I won a print copy of Shift World by Christopher W Gamsby in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
Shift World was for me a very different kind of fantasy read than I am used to, and different is a good thing in this case.
In this instance "Shifters" are people who can move between worlds. The worlds are geographically the same, but technologically different. Here the difference is that the world that can be shifted to has metal, and is inhabited by various monsters, where the "main" world does not have the metal (or the technology to produce it anyway), and the shifters make a living bringing it between worlds.
A stylistic tool author Christopher Gamsby utilizes here, even if not original to him, is still very impressive. There is a fair amount of dialogue in the story and rather than relying on; Slart said, or Nort said, or Karp (the main character) said, our author puts each characters dialogue in a different font. When you see italics you know it is Karp, no one else. Each characters has their own font, making the dialogue flow fantastically. An aspect of the book I enjoyed greatly.
Written with a knights in armor kind of flavor, Shift World definitely qualifies as an action/adventure fantasy rather than a quest story. Graphic violence, only hinted at sex and a bit of coming of age (or coming into their life roles). Our characters have to come to terms with some uncomfortable truths (and that is all I'm going to tell you, read the book).
The book is still in need of a little editing (things like; one "dons" their armor, not "dawns" their armor) not riddled with such errors, but prevalent enough to warrant another look.
I have to say the ending was a little flat. The story built the necessary tension throughout, moving towards a grand finale, but kind of left me going "Huh"? Not bad, but not really living up to the story in my opinion. More anti-climactic.
Overall the pluses far outweigh the minuses, so I think action/adventure or fantasy readers will find Shift World by Christopher W Gamsby a worthwhile read. Enjoy!
Mike
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