As mentioned earlier this summer, I’ve decided to include more book reviews in the publication queue for this blog. Everything I review will somehow be connected to the speculative fiction genre, and I will highlight authors whose books are self-published, indie, or from small presses as often as possible.
As always, my reviews are spoiler free.
Title: The Lady of Dawnzantium – A Trace & Mikhail Story
Author: Berthold Gambrel
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: 2018
Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery, Humour
Page Count: 13 pages
Source: I received a free copy from Berthold.
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Blurb: Two adventurers encounter a strange creature on a remote colony world in this humorous sci-fi short story.
Review:
Nearly every small town has a local legend or two. This is true even for communities that were built on faraway planets only a few years ago!
This was one of the funniest tales I’ve read in ages, but I can’t give you specific examples of why that is so. Let’s just say that not everything in Dawnzantium, the planet Trace and Mikhail are visiting in order to hopefully solve a local mystery, is necessarily what it first appears to be. Pay attention to everything the characters say and enjoy the ride!
The one thing I wish had been made more clear in this short story is whether it was part of a series that needed to be read in a specific order. The subtitle and certain references in the storyline made me think it may be part of a much larger universe, and I’m a stickler for reading books in order. I wasn’t entirely sure at first if this was a sequel, prequel, beginning of a new series, or something that was intended to be read as a standalone work. It would have been nice to know for certain that I wasn’t accidentally jumping into the middle of a series when I started this tale.
One of the things I like the most about the science fiction genre in general is how it imagines humans will react to living in places that don’t look or feel much like Earth at all. Some of the strongest scenes were the ones that explained what Dawnzantium looked like and how it was different from our home planet. Humans could live there fairly comfortably, but there were a few things about it that were unique.
Figuring how whether to use the mystery tag in this review was a fun challenge. There were mystery elements in the plot, but the storyline remained firmly rooted in the science fiction genre. This is something I’d recommend to readers who are curious about mysteries but not quite sure if that genre is right for them. The little taste of it here may be enough to help you make up your minds either way!
The ending was fabulous. While it was something I’d briefly wondered about while reading earlier scenes, seeing the narrator go off in the direction I’d been speculating about was still a great deal of fun. Readers who paid close attention to the beginning will get a nice payoff by the final scene.
This is a must-read for anyone who enjoys humorous science fiction.
This sounds fun! I love when sci-fi/fantasy stories mash up with the mystery genre. But… did you determine if it was a standalone or part of an existing series? That’s something I tend to get annoyed when I can’t figure out, too.
Berthold says this is a standalone story. It doesn’t have any prequels or sequels at the moment, although he does have a draft for something else set in this universe. So that question is answered! 🙂
If he ever writes anything else about these characters, I’m sure going to try to review it.