Was the story too fast paced, or too centralized around the main character?

Use this forum to discuss the September 2021 Book of the month, "The Fourth Kinetic: Clairvoyants Book 1" by Brady Moore
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Sushan Ekanayake
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Was the story too fast paced, or too centralized around the main character?

Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

It felt like the story jump from one point to another too quickly without giving any time to develop the supporting characters. At most occasions all the changes, actions, or the decisions of other characters occurred just to support the needs of the main protagonist. Sometimes they felt like forced and done with no real motivation of their own.

Did you feel this lack of character build up and the story being 'too-centralized' around Rion? Or was it simply because of the first person narrative?
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Post by ej_author »

I completely agree with you; I wrote almost the exact same thing in my review. It felt very much like a "plot drives the characters" novel rather than a "characters drive the plot" situation and there was very little of a healthy balance of that. I don't even necessarily think that the story was too focused on Rion; I just think the story went too quickly and the plot was too erratic. The side characters had the potential to be cool, but as you said, the story didn't even allow them time to breathe. Thanks for bringing up this point!
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

ej_author wrote: 01 Sep 2021, 16:37 I completely agree with you; I wrote almost the exact same thing in my review. It felt very much like a "plot drives the characters" novel rather than a "characters drive the plot" situation and there was very little of a healthy balance of that. I don't even necessarily think that the story was too focused on Rion; I just think the story went too quickly and the plot was too erratic. The side characters had the potential to be cool, but as you said, the story didn't even allow them time to breathe. Thanks for bringing up this point!
I agree. Seemingly the author wanted to touch many points within a short period, and to introduce many characters, scenarios, and many more as this book is a starter for a series. But when trying to do that the plot may have gone erratic and finally nothing has got enough focus.
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Post by Medhansh Bhardwaj »

I agree with you. The storyline was a bit erratic and speedy. Many characters deserved much more lines, and many characters deserved better development. But then the story would have been too long given the huge number of characters and plots in it. But still, I would prefer a long story rather than an unbalanced one.
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Post by kperm »

Sushan wrote: 01 Sep 2021, 00:29 It felt like the story jump from one point to another too quickly without giving any time to develop the supporting characters. At most occasions all the changes, actions, or the decisions of other characters occurred just to support the needs of the main protagonist. Sometimes they felt like forced and done with no real motivation of their own.

Did you feel this lack of character build up and the story being 'too-centralized' around Rion? Or was it simply because of the first person narrative?
I agree that the story felt forced. The characters were driven by the plot, and the author did not pay attention to developing the supportive characters. The book would be much more interesting if the supportive characters had more depth.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

Medhansh Bhardwaj wrote: 02 Sep 2021, 08:55 I agree with you. The storyline was a bit erratic and speedy. Many characters deserved much more lines, and many characters deserved better development. But then the story would have been too long given the huge number of characters and plots in it. But still, I would prefer a long story rather than an unbalanced one.
This is not the only book as there is a series coming after. So the author could have simply stopped in an appropriate place and go to the next book if the book was getting too lengthy with the character development. It is good to introduce many characters at the beginning of the series. But the development of the characters is important too as there won't be appropriate moments to do that in later sequels of the series.
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Post by Peace Chux »

Sushan wrote: 01 Sep 2021, 00:29 It felt like the story jump from one point to another too quickly without giving any time to develop the supporting characters. At most occasions all the changes, actions, or the decisions of other characters occurred just to support the needs of the main protagonist. Sometimes they felt like forced and done with no real motivation of their own.

Did you feel this lack of character build up and the story being 'too-centralized' around Rion? Or was it simply because of the first-person narrative?
True, I felt similarly. And not because of the narrative either. The transition was too fast especially when I would expect more from the character. It felt like there was so much unharnessed potential for a better storyline with more depth which would have been utilized if they characters were allowed to take root, develop and blossom.
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Post by Courtney Hughes »

I actually liked that the story was fast paced. I accepted that Rion was the focus of the book and didn’t really mind that most of the supporting characters weren’t fully developed. The important ones were prominent enough, like Aries and Ara.
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Post by Ethan Howe »

I am a fan of fast paced books, and that explains why I enjoyed this book. Although the characters were not well developed because of the pace, I still enjoyed it because Rion as the focus of the book was well developed.
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Post by Sushan Ekanayake »

kperm wrote: 02 Sep 2021, 12:43
Sushan wrote: 01 Sep 2021, 00:29 It felt like the story jump from one point to another too quickly without giving any time to develop the supporting characters. At most occasions all the changes, actions, or the decisions of other characters occurred just to support the needs of the main protagonist. Sometimes they felt like forced and done with no real motivation of their own.

Did you feel this lack of character build up and the story being 'too-centralized' around Rion? Or was it simply because of the first person narrative?
I agree that the story felt forced. The characters were driven by the plot, and the author did not pay attention to developing the supportive characters. The book would be much more interesting if the supportive characters had more depth.
In addition to what you said, some of the characters are totally forgotten towards the latter lart of the book. The author introduces many characters, but takes the story forward without developing any of them. If Brady Moore has selected atleast a few and looked more into them, the reader could have atleast ddifferentiated the important and less important side-characters.
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Post by Medhansh Bhardwaj »

I can't say about fast-paced, but I definitely agree with the story being too centralized on Rion. It was like the other characters weren't even given enough lines to give a taste of their nature. I think the story seemed fast-paced because of the poor character development of the other characters. The author should have either reduced the number of plots and characters, or increased the length of the novel.
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Post by Ndive Mzamo »

The story was too fast , main focus was on Rion. Not much was said about other characters . But I liked the way the author displayed Rion and had so much information about telekinetics. I learnt a lot from this book.
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Post by Mutai Marshal »

I agree that most characters were superficially displayed. However, I am happy that Rion, the protagonist, was accorded time and space in the better part of the book. I would have loved it more if a few more characters were accorded the same privilege. That said, character development was shallowly done in this book.
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Post by raj_nandani_poet »

If felt like that to us but maybe there was a bigger purpose to series and thus the author saved those moments. It has happened in many series that a half- informed situation gets manipulated into creating something like deux-ex machina effect.
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Post by Suzer6440 xyz »

I was satisfied with how the characters were developed. The storyline and self was intriguing enough for me to follow each character’s purpose. I liked Rion and felt like the author did “just enough” to develop each character. The pace was perfect for me and I definitely did not think it was too centralized on Rion
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