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| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
Opinion
Welcome back my friends to a fun and exciting day of reviews. Today I am going to review a World War II novel that I think is one of the more interesting ones I’ve ever read. It’s not about some of the more specific historical points of view we have had lately. You can pick this book up on Kindle Unlimited! That’s even better news. Also, did you see this book cover? It's perfect and, I love it. It encapsulates what you are getting into.
Let me go into this part of the review about my first impressions. The book has a lot of heart and warmth right away, even though the topics that will be covered later are a mix of grim and also of the circumstances of war. That said, it’s a book that packs a lot into the character based portion of the book. There are some enthusiastic conversations, and I found the dialog writing to be fantastic. It was easy to get swept away into this story.
For this part of the review let’s look into some critiques. The first goes into “Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation” of my scoring. There are minor punctuation errors that I feel may be a part of a final pass through in editing. For example, without giving spoilers, there is a sentence which has this punctuation:
“And so he said,/ “ where that backslash is stuck after a comma. There are also small em-dash errors, but it’s minor at best.
Next, in the same category, chapter length. So I am not sure how you read your books. I know of friends who binge read like I do and will judge breaks on “Okay just one more chapter” before calling a crack or a stop. I recommend that you avoid the technique of breaking at chapter endings with this book if you are prone to doing so. The chapters in this book are enormous. I tried to do that the first day, and it was exhausting. There are times the chapters are covering an entire sub-plot of the story, and there are other times it’s covering almost an act. That’s not to say they are wrong or that I dislike long chapters, it’s merely a warning to binge readers out there.
Instead, if you are anti-bookmark or you base your breaks on natural pauses, stop where you feel there is a natural pause. That’s what I ended up doing, and things worked a lot better for me. I like to take small breaks as I read so my eyes can rest and I can get coffee or water, and I was doing so every time I felt there was a natural pause in the narrative. As a result, the last 40% of the book was a much better experience for me, and I was able to enjoy the overall reading a great deal more.
Last, in the category, my critique has to do with paragraph spacing which is non-existent, but the good news is that with the margin choice it works out alright on eye comfort. There are occasional walls of text, but those are few and far between so those of you with eye discomfort issues can be happy to know it’s not something that should be too painful.
Let’s go into what I enjoyed about “The Crop-Duster’s Son.” Firstly, I was pleased that I could relate to this story immediately. There wasn’t a need to do a lot of world-building in this because it’s a story about the characters involved and how the world that most of us know effected them. I found myself very caught up in the story right away. My grandfather was part of the Army-Air Corps, and he was stationed in Burma during the war. He taught me the proper way to use chopsticks when I was four, and we are of a family that wouldn’t have been even remotely expected of. He had a deep love of all people regardless of where they came from or their circumstances. My grandfather was a wonderful man. When the Burma campaign was mentioned in the narrative, I got a chill. I think this is a book he would have loved. Though my grandfather is no longer with us, “The Crop-Duster’s Son” is a story that enhanced by the generation of people that lived in the timeframe of the story.
Second, the events the main character endures are realistic and thought-provoking. From the moment the main character is introduced to the scope of his training, finding his fiancee, losing friends along the way and becoming a part of the overall war machine, this man lives an incredible life. It’s to me, very believable, which is crucial to the whole narrative. I don’t know if this character was based on another person or not, but even if they weren’t, the character is living and breathing as the person they are. There are some cute interactions between the main character and his fiance. Toward the end of the book there is an especially lovely section where they are talking about some differences in culinary language {what is bangers and mash}, which made me pleased to read it. The characters in any of the situations are realistic and to me as real as regular people.
Lastly, this is a complete and whole story. There is a beautiful poem at the end, and every single plot point is tied up with the culmination of the story. I enjoyed that. I think when someone ties up a story well and gives a whole story, they should be commended. Sean did a fantastic job with “The Crop-Duster’s Son,” and it’s terrific!
Score
Having taken in all of the math and all of the thoughts, I’m giving “The Crop-Duster’s Son”an 87/100 which is a 4-star review for Amazon and Goodreads.
I'd like to thank Sean Nash one more time for requesting the review. I really do appreciate it, and I hope that you all have a wonderful day.
