Miserere: An Autumn Tale by Teresa Frohock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Original world building and action packed adventures. The world and magic system is very intricately linked with religion (no prize for guessing Ms Frohock's religion), specifically Christianity. This makes it very different from the usual high fantasy. As a non-religious person, it was surprising for me to find the system quite acceptable and that it somehow still works quite well in this series.

Interactions between the characters were well written. Miss Forhock has created distinctive and vivid characters - she does a fantastic job describing the inner worlds of characters' minds. However, some of the writing for action sequence do come across as jagged, impatient, lacking in rhythm.

My other complaint is the length of the novel. While it isn't exactly short, readers are left with a lot of unanswered questions (Can't the people have their own children? Where's the Gods of the other religions if there is only 1 heaven (Christian-centrism??)?) which could be attributed to either lack of comprehensive world-building, or this being the first book in a series.

Personally I feel the author could have provided more information about the world to draw the reader into the story. The cliff-hanger could also be more distinct to attract sustained readership.

Overall, it was still highly commendable for a debut effort.



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