Review: The Silver Ninja: Indoctrination
EricMesa
- 3 minutes read - 460 words
The Silver Ninja: Indoctrination by Wilmar Luna
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Disclosure: I got this book for free for review.
Let me start with what I liked. Wilmar does a good job creating a believable female hero. She has flaws. She sounds like a woman; not a man with breasts. At the same time not a caricature of womanhood or a ditz. The sisterly relationship seems like a girl’s version of what I’ve seen with my brothers. While the dialog sometimes fell a little flat, the martial spat and relationship and sexual dysfunction seemed realistic.
What I didn’t like but was forgivable:
Almost everything about the suits and physics. Because the story seemed like 2014 + nanotechnology it was harder to suspend my disbelief than if it was a more science fiction world.
The amount of blood she loses and her concusions.
But I can just pretend this is an anime or Michael Bay movie as a book and not worry too much about that.
What made me give it two stars instead of 3 or 4:
Lots of loose plot threads. What were the consequences of government confiscation? Was the computer virus successful? Why was Black Rook involved? Why did he want what the bad guys planned?
The whole time I felt like this was the second book in a trilogy with lots of setup without payoff.
As I mentioned in my status update I have to respectfully disagree with Wilmar that this book can be read without reading the first one. Everything going on between the main characters is based on stuff that happened in the first book. It is hard to understand all the arguments without the context.
Finally, the book never properly setup the climax so that I wanted to keep reading. The only reason I read the first 60% in one go is because I was on a long flight. The only reason I finished is because Wilmar gave it to me for review. That’s not to say it was a horrible book. It was fine. It just wasn’t great. If it’d kept me on my toes that might have been enough for 3 stars.
I love writing but I’ve never been able to finish a novel so I have a lot of respect for what Wilmar has done and how he’s put himself out there. It’s why I wrote such a comprehensive review for a 2 star book. I think there is a good foundation here. I would definitely start with book #1 if you are a new reader. Perhaps if there is a #3 we will get some needed closure. Even if he plans a book #4, perhaps we need to close the book on Black Rook.