Gaia’s Intervention, Part 1 of the Dolphin Riders Series

Gaia’s Intervention is an adventure novel that merges real-world events and concepts with a deeply mystical universe. It does not shy away from both the magical highs of such a fictional world, but also revels in some of the darker, more vulgar aspects of the real world.

It opens energetically, but the prologue is wordy, and almost seems written in a dissimilar way to the rest of the novel. Effusive descriptors are used, bloating what should be a shorter introduction. Nevertheless, the novel continues with style, introducing a number of different characters, switching between vastly different environments, keeping readers on their toes.

Dialogues are long and plentiful – descriptive at times – and although such interludes are welcome, there is some lack of realism that makes it often hard to follow. Some dialogues are very well done and appear realistic to characters, while others seem contrived, as if the information within them was simply meant to be shared without catering to the character’s method of delivery.

The juxtaposition of fantasy, war, and politics, including some very effectively disturbing scenes, make it a novel worth digging into to experience such large shifts in mood and ambiance. Overall, the novel is copy-edited very well, and could use with a strong editing hand to cater dialogues more readily to the unique nature of each character, perhaps summarizing certain parts, and emoting others more realistically.