Venom and Song | Morgan L. Busse

The Writing Factor: Yesterday I wrote about the cool stuff of Venom and Song. Today I want to talk about the writing.

First, I thought Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper did a great job capturing the tone and language of their teenage characters. They also gave colorful descriptions of Allyra. From the caverns of Nightwash to Whitehall where the teenage elves trained, I felt like I could see everything.

And action. Lots and lots of action :). This is not a slow paced book. Between escaping warspiders, sliding down zip lines through the forest, training in the danger room and fighting a war, there was no time to sit and sip tea for these teenage elven lords (yes, that was a pun for anyone who finished the book lol).

Here is my one problem with the writing: there were so many characters I was trying to follow that I was never able to engage in the story. I think the story would have been stronger if it had been told from the point of view of one, two, or maybe three characters. Instead, I was constantly jumping around between the seven main characters along with a couple of the minor characters. There were too many heads for me to follow.

Like I said above, this book is filled with a lot of action. Action is good. You don’t want to hear the story of a well-written character that cleans the lint of his toes while he contemplates the universe. But action doesn’t mean a lot to me unless I care about the characters first and what happens to them. And because I was constantly jumping around between all the characters, I wasn’t able to connect with any of the characters. I was never given enough time with one character to build that connection.

That is the one thing I wish differently about the book. I believe the story would have been stronger told from just one of the teenagers. But that’s just my opinion :). Tune in tomorrow where I will take a look at the Spiritual Factor of Venom and Song.

*In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

As part of the CSFF Blog Tour this month, I had the privilege of reading Venom and Song by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper. I have broken my review down into three parts: The Cool Factor, The Writing Factor, and The Spiritual Factor. Today I will be looking at what is absolutely cool about this book (after all, you can’t have a science fiction or fantasy book without having cool stuff :)). So let’s get on with it!

The Cool Factor: Venom and Song is the second book in the Berinfell Prophecies. We follow seven teenagers who find out they are not humans but really elves living in our world. And not only are they elves, but they are the seven lords of the elves. The first book in the series (Curse of the Spider King) ends with these elves escaping our world through a portal back to their own world of Allyra.

Venom and Song is the continuing story about these young lord and lady elves as they discover their new world and how to control their powers. Cool Factor here: not only are they elves, they have some amazing abilities! Foresight, strength and healing, air walking, speed (like super fast), marksmanship, thought reading (aka mind reading), and fire.

One part of the book I really liked is when the seven teenagers… err… elves are learning how to use their powers together as a team. Imagine the Danger Room for the X-Men elf style :).

This book is a fast-paced, action packed story for young adults (or those young at heart). Tune in tomorrow for a look at the Writing Factor. Until then, check out these other participants of the CSFF Blog Tour to see what they are saying about Venom and Song.