Review of "The Pit" by Andrew Warwick

Summary:
The Pit; Thrust into the fighting pit is Elad, a bitter, jaded knight who remembers better days, before the Empire fell in ruin. Against him is sent a creature unlike any he has seen before, for it comes not from his world; a giant bull-man. Who lives, who dies?


Buy this story here on Amazon UK.


Review:
I quite enjoyed this story.  It terms of flavor, it reads like a scene from Spartacus with a touch of gore from Gladiator.  The premise and plot is very straight forward.  In many ways, this is why I like reading short stories so much.  I find reads like this to be refreshing after getting a throbbing headache from needless drama often found in novels.


Warwick's writing style is strong and highly engaging.  The Pit is basically a single action scene told from two points of view.  The author manages to pull this off without creating confusion or redundancy.  I also liked that the reader is highly aware of what is taking place but is not bogged down by a bombardment of detail description.  This is testament to the author's writing skills.

I felt that Elad was by far the most interesting character but I was surprised that he comes across as the primary character when I later read the author's summary.  Though this is a short story, I felt like his character/background could have been more thoroughly explored.

All in all, an excellent short story and well worth looking into.

4/5 stars
Reviewed by Alain Gomez

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 20, 2011 at 2:22 PM

    Thanks for your kind words :)

    I wrote this a couple of years back - and yes it was influences in part by Gladiator.

    At the time of writing it, I was working on a novel (which I will finish some day...) with Elad as the main character, and I wrote this to get a feel for the setting and for Elad.

    Turns out the other character sort of took over and has become the focus of a series of short stories. I'm working towards finishing that so I can go back to Elad's story.

    At the moment this story, and a second one bundled with it, are actually for free on Amazon, though I don't know how long for, so get it while you can.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maria PapadopoulouMay 20, 2011 at 3:18 PM

    I loved the Gladiator, therefor I will like this one too.LOL

    ReplyDelete
  3. Alain GomezMay 20, 2011 at 6:40 PM

    Nice! The Amazon gods have smiled upon you.

    ReplyDelete

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