Author Daniel J. Strait sent me a copy of Trouganda (Silver Tears, #1) .
Description from Goodreads:
A prophecy written over millennia ago. A baby girl is born with a birthmark matching the one described in the prophecy. Her parents feared the worst so they fled from the elders. They found solace in the small village of Jin, where Nakiata would be trained by the greatest SOT Master ever known. After years of intense training, Nakiata must face her Final Test. A test that would send her out into a world of danger, mystery, and death. Nakiata would have to use every skill she knew in order to survive the dangers and wonders of …Trouganda.
Review:
Trouganda is the first of a five-book series. It focuses on Nakiata, The First of five individuals (seeing a pattern here?) destined for some act of greatness. On the surface I really like Nakiata. She is a strong warrior woman and I generally love strong female characters. Unfortunately, I found her (and almost everyone except for Dravone) flat and emotionless. Her first response to any challenge is violence. Granted, she has been trained to be that way, but this repeated one trick left no room for variation and/or character development. She had one predictable response to all scenarios. Further, since she had mastered her art more fully than anyone else she was essentially untouchable. No one presented her with anything she was anything but confident in facing, so there was no reason for her emotional state or behavior to change at any point or for her to fear simply stating to anyone things one would expect to be a secret.
The writing is very much in the style of a storyteller. Everything is described in minute detail from the perspective of a disembodied narrator. There is very little internal dialogue or direct character interactions. Though it is my absolute least favourite literary critique, I suppose it would be accurate to say it is largely tell not show. Despite all of that I did really like the story. The concept a disembodied (or decultured) prophecy crossing millenniums, galaxies and species before fulfilment is really interesting. I suspect that as the series progresses the character list will increase, allowing for more variation. I’d be more than willing to read the second book when it is available.