Few Are Chosen, by M.T. McGuire

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.

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.

"[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 H₂, 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 H₂ is to combine it with O, since that is a highly energy-producing reaction.

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 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).

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.

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.

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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