2015/05/04

Book Review: Valhalla by Ari Bach

Title: Valhalla
Author: Ari Bach
Published: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 330
Rating: 2/5

A copy of this book was provided by the author. This does not influence my review.


Summary:
It's the year 2330 and Violet McRae finds herself at a loss as to what she's going to do with her life. Having what can only be described as a violent streak, she's an outcast.

But when a group claiming to have use of someone like her contacts Violet and asks if she wants to join, she says yes. They bring her to Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, and Violet finally finds herself among like-minded people. Together with her new friends, they secretly ensure the world does not revolt into chaos.


Review:
This... well, I'm not so sure how I feel about this. I didn't really have any expectations, but was excited to read it when the author sent it my way.

I didn't really feel a connection to the main character, and this was my biggest problem while reading this. I found her to be one-dimensional, as her introduction was just really off for me. Actually, the entire beginning of this book was off for me. It felt rushed, like something that just needed to be done before Violet reaches Valhalla. It was too fast, and I didn't want to be told what this character was like, I wanted to be shown!

I found the story to get a little better the further I got into this (Honestly, had the author not sent this to me, I would not have kept going beyond the first 30 pages), though I found the pacing a bit off through the entire thing. I found some parts to be way too convenient and some parts simply ridiculous.

I sort of felt like the entire thing just scraped the surface of what could have been a really cool novel. There's just too much going on, too many people, to many gadgets, too much of everything. I felt like this could use a couple of hundred pages more, just to even the story out and give it space to breathe.

The things I did enjoy were some of the side-characters, the references to Norwegian culture, the Tikari, some of the action scenes were quite well-written, and that there are same-sex relationships in this without anyone batting an eye.

Overall, it was just OK.

You can get this book at The Book Depository*, or you can buy the e-book on Amazon.
You can read more about it on Goodreads.
*AFFILIATE LINK
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