{"id":90839,"date":"2016-09-08T01:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-09-08T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=90839"},"modified":"2016-09-06T19:23:56","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T18:23:56","slug":"chasing-embers-by-james-bennett-book-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/chasing-embers-by-james-bennett-book-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Embers by James Bennett book review"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first half of <em><strong>Chasing Embers<\/strong><\/em> is one of the better books we\u2019ve read all year. Taking place on a modern-day Earth in which the legends are true, and their remnants live in the background of civilisation, it concerns Ben Garston, a down-on-his-luck immortal who gets drawn back into a world he\u2019d rather be apart from.<\/p>\n<p>As we mentioned, it\u2019s absolutely thrilling to begin with. Kicking off with a supernatural bar-room brawl before following Ben as he attempts to stave off the threat that he knows is impending, initially it\u2019s comfortably up there with all the best of modern-day fantasy.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Aaronovitch and Jim Butcher are both cited as touchstones, and they\u2019re fair comparisons to Bennett\u2019s attempts to fuse fantasy with a modern-day setting.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it can\u2019t quite seem to last the pace. This isn\u2019t helped by a series of narrative interludes that have more of a jarring effect than anything else, removing you as they do from a situation you have become engrossed in. At times you\u2019ll find yourself flicking pages back and forth in an attempt to remember if you\u2019ve met certain characters before, which isn\u2019t always a fun situation to be in.<\/p>\n<p>As it progresses, things only get even more complex, and by the end the action sequences devolve into near-incomprehensibility. Ironically for a book that draws heavily on mythology, these are usually the least interesting parts, and there\u2019s not always enough of a human story to anchor them in something relatable.<\/p>\n<p>As per norm now, this appears geared towards kicking off a series. There\u2019s enough to Ben Garston\u2019s personality to suggest that he could front one, but whether there\u2019s an intriguing enough story to sustain it all is another matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Ben Garston saga begins in Chasing Embers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":90840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[1624,8],"tags":[5369,5370],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Chasing-Embers-James-Bennett.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}