John A. Karr

I received this book from Early Reviewers.

This had the potential to be a very good book. I liked the world building and character of Rhone, the part demon hero of the book. Manipulated by the son of one of the gods he has to release a titan who can find the weapon which will kill a god. It is a gripping story. There is some obvious borrowing from classical mythology but pantheons of gods have their similarities. After a strong steady build up of the characters and the world the climax of the show more book feels rushed, leaving it open for a sequel.


Overall a good, though sometimes gory, fantasy novel with some problems. I liked John Karr's ability to tell a story and would like to read more about Rhone and his world but as it is I had a slight problem with the setting. I didn't see why this civilization was set on Mars at a time when "Priests claim Marsii as the centre of the universe and Terra naught but a dazzling star. Necromancers claim it is a planet whose surface teems with strange life, as indeed it does. The age of dinosaurs and huge flightless birds have ended and the age of monstrous mammals has begun. Humans have yet to branch off the twisting evolutionary tree of primates. " So now we have Mars with an earlier though parallel evolution to Earth; men and animals and creatures from mythology have evolved, living and dying, on Mars. Why?

It is rare these days to find a book without typos but unfortunately in Rhone there are grammatical mistakes; missing or extra words in sentences; some instances of words being run together - all things that caught my eye and dragged me from the story - these should have been caught by a copy editor or proof reader. On the whole I did enjoy this book and the more I read the easier I found it to ignore these as I was caught up in the story. show less

Confused and in need of editing, which spoils what could otherwise have been an interesting and entertaining adventure. The rushed ending doesn't help either. There are a lot of worthwhile ideas, but none of them are properly explored, and some of the contradict each other.

Rhone is a fisherman in a conquered country. He survives as best he can and keeps his daughter comfortable and happy. She is the light of eye and a daily reminder why he gave up the mercenary life, his father's sorcerous show more abilities and his mother's demon heritage. Shortly after an old friend comes to visit, his daughter is brutally murdered. Tracking down the assassin isn't too hard, but finding his employer isn't so easy. This is all set on ancient mars still ruled by gods and demigods who sport with mortals to alleviate their boredom. Meanwhile the existence of creatures from the Unknown Reaches adds extra danger.

It's all just too much. The fact that we're on Mars rather than a standard fantasy world is unexplained - and then why should gods or demons exist there? or the UR creatures? And then why make Mars ancient - it never had physical conditions to support life. Rhone is part demon and part sorcerer - but he never uses the sorcery. There are other issues too - the plot contains many discrepancies. Is the daughter's dress blue or orange? It's changed colour within two pages. Rhone's one conversation with his father - about Rhone's daughter which should be a subject of utmost concern to him - is then ignored throughout the rest of the book. Not once does Rhone even think about the possibilities his father raised.

Finally - although often quite good - in too many places the prose falters. There are sentences where it isn't clear it's unclear what the object is, or even who the subject is. And like many of the other ideas in the book, it just becomes confusing to read. The pacing started out quite well, introducing us to the main characters, their lives and their motivations. Plausible interactions occurred to intersect their destinies and set up the final plot lines for resolution. Which then all happened in a rush. Within the last few pages everything was over. There was no increase in tensions or sense of building to a climax, characters just suddenly appeared in the right place, fought and the book ended.

All of which is a shame because J Karr is obviously a writer with talent and imagination. The battles between the gods are well thought through, the world is innovative and contains much that could be worthy of further development. The characters themselves are not badly crafted; one begins to develop some affinity for Rhone and his struggles. But just as this sense of satisfaction is created one of the faults detailed above crops up and ruins the passage again.

In addition the typesetting of this trade paperback edition is not up to normal standards. There are particular problems with indentations.

Overall it needs a lot more work. It could be so much better, but as it is I won't be seeking out the sequels. show less

I was given a copy of "Rhone" by John A. Karr through the early reviewers program here at LibraryThing.Com. I signed up for it, as is the way the program works, but sadly didn't finish reading it.

It seemed like this book would be a mix between sci-fi and fantasy, being that gods were main characters and the setting was Mars, and this really appealed to me. I was interested is reading the author's ideas of what life on Mars would be like. Being one that gets into sci-fi's world building, I show more had hopes that this would be a sleeper book, unknown by the mass reading public because it was from a small time press. But for my tastes and hopes, the book failed. The world building, or at least the part of the book I made it through, was missing. There were towns and lakes on Mars but nothing behind why they were there.

Also, the style of the story was such that I am not accustomed to, nor do I want to be. The dedication at the beginning is to the author's brother and mentiones the likes of famous authors, including Michael Moorcock. I have never read any of the works by these authors, other then Moorcock, and based on my experience with Moorcock and what I have heard of the others, this book very much falls in line with that style. And I think that was the biggest "problem" I had. Meaning, that it wasn't the authors fault and just a matter of taste.

The characters seemed to be throwbacks from that time of fantasy and sci-fi novels. Evil characters with sinister laughs, taking their buxom blond ladies in passionate intamacy. The heroes destroying all in their path, and talking about the "good ol' days" with former colleagues. Gods gaining total control over a subject, while that subject fights to overcome those chains. Again, I didn't read the whole book, but that seemed to be the general direction of the book. And that's not what I had hope for and not what I am interested in.

Karr can write though. It's not like he's some hack that got a book published because he sweet talked someone into it. I can see some easily liking this book. Maybe not being blown away by it, but enjoying it. He writes with vigor. He's descriptive and well spoken. His subject matter is what bothered me. show less

I've been trying on and off to read this book ever since I received it in April, and I'm totally subject to this amazing guilt complex as a consequence. There is every reason why I should like it -- epic fantasy, guy starting off small and pitting himself against the world & Gods & etc..... But every time I get back started with it, I get totally irritated with something else. This is not to say that it isn't good -- it's a great first book -- but the settings and archetypes that the author show more has chosen to work with have too much baggage for me to deal with comfortably. Your mileage may vary. :)

To begin with, the author really sets himself up for failure by setting the book on Mars. A story with a Mars setting carries with it a humongous amount of baggage on its back that it has to live up to -- set it on Sram and don't mention anything about Terra or Earth and it wouldn't have struggled so much. I realize that this is an unfair critique, and that every author has the right to create his own setting, but there are some settings that you just need to pay homage to What Has Come Before.

My other big complaint that came up every single time I picked the book back up was something that someone else mentioned earlier that I just couldn't put my finger on until they said it -- the bad guys are such complete stereotypical Bad Guys that they become laughable.

Otherwise.... I really wanted to like this book. I really, truly, honestly did. It had everything going for it, but just didn't pull it off for me. I think that my suspension of disbelief just kept getting suspended by something or other; a good editor who wasn't afraid to ask the author to simplify (think of that, me, an epic fantasy buff who really enjoys a good politically driven story, asking for a story to be simplified!) certain aspects of the story in order for it to flow more easily would have done a world of good. :/ show less