A New Writer’s Digest Review for Ixion
Looking forward to releasing my new novel in the Spring. In the meantime, I’m thankful for a recent review from Writer’s Digest. I submitted Ixion for a literary contest for Indie-authors, Self-Published EBook Awards. I did not win; however, I received a nice review, which I’ve included below:
Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 4
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 4
Production Quality and Cover Design: 5
Plot and Story Appeal: 4
Character Appeal and Development: 4
Voice and Writing Style: 4
Judge’s Commentary*:
First, the cover is excellent. I love the image, the relation it brings to the plot, it gives a great idea what the reader is in store for, and it looks good. Nice work.
I really enjoy underworld mythology and was excited to read a creative take on those tales. I thought this book was quite an intense and epic ride, it seemed to be set to a level 10 intensity the entire time, and for most of the book that worked out. While the writing is compelling and the plot is exactly the intensity that is thrilling, I do think it would benefit from some variation in those levels. What I mean by that is, there are often a lot of things going on at once in the chapters, and at times it was a lot to keep hold of, especially when each of those things is really highly important. It would have been helpful to me to have a little more balance to give the more extreme plot points their full power where the reader is also given some pages of recovery time.
I think it is a testament to the strength of the writing that the scenarios seemed viable and for the most part worked for me, but I do wish there had been some more character development overall to counteract and help balance the plot.
*Judge, 7th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published eBook Awards.
L.B. SISK 