Review: Unearthed by Marc Mulero

Unearthed by Marc Mulero
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via the author in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked the premise of this book. The plot was enough to keep me interested until the end, but I had a really hard time with this book from the beginning.

The book starts in the middle of a conflict with little to no backstory to what is happening and why. It wasn't until about the 15% mark that I had a clue what was going on, but I don't think I had a good grasp on what was going on or why for most of the book. The author reveals tiny snippets of information and leaves you with more questions than answers, then there will be some crazy twist. The fight scenes are very detailed, which left me wondering why the details of the plot, world, and characters weren't flushed out? There are far too many characters in this, which is something I personally don't like in books and while this isn't told in alternating perspectives, it switches frequently from character to character. I would have liked to see shorter chapters for those transitions versus paragraph to paragraph switching to tell the story. It really slows down the pace and made it hard for me to stay engaged in the story. I would have also liked more backstory on each of the characters and factions they came from. It made it really hard to connect with them because after reading a 300+ page book I still feel like I know nothing about any of the main characters and know nothing about the factions that keep being mentioned. The factions are fairly important as the Sins and the Heizers are two of the main factions but other than a vague caste system being in place there wasn't much more mentioned. I also want to know more about the Ayelan. It's a substance mined from the earth but the science fiction aspect isn't very well described on the page. I like my sci-fi to be well explained even if the science is made up. The premise of using this substance for scientific experiments is really cool, I just wanted better explanations and descriptions.

This book/series has tons of potential. The action scenes are pretty well done, albeit sometimes gruesome. I think the idea of this book is really interesting, but it lacked in execution. The characters are all really interesting, but I think had this book focused on one or two instead of the 10 I can name off the top of my head (there might be more) that we focus on throughout, I would have enjoyed this alot more.

The next book is out soon, and hopefully more information about the things I'm looking for are revealed. It felt like more was to be revealed in the next book.

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