A Wizard’s Dream by Hrvoje Butkovic

Thank you to the author for approaching me with a free copy for a review of this book.

In order to help both myself and you formulate my views on this book, I think for this review I shall follow CAWPILE Characters, Atmosphere, Writing, Plot, Intrigue, Logic, Enjoyment.

Characters

Asja is an interesting MC. She has an arc within the story that intrigued me upon first reading the summary. I think she is well rounded and likeable for a first time reader of this author. Her mannerisms are really good and she helps to carry the story well. At times I did find I lost my connection with her because there was a lot going on in different areas of the book that distracted my attention from her but I shall discuss that later in the review. Some characters and their points of view in my opinion popped up a little unnecessarily but overall I enjoyed the character representation.

Atmosphere

The atmosphere of this book is by far one of its best features, I’m not usually a fan of soft and almost lyrical writing as I usually find it is trying to cover up for something the book may be lacking e.g plot holes or logic slips but I actually found that the soft flow of the narrative carried me through the book well. There seemed to be a lot of emphasis on the world in which this book created and rightly so it’s clear the author has taken a great deal of time in making it feel as detailed and descriptive as possible. So much so there are fandom pages, with detailed maps and deeper exploration of the world to explore as well as just diving into the words on the pages of the book.

Writing

Overall I think the writing style of this book should be applauded. The short chapters definitely make the pace of the book feel quick and engaging. The sentence structures were at times beautifully detailed and intellectually complex, I found that this was both wonderful but also difficult to read in places. Sometimes it was understandable and clever but at other times I felt it was a little unnecessary. I felt it was a technique that the author used well and to the advantage of the book to begin with but as the book progressed I believe it was overused and lost its uniqueness and therefore it’s appeal. I am a reader that revels in complex and often confusing concepts but I think there is a very fine line and a tricky balance to find especially with such a fantastical world as this one, in order to make such things a success. There is a lot that is being asked of the reader in this book, from an imagination point of view; to maintain a mental image of the world whilst also trying to make sense of complex concepts and sentence structure sometimes disrupted my concentration on the book as a whole, I found myself having to reread passages in order to take in what was being portrayed, a bit at a time to make sense of it.

Plot

The summary of this book immediately throws you in to what is in store for you within its pages. It is one of the reasons i decided to read it and write this review. As I have mentioned previously, there is a lot of great elements to this story that make up a great book. Following Asja and her story was cleverly interwoven into the narrative, but at the same time sometimes overshadowed. Again I think there is a very fine line between having a strong, well built and well established world whilst also taking your characters on a journey alongside it. Mostly this balance was achieved successfully and with some skill by the author, there were moments however where in my opinion the balance slipped too far in the other direction, loosing sight of what I felt should have been it’s focus, which is of course the journey of our MC, and therefore causing an overall loss of momentum in the book as a whole, which then gave a challenge to the rest of the book to pull back what was lost in order to keep it engaging which it did but I thought wasted precious time.

Intrigue

I remained engaged and interested throughout the majority of the book which is an overriding success. Our MC was given an interesting arc of self discovery and reflection that I enjoyed. As I have discussed before it did have dips and drives, although that is what I have come to expect from high!epic fantasy stories, and so was able to push through to its conclusion.

Logic

Logic and Writing I feel go hand in hand in my review of this book because when I didn’t mesh with the writing, the logic slipped but when I felt the writing was done well the logic was able to maintain a consistent flow of belief.

Enjoyment

So my overall enjoyment of this book was good. Everything I have discussed contributes to an enjoyable experience. As this my first time reading from this author I cannot form any sort of comparison. But it’s not a bad read and I would recommend it to those that enjoy immersive world building and cleverly interwoven character development.

Thank you again to the author for the opportunity to read and write this review.

#review #book #awizardsdream