Good plot and idea badly written
581160
Plot was ok but it was let down by bad writing that could so easily have been sorted with a good editor. Was full of things like " really? He enquired interestedly yes she replied excitedly" . Made it hard to read.
640287
Good idea for a story but really poorly written. Others have really said it better but it reads as though it was written by a kid. Dialogue is stilted and unbelievable.
4069527
Really should be two stars for it's okay.  There are glaring plot holes, changing definitions of characters from chapter to chapter, the idea and story arc were good.  The writing style was inconsistent, sometimes a story is told one way and the next paragraph it all changes.  Author seems to lack a coherent voice.  The book definitely need a grammatical double check as there were so many sentence fragment, comma errors, missing sentences.  I ended up skipping whole chapters because the repetition of the same idea got tiresome.
730815
The world building for Servant of Steel is sound.  Characters are well defined, dialogue is good, and the plot is imaginative.  The writing, however, prevents the book from being a good read.  This book reads as if it is a story narrated around a campfire, rahter than a novel meant to engage the reader.  The perspective is intermittently first person and third person, with varying levels of omniscience.  The descriptive language is repetitive and poorly edited.  The character struggles are very blatant and the cliches make the story fun, but overtly predictable.  I did read the whole book because the world and plot have potential.  Good editing and some practice at writing to "show" rather than "tell" would make this series take life.  Excellent potential, lots of promise, but very poor delivery.
3297602
Fortunately, I can overlook bad writing for a good story. I did enjoy the story--it's a fresh idea and the characters are interesting. It was a struggle to stay with it though. The writer needs to make friends with an editor. I'm interested enough in the story to read the next book and hope the writer gets better in time.
2927612
I was suckered into buying this by all of the rave reviews. And there are a few strong points. The plot is riveting and there is some page turning suspense with a sense of danger.
  On the other hand, the writing is a mess. You've got stilted dialogue, potty humor which isn't particularly funny, a host of subject-verb agreement grammatical errors, and holes in the plot (e.g. one character barely escapes capture in Kansas and wrecks his car, yet he turns up in Washington D.C. with no explanation as to how he got there). There's the awkward phrasing too. Here's Douglas describing a character who is getting ready to slug another character in the face: "Harrison's muscles tightened. He put his strong leg back, angled his foot, and faced his hips forward." What?
  I tried my best to like this book but the clumsy writing spoiled it for me.
3283896
The whole premise of the story line could be quite good except whomever is editing this is not doing the author any favors.  For instance, the child in the story becomes incapable of speaking intelligibly yet all of a sudden on page 85 he asks for permission to go outside.  Then a page or two later, he is again incapable of speaking again with no explanation whatsoever. I agree with another review that the author's command of the English language shows it not to be his native language yet that also could be easily corrected with proper editing. The ending also wrapped up so quickly that it did not feel like it answered many questions that had arisen in the book.  The author has a fascinating idea for the plot but seems to not be getting good editing advice.
4665308
The high reviewers must be friends of the author or used to bad writing and poor editing.

The span of the book is about three weeks but the author kept trying to make it seem like the characters were going on this epic rescue while the princess languished in a dungeon. The writing was amateurish at best and the plot made me want to tear my hair out.
1025393
Mr. Brown's plot is thought-provoking and complex, though his writing reminds one of the entries in a high school literary magazine.  It's a shame that such an interesting premise was tarnished by poor writing.  Mr. Brown's heavy-handed foreshadowing makes what could have been several interesting plot twists obvious and mundane, and his liberal doses of "character development" read like his editor told him he had to put in some background on the main characters...on pages 87, 225, 316, and so on...making the supposedly enlightening looks into the histories of the characters seem misplaced and trite.

Next time, Mr. Brown, come up with the story-line and let someone with real writing talent author the book.
1737028
I read this book because it had been recommended by others to a friend in my book club. The plot concept is interesting, and the setting of time and place captivating. The writing starts out to be engaging, but loses its way in the middle. I found the random changes in verb tense from one paragraph to the next to be extremely annoying and distracting, detracting from the better elements of the book. I tried to determine whether it was supposed to be some sort of literay device and concluded it was poor writing and editng.  As another reviewer asked, why was this ever published? And why is it selling so well and rated so highly? Also, having recently read The Forgotten Garden, I am curious about all of these young children who keep showing up alone in boats in Australia and then are taken in and raised by people who are determined not to reveal that they are not actually the parents, instead living in fear of being discovered. ;)
1646533
This has to be the most horribly written book I have ever read.  The story would be really great, but there are too many mistakes in grammar, paragraph construction, continuity.  The author seems to jump around and only say half of the things she should have to make the story coherent.  I kept reading because the story seemed to have a real plot and direction, but it was difficult because I had to keep rereading the same paragraph to make sure I read it correctly.  The main character would jump from doing one thing at one place to doing something else somewhere else seemingly at random with no explanation from the author, I pretty much had to fill in the blanks and make up the missing pieces of the story for myself, because it NEVER gets any better.  In fact, the closer we get to the end of the book, the more randomly the pieces of the story are put together. There is not any real explanation of where we are in the characters world, or why we are there.  I hope the author gets an editor before her next book because she could have done so much better with this idea.
1569941
Really enjoyed plot but writing is very stilted. Continually using first names when talking to some one gets old fast. When only the two people talking are present reader should be able to follow conversation without having to read their names every time. Agree with other reviewer as to the too quick resolution. Also there is no way parents could have arrived at same time unless they were on the train, which in 5 days it would have been hard not to notice them.
2745522
Interesting idea (which is why I give the book two stars instead of one), but the writing could have been so much better. Things were not explained well or were too rushed. I doubt that I will read the sequel.
670247
The plot was very good but I was not a fan of the author's writing style. Much of it came across like he was trying too hard and the external and internal dialogue did not feel authentic at all. The characters did not evoke any feelings, good or bad, because they did not seem genuine.
2152085
I love the premise, but the writing was terrible and the characters and plot didn't keep my interest.
1159038
The book had a lot of potential, but the writing was very choppy, conversations between characters were horribly stilted, and the characters actions were frequently out of the norm - almost ridiculous.  This made the writing seem almost child-like.  For instance, it felt like the characters jumped every time their cell phones or a door bell rang, there was reference to giggling or flipping hair at odd times, etc.  I selected a two-star rating because the plot was strong enough to keep me reading through a pretty agonizing writing style.
278983
Good plot and premise but I almost quit the book more than once due to the droning on of inconsequential details.