Alex Myers (1)

This is pretty good overall but suffers in some ways that are perhaps explained by it being the author's first work of long-form fiction. The story didn't really gain any momentum until about the three-quarter mark with all the preceeding chapters feeling very episodic and self-contained. It felt like a series of short stories with each resolved and no ongoing stakes to drive the reader along (other than Robert's gender being an ongoing secret, which rarely felt imperilled). Once Robert and James are wounded, however, it suddenly takes on long-term structure that was missing for most of the book.

I kind of hate to make those comments given the multiple editors who are thanked by name in the acknowledgments but it does feel like the editing was uneven and the whole would have been better if the improved writer who finished the book went back and re-wrote the beginning more thoroughly. I will definitely read more by Myers as my feeling was he was a much better writer by the end of it than he began, and the final quarter of the story was strongly compelling.… (mer)