Random Book Haul & Review July 2021: Prey of the Chance
1. The Journey
2. The Review
The Journey
There were 207 pages worth of books that were published in June 2021. As usual, I went to Random.org and generated this sequence:
First up is page 175.
Page 175
There was only one book that was a standalone novel or the first of a series.
The Committee Wars by Gerald Hoover
I stopped before the first chapter or prologue (I didn’t even bother to find out which) because that statement about any claims about the story being based on real people being made by idiots just rubbed me the wrong way.
Page 151
ULALA Infinite Desire (ULALA Infinite series Book 1) by NANAKO HIMENO
Couldn’t make it past the description where it kept on asking if Ulala and her friends would be able to bring back Sion. And then, the name of the puppy changed…
Star Rim: Age of Resistance (The Chronicles of the Minerva Galaxy Book 1) by Espoir Wadesisi
There is no way I am spending the time and effort to read a Star Wars crawl text in a book. See, in the movie, you can read the text line by line because the text is way bigger at the bottom when it first appears. But here, in this static form, the tiny text at the top didn’t start out big and readable at the bottom. While it looks barely readable on my computer, it’s going to look like crap on my Kindle.
Ravendale 2 by Jaymes Romero
Instead of “will all she endures break her”, it should probably have been “will all she will have to endure break her”.
Ultimatum In Corona Borealis by Seenith Vive
The first line of the description seems to have been written in broken English. I think it meant to say that the brothers travelled through three separate locations which are: a secret hidden time tunnel, a dark cave, and Corona Borealis, an unknown planet. They do this in order to bring down the “evil ruler of pandemic”, whatever that means.
Discarded by Mark A. Ciccone
I read until the 18% mark for the sample. So far, it seems to have been written from Tony’s point of view. Tony is a security guard who has been taken hostage by a woman and a man at this point. And that is all I know about Tony. I don’t know what he wants or why. At the 18% point, it can be inferred that Tony doesn’t want to die, or maybe not? It is never stated what Tony is feeling and I don’t know enough about Tony to infer about his mental state.
In contrast, I know what the man and woman want. They want something in a vault in the place that Tony is guarding.
At this point I’m wondering if perhaps the man and woman are the protagonists of the story instead of Tony. If so, why is the story told from Tony’s point of view?
Page 77
The Young Alchemysts and the Last Blooddancer by S.S. Engle
I think this is one of the few books where I reached the end of the sample preview and hated it even more. 100% through the sample and still not a single sentence! It was filled with pages and pages of names followed by symbols.
A Star Named Vega by Benjamin J Roberts
I stopped after the first chapter. While the writing was technically sound, it was mostly description of actions (i.e she did this, she did that) and dialogue. There wasn’t a lot of description of the main character’s mental state, which made it very hard for me to connect with her.
For example, in the scene where an immigration robot asks the main character for her right hand, it goes:
Aster stammered, “Umm, why, exactly?”
She hid her multicoloured fingernails behind her back.
This would have been the perfect time to show why Aster is so worried about showing her hand, but the reason why is never mentioned and I, as the reader, am left wondering what the hell happened. The reason is kind of revealed towards the end of the first chapter but by then it is too little too late.
Page 100
The Firstborn’s Path: LEX TALIONIS by Juan Pedro Rossi
The description was kind of obtuse, the first three paragraphs of the first chapter even more so. I couldn’t understand what was going on at first and had to reread it multiple times. In the end, I just couldn’t connect with the main character.
One Kingdom Under Heaven by Alastair Luft
It’s a military thriller set 8 years in the future. Not sci-fi enough for me I guess.
Z Genesis Homeless City by D.R. Swan
I thought the preface was actually engaging, following a coroner who probably died to a zombie attack in the morgue. Unfortunately, this was followed by chapter 1 which read like a historical piece about laying the groundwork for how the zombie plague started. It turned me off immediately, but I would have given it a chance if the next chapter was like the preface. Unfortunately, Chapter 2 is another infodump.
Page 114
There were some books that were published earlier and for some reason republished again under a new “edition” which I’m going to skip.
The Evacuation of England : The Twist in the Gulf Stream by L. P. Gratacap
The description didn’t give any hint about what the story was about, but at least it had no mistakes. Turns out, it is actually the first two paragraphs of the first chapter. I looked at the table of contents and saw that the story was set in 1909. Couldn’t find any trace of sci-fi or fantasy elements, so I skipped this one.
Page 181
HITLER WON: ALTERNATIVE HISTORY : HITLER WON WORLD WAR 2 by Josh Wakis
From the description, this seems more like a thesis than a story.
The Desperate Gamble by François Stazi
Inconsistent formatting in the first few paragraphs on the first chapter. Missing indents and missing paragraph breaks makes it hard to read.
Between The Stars by Kirk A. Maxwell
Mixed tense in the second sentence of the first chapter.
Prey of the Chance by Snigdha Ramkumar
Usually, I would skip this due to the wonky title, but the Chance is actually an object in the story, so Prey of the Chance makes sense as a title.
So, onto the sample. Right from the first sentence I could tell what the main character wanted. I read on and on and then it was chapter 2. I read that as well. There’s a chapter 3 but it ends halfway in the sample so I decided not to read it. Anyway, the premise is interesting so I decided to buy the book and read the rest.
The Review
Prey of the Chance by Snigdha Ramkumar
There are two stories in this book, one is about Nav, a Quoth girl who wants to be a Prod, and the other is about Raden, a Quoth boy who turns out to be a Prod. The viewpoint alternates between the two and I wish it didn’t.
I found Nav’s story to be compelling. Her motivations were always clear and it was a joy to read about her attempts to accomplish her goals. On the other hand, I found myself bored by Raden’s story. He spends most of the book wondering what university course to take, which I thought was absolutely trivial when compared to Nav’s story. Whenever the story switched over to Raden, I found myself rushing through it to get back to Nav’s story.
When their stories intertwine due to what I can only describe as pure dumb luck, Raden finally gets a motivation that I can relate to. But this is also the end of this book, with an indication that a second book is on the way.
Frankly, I’m not sure how to rate this. Nav’s story is top-notch. I would rate it ★★★★★. I thought it was a nice exploration of the different kind of society. But Raden’s story is ★✰✰✰✰. While it provides some information about the Prods and their role in this society, I really could care less.
I guess I’ll just average the two scores and give this ★★★✰✰.