Jesse Jameson and the Golden Glow: Bk.1 (Paperback)

Vanity publishing (and this is what you're getting here, parents) is clearly a time-consuming enterprise. Mr Wright is so busy foisting this rubbish on an unsuspecting and unwilling public, that he didn't even have time to proof read this frankly inept draft 1 manuscript. There are endless typos, errant apostrophes, grammatical abominations and some plain old bizarre nonsensical chunks of text that make the mind boggle. One of the craziest examples of just how poorly chucked together this book is, is when two early descriptive passages (one about entering a clearing by a river and the other describing how ugly the witch sisters are) are repeated word for word a few dozen pages later. Very lazy, very lazy indeed.

I thought, for a long time (well, however long it takes to read the first 70-80 pages, perhaps an hour maybe), that I was being unfair, but any goodwill you might wish to extend towards it is thoroughly undermined by the sheer ineptitude on display. The grammar is lazy, the spelling is atrocious; there's no tension; there's no sensation of 'place'...oh, you get it by now.

Sean, for God's sake, man, give it to a proper editor. That way you'd at least avoid: "Jesse shuddered at the thought of the screaming Spriggans who'd chased them unmercilessly to Hemlock Hill". Eventually, this sort of retarded prose wears you down.

I could pull out all manner of examples, but my biggest gripe is the damn map at the start. Jesse (and in my mind I read that as either Jess or Jessie, but never Jesse) embarks on this grand, epic, "incredible" (it sez 'ere) journey but the map legend would have us accept a scale that means she travels roughly the equivalent of about twenty miles, maybe less, during the course of the book. Indeed, she arrives via the fairy ring/portal about three miles from the 'Tallest Statue Ever' and then has to be told about it and sent on a detour to see it!

Avoid.

The reader is reminded frequently that Jesse's trades/tasks are "incredibly dangerous...so difficult...not easy" and that "time is ticking away fast", when there is never any evidence of danger in the tasks at all, and Jesse's mother has been missing for a year already - Sean Wright gives no explanation of this sudden countdown to doom. As the obscure deviations from the plot mount up, so do the number of 'bad omens' and repetitions - the Dragon Hunter endlessly draws his sword of light from its scabbard, and fighters spin 'in an arc' to vanquish the foe. Indeed Sean Wright over-uses many phrases to suggest danger/drama and relies on 'wry grins' to convey much emotion. Even the climactic last battles lack any sense of danger as Jesse easily dodges a multitude of trolls and goblins, until sudden magical charms whisk Jesse and co. out of the dark kingdom and home.

All of these are practical details in the construction of the simple 'quest' story. The stock fantasy protagonist, young knight, older man and magical creature sidekick combination is tedious and over-familiar and the only successful bits of interaction are between the Dragon Hunter and the Gobbit (akin to Sam and Gollum/Smeagol's sniping dialogue). Jesse herself lacks any characterisation and comes across as a complete non-entity throughout.

This book is hopelessly written, with its accumulation of absurd details, underlying plot holes and the clumsy writing, bumping along from one 'wry grin' to another. Had it been written without the clichéd step-family, the clichéd witches (written as though ugliness were their first and cardinal sin), without the internal inconsistencies, appalling mis-spellings and now-here, now-gone meaningless dangers-which-aren't, even then this book is a woefully poor read and I would certainly not let it near any child of my acquaintance.