====== Few Are Chosen, by M.T. McGuire ======

===== Chapter One =====

On the first page, this book introduces itself as "K'Barthan Series, Book 1".

Chapter one consists of the words "K'Barthan Series:Part 2 excerpt".

That's it - that's the entirety of chapter one.  Not an auspicious start, methinks.

===== Chapters Two to Thirteen =====

Chapter two contains sentences, and so do the chapters following, so that at least is an improvement.  It's a lightweight story, and the author clearly has a sense of humour which in no way tallies with mine.

If it turns into something science-fictioney then I might be able to retain some interest, but if it continues trying to be funny in a way that isn't, I can't see myself getting to the end.

===== Chapter Fourteen =====

"[These vehicles] run on water for a start (the engine splits off the H2 and discards the O)."

So:

a) where does the quite significant amount of energy needed to do this come from?

b) what does the engine do with the H<sub>2</sub>, once it has thrown the O away?  The most obvious way I can think of generating power (which is what an engine is for) given a supply of H<sub>2</sub> is to combine it with O, since **that** is a highly energy-__producing__ reaction.

===== Chapter Seventeen =====

The story shifts to a different universe (hence I'm hoping that it might develop a bit of a science-fiction theme to it at some point).

It's described as "a different, parallel version of the universe", but the parallels are hard to spot.

What are "turn-your-arms-out-sideways supermarket type of bags"?

===== Chapter Eighteen =====

Chapter eighteen returns to the universe and characters of chapters two to sixteen (I can't count chapter one as having a location, characters, or even any activity at all).

===== Chapter Twenty-five (of Sixty-five) =====

The story continues somewhat tediously and with no character development or more than superficial description of events.  There has been no return to the alternate universe since chapter 17, and I find myself starting to flag in the struggle to find out whether this book ever becomes interesting.

===== Chapter Twenty-nine =====

Almost half-way through the book, it hasn't turned into anything meaningful at all - there's no science fiction, there's no gripping (or even obvious) plot, the characters are shallow, and the writing style is a mixture of schoolboy name-calling (amongst organised crime leaders) and humour that isn't funny.


I give up.

===== M T McGuire =====

The K'Barthan series turns out to comprise four books, plus a prequel to Few Are Chosen.

The author has also written a few other books, the summaries of which fill me with no hope at all that I might find them engaging, and apparently lived in Sussex when she was young and lives in Suffolk now that she's not.

I don't like her description of herself as a driver.

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