The Whale Road (Oathsworn 1)
 RRP £6.99 Lowest New Price £2.38 
|
Harper Number of pages: 400 Language: English (Original Language) Language: English (Unknown) |
RRP: £6.99
What is a review?
Review date: 2008-10-12 Rating: 8 out of 10
J Chippingdale is allegedly a Top 50 reviewer. How can this be when his review looks just like the blurb from a hardcover jacket? Shame on you Chippers!
Reviews
hmmmm
Review date: 2008-10-05 Rating: 4 out of 10
to be fair to the book and Author, i usually read 18th Century Naval stories, so maybee it just wasnt for me?
The story and characters are interesting enough but there were a LOT of Characters and they all have strange names to remember.
My Biggest gripe about the book was the constant use of old, but probably accurate, language to desribe things. The author would tell you the Viking name of a town and then tell you what another tribe (who you've never heard of) would call it - and you wouldnt have heard of that town name either? It seemed like the Author was showing off to me , just to point out that the intensive research that he carried out was all worthwhile? Well done you, but its getting in the way of the story.
This happens with other things too, not just place names. It is for a modern audience so why say that they had a 'Thing' and not explain that it is a town meeting?
The ending is a bit 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" too and you could see it coming a mile off.
However, i read it and i guess i enjoyed it for the most part. I'm sure that i will not bother to pick it up in a couple of years and read it again though.
I wont be bothering with Oathsworn 2 & 3 etc either.
I hate to say it but....
Review date: 2008-08-31 Rating: 4 out of 10
...this is a dreadfully tedious book. The concept, whilst not totally unique, is intriguing enough but others do this sort of thing so much better and in the process sell much more. I don't usually acquaint successs with quality but in the adventure/historical novel the benchmark has been set by the likes of O'Brian, Cornwell, and latterly Iggulden and Scarrow. This never gets off the ground ads the author tries ever so hard to get as much "history" as possible in here without thinking of character and plot.
Sorry but I only just finished and don't feel too obliged to get the next installment.
Boring and poorly written by an old man
Review date: 2008-08-19 Rating: 4 out of 10
I love these kind of books but i found this boring and hard to read as it was so poorly written. The battles were non existent-well except for a couple of sentences to describe an entire battle. Was this book wrote in a day? it was a rushed job. And no excuses i.e. 'it was his 1st novel' etc etc It was written by an old man for a young audience and he is clearly out of touch with his target audience. It was a good idea but it was a snooze-fest reading this. Not in the league of 'The Last Kingdom' I will read the 2nd book, but only because i had already bought it, otherwise i wouldnt bother. This is simply not in the league of "the rise of the saxons".
Fast-paced and fun
Review date: 2008-07-09 Rating: 8 out of 10
Being a long-standing fan of Bernard Cornwell, this book immediately grabbed my attention, and only slightly fell short of my expectations. The novel is incredibly fast paced, hardly giving the reader a chance for breath, but this gives some idea of the high octane life of Orm, our narrator and guide through the adventure. Whether this is a pace which can be sustained over the other novels in the series remains to be seen, but as a fun, quick and exciting read, albeit less varied than Cornwell's historical fiction, this definitely hits the spot.
Product Details/Specifications
Authors:
Robert Low
Recording label: Harper
Manufacturer: Harper
EAN: 9780007215300
Binding: Paperback
ISBN: 0007215304
Number of pages: 400
Publication date: 2007-08-01
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Unknown)
Tech info, cast and quotes/trivia when available. Exclusions may apply with free delivery. Price and availabiltity subject to change
