Having taken the time to read The Gryphon Taint: Volume One in its entirety, I really appreciate the author's willingness to share the book for free. What a great was to develop an honest readership based on the content rather than tacky marketing.

Of course, the “sell” is not without its tactics. The plot summary intrigued me enough to download the first free volume and to see how this unusual beauty and the beast scenario would play out. And for Vol 1, it would have played out well if not for the clunky characterization of the two leads.

The banter of the ugly duckling and prince charming is juvenile yet inconsistently written throughout the book. At times the prince’s banter would suddenly break into old-english prose, seemingly out of place within current the narrative. His redeeming qualities seem arbitrarily written only to balance out his contrived verbal exchanges with the girl. She too mirrors this quality, which in itself could be defined as a character trait except that it bogs down the narrative with unnecessary dalliance.

But for all the teenage angst and bothersome dialogue, it was the concept of the story that kept me wanting to see what would happen next. While the characters don’t inspire me to pick up the next two books, I applaud the author for trying something different rather than following the same heroic-cycle of the fantasy literature.

There's not much bad one can say about The Gryphon Taint volumes, except that, once you get into them, you'll want to read all three.
That volume one starts out by treating the thoughts and feelings of a creature one normally would consider mindless, shows well that something unique and different is at play, even if the reasons for it aren't revealed until much later.
The story centres around three characters that make an odd and unlikely mix, and their relationships don't grow any simpler, less fresh, or less intimate as the story moves on.

This is a very entertaining book: an unusual fantasy system, the start of a complex and atypical plot, with a temporarily suicidal golem, not to mention a plethora of other vivid characters, including a deformed girl and a prince that’s not entirely a nice guy. They provide vivid color to the mind's eye.

Ever since Star Wars, authors have been finding it easier to start in the middle of their stories. Gryphon Taint continues this tradition, starting somewhere in the middle of the story of a royal family in a fantasy setting of long ago and far away. I found it an enjoyable read, even somewhat addicting. The characters are strong and very memorable. Not your usual sword and sorcery boilerplate. Highly recommended.