Book Overview #8: Avathar
During my last visit on a large bookshop, I found many fantasy books written by Greeks. Being curious of the competition in the field of Greek fantasy, I bought a bunch with my first pick being Avathar, written by some guy named Halkiotis. I’ve read my share of classic fantasy books such as Drizzt Do'Urden and Elric of Melnibone, which were cheesy but also very atmospheric for the time they were made. Avathar is highly influenced by those stories, but the problem is, it’s very out of synch with the era it came out and it’s also nowhere near as atmospheric. Not only it offers something we are getting for almost 30 years now, its presentation is also way closer to a kid oriented adventure of the mid 2000s. It’s like Legend of Zelda desperately trying to sound like Kthulu, very uneven between trying to be dark and easy going.
-BLAND WRITING-
Even if I try to see it as its own thing, the writing style is nothing special. It’s not exactly juvenile but it lacks a certain prose to make me say “Oh, this is definitely Halkiotis”. There is nothing to distinguish it from any run of the mill fantasy novel. The setting is a by-the-numbers typical medieval realm, characters and locations get very basic descriptions, their fleshing out is bland, and nothing about them is memorable. The image of the elven lands is cool, but there is nothing to go along with it.
-ENGLISM-
It even does the typical mistake of Englism; the author is constantly writing as if he is an American doing a direct translation of English to Greek. The way the characters talk is completely artificial because that’s not how Greek sound.
-LAZY INFODUMPS-
This is further damaged by how dialogues are closer to infodumps instead of a natural exchange of information. For example, there is a sentence that goes like this: “Denarlia, will you ever get up from the bed, or did you spend the night studying these nonsense you call books of illusions?” Half of this sentence is not needed because the information provided is common knowledge to them. A description of the books or the state of her mind would do the same and feel more natural.
-FORCED DRAMA-
The worst part is the forced drama, which I came to dislike even during my Elric days. I know it’s a classic way of creating tragedy out of actions the heroes have no control over, and I know it was the bread and butter of most ancient epics, where gods and demons had control over the lives of mortals. I still don’t like it. I prefer stories where the characters are in control if what they are doing, instead of being thrown into a situation because of mind control, amnesia, evil counterparts, and be blamed for everything when it wasn’t their doing. Which is exactly what happens in Avathar; the protagonist constantly kills family members and friends because some demon takes over at random intervals. I am fine with the idea but not with the over the top way it is presented. He doesn’t just kill his sister, no sir, he also has sex with her in his dreams, which turns out to be the demon that controls him. He doesn’t just kill his friends, he does it right after they reassure him of being in control. It is trying to be as edgy as it can, and you can’t take it seriously.
-PREDICTABLE SURPRISES-
Also, I like things to be a bit subtle and not in-your-face; a thing I never found in this book. Everything is so obvious; you can predict what is going to happen a dozen pages before it actually happens. For example, we know right away of a demonic ritual that happened when the protagonist was a child, and that his hair color is different than all the rest. WELL THEN, ISN’T THAT OBVIOUS THAT HE HAS A DEMON INSIDE HIM? His sister is constantly being perky and friendly with him, which is something nobody else is doing. WHY, ISN’T THAT OBVIOUS THAT SOMETHING BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO HER VERY SOON? I am not against straightforward stories but if I know how everything will play out before I even read about it, the writing style is so bland, and I have read the exact same thing in a much better version two decades ago, then what am I left with so I can keep reading?
-PROPHECY BS-
Also, the prophecy gimmick is such an overdone type of fake tension. Yeah, it even has the destiny bullshit, where it is foretold he will make a choice in the future that will either save the world or destroy it. If destiny exists, you have no choice; stop trying to create tension out of something that has none.
-TENSIONLESS FLASHBACKS-
The same can be said about the non-linear plot, as there are several flashbacks regarding the way the characters met. Although this method is fine for getting over long periods of exposition, it becomes a joke when flashbacks have life threatening situations. You don’t really worry if the characters survive or not; you know they did, since they are alive in the present. It’s a waste of time to attempt creating tension when your audience knows the outcome. Guess what the author did. There is a scene where the elf is captured, it’s about to be killed and there is nothing to care about since it’s a damn flashback.
-OVERUSE OF EDGE-
By the way, the elf is not the only edgy character, making the plot a non-ending volley of misery. In a completely different scene, we see a happy couple waiting for their baby to be born. We know something bad is going to happen soon because it’s presented in a way too positive way. A few pages later, a demon possesses the body of the man, who proceeds to shove his fist inside the vagina of the woman, yanks out the fetus, and rapes her. She kills her rapist / husband / killer of her unborn baby but being unable to cope with the shock, she creates an illusion where she has a happy life with her family in a beautiful garden, when in reality she is in the middle of a swamp dancing around the maggot infested corpses of her husband and baby. Yeah, it’s that edgy, and because you are constantly reading edgy shit, it becomes boring very fast. As shocking as it could have been the first time, when you repeat the same surprise every 30 pages, it loses its impact. That’s why you shouldn’t be doing it more than once per book.
-CHILDISH INTRIGUE-
The author attempts to include sociopolitical intrigue by having a merchant being abducted as leverage from his greedy for more land guild. The presentation is once again terrible because the merchant is a one-dimensional asshole who is constantly complaining about how incompetent his savior is for taking too long to save him, as well as how his expensive clothes are now dirty. He even talks about how he can make money by killing the local population, ten seconds after he is rescued and the abductors have revealed the reason they captured him. He might as well have horns and a holding a pitchfork.
-ARTIFICIAL GUIDANCE-
Not even the very basics of an adventure are done right. The team is looking for a sword identical to the one the elf is carrying. They meet a war chief who, without saying something specific, immediately jumps to conclusions and knows they are looking for that specific sword, even though he doesn’t even know its name. And instead of just showing him the sword to make sure it’s identical to the one they are looking for, they waste hours in making sketches of it.
-TERRIBLE ENDING-
Anyways, in the finale they find the sword and you get one of the biggest bullcrap revelations in recorded history. Turns out the elf didn’t kill his sister because his memories were a fabrication. In reality, he was the dead husband of that other woman, who was also his wife from a previous life, who was also looking exactly like his sister. And you know all that just because the same demon from both events was infodumping bullshit for half an hour instead of killing them, until the elf gets a power up and kills him. What a load of horseshit.
-VERDICT-
This is easily one of the worst books I have read in my life. I cannot fathom how it was allowed to be published. It does everything wrong and it makes you facepalm every 3 pages. Stay away from it at any cost.