The Spells by Gary L. Morton

The Spells is science fiction action.  Detective Jack Michaels, accompanied by a fashion model, hunts for a missing teen girl in a case that explodes to mayhem, mutant gangsters and a mad doctor's plan for immortality.  (taken from the back of the book)

Before I get started on the negatives, I do want to say that there's a sound plot here.  There's great potential for a good story.  The characters have the potential to be interesting.  The world that has been constructed has a lot of fascinating points.

Now, on to the real meat of my review.

I had a lot of difficulty with this book.  First, this is one of those books where an editor would have done a great amount to help out.  An editor will not only fix grammar and spelling mistakes, but can also help point out less cohesive parts of the story.

I don't care about the characters.  It feels like they're thrust upon me and I'm just sort of stuck with them.  I don't like them.  I don't know anything personal about them.  The only character that I actually enjoyed was Alain, and that's only because we get to find out his personal motivations.

The world creation is clunky.  I'm given information that I don't need and the information that I do need is thrown at me like a flying football.  'Wait?  What was that??'  Then I have to attempt to assimilate that in to what I've already figured out.  Most of the beginning is world creation and trying to get us interested in Jack.  For me, it didn't work.  I need to be pulled into a new world and shown what's there rather then tossed in and the bolt thrown on the dungeon door.

Though I did enjoy the point of the story, this book just needs some work to make it good.  I rewrite of the beginning would go a long way towards that.  Once we get towards the middle, the book gets easier to read.  I still wasn't interested, but I didn't have to struggle to continue reading.  I think there's definite potential here, I just wish it had been hammered out a bit more before being published.