Synopsis
In Emre, bards are revered. Their stories have answers; their stories have influence; their stories have power.
When the subject of his story meets an untimely end, Vatis, a disgraced bard, finds himself alone in the unforgiving wilderness. Undeterred and desperate, he embarks on a quest to find a new subject for his revitalizing tale.
A fascinating hero emerges. Vidmar, an army deserter turned treasure hunter, is tasked with a secret mission–to find a powerful, long-lost crown. However, his merciless employer’s patience wanes with each passing day. In desperation, he confronts the bard, hoping he can provide a new clue.
Their unlikely partnership leads to confrontations with bandits, thieves, wolves, and worse until Vidmar’s secret is revealed. With Vatis’s knowledge, they uncover new clues to the crown’s location, bringing Vidmar closer than he’s ever been.
Can Vatis restore his place in the Bard’s Guild and earn the recognition he desperately craves?
Can they find the crown before they are killed?
Or will the story be lost to the darkness slowly spreading across Emre?
Review:
Reading Tales and Treasure made me feel like I was stepping into the well-worn pages of a classic fantasy novel, but instead of following an orphaned farm boy destined to change the world, we’re carried through this tale by Vatis, a bard looking for a story that will cement his name across the land, and Vidmar, a dangerous warrior seeking an ancient treasure.
We meet Vatis first, and the chapter introducing him is one of the strongest first chapters I’ve come across in a while. He’s sitting beside the corpse of a warrior he’s been following, disappointed this most recent hero has met such an untimely end. He leaves the corpse behind after reducing the man’s life to a single sentence, searching for a better story. Along the way he runs into Vidmar, and their tales intertwine.
Vidmar first appears to be a down-on-his-luck warrior, searching through waste to discover a ring on behalf of a local woman. He comes across as generous and kind, but he’s carrying the weight of a mysterious past on his shoulders.
The story rapidly throws the warrior and the bard together, and the two embark on a quest that will take them to taverns, arenas, farms, and forests. Will Vatis find his tale, and Vidmar his treasure? Only time will tell.
Tales and Treasure is a well-written book with vivid descriptions and deeply realized characters. There isn’t much magic to speak of in the early parts of this story, but by the final chapters its presence in the world is becoming more apparent. There’s plenty of taverns, inns, and ale in the novel, and there are several “story within a story” detours as Vatis weaves his tales to spellbound crowds of various sizes.
The challenge with such a structure is that any story within a story, no matter how well told (and these are) is that they break the narrative pacing of the larger story. Tales and Treasure generally handles this challenge well, but there was at least one occasion where I was much more interested in what was going to happen to Vatis and Vidmar than the story being told.
If you’re looking for a fantasy with a classic feel but modern influences, or if you’re longing for some time around a hearth telling stories, Tales and Treasure may be for you.
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