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Title: Harm None: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars ISBN: 0-9678221-0-6 Publisher: Willowtree Press Pub. Date: 31 May, 2000 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.13 (53 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Sorry, but no.
Comment: I hate to say that about a) a brother in faith and b) a fellow author of genre fiction, but this book is NOT well done. Am I grateful to see positive and somewhat accurate portrayals of paganism? Sure (after all, I ordered the book sight unseen, which says a lot coming from me.) But whatever my feelings about my religion, my feelings about good writing are stronger--and this isn't good writing. The reader from Orlando hit it on the head: the text is rife with confusion of it's and its, may and might, lie and lay, said and stated and expressed and intoned. Brand names are italicized (why? is this product placement in a NOVEL?) The wrong words are capitalized, like "dirk." It's little short of maddening; to misquote Bon Jovi, Sellars does his best to give paganism a bad name, or at least to contribute to the erroneous impression that it's all flaky and mystical.
One reviewer speculated that these issues say more about publishing than about Sellars, but as one with a less-than-stellar press myself, I'm here to tell you that it isn't necessarily so. Absolutely, WillowTree owes Sellars some editing! and absolutely, lots of presses don't give it. But the fact is that if it'd been vetted and proofed by the author to begin with, or if he'd swallowed his pride enough to ask someone competent to do it for him, it would still have come out all right. Even cutrate presses send galley proofs and accept author corrections.
Regarding content: yeah, the more critical readers are right about this too. We learn very little about what the characters are really like, and giving a red-headed, green-eyed woman (a stereotype in itself--how many people really have "bright green" eyes?) a "fiery temper" is worse than telling us nothing. And regarding the improbable psychic displays which take up so blasted much of the book, they're infuriating. Sure, it seems likely that some people, including some pagans, possess paranormal abilities, but those people (including pagans) who can call them up at will to solve the mystery is so incredibly small as to be not worth mentioning. The majority of pagans, like the majority of Christians, live pretty mundane lives; they go to work (unlike Rowan Gant), cook dinner, struggle with the kids and fret over the bills, and on holy days and in times of stress perform religious services--which generally have less to do with altering the perceptible world than changing how the worshippers deal with it. Most religions are alike in that, and paganism, eighty-five to ninety-nine percent of the time, is no exception. I don't know why it's so hard to find an author who'll admit that, and commit himself to writing a good story without all the would-be dramatic frou-frou. In a good writer's hands, the real world is sufficiently magical that readers never miss all the pyrotechnics.
As pagans, it may be true that we're so desperate for positive portrayals that we wax lyrical about bad prose; but if so, it speaks as poorly for us as all those misplaced commas do for Sellars. Come on, pagan readers: if we stand up for what's good, maybe we'll get it. I hope and believe that Sellars can do better by us than this.
Rating: 5
Summary: Super
Comment: Harm None: A Rowan Gant Investigations M.R. Sellars WillowTree Press ISBN 0967822106 June2000
This is the debut of M.R. Sellars "Rowan Gant Investigations series.
Rowan Gant is contacted by a good friend Detective Ben Storm to answer questions about his religion, which is Wicca, and to give his alibi for the time of the murder. Rowan explains to his friend that even though he is a witch in "The Craft" their code is to harm none, and they do not sacrifice animals or people. When Ben shows Rowan pictures of the crime scene, Rowan realizes he knows the victim. The victim, Ariel, was a student in the craft. Rowan and Ben set out to solve the murder. While they are working the case, other murders happen and they are even worse than the first. This book kept me in suspense to the very end, the author's description of the murders was so real I thought that I might be sick, and I loved it. That's what I look for in a good thriller. Harm None was so good I can't wait for his next book "Never Burn A Witch"; I hope that the author will allow me to review it also.
M.R.Sellars is the recipient of the "Linda White Literary Excellence" and the "Silver Quill Awards for short stories upon which the "Rowan Gant Investigations" are based on.
Pam Stone
Rating: 1
Summary: Not worth the money
Comment: When a woman is murdered in what looks to be a satanic ritual, Detective Ben Storm turns to his one friend that may have a clue as to what is going on: Rowan Gant, a practicing Wiccan and an expert on witchcraft. After looking over the details of the case, Gant quickly realizes that this ritual was not done by a Satanist, but by a fellow Wiccan because parts of the ritual that were used were common Wiccan rituals. However, the rest of the ritual contains Black Magic and Gant fears that this murder may actually just be a practice run for the killer. Disturbed by this fact, especially since the law governing Wiccans is "Harm None," Gant firmly plants himself by Storm's side to help find this killer and prevent further murders.
In the introduction to the book, Sellars states that since this book is in the first person view and since nobody is grammatically correct in the way they think, he had a lot of spelling errors and grammatical errors intentionally placed in the book. Personally, I think that's a load of bull and his editors should have fought against him on this point. The book has an interesting story line but the author just isn't a good writer. There was way too much dialog and a lot of scenes were described in such detail that really wasn't needed. All of this distracted me away from the story line. I might take a chance and try his second book, praying that his experience will help him be a better writer, because he did have a good idea. Would I recommend this book? Nope. There are a lot of books out there that are just so much better.
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Title: Never Burn a Witch: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars ISBN: 0967822114 Publisher: Willowtree Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: Perfect Trust: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars ISBN: 096782219X Publisher: Willowtree Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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Title: The Law of Three: A Rowan Gant Investigation by M. R. Sellars ISBN: 0967822181 Publisher: E.M.A. Mysteries Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher ISBN: 0451457811 Publisher: Roc Pub. Date: 10 April, 2000 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Fool Moon (The Dresden Files, Book 2) by Jim Butcher ISBN: 0451458125 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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