The Hidden Tower (The Portal Wars Saga #1)

I’ve enjoyed some of the author’s other works but the inability to write a believable damaged and broken main character probably shouldn’t be completely unexpected. Some people have a hard time describing a broken human being very well. However, when your story depends on that kind of character and depends on some sympathy with that character to keep the reader’s interest then it better be a reasonable and believable attempt. There were two murders that didn’t make sense and at this point the story looks like the rise of a dark lord that needs to be put down or perhaps an evil and willing dupe, neither of which are really interesting in view of current events.
Spoiler(s) ahead :
The first unbelievable and very unsatisfying murder was the wife’s boyfriend. The second was the king. Regarding the boyfriend, a person who has lived in an abusive and violent environment thinks of personal survival first and foremost and while an arranged marriage is certainly possible, the idea that the damaged main character as a new husband would plot and plan to destroy the boyfriend is unbelievable. There are two believable actions, an immediate, dispassionate and effective divorce (or something privately similar) where the boyfriend and wife are forcefully chastised to be more discreet or an immediate killing of the boyfriend to back up the previous threat. Long, drawn-out Rube-Goldberg murders are not on the menu.
The second was the killing of the king. It was unnecessary, unsympathetic (no matter how stupid he was being) and revealed a kind of underhanded and bloodthirsty sneakiness that destroys any desire to experience empathy for the main character.
In the end the desire to see how the story turns out is nullified since there are no more sympathetic characters and the predictability of the main character cannot be trusted. The meaning of the story is lost. It’s like a story where the main character is “touched by evil” and for the rest of the book you are left waiting for him to act out of character. Or a time travel story where the main character can go back and fix any mistake. The story no longer has an edge because there is no risk, because nothing of value is really being risked.
Just my two cents but I have no desire to read the next book. Good luck with other readers.

Wow it’s getting real hard to find a good book to read on Kindle.If I had known how bad this one was I would have not wasted my money!!! At one point I liked the writers books but he got very bad in some of his series This one is more of a romance deception type of book,not what I like it want it want to read..I have lost patience with bad books not only do they waist my money but more importantly my time!!

I saw other bad reviews for this book. I understand them completely. The main character of this book is betrayed by his wife in the single worst way a woman can betray a man.

This dynamic is gut wrenching, but is necessary to the origin story of Otto, who I anticipate will not be a hero, but an anti-hero bordering on a villain in the books to come.

Accordingly, I am going to give this book 5 stars because Ive liked this authors other works, and I know that publishing on Amazon lives and dies by the star system.

However, Ill offer some advice to the author. Otto needs more vengeance on those that have betrayed him or abused him in the past. This type of fiction is all about power fantasy. If his wife does not suffer additional consequences, I think you might lose me and others.

So as I said. Five stars, and I look forward to Ottos decent into the moral grey area life has forced him down into.

The whole boyfriend murder killed it for me. We are talking about a woman he cares very little about and apparently its not uncommon to be unfaithful. Sure the wife betrays him, but so what, she was a virtual stranger who never gets build on, she is a papercut plotdevice useful solely to justify a breakthrough in power fueled by anger. Except we are never showed he cared for her nor took much notice of her beyond some common decency.

That and frankly the whole subplot with the king was indescriably forced, as the king suddenly became mentally disabled midway through the story. A generous estimate puts the king’s iq at that point somewhere between 65 and 70. He would have been put aside by his parents for his own protection, maybe put in a nice palace somewhere with a few maids to mother the next generation, and if he did make it the nobles would have dethroned him for incompetence.

I don’t usually pen reviews. However, after reading the terrible reviews left by others I thought I would chime in. This is a fairly dark work. The main character is mainly focused on attaining power for himself. Unlike most fantasy, the character’s interactions seem reasonably realistic. If you like more realistic fantasy without a chosen one, without good against evil, but more subtle nuanced interactions I suggest you check it out. In some ways, it seems similar to Donald Wigboldy Jr’s the Dark Mage. If you like Donald’s novel you may like this book.

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