Title: Desert Soul – Old Tales of the Traveler
Author: Alejandra Cue
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: February 3, 2019
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal
Length: 20 pages
Source: I received a free copy from the author.
Rating: 5 Stars
Blurb:
When the desert of ashes decides your fate, there’s no escaping it. When death crawls in the blackness, struggling is pointless.
Or is it?
This is the story of a boy with one such fate, a boy who lost and found hope in the desolate land, hope that came in the form of a mysterious traveler. But does this newcomer have the power to invalidate the desert’s will, or will they struggle in vain? And even if they succeed, so what? How will they escape the nothingness of ash and sand and death?
Prepare for the tale of a boy and a traveler, who at the time no one knew would become the Traveler.
Content Warning: Death.
Review:
Let the punishment fit the crime.
I was impressed with how Ms. Cue balanced the plot and character development of this short story with her world building for this series as a whole. As someone who has never read anything set in this universe before, I immediately felt at home in it. Yes, there were questions I had about how everything worked that were left for later development, but those mysteries in no way impeded me from enjoying the conflicts here as the traveller tried to save the life of a child whose life was endangered by the heat and intense thirst he felt in the desert. Kudos to the author for pulling this off as it was such an intriguing introduction to her work.
The conflicts kept me heavily invested in this tale. Not only was the child in dire need of water and medical treatment from the time he’d spent alone in the desert, the traveller who assisted him faced multiple obstacles in his attempts to help the boy. Along with figuring out how the kid had ended up in this predicament, I wanted to know if he was going to be okay and if anyone could help them. This is an excellent example of how a short story can provide all of the necessary details to pull a reader into their world and make us care about the people we find there. Not everything needs hundreds of pages to be effective. Sometimes brevity is the best option!
As excited as I already was by this story, the twist at the end only amped up my interest. Obviously, I can’t share spoilers there other than to say that it made me look at certain characters in a new light and wonder what other secrets they might be hiding up their sleeves. There is definitely something to be said for revealing information only as it’s needed and trusting the audience to figure out the rest with the sufficient number of clues we are provided.
This is part of a series, but it works perfectly nicely as a standalone tale.
Desert Soul has piqued my interest and made me want to learn more about this world.
A Review of A Divine Tale
Author: Jonathan Antony Strickland
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: September 8, 2012
Genres: Fantasy, Humour
Length: 13 pages
Source: I received a free copy from the author.
Rating: 3 Stars
Blurb:
This is a story about Seglaman the Snow God, and how other God’s use his sorry tale as a reminder to younger less experienced God’s as a warning to never become too comfortable when ruling over mortals who worship them.
Review:
Kindness matters.
While religion was discussed in this tale, this was not at all what I’d consider the inspirational genre. For one thing, the protagonist was a Snow God who, to be frank, was not the nicest deity around. Mr. Strickland also wasn’t shy about pointing out some of the dangers of blindly following any sort of belief whether it’s religious, political, ideological, or otherwise. My hope is that other readers will be intrigued by this approach to what can be a sensitive topic for some and willing to listen with an open mind regardless of your personal beliefs.
This came across to me as more of the first draft of a story than the finished product. There wasn’t much time spent on character or plot development, and that made it more difficult for me to remain interested in what was happening than I hoped I would be. A lot was going on here with Seglaman’s relationship with the mortals he ruled over that I wished had been explained in greater detail. As much as I wanted to give this tale a higher rating, I had too many lingering questions to do so.
With that being said, the ending made me smile. It veered off into the direction I was hoping it would head, so I was able to see Seglaman’s reaction to something he never saw coming in advance. My apologies for keeping this vague, but other readers should be pleasantly surprised by those moments like I was. It went a long way in tying up loose ends for a Snow God and the mortals he ruled over alike.
A Divine Tale was thought provoking.
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Filed under Science Fiction and Fantasy
Tagged as 2010s, Book Reviews, Fantasy, Humour, Jonathan Antony Strickland, Self-Published, Short Story, Social Commentary