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A review by hellsfire
Chasing the Bard by Philippa Ballantine
3.0
I'm not a big Shakespeare fan but as of late I've been reading a lot of things involving him. The main reason I bought Chasing the Bard was because I "know" Pip. If it wasn't for that, I honestly wouldn't have bought it.
There are a few problems I have with Chasing the Bard. One is a technical reason. I bought it for the Kindle and it was very hard to read on it. For some strange reason, the formatting was messed up. I'd read it and suddenly there'd be shifts of point of views with no paragraph changes or line breaks. I got confused on who was saying what and where I was at. If that weren't bad enough, there were also paragraphs with multiple speakers instead of a new paragraph. Shame on you, Dragon Moon Press for not double checking this. It wasn't THAT bad though. I've read other e-books with more and worse problems. Still, made it hard to read.
Another problem I had was that Chasing the Bard started off very slow. The first few pages hooked me but after that I was bored for quite awhile. It needed more tension. If I didn't "know" Pip I was half-tempted to put it down.
But the biggest problem with Chasing was the villain, Mordant. He was just a stereotypical villain. He wanted to destroy. He reminded me of the villain in Lord of the Rings but where LotR was a coming of age/journey story, Chasing wasn't. Mordant was also a lot more important here. He was the reason, cause, and obstacle to the entire story but he was very one-dimensional. He needed to be fleshed out more. He never struggled with what he did, it was never shown that at one time he loved Sive and she him, and it was never shown as to why he went on the journey and how it changed him.
That also made me feel as if this was a sequel. There's an entire previous adventure/backstory involving Mordant, Anu, Sive, and Brigit that I was actually interested in. There would have been more tension and I could have seen the changes in the characters. Shame she didn't start the story there. Instead, I felt like I was missing a lot as if I skipped the first book.
That's not to say I don't like some things. I do like the relationship between Sive and Will. I just wish there was more of it. I also like Puck. He's one of the reasons that hooked me in the beginning. Sadly, it shifted away from him but I did enjoy him whenever he was on page.
I believe it was her first book so it was fine for what it was but if you're expecting something delving into Shakespeare or a villain to care about, you will be disappointed.
There are a few problems I have with Chasing the Bard. One is a technical reason. I bought it for the Kindle and it was very hard to read on it. For some strange reason, the formatting was messed up. I'd read it and suddenly there'd be shifts of point of views with no paragraph changes or line breaks. I got confused on who was saying what and where I was at. If that weren't bad enough, there were also paragraphs with multiple speakers instead of a new paragraph. Shame on you, Dragon Moon Press for not double checking this. It wasn't THAT bad though. I've read other e-books with more and worse problems. Still, made it hard to read.
Another problem I had was that Chasing the Bard started off very slow. The first few pages hooked me but after that I was bored for quite awhile. It needed more tension. If I didn't "know" Pip I was half-tempted to put it down.
But the biggest problem with Chasing was the villain, Mordant. He was just a stereotypical villain. He wanted to destroy. He reminded me of the villain in Lord of the Rings but where LotR was a coming of age/journey story, Chasing wasn't. Mordant was also a lot more important here. He was the reason, cause, and obstacle to the entire story but he was very one-dimensional. He needed to be fleshed out more. He never struggled with what he did, it was never shown that at one time he loved Sive and she him, and it was never shown as to why he went on the journey and how it changed him.
That also made me feel as if this was a sequel. There's an entire previous adventure/backstory involving Mordant, Anu, Sive, and Brigit that I was actually interested in. There would have been more tension and I could have seen the changes in the characters. Shame she didn't start the story there. Instead, I felt like I was missing a lot as if I skipped the first book.
That's not to say I don't like some things. I do like the relationship between Sive and Will. I just wish there was more of it. I also like Puck. He's one of the reasons that hooked me in the beginning. Sadly, it shifted away from him but I did enjoy him whenever he was on page.
I believe it was her first book so it was fine for what it was but if you're expecting something delving into Shakespeare or a villain to care about, you will be disappointed.