3 feather #bookreview of THE NECROMANCER’S GAMBIT By Nicolas Wilson
BLURB:
Knight, the sheriff of a local magical government known as “the Gambit,” is called to recover a mutilated body, tainted with magic and dumped at a popular haunt. When the corpse is identified as a close associate of the Gambit, it threatens the safety of the community he protects, and those he cares about most. As the fragile peace amongst the city’s magic-wielding factions disintegrates, Knight must track down a cadre of murderers before his friends are picked off, one by one- with each death used to strengthen the spells cast against the Gambit.
MY REVIEW:
The governing bodies of the Gambit are referred to by chess pieces, King, Queen, Castle, Bishop, Knight, Rook and Pawn. They each bring different aspects of magic to the game. Now they are being challenged by a shadow gambit and one of their own is viciously murdered. It’s Knights duty to find the murderer and stop the takeover of their gambit.
There are several plot twists at the end. One involves Bishop’s father. Who is he? And who actually betrays the gambit? I liked the theme of the story and the intricate use of magic. Wilson does a decent job at outlining some of the different characters in the story. I liked Knights’ character, but sometimes I couldn’t tell from the dialogue how he was supposed to be feeling until it gets explained later when he’s thinking to himself. I definitely knew Pawn’s personality, riding around in a teenage boy smelling red jeep, not sure if he’s gay or not. And there’s Queen. Definitely one of a kind.
Wilson jumps the POV from Knight, to Pawn and Rook several times throughout the book. The change only happens at the beginning of a chapter, but you really have to read who the POV is talking to or referring to in that chapter to follow who is really the POV character. Their dialogue all sounds the same. Rook is female, but she still sounds like the men. So that part was pretty confusing. Hate having to go back a few pages to figure out who is actually talking as that does change the context of the storyline.
Wilson uses a different writing voice with hyphens everywhere. It took awhile to get into the story because of them. And the plot gets somewhat swallowed up with all the male genitalia references and jokes. I don’t know any men who would talk that way to other men or women. And I don’t see a girl telling another female she just met that she has a girl-stiffy. Too high schooly writing for me.
For the plot itself, it’s a good read. If you’re homophobic, you may want to think twice before reading. No sex acts, but a lot of reference to gay sex. Because of the confusing POV and the myriad of proofreading errors, I have to give 3 feathers.
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