The Notebook
Overall Rating: 3/5
Spoilers: Minor
TL;DR: Thematically strong if not greatly executed, action is well-anchored, definitely could have done without the ridiculous romance or else toned it down
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Considering it's called "Slayer in the Wide Valley," I would have much rather seen Liam slaying an orc as the cover, but I could just be nitpicking.
For a while, I had a hard time deciding the focus of the story. Eventually, about 60% of the way through, I decided that it's something of a coming-of-age tale, though the very short time that this covers makes that ice feel thin. There were definitely a lot of interesting concepts presented, most of which were not followed through, to my dismay. The idea of beautification magic and the theme of things not being what they appear was very appealing, until it wasn't. I'm guessing Liam is about 15 years old or else he has never seen a girl in his life. After the introduction of beautification magic and the love interest, every subsequent fantasy just got more ridiculous and exhausting until I cut my reading short at the epilogues.
The idea of honesty and integrity was only briefly touched on, but felt a little strange. I like how Alberic's character paid off later on, and though it was more subtle, it felt better overall than Liam's interaction with the knight which I fully believe was mildly overblown. This isn't an underdog story and Liam isn't the only one out bounty hunting. Why did this feel like a "chosen one" moment from a bad YA novel?
The idea of a naive shepherd boy growing into a man who defends a town and slays orcs, however, was quite solid, and I wish that had been more of the focus. Watching him go from sticking a spear into things to actually coming into step with his sword and challenging his opponents was pretty satisfying.
Hopefully without giving too much away, the deeper mystery of the orcs and the minotaurs and the gods really should have been started earlier. I don't normally advocate for exposition dumps, but even campfire stories in the first couple chapters would have been nice, to start planting those seeds. Unfortunately, the first half of the book feels very disconnected with caravan here and magic there and army here and suddenly a prince! And then mercenaries and a war wagon and something about a knight? I really didn't understand what was going on until Liam actually picked a town to defend and hung his hat there. It was enough to make the Big Reveal pay off well, but not nearly as strong as it could have been.
To that end, I still don't understand the climactic ending or its lead-up. I don't understand why he went into the cave. I thought he was going after the obsidian. I don't understand the importance of what he found in the cave as it relates to the current story. I would love to learn more about the [particular magical creature] in there and the block of stone. That was incredibly well-executed and very interesting, but...it was dead, plot-wise. Apparently it was super important, but I don't know why. Maybe Liam thought about it in between his fantasies of the girl he knew for all of three days (ie. parts that I skimmed or skipped)?
And then it basically just ends. Discovers this horrifying thing about the orc horde, does this other amazing thing in a cave, then just goes back to town, collects his girl, collects his bounty, and peaces out. There is no payoff on the knight or the journal, and even the amulet which was an unlikely but important key to the Big Reveal disappears. Where does it go? You don't know. Obviously neither of the characters has it because they spend a fair portion of the epilogues naked (or that's what I managed to skim).
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TL;DR: Thematically strong if not greatly executed, action is well-anchored, definitely could have done without the ridiculous romance or else toned it down
