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Cicerone by Sam Lytle

 

A high fantasy novel.


A novel, no longer online

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Listed: Jul 23, 2008

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Some Potential

Editor: Sonja Nitschke
July 25, 2008

As an unprofessional author, I am no stranger to reading "real books" written by such people as Cooper, Austin, Dickens, and Tolkien. 

I have also read all seven chapters of the story, including the prologue. 

Honestly, I was unimpressed.  The writing itself had potential, but it also could use a good edit.  The author often overwrites, making the sentences unnecessarily long, which weakens the writing and what it’s attempting to portray. 

The author describes scenery, buildings, etc very well, but at the same, the descriptions failed to establish characterization from the viewpoint of the current protagonist.  This was particularly jarring for me as I prefer character driven stories.  For me, the descriptions were difficult to care about since the words served only to tell the reader how a particular object looked, not show how the character himself saw it. 

As for the plot itself?  Standard fantasy fare.  Wizards, elves, and, from the plot summary, a Quest.  If you don’t mind such things, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this story.

However, I tend to echo the opinion of Anara, a wizard in the story:

"The only way to be more than a recitation of your book is to think up new ways to do what the book tells you."

Of course, Anara was talking about text books and magic, but I think the same idea applies to stories as well:  The only way to be more than a copy of a well established Genre is to think up new ways to tell the same story. 

A word about the site itself.  It is gorgeous.  There is a beautiful picture at the beginning of every chapter, which hints at what is to come.  It is also easy to navigate my way through the site.

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Standard Fantasy Fare

Editor: Sarah Suleski
July 25, 2008

Reading Cicerone was an interesting experience.  I found myself torn between recognizing the talent for writing the author possesses, and being unimpressed by the by the plot and premise.

First off, I need to start with a bit of background.  I have a lot more patience than a lot of people [more . . .]

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Beautifully Written. Painfully Executed.

Editor: Drew Daniels
July 25, 2008

Before beginning I will say that I did not read beyond the second chapter. However, the sheer size of the chapters still made this the equivalent of reading ≈50 some-odd pages of a novel.

Cicerone is a story told from the perspective of many different characters revolving around their quests [more . . .]

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