m not going to change it and I wouldn’t expect anyone esle to change theirs. There would be no point writing a review if you were worried about whether some one would like it or not. When authors ask for a review they should be prepared that not everyone is going to love their baby as much as they do. Part of the learning and growing process is not to take the percieved criticism to heart rather see it as a different point of view