I always love a good epic fantasy. But it is very easy to mess up an epic by focusing too much on the layers of world building, and not enough on the characters. As a reader, I want to feel an immediate connection with the character. After all, I’m reading the story because I want to put myself in their shoes, and to be able to relate to them.
I expect an author to show me within the first five minutes of reading, why what is happening in the story matters to the main character. To do this, I want to see internal conflict. While the start of the story had some uniquely interesting elements like the lanterns powered by bioluminescence, the author focused too much on world building and left me with nothing for the character’s internal conflict. I have no idea why the character at the beginning cares about what is happening. This doesn’t do well to hook a reader, and is frankly quite boring.
I expect an author to show me within the first five minutes of reading, why what is happening in the story matters to the main character. To do this, I want to see internal conflict. While the start of the story had some uniquely interesting elements like the lanterns powered by bioluminescence, the author focused too much on world building and left me with nothing for the character’s internal conflict. I have no idea why the character at the beginning cares about what is happening. This doesn’t do well to hook a reader, and is frankly quite boring.