Is it just me, or does that bell look like any of the following:
Turnip
Upside-down ice cream cone
Madonna’s you-know-wotsit
No? Just me then. Don’t be put off by the cover; here’s the synop:
Sylas Tate leads a lonely existence since his mother died. But then the tolling of a giant bell draws him into another world known as the Other, where he discovers not only that he has an inborn talent for the nature-influenced magic of the Fourth Way, but also that his mother might just have come from this strange parallel place.
(Cue baddies and magic and all the usual hokum.)
DON’T READ THE GOODREADS/AMAZON SYNOPSIS! Gives away far too much in my opinion!
Ring my bell
The Bell Between Worlds is a traditional fantasy adventure, and does pretty much what you’d expect. Nothing extraordinary, but enjoyable. The pacing’s good and there’s a balanced mix of world-building, detail, and action. There were some really cool ideas, and the author, Ian Johnstone, brings settings to life with vivid description. For most of the time his prose was rich, colourful and flowing (with only the odd clunk).
I loved some of the names and terms, such as Gabblety Row, Ghor, Scarpia, Naeo, and Essenfayle. However the BIG BADDIE was called… Thoth. To me, this was as intimidating as as bag of bunnies.
There were marvellous passages involving the Ghor (bad guys). While they weren’t scary, they were menacing; and when the narration swooped down to their POV I imagined I was hunting along with them.
Niggles
There were some cringey moments of dialogue, with characters sounding like a crook from Scooby Doo.
There were many smiles playing/tracing/forming/passing on or over lips. Got on my nerves a wee bit, and once it annoyed me I picked up every single one.
Ignorance of the subjunctive mood! It’s I wish I were, not I wish I was. The odd-slip up is fine, but here there were so many mistakes.
The main character, Sylas, fell off the page for large chunks. In fact, he never really felt like a main character. I knew him well at the start, but then he faded.
The author was sometimes guilty of chucking in too many mystical terms with fancy names.
There were big similarities with Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Sylas’s mother is dead, he lives with his cruel uncle, and he is a Chosen One. THEN we had two scenes that were almost copies of:
AND
Nothing wrong with a bit of HP/LOTR action, but I did giggle at the ‘Council of Elrond’ scene.
Bye-bye Bell
I had one big problem with this book: the good guys were supposed to be at one with Nature, whereas all they did was control it. Making Nature sing your tune does not make you at one with Nature (not in a nice way, at least). It’s like when James Cameron tried to tell us that his blue Avatar folk were all Nature lovers when really they beat animals into submission and then used them for their own purpose.
Oh, and another thing: animals and plants are not the same. Some have brains, others don’t. Makes a difference.
Rant over.
All’s bell that ends bell
Apart from my gripe about the whole ‘Dance, Nature, dance!’, I did enjoy this book. It was a solid fantasy tale, and I’d recommend it to anyone who likes a new magical world to explore. Good story, great setting, cool ideas, and decent prose.
Three-and-a-bit bells out of five.
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