ARA Review by Sam B Miller II of Roan

[Sam B Miller II]

[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Roan.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Roan: The Tales of Conor Archer — And on and on and on . . . .


Roan: The Tales of Conor Archer by E.R. Barr, is the story of Conor Archer, the offspring of the illicit union between an immortal being and Conor’s mother. Trauma instantly enters the tale when Conor’s mother dies of cancer (or at least a facsimile of cancer). She is the only person who has been a constant in Conor’s life, and he is devastated by her loss. He finds solace by playing Celtic tunes on his metal whistle. Enter two major characters, the Biker Dude and the Morrigan, who do nothing but confuse and anger Conor. Everyone has ulterior motives for everything they do and say, and these mysteries of double-speak, innuendo and obfuscation dominate the book from end-to-end.

Conor moves from Chicago to Tinkers Grove, Wisconsin, a town full of people raising dark- eyed, dark-haired children known as the Dark Ones. Conor has dark eyes and dark hair. How strange? A multitude of characters enter the story including Brother Luke, the town physician; Malachy, the Abbot of the local Monastery; Troubles the dog; the McNabb brothers and their no-good mother; Piasa (pronounced Pee-A-Saw); Aunt Emily (maybe not her full, real name); Dr. Drake (a geneticist with a plan); and on and on. No one seems to want to tell Conor the truth about himself except his friends, Jace and Beth. Trouble is they really don’t know who Conor is or what he is destined to become. All Conor wants is to live a normal life and be happy. Fat chance of that happening!


I do not consider myself a slow reader and after spending the better part of two and a half days working my way through the twists and turns of the story, I checked on my progress by seeing what percentage of the book I had read. Needless to say I was astonished to learn that after all those hours of dedicated reading, I was only into the book by 48%. I hadn’t even crossed the 50% line and that is the main problem with this book. It is too long and wordy. I understand why the author had to put backstory into the tale because if he had not, the reader would be hopelessly lost wondering why things were happening. Even so, the book took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to get to the point. It is a good thing there were a lot of immortals in the story because if they hadn’t been immortal, they could not have possibly out-lived the telling of the tale.

I rate the book, Roan: The Tales of Conor Archer, as an overall 3 out of 5. I did not give a rating of 2 because writing is difficult and time consuming. The editing and punctuation were well done. There were a few typos, but nothing to distract the reader from the story. I did not rate the book higher than 4 because the story is too long and at times boring. I am reminded of a wise old saying, “leave out the parts a reader will skip over”. Long poem-songs and re-hashes of past conversations or stories are boring.

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