An entire fantastical reality of 26 Districts in the Clockwork City of Corradon set on the Sea of Isles, in the Armillia area, upon the continent of Celaphania, in the made-up universe of Mythania has been meticulously crafted by author Mark William Chase for THE CASE FILES OF ALDICUS VESCARD, with links for additional information and maps online provided. Such painstaking attention to world-building detail is admirable, as are clever lines of mysterious clues the characters follow like breadcrumbs. Plus a rocking pace–as potentially devastating, heart-palpitating crises unravel, one after the next throughout the book–endeavor to keep readers on the edge of their seats. The plot indeed hurtles along skillfully with unexpected twists and turns, accompanying descriptions of setting that are at times beautifully poetic. Story elements, such as people being turned into stone by an inexplicable magical/alchemical process and catatonic soul displacement, are also wondrously unique. But the issue with the novel is that all the sometimes explosive, sometimes creepy action–plus an ample amount of expansive, fantasy-universe cleverness is not, in the end, underpinned by adequate character development of the kind required to provoke genuine reader empathy.
There are a lot of people talking, along with a lot of surviving of attacks…but there’s not a lot of feeling present, neither on the page, nor adroitly inspired in reader imagination. The full range of palpable personality traits needed to compel satisfying emotional arcs have not been built in, even for the most primary characters (such as Detective Aldicus Vescard, Keldon, Vescard’s apprentice, and mystical veilhunter Leta Meridian), never mind very many secondary and less pivotal characters. In terms of Vescard, the book’s hero is described as someone with a good deal of mental/emotional walls up, but even so, if an audience isn’t provided with sufficient reasons to care about and root for specific individuals within a work of fiction–and therefore by extension, also rooting for the survival of the entire fantasy world being offered–readers won’t necessarily feel invested enough in anyone or anything to keep turning pages. A lack of adequate, tangible emotional content unfortunately leaves this otherwise complex tale seeming like a whirling dervish with too many balls in the air that sadly fall flat by the story’s conclusion.
Plot twists and dark sorcery abound in THE CASE FILES OF ALDICUS VESCARD by Mark William Chase, though good, old-fashioned character development could be much more prevalent.
~C.S. Holmes for IndieReader