Review: The Wretched Of Muirwood

I figure I could utilize my old blog to post some reviews of some books I've been reading.  Most of these will be from audiobooks, but I still will occasionally actually... read them... once in a while.

The first review will be also the first in a new series I picked up -- The Wretched of Muirwood.

I found this book on sale at Amazon, with a cheap $2.00 upgrade to an audible copy, so I decided to buy the whole series on a hunch.  I sort-of regret it, but I'm not going to completely abandon the series at all... I'm gonna see this one all the way through!  On to the review!

I will probably be posting a couple spoilers in here, but I will try to keep them to a minimum.
Disclaimer:  I am beginning this series as I finish The Wheel of Time and just finished A Wise Man's Fear, and I can often get bogged down in what books lack rather than realizing their genius all of the time, so I will be a little heavy on the cons side of things; if you feel I am wrong about something please feel free to correct me!

Overall I thought this book was fairly predictable; following some fantasy tropes.  It opens up with the typical protagonist who is almost certainly a "Mary Sue," despite being classically placed in a poor position, this protagonist is 13, but is consistently more mature and knowledgeable than most people that she meets. The main plot of the story can be boiled down to "getting from point A to point B," and is almost exclusively told from a single perspective.  Throughout the book the protagonists encounter challenges and difficulties, eventually getting to point B where a fairly climactic event occurs and this book concludes.

Pros:
On the bright side I felt that there was some solid character development and it demonstrated some really good values and morals

I also really feel like there could be something to this world with more development; I'm quite interested in where the author will be going with the subsequent 2 books in this story.


Cons:
The main issues with it, in my opinion, are incredibly glaring -- that isn't to say they are bad for everyone, but simply that what I personally had difficulties with was very prominent.  It's also worth

One large issue, for me, is that the magic system in this world (The Medium) is infinitely powerful.  Additionally, one's strength in The Medium is based upon both "faith in the medium," and "the strength of your parents in the medium."  The Medium can turn cold water hot, bring water from nothing, direct people with incredibly specific directions (essentially being a super-gps -- even google maps has issues when I tell it that I don't want to take Rt. 206 to get somewhere), and even literally communicate telepathically.  The strength of this magic system would be fine, but because its strength is tied to "faith" and heritage, it feels very much like any confrontation is resolved by stating someone has enough faith for it to occur, creating a rather superficial limitation; it causes the confrontations to feel cheap and resolved via a deus ex machina resolution.

Another issue that this book has, similar to above, is that a lot of the conflicts are resolved through exposition brought up for the first time moments before it becomes necessary; traits for characters aren't developed well and are only brought up the moment they're used, with exposition being told to you.  I firmly believe that a good book should "show, not tell," when it can, and i feel like this book does a large amount of telling you how awesome the protagonists are rather than showing you.

And lastly the most glaring issue is that the protagonist is, like I had mentioned before, a pretty significant Mary Sue -- she is amazing at everything she thinks about doing, she is amazing at everything people challenge her to do, and she is amazing at everything through innate skill.  It really shallows up her character to be told that the main protagonist is
[SPOILER]
Amazing at the medium because.... she is.  Amazing at archery because.... she is.  The fastest learner because... she is.  And she can do things that nearly no one else can.... because she's got good genes.
[END SPOILER]
And this is just magnified by how strong the medium itself is, and by how rapidly certain skills are introduced when compared to when they are necessary.

Another minor con is that there is a very significant christian influence in this book, and it can be quite hamfisted, but that is less literary and more personal preference.

Over all, I would say if you're looking for a quick, light read this is worth looking into, but don't expect something with the depth of LOTR, Mistborn, TWOT, or The Kingkiller Chronicles.