The author writes the individual chapters from the perspective of the character so you get to fully experience what they are feeling and thinking at that time. However, because they start and end a chapter from just one point of view at a time it often feels as if some scenes overlap and don't always link up. If your an avid reader such as myself who enjoys emersing themselves in the authors world, then this almost choppy type of writing can bring you out of it quite suddenly. Suffice to say its a bit of an experience killer.
The book has many good points though. The world itself is fascinating. There are many different magical gadgets that are brushed upon, and the magic they use is based on a very rational rule system involving complex math and incantations. So as a result there are no over powered sorcerers running amocke. Such as where in our own education systems where ones success is proportional to the amount of hard work and dedication they put in to their chosen career paths, so to a sorcerer has to work hard to be accomplished. The characters are pretty unique and the author does a really good job in defining the distinctions in social class and even adds personality to the classes that are believable.
The bad points in this novel are few but they are (in my opinion) what can make or break a novel. For starters, there are points in this novel where everything begins to feel like the illegitimate love child of Harlequin romance and Harry Potter. Feelings form far too fast and flare passionately in situations that probably would take longer to happen in normal cases(i.e the love at first sight of Blaise and Gala when she is a new being fresh into the world) and then simmer out in places where a more intense one is needed(i.e when Blaise's ex-fiance basically breaks into his home, has a near mental breakdown for reasons I don't want to mention so as to no spoil it for potential readers, and burns his research and tries to kill him. To which Blaise's reaction is not anger). Mostly though I would have to say that the biggest overall flaw in this novel would be that it has a luke warm feeling throughout the story line.
In conclusion the novel wasn't a bad read, but there were things that could have been done to improve it. I probably would recommend this book to someone if they were only looking for something to pass the time with, or were bored with their usual genre because it is a interesting concept and twist to the magical world.
This book can be found on amazon.ca at: The Sorcery Code.
