#SPFBO8 Review and Cut - The Burnt Watcher by Keith Healing

Overall, decent and interesting – and for those who love a good post-apocalyptic novel, then you will enjoy reading this one!

Book Blurb:

The Excise exists to keep the world safe.
This is done in two ways.
First is the Judiciary.
It understands local law and applies it evenly.

The second is the Watcher.
It understands Fear and fights it mercilessly.

Five hundred years ago the old world burned and the Fear rose from the ashes and the Glass. Watchers knew the Fear and found the ways of fighting it, enabling the world to be built anew.

Now the Fear is a memory, a story to remind people why they should not build with stone. The Watchers have all but disappeared, remnants of a time that has passed.

But in a small village in the west of England a retired Watcher suspects that the Fear is not as distant as people believe.

My Review:

As I was reading through this piece, there were areas that really pulled me in. If you are looking for a fast paced book, then this is not it, at least in the first section. It was a slow-moving book, almost too slow. While some books have information overload in the beginning, this one almost didn’t have enough.

Master Gray is a Watcher, having been chosen at a young age. While his parents were proud, there was still an element of danger, as he learned. Watchers tended to not last very long. Master Gray has lived a long life, retiring from being a Watcher, until he is called back to assist in a strange case.

While there are a lot of positives about this book, and can hold your attention, for the most part, I didn’t feel this one was strong enough to move on. I think that the slower start, is going to really hurt it. There are some areas where an editor’s finesse could help smooth out some rougher areas.

Overall, decent and interesting – and for those who love a good post-apocalyptic novel, then you will enjoy reading this one!