Review: N.R. Bates – At the Sharp End of Lightening

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At the Sharp End of Lightening
N.R. Bates

Something poisonous is happening throughout the worlds. The sprites and humans of Oceanlight and Earth need to cross the Interface and work out what is going on, before it’s too late for themselves and their family.

25324761There are simply too many perspectives going on in this novel for me to be interested in all of them. The human I could feel empathy with, the sprites I felt completely disconnected from. Half the time I couldn’t care less whether they lived or died. And I also wondered why the human didn’t have better treatment – this is modern times – it’s really rare to have blood disorders now that can’t be treated efficiently.

The internal dialogue of the characters and the forced interactions spoiled this novel for me. I simply started reading it and immediately wanted to put it down. True to my word though, I kept reading it. By about a third of the way in, my interest was stirred a bit more, enough that i was pretty much immersed in it, but all the other books around me were just as tempting to read.

It took half the novel to even start covering part of the blurb, and it didn’t even cover the Goodreads notes. I felt like I had gained nothing from reading the text, and could have just wiki-ed it for a less painful progress. Then towards the end the jump in time periods left me grasping for purpose.

I signed up for this novel as part of a tour, thinking that someone with a strong science background would have amazing things to offer in a novel. Sadly, I was left wanting for the writing style, as firm as the novel’s progression was. This is the first novel in the series ‘Oceanlight’, so I’m ever hopeful that the author might still find his stride to start speaking through the characters rather than

I feel betrayed by the rest of Goodread’s positive reviews. I always start wondering if I’m reading the same novel. For me, this novel gets a mark of 2 stars. Is it perhaps not aimed at me? Can anyone else tell me what I missed?

Find it on:
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NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife,seven cats, one dog and the tropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors. He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and twenty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification.

He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences.

Website: nrbates.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NR-Bates/1536689869946441
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NRBatesAuthor

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