Sandy Lender's Reviews > Facets of Fantasy

Sarah Scheele has prepared five good sci fi/fantasy stories for a young adult audience. I can’t say that I felt entranced by many of the characters…or the use of “dude” in the intergalactic world of Niferna in “Halogen Crossing,” but I applaud her ability to weave a story and get a plot going. The off-beat humor targets a younger YA audience very well and the childlike issues with childlike solutions that characters like Frank and Katia in “The Trouble with Taranui” deal with are perfect for young audiences to relate to. Don Tachimant takes situations up a notch in age-level in “Jurant.”

The only drawback for young readers is the ever-present grammar and syntax confusion in this book. Scheele’s writing isn’t the tight, polished text you want an impressionable youth reading while learning the ins and outs of composition. Sentences such as “I don’t know how you got my father to trust someone as stupid as you, but I don’t.” from “The Amulet of Renari,” and the constant absence of commas before addressing characters in dialogue joined a host of other grammar and punctuation slips that YA readers need to guard against, not lock into their brains while reading. I would encourage folks to read these stories, because they’re good, but watch for the next edition after a good, thorough editing. OR! Parents and/or middle school English teachers could use this in an educational capacity. The stories are worth it!

From Fantasy Author Sandy Lender