Summary:
Yuvian. The jewel by the sea. The Kingdom of Kings. It is a land renowned for its shining knights, proud citizens, and beautiful cities. A beautiful land of sweeping forests and mighty rivers and tree crowned mountains. In Yuvian chivalry rules and men are made and unmade by the strength of their sword and lance. Yet beneath the glamor and veneer of civilized society it is a land torn asunder by politics and intrigue. Even as the ruling families bicker and quarrel and ply their politics the enemies of Yuvian marches forward, slow and inexorable as an incoming tide. The barbarous women warriors of Razonia strike deeply into the kingdoms of men from their forest stronghold and King Cyric the God Touched has marshaled his forces to ride forth and meet these threats but it may very well be that the faith of Yuvian is decided by the unsought and unlikely….
My Review:
This is a collection of short stories that was sent to me by the author for a fair review. I’m going to start with the positives of this collection: it is extremely imaginative and the author is very good at painting a story and developing interesting characters. As with any short story collection, there isn’t enough time or space to really develop the characters but the stories are very imaginative and fast paced.
Having said that, the negatives for me were the fact that this really seems to have been published before it was ready to be. There were multiple typos and grammatical errors throughout, which really jerked me out of the stories. Granted I am a writing professor so am likely more sensitive than most might be but this is one of the pitfalls of self publishing.
Some significant editorial work is needed here. If the author engages in the needed edits with future work, I believe his collections could be successful.
