Half Lies by Sally Green

Another day comes and goes and now it is time to find a little diversion with a short story from Sally Green’s amazing world of Black and White Witches in her short prequel story, Half Lies. Picking up this book I did feel a bit of apprehension, after all I had left less than impressed with the last short story I reviewed. However I was very happy with Half Lies which contained almost everything I loved about Sally Green’s unique take on a hidden magical world as well as look into one of Half Bad’s most interesting and exotic character’s Gabriel. 

Half Lies does not follow the story of series protagonist Nathan who made up such a powerful presence in Green’s first story. Instead the author took us away from Europe entirely to spend time with Gabriel, a mysterious character who came to be an important influence on Nathan near the first book’s conclusion. Gabriel himself is a black witch, living with his father and sister in America shortly before the main series began. The book, primarily told in the form of diary entries by Gabriel’s sister Michele, tells how the family moved to the coast to make a new life for themselves after roaming from town to town in a gypsy like lifestyle. Michele for her part is like many young women on the cusp of adulthood, bursting with hormones and longing to break free from her family while also trying to find harmony with her own latent magical gifts alongside her older brother, both of whom are gifted with the ability to transform into other people. What follows is a special insight into the world of Black Witches which had been somewhat lacking in Half Bad, and helped us to fill in some of the blanks to understand where Gabriel would come from and what challenges his character faced before Nathan came into the picture. 

I was still writing for SoSoGay when I picked up and reviewed Green’s first novel in this series, the innocuously named Half Bad. At the time I was not expecting all that much from the story which, from it’s premise, seemed a little too similar to Harry Potter for my taste (a young abused half blooded witch coming into his powers in a magical society which places a great deal of importance on the concept of blood purity). However, I was deeply surprised and impressed with the way that Green constructed her world of Black and White Witches who were in fact very different from what I had seen JK Rowling’s famous book saga. Now in Half Lies, which fills the role of a prequel novella, we were given a more in depth look at Green’s world using both new and familiar characters to add a whole new layer to the animosity that was ever present in Half Bad. It is this additional level of story which made this short all the more endearing and a little more balanced than Half Bad, which in retrospect was rather heavily weighted in the world of the Whites.

Characterwise there is a lot to like here, with the light being shone on Gabriel making me warm to him more. Likewise the character of Michele is something of a firecracker, an adolescent girl at a difficult age straddling childhood and adulthood and bearing traits from both sides. That said the additional characters of Skylar and her son Aidan were featured, but were sadly not given as much of a hook to really grab my attention as a reader. This left them feeling more like extras when I wanted to get in their face a little more and understand what they were about in this unusual world. It could be that Green is saving them for a future story, and I would welcome that, but I think it would have been better to spend a little less time on the romance side of the story to help really show them off. 

While I really enjoyed reading the book I couldn’t help but stumble a bit when I came across the rather cliche concept of love across the metaphorical battlefield. The concept is once that has been celebrated since Romeo and Juliet and while the facts may occasionally change the general premise is the same, featuring star-crossed lovers who you want to root for but you know will meet a sticky end. This is my one complaint since it felt a little too obvious, even in the face of the original treatment that Green gave her debut and showing herself as a force to be reckoned with. I suppose I was hoping for something more gratifying and spectacular, especially from an author who is more than equal to the task of doing that. While it doesn’t take away from what is a very good novella, it does somewhat feel undernourished and weak when compared to the previous instalment which I personally could not get enough of. 

I have said before that I find short stories to occasionally be a bit difficult. While in this context Half Lies is meant to complement the main series which started with Half Bad it didnt feel like a real part of the story so much as an offshoot which relied a little on cliche. However, aside from this stumbling block I found Green’s voice helped make up for this and she once again wraps herself in glory with a very good story which certainly got me itching to get a hold of her next book Half Wild. Lovers of the series so far will love Half Lies for what it is, and while it may not win fans, it will certainly help fill the gap between Half Bad and Half Wild as we prepare to once more enter Nathan’s world. 

Rating: 4 out of 5

Half Lies is available from Amazon and the iBooks Store

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider

The next stop on my cavalcade of book reviews is a little indulgent and appeals to the gamer in me as well as the lover of high fantasy. Being a big fan of the Dragon Age series of games I have never really felt tempted to look too far into the impressive back story as a great deal of it is information I gleaned from the games themselves. In the end though I decided to give The Stolen Throne a go which proved itself to be an interesting if occasionally inconsistent piece of fiction. 

The story is one that lovers of the original Dragon Age: Origins will know all about. Maric is the heir to the throne of Ferelden a mystical nation that has been subverted by the neighbouring Orlesian Empire. The rebels under the command of Maric’s mother had resisted but now the rebel queen has been betrayed and Maric is alone, hunted by his enemies and forced to take on the mantle of command far sooner than he wanted. Thankfully Maric, with the assistance of his new friend Loghain and his old comrade Rowan, is readying the rebels of Ferelden to retake their ancestral home and banish the Orlesian ususpers once and for all. 

When you get right down to it The Stolen Throne has a great lead in and an interesting enough premise, albeit one which could hardly be called original. Maric’s role is very much one of the reluctant hero making good, usually with the help of his often more talented friends and advisors. That is not to say that Maric is a wholly unoriginal character, indeed there are times where he exudes an easy charm which is very much palpable both to the other characters in the story as well as to the reader themselves. Indeed it might even be fair to say that there were times where I was beginning to struggle with the overarching narrative where I found myself pulled through by wanting to see what happens to Maric next. There are other characters that do make for interesting reading, however many of them seemed to be cut from similar moulds which made them largely interchangeable. Almost everyone else exuded a sense of dour almost miserable melancholy which, while keeping with the events of the story, made it feel as though we were trudging through a lot of rather grim storyline in order to find someone of interest. 

The pacing to The Stolen Throne is definitely an area that Gaider should have worked on a bit more cleverly. The passage of time from one setting to the next is inconsistent to say the least with some chapters taking place over the same space of time only to suddenly jump years and months ahead in the course of a few sentences. This is especially glaring near the story’s conclusion which felt overly rushed and lacking in punch as a result. This also applies to some of the interactions between the characters, with some of them acting as though they have known each other for years when in the story it had only been days and vice versa. This left it very difficult for me to immerse myself in the narrative and it was a shame to see since I wanted to enjoy the book a lot more than I did. 

That is not to say that Gaider’s book is a total disappointment as it did have it’s moments which really stood out, particularly when characters I knew from the game series such as the mysterious witch of the wilds Flemeth. This is where we come to the fundamental issue of The Stolen Throne, in that it relies too heavily on the source material from which it is derived. While Dragon Age possesses a vast codex of information and lore about it’s history and supporting characters we are only focusing on a relatively short period of time in a specific setting which means the challenge was on Gaider to make something special using the information at his disposal. The general effect though is weak at times and if you were to take away the links to the game then you would be left with a fantasy adventure by the numbers which is so dry it occasionally left a bad taste in my mouth. 

Looking at the story as a whole I have to concede that there are a few good points that stand out, but it is not enough to really save The Stolen Throne from being a very ordinary jaunt through a fantasy kingdom. While I am a big fan of Dragon Age I would certainly think twice before I drop my hard earned cash on another book when the games are mostly superior in every way. I would love to say this is one for the fans, I am not entirely sure that the fans would find this book all that diverting. 

Rating: 2 out of 5

The Stolen Throne by David Gaider is available for purchase from Amazon and the iBooks Store

Manifest by Alden Lila Reedy

                                 

The next story I am reviewing is a comparatively short one compared to Die Again, but then in my experience how long your story is doesn’t matter, what does matter is how it makes you feel… while that does sound like an innuendo in the making it has to be said that Manifest is a well written, albeit flawed story that works and doesn’t work in almost equal measure. 

The premise of the short is a simple one which follows our protagonist Chris as he enters into the world of cosplay. Having an interest in sowing served as his entry and he began to make costumes reflecting his favourite anime characters. From here he makes new friends and enters a whole new world of freedom which is in stark contrast to his conservative christian upbringing which allows him to explore himself in ways he never has before. Then one day Chris begins to go deep into himself and realises that he is beginning to like wearing women’s clothes at conventions, and then also at home. Chris realises he is trans, a girl in a man’s body and finds herself starting a new journey that she didnt expect.

There is an inherent difficulty in reviewing a short story compared to a full novel. A short story only has a short time to get it’s point across and flesh out its characters and in this regard I have to congratulate Reedy who has done well to do all this in a very small number of pages. That said the issue of self identity and coming out as trans is a complicated and very difficult process for some with a large number of problems and pitfalls which can make life very difficult for the individual doing it. This is where the short length doesn’t go in the story’s favour as it leaves us with a very short amount of time to get to know Chris as a boy exploring his love of cosplay before realising she is trans. The revelation where Chris actually comes to realise she is trans is also done almost insultingly quickly as a result of a night of internet searches around the subject. While I do not doubt that there are people who always knew they weren’t in the right skin, for Chris’ character it doesn’t quite ring true and feels like we were rushing to a conclusion too quickly.

Another issue I took with ‘Manifest’ was the very vague nature of the details. The characters have names and ages but that is about it, leaving Chris as the narrator describing anime princess or men in suits but leaving out their names and relying on those titles to be almost their whole description. As a lover of anime I could have done with more detail to help set the scene and give the story as a whole a more solid ground on which to build from. As it is the story is too amorphous dealing mostly in vague set ups with few features making the resultant narrative have an almost dream-like narrative. This is not necessarily a bad thing but this lack of physicality makes it hard for the story to leave a lasting impression, I myself read it and almost forgot about it within a week. 

There are some saving graces to Reedy’s story, however, as the author has managed to find the voice of a young trans person who is just opening up to who she really is and exploring it without shame. This was done well and while it was rushed I have to commend the author for being brave enough to even dare to write about a young trans girl when so many wouldn’t be able to enter that character’s mind and understand them. 

Looking at the whole of this short story I liked that Reedy wanted to write this kind of story, but I thought that it needed a little more weight to it in order to really devote time and do justice to the themes on offer. Really this could have been so much better had Reedy tried to make it more of a novella or a full blown book since there is so much that couldn’t be done in these few words that really could have been explored. Altogether it was a good attempt but fell short of my expectations.

Rating: 2.5/5

Manifest is available now on Amazon and the iBooks Store. Thanks to NetGalley for providing the book to review.