4.0 out of 5 stars A bit of Moses’ story set in space, August 28, 2012
This review is from: The Worker Prince (Paperback)
This book was a bit of Moses’ story set in space minus the direct supernatural intervention of God. The Worker Prince was both creative and imaginative taking a Biblical story and reworking it into a similar but not identical plot. The author kept the idea of a people belonging to God, but took the spiritual aspects down a notch by placing his slave raised prince character at the center of the conflict, rather than making God the primary character.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. It wasn’t a “keep me up at night can’t put it down” novel, but it was good. As with many new authors I found that I never lost the narrative voice of the author so I never truly lived inside of the story. This left me feeling as if I was watching it unfold from the outside and it made me consider whether this book wouldn’t have made a better movie than a novel. I personally think that visualization on screen would do much to help the sometimes flat and dictionary life descriptive explanations come alive.
I did think that the author did an excellent job of helping his readers understand the background and motivation of his characters. I also appreciated the fact that I never lost track of the plot line as the author kept it moving steadily forward.
As I mentioned above, the religious elements of the story were toned down so that if you weren’t familiar with the story of Moses you might never guess that this story drew heavily from a Biblical narrative. I did find it disheartening that the author used a phrase that took God’s name in vain twice, just pages from where he spent a couple of paragraphs contrasting the personal God of the workers to the gods that he grew up with. I know that it is a commonly occurring phrase in our culture and many people may not take notice of the exclamation, but I personally was still saddened to find it in this novel.
Star Rating:
Characters: 5
Plot and pace: 5
Descriptive Voice/Writing style: 3
Overall rating: 4 stars
I am certain that the author will continue to develop his writing style as he receives feedback from his audience and I look forward to seeing how he will grow as a novelist as he continues to gift us with further creative and imaginative tales like The Worker Prince.
I received a free digital copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.
