Isle by Claire Robertson

Isle by Claire Robertson is one of those books that, even after much consideration, I find difficult to pigeonhole. And it's been preying on my mind awhile now, weeks after I have finished it. First off, it was the cover that got me – I admit I'm a sucker for striking covers. But also, in my mission to read more African writers, this was certainly intriguing when I cast an eye over the blurb.

It's not a novel, but rather two novellas that have been glomped together, with the only real connection being that both take place on an island and feature the lives of women – though they are centuries apart.

I – Forth from this Place takes up the bulk of the offering, and is the tale of a community of women living on the Isle of St Katharine. They are not nuns, nor have they sworn an oath of celibacy, but they do live as a community of nuns would – cloistered and independent of the world of men. Yet their Magistra Lutgard is well aware of the fragility of the equilibrium their liminal space inhabits. She is anxious not to agitate the church or nearby community too much – for in her time witch hunts are not uncommon. It doesn't help that one of her women, Mechthild, is restless, striving to be more, do more. Find her own way in the world in a manner that is unconventional for its time.

None of this is helped when a Moorish peddler is rescued from a near-drowning, and serves as a muse for Mechthild in her artistic aspirations. She makes a book of hours, but instead of following conventions, her lifelike representations of the people around her surprise and astound those who are not accustomed to seeing representations of their faces laid down on paper. This act of hers has far-reaching consequences, not only for Mechthild, but for the lives her work touches.

II – Uxo brings us to a post-WWII setting where Lily Kinsella, who is higher-ranking than her fellow officer, John Burge, are tasked to recover or destroy old ordnance. Yet from the start, it is clear that all is not well with Lily, nor her relationship with Burge. Their work takes them to remote places, and it's clear  this unbalanced relationship between the two, carries equal parts resentment and reverence on Burge's part in the face of Lily's seeming indifference to him. 

Their travels bring them to an unnamed island that serves as a penitentiary, where Lily's interactions with teenage Iris and her prison warden father stir trouble, and eventually bring the issues between Lily and Burge to a head. Part coming-of-age story, part remembering of a shrouded past, this novella offers readers a careful dance between withholding and revealing in a way that exposes the fragility of human lives in all their ugliness and beauty.

Neither of these novellas comes to a head in a way that is satisfying – but then again, it's not for an ending or great denouement that one would read, but rather the savouring of each line of prose that is so exquisitely crafted that it is liquid poetry. And that's all I'll say on the matter. See for yourself.

The Armored Saint (The Sacred Throne #1) by Myke Cole

Heloise is just an ordinary girl who helps her father, who does a lot of scribing work. They're well respected in their village, but all is not well in this world where an Inquisition-type organisation known as the Order hunts wizards. After all, it's thanks to wizards and their magical meddling that demons can find their way into Heloise's world to wreak havoc.

The Armored Saint by Myke Cole is the first in a trilogy of stories, and I will say this much: I was drawn right into the world. Cole likes to take your preconceptions, turn them on their head, and then when he lulls you into a false sense of hope, he pulls the metaphorical rug from under your feet. Heloise as a protagonist is earnest yet awkward and her mistakes and missteps only add to the greater unfolding disaster.

She and her community face real horrors, where a religious authority holds great sway over their lives so that ordinary, good people are often coerced into doing bad things in the name of good – and Heloise questions the way things are done, and the outcomes of her doubt are not always to her advantage.

That which, at first, seems fair may be foul, and that which is foul may really be a last bastion of hope against the forces of evil – and ignorance of the way things actually as opposed to how one may wish them to be are may well prove deadly. There is a lesson here.

As far as fantasy novellas go, this one gripped me from the start, and the next book in the trilogy is an insta-buy for me. If you like your fantasy gritty and demon-haunted, then look no further than this offering.

Ranker's Charge: Deliverance at Van Demon's Deep by SP Steven

I don't think I'd ordinarily pick up a book like Ranker's Charge by SP Steven, but this was a review copy that landed on my desk so I gave it a fair read. This novella is very much in the GrimDark territory of fantasy, with morally ambiguous characters who are often faced with making awful choices. We meet Sergeant Vila Kiprik who's at the end of his career in the army and looking forward to retiring to his little cabin.

Except if the story were all about Kiprik's retirement, there wouldn't be much of a tale here. You see, Kiprik and his squad are responsible for clearing out the Unbound from an abandoned mine so that it can go in production again. It's bloody, dangerous work. Not only are the chaotically mutated Unbound a threat, but there are random patches of chaos that put in an appearance from time to time.

Fair warning, though, if you're not a huge fan of race-against-the-clock type disaster stories, then this one's probably not going to be for you. There's a load of tension in the telling, and if you think things can't go worse for the characters, think again.

SP Steven has a solid hand and a visceral, visual storytelling style, and while at the end of the day there's not much more beyond a main character fighting for his people to survive while coming to terms with his own demons, this is still an engaging tale. There are a few editing decisions that made me itch for my red pen, but no structural issues that made me twitch. Ranker's Charge is a prequel, and is meant as a teaser to draw you into this particular world, so if you're looking for a taste of something that might appeal without the huge investment of a trilogy, then give this a try.

High Tower Gods by CL Corona

In the novella High Tower Gods CL Corona creates a wonderfully nuanced and encapsulated story that expertly captures the turning point in a society heavily reliant on a created slave-race of AIs. I'm a huge fan of secondary worlds that are recognisably modernised, and in High Tower Gods, we have a world filled with motor vehicles, intelligent biomechanoids, rampant alchemy and magic. Part whodunnit, part laying to rest of old demons, the story follows the immortal Elian as she works to prove the innocence of a chimera accused of murder – an act she believes the creature incapable of committing. And she would know, because she was responsible for encoding the inability to kill. 

Elian has lived in isolation in her tower for so many years that she's cut herself off from an indolent society that is over-reliant on a slave-race of chimeras to do all the work. And her actions are about to have unforeseen, unexpected repercussions. 

But I won't spoil. This is a beautiful, lush and layered story, especially suited for those of us who're looking for short, standalone fantasy reads. As alway, Corona's writing is vivid, focusing on the uncomfortable exchanges between people who have a lot of water under the bridge.

Falada by Angela D Mitchell

What I love about particular fandoms (yes, I'm looking at you, Dragon Age) is that they connect me with likeminded souls. Angela D Mitchell is one such writer, whose thought-provoking blogs have sent me down numerous nug warrens. Also, her fanfiction is especially lush – and she focuses so well on the nuances of characters' interaction with so much layering and a ring of authenticity. Naturally, when she mentioned that she also writes original fiction, her fantasy novella Falada ended up being an insta-buy on my list.

I'm going to go out on a limb and compare her writing style to Neil Gaiman's right off the bat. She has an understanding of story structure, especially in terms of taking the form of a fairytale and making it her own, then subverting it with all the touchstones we've come to know and love, from wicked witches, enchanted steeds and princesses.

Falada is the story of the princess Géanna, whose mother is the wicked witch. It's the tale we know all too well – a princess must marry a king and become queen. Only Géanna isn't your bog-standard, typical princess. And as much as she loves her mother, she chafes at her mother's manipulations. Yet Géanna is an obedient daughter, up until a point. It's when she starts to take matters into her own hands that her fate unravels, and she's faced with the task of trying to right the wrongs that have placed her where she is. Of course nothing runs smoothly, but I'm not going to spoil it for you.

Okay. I love Mitchell's writing. I will most likely go out and buy the next book she publishes without batting an eyelid. Was Falada perfect? It wasn't, but Mitchell's wordcraft is magic. I feel almost as if the novella wanted to be a novel rather than a novella, and that's my only real bone to pick. Things are left at a 'happy for now' by the end, but I feel that the outcome at the climax was a little bit rushed, too easily resolved almost. And I think this is something that might've been fixed with a brainstorming at the developmental stages of the writing.

This wasn't a dealbreaker, however, and if you've enjoyed Stardust, you'll most certainly enjoy Falada. Read it with my blessings. It's a lovely story, and one that I'll be thinking about for a while yet.