The story is totally unbelievable with the so called hero totally inept.
This may be a old story but there is no excuse for this sort of rubbish being re-printed.

And just when I started being hopeful about this genre... Well, you can't always expect to be pleased about things in categories, anyway, so I should have held some of that hope back.

In Cenotaph Road, we meet Lan, a suppposedly skilled swordsman with some kind of innate ability for the arcane. After being framed for the rape and death of his... ummm... OK, I can't call her his lover, the thing is, the woman was a prostitute. In any case, Lan got framed for it, and so had to flee from his home. Trying to escape his pursuers, he entered the Cenotaph Road, which is something like a gateway system between parallel worlds. In one of those worlds, he met and saved a giant spider, Krek, and from then on, they started a weird partnership as they kept on having one adventure right after the other.

Let me say right now, the only reason I actually managed to finish tis book was because of Krek. I'm an insectophobic, but even so, the creature was an amazing character! In fact, if Lan had died somewhere along the way, and Krek kept on having these adventures on his own, I would have been more than happy to keep reading this series.

As it was, though, I had to suffer through Lan's stupidly repeated mistakes. And his thoughts. God, his thoughts were even worse!!! If there was ever a guy whipped at the prospect of a pretty female, it was definitely him! To the point where it made me wanna puke! The dude had issues, I'm telling you! You would think he got the message loud and clear after Zarella stringing him along - really, the woman had made it crystal clear the only thing that could make her heart race was wealth and riches - but noooo, not Lan! No, sir, the idiot had to go and fall in love at first sight with a weak-ass, cowardly, shallow, gold-digging bimbo - AGAIN! Oh, and, yeah, did I mention he hated Inyx, who, by the way, was the ONLY female actually respecting herself enough to fight back and try to be free whenever someone tried to enslave her? Yup, our dear boy Lan freaked at the mere idea that a woman would try and be strong or independent and not a slut - at first, at least, because after Thing #2 was out of the picture (good riddance, I say!), he suddenly saw Inyx's worth and was all too happy to smell the roses...

All in all, not a great read, and I'm very grateful it didn't take long to end. I don't know how much more of this I would have handled. Maybe Krek will end up realizing his true nature and eat up Lan in one of the future books? One can only hope...

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.***

An absorbing little read