Synopsis:
After years of running down dead-end clues, the rogue Never has nearly given up his quest for answers; his blood is cursed and his true name a mystery, yet no library, no healer and none who claim to know dark magics have ever been able to help.
Until he steals a map to the mysterious Amber Isle, which might just hold the answers he needs.
But Never isn’t the only one who wants the map – an old enemy, Commander Harstas, also seeks it and Harstas craves revenge for the deaths of his men.
Forced to flee through a war zone, Never soon stumbles across a group of treasure-hunters hoping to discover the wonders of the Amber Isle for themselves. But the deeper they venture into the Isle, the more deadly it grows.
Trapped between the greed of the treasure hunters, cunning traps in the Isle itself, the threat of Harstas’ fury and his own desperation to finally uncover answers, Never must find a way to unlock the Isle’s ancient secrets and escape – or perish without ever learning the truth.
Review:
*I read this novella as part the judging group The Secret Scribes for the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS) semi-finals phase. The following review is strictly my personal thoughts as each novella will be reviewed by two judges to be as objective as possible.*
The Amber Isle is the first novella in a series called The Book of Never, Never being the main character’s name. This story has an Indiana Jones vibe where Never is trying to find out about his curse, and is chock full of traps, beasties, and near deaths.
Never is cursed, or more accurately, his blood is. We, and he, don’t know why and apparently the Amber Isle might offer him some clues. Fleeing from some bad guys we only briefly meet for stealing a map, Never gets to said isle, joins up with some treasure seekers, then dives into the isle’s dark, dank caves. There he’s followed by some Creatures of the Black Lagoon beasties before possibly discovering his curse’s source.
So let’s get this out of the way first, having the MC’s name be Never was kinda confusing. My brain constantly wanted to read the word as an adverb, not a character name. I eventually tricked my brain into knocking it off, but it was hard at the start. Anywho, Never was an interesting character. Quite snarky, a bit violent, ever resourceful. He’s a fun protagonist, but we don’t get a lot of backstory for him, especially his curse. I get that it would gradually happen over the series, but for a competition, I would have liked a tad more. The rest of the cast also suffered from this concept, and we are introduced to some characters who might have some bearing on the plot (like a woman in the beginning) but they end up just disappearing altogether. The characters we do spend time with are fine, some a little one note outside of Luis and Ferne.
I’d say the best part of this novella is the quest in the Amber Isle. Like a good Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider adventure, there are lots of fun puzzles, booby traps, and ways to snare our hero. The eerie water beasties were very neat and the little hint of their origin was spot on. Though a short book, there was a lot of adventure packed in here and I really liked it.
The pace and prose were fine. There was no down time once Never gets to the isle. For me, I felt the story suffered from the lead up to that. The introduction of the mysterious woman threw me off because I figured she’d be a big plot driver and when she wasn’t, I was left wondering why she was there in the first place, same with the bad guys Never stole the map from (my gut tells me this was meant to give a time crunch to the proceedings). It was also a negative for me that there was a build up to his curse and hints to a bigger world at play, but we didn’t get much more than surface level stuff. Again, these are small potatoes as far as complaints go, but judging for a comp means I want tight everything: plot, cast, world.
I do think the overall story of Never is an interesting one, and The Amber Isle had a great adventure vibe to it. But I do feel like there was much more needed to make this story shine. I no doubt believe all my niggles are tackled in the greater Book of Never. And also don’t think I didn’t enjoy the story, I did! It was fun and there were a lot of parts that gave off a pulp-esque vibe.
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