The Fifth Sorceress (Chronicles of Blood and Stone, Book 1)

Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time.
Review: I cannot stress what a terrible book this is. I felt like I was reading something from a writer's workshop, where the writer was on the right track but was in dire need of a good editor and several more drafts. Newcomb has a handful of interesting *concepts*, but they are poorly thought out and strung together in an excruciatingly immature fashion. Everything is too convenient: Tristan doesn't have the time to take a bath, but he can lounge around and chat while waiting in the hall, and even make a side trip?

The characters are stereotypical and weakly drawn: the amorality of the sorceresses is unintentionally comic, the sister's conversion to their ways is not even remotely believable, and the dwarf is but a poor shadow of Martin's Tyrion Lannister.

This isn't even worth a mindless read, because it's so poorly written that you'll keep smacking your head with the book. There's so much better fiction to be had out there. Don't waste your time with this one.

Rating:
Summary: I'm in shock.
Review: I checked this book out from the library the other day, and I can assure you all that I regret it. Robert Newcomb is a butcher of the English language. If someone were to make a book out of the movie, "Manos, The Hands of Fate" It might read a lot like "The Fifth Sorceress."

I stopped reading "The Fifth Sorceress" halfway through page three. By then I could see that Mr. Newcomb had done everything I learned not to do in even the most basic of English classes/writing workshops, much like the director of "Manos, The Hands of Fate" had managed to do the opposite of everything that makes a film watchable. My disgust is so complete that I feel obligated to warn you all against this crap.

And also, seeing Newcomb compared to authors who actually know what they are doing makes my unhappy.

But really, that someone with no writing skills wrote a book isn't upsetting. I even don't mind that I was tricked in to reading the first few pages of it. No, the first thing that really makes my mad is that this thing was published. The publisher, editor, and anyone else who let this crap on to the market, and Newcomb himself, seriously need to get in to some writing classes ASAP so they can at least differentiate between good and inept writing.

And the second thing was these edetorial reviews. After reading through them, all I can say is, "WTF?" Are these people serious, or just high? Are they paid to give good reviews? The Amazon.com review was the only one that was somewhat realistic. The rest of them were glowing with praise. And that's just laughable.

And after all that, the sad thing is that Newcomb actually let the publisher put his picture in the back of this thing, and there's a good chance that he used his real name. Oh god, I think I'd rather go hang myself than let my name and reputation be attached to something like this. Now, on the off chance that he actually does learn to write, he's going to have to create a psuedonym for his subsequent books.

Rating:
Summary: Give me a BREAK
Review: OK, I actually read the reveiws for this book before I purchased it...
The concept of most people bashing the book for being well graphic while a small few raved about it; just made me have to read it.
Any body out there whoms read Goodkind, Martain, etc... has read graphic books before. Take the first scene in J.V. Jones' Book of Words series!
The only difference here is that the tables are turned and now the women are the cruel evil doers and a man is the poor helpless one.
I've gone on and read the second and third books aswell. I'm sorry to say though that the author 'lighten' up. I have a feeling all those book bashers had there way and the publisher pushed for a cleaner book! The masses had there say again, welcome to economics... I wonder when books will need parental warnings?
Ps. to any 'true' fantasy readers out there the books awsome!

Rating:
Summary: Terrible Book
Review: To put Newcomb in the same category as Jordan, Weiss, Hickman, Goodkind, Brooks, or fantasy writers of that level is a true crime and is highly misleading.

This entire book is filled with tired ideas, half thought out plot lines, and is very bland, boring, and repetitive.

There are points where you think, "This may get good," or "This part looks promising," however in just about every instance the author either takes the easiest/most predictable path, goes off on some highly unbelievable tangent, or just rapidly ends plot threads.

The characters are severely underdeveloped and some of the best and most developed characters end up dead in the most unsatisfying, boring, and worthless ways.

Usually when reading good fantasy books I am taken away from the real world and I keep thinking how the author does a superb job and there would be no way for me to match their skills, ideas, storytelling, or overall feel.

With "The Fifth Sorceress," I found myself constantly thinking, "I hope he isn't going in X direction," or telling myself how I would have handled a given writing situation differently. Newcomb tosses aside characters after many chapters and hundreds of pages with a short paragraph or two.

I bought and read this book on the strength of the marketing and in the hopes that it would be another favorite trilogy and a fine start for a new author and was truly disappointed.

There was nothing in this book to make me want to waste the time or effort to read book 2 or 3.