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graveyardgremlin (7194 KP) rated Destiny (Rogue Angel, #1) in Books

Feb 15, 2019

Have you ever been reading a book when all of a sudden a turn of phrase, an offensive passage, or something altogether different pops up and it all comes to a screeching halt? Whatever it is, it bothered you so much that it colored the rest of your reading and you just couldn't go on, whether or not it was an irrational reaction. In my case it happened with the first paragraph, chapter two (pg. 26):
<blockquote>The rental Avery had arranged turned out to be an old Renault pickup truck. If Annja had been a layman, maybe she'd have mistakenly called it ancient. But she was a trained archaeologist and she knew what <i>ancient</i> meant.</blockquote>
Excuse me? One, I know what the heck ancient means - very old - and I'm pretty sure 99.9% of the Earth's population does too. Two, most people use ancient as an exaggeration, not as a "mistake." I see nothing wrong with that. Three, oh, ho-ho! so being a "trained archaeologist" makes someone that much better and smarter than the layman, eh? It just struck me the wrong way and I got a sense of smug superiority that irked me something fierce.

I had other problems before getting to this point as well, but even though I read about forty pages more, I couldn't get past this one little paragraph. Others problems: I could smell a Mary-Sue from a mile away. Apparently this Lara Croft (whom you couldn't help but think of) wannabe knows EVERYTHING at the ripe old age of - well somewhere in her twenties, it wasn't mentioned in what I read. Puh-lease. Also mentioned was her hour-glass figure, although not in so many words. Are you gagging yet? And she's an expert at some sort of martial arts, where get this, she was taught by a nun. Annja was an orphan or something, so she was raised by them. Something that strikes me as odd, she can spot someone tailing her. I'm not quite sure where or how she could have developed this skill in her line of work, but whatever. So basically, she's perfect at every single thing. Sorry, that doesn't work for me. I don't mind a brainless, action-packed read, but frankly, this wasn't a very well-written one as it was pretty flat and boring, and I couldn't even make it seventy pages.