Legends of Humanity
Resurrection Valley
No matter how good a story might seem, no matter how powerful, entertaining, or life altering an author’s work might be, quality writing remains a crucially important element to how the work is received. An author owes it to himself and his readers to put out work that is clean of errors, extraneous words, and unnecessary plot lines.
Unfortunately, Legends of Humanity is marred with legions of grammar, punctuation, continuity, and spelling errors. The book is difficult to follow due to problems with grammar and punctuation. There is also an over usage of words like “hearts,” “smiles,” “spirits,” “love,” and “eyes.” The narrative is filled with sentences that begin with “Actually,” or “In fact.” Readers will find the prose to be lyrical and poetic, but full of nonsensical metaphors. Some sentences are clumsy and obscure. The author’s efforts to sound spiritual hampers the spirituality of the his ideas. For example, observe the following passage where Alkan writes about his protagonist Hazar:
Psychological tensions grew like clouds of anger. In Hazar’s mind there was the transition point of humanity…What he felt in his heart was taking him into the infinity of the atmosphere and putting his instinct into motions…With wide smiles, the curtain of life was streaming by. It was saddening; combined with the crucial period of winter, it was laying one’s soul naked…Although he had not shared much with his father, he was aware of the bond between them. Love was a sun that radiated light to the remotest rivers. Hazar was looking toward the horizon and was smiling toward himself.
Like Dante’s Divine Comedy and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Legends of Humanity seems to be an allegory that reveals information and enlightenment to the main character Hazar as he journeys through a place called the Trance World. On his trip different entities serve as his guide the way Virgil guided Dante through Hell in The Inferno. As he travels from one destination to another, Hazar discovers that he is on a specific path to increase his wisdom. Mental and physical powers help him fulfill his destiny as God’s chosen one.
Alkan’s prose sounds like worship and hymnal music. Even so, the magical fantasy, poetry, and philosophical elements of the novel are thoroughly undermined by a lack of editing. Proper editing could trim the redundant phrases, fix spelling errors, and awkward sentence structure and combine the novel’s lyrical prose with tighter and shorter sentences to create a novel bursting with intensity and musicality.
Reviewed by
Lee Gooden
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
