Book Review: The Church of the Wood by E.J. Weber

The relationship between faeries and humans has always been a complicated one.  Whether joined by a mutual past, or wholly divergent in their origin, they are regardless fated to share the same space.  And while time and distance may have set them apart from each  other, their eventual alliance may rest with the actions of a few… or even just two individuals.

The Church of the Wood explores this complicated relationship between peoples, and touches on tragic missteps that prior generations have engaged in.  Though that history has impacted everyone, few remain who remember the gravity of such things, and even fewer care to make it their business.  Myth, legend, and rumor all serve to put up barriers between faeries and humans, often replacing reality with fear and insurmountable preconceptions.

Ultimately, this book is about individual relationships.  Unwitting friendships, leaps of faith, and eventually romance, follow several characters through journeys both personal and collective.  The story deftly addresses both the mysteries of ages past as well as the complicated future of Calundra, the starkly idyllic but troubled country in which the stories are set.  While intensely personal, the narrative and its well-defined characters cannot exist in a microcosm.  An undercurrent of connectivity is maintained throughout the tale.

It would be easy to define The Church of the Wood as a romantic fantasy, and indeed such a description is apt.  However, rarely has such a simple concept been so lavishly described, or with such careful detail.  The greatest strength of this book is Weber’s ease of narration; confident, expansive, and extremely endearing.  Each of the main characters will rapidly gain the support of the reader, and anyone who is even a casual fan of the genre will find them to be captivating.  Beyond just the actors involved, the story maintains enough of an air of mystery and magic to keep the reader’s attention throughout.

The only criticism I can levy against it is the pace of the plot.  This is a slow story by anyone’s estimation, and it rewards the patient reader.  The plot is meandering at times, and as a fan of more action-oriented stories I often found myself waiting for the next significant revelation rather than simply enjoying the journey itself.  Though this may not detract from the overall impact, it may be a deterrent to some people who are easily distracted.  Additionally, some minor characters are introduced that are given some attention, but not enough to really carry the scene or enhance the central themes.

Despite these minor problems, the book remains a positive experience and I would recommend it to any fan of fantasy, romance, or a combination thereof.  It is unarguably a very impressive first novel from Weber and is every bit as good as any commercial offering.  I am looking forward to future works from her!

http://www.amazon.com/Church-Wood-ebook/dp/B00CCJB4L6

Flash Fiction: The Five Years of Eternity

Last night I was nearly delirious with a fever, and as I drifted in and out of sleep, I thought of this short story.

 

My name is Anderson, and I have lived for almost one thousand years.  I wish I could claim to have seen ancient Babylon, Rome, Jerusalem in the time of Christ, the dark ages, the renaissance, and the industrial revolution.  Instead, what I got was 2003-2008, one hundred and ninety four times in a row.  I am here to plead for your help.

Project Redwood

This is the beginning of an attempt to create a new story not connected to the Reckless Faith universe.

 

“Major, what the hell are you doing?”

The interior of the C-5 Galaxy had just become very quiet.  Major Furlong stood next to the hulking prototype reactor, pointing an M9 pistol at his fellow scientists.  The other men, both Department of Defense civilian physicists, glanced at each other in shock.  They also peered past him toward the ladder that led to the flight deck, but the rest of the crew was topside, and unaware of the drama that was about to unfold.

Suddenly too warm, Major Furlong unzipped the front of his flight suit with one hand while keeping his weapon trained unwaveringly on the other men.  The long, cylindrical reactor hummed calmly, though this reassuring noise was almost completely drowned out by the drone of the aircraft’s engines.  He saw the uncertainty in their eyes as he accessed the main control panel on the reactor.

“I wouldn’t try it,” he warned.

Revisions of Reckless Faith (Spoiler Alert)

In anticipation of publishing the Reckless Faith trilogy in Kindle format, I’ve hacked up the first book based on the pretty much universal criticisms I’ve received over the years.  It only took me two hours to cut almost 10% of the novel, addressing perhaps the most common complaint that the story was longer than it needed to be.  Other revisions include:

1. The scene introducing Devonai and Richter investigating the destruction of the USS Portland has been moved to the prologue as a flash-forward.  Chapter One begins with “Eleven days earlier.”

2. Added a scene where John breaks up with his girlfriend in the first chapter.  It is also made clear that he was an avionics technician in the Air Guard.

3. Deleted the scene where Ari buys her pistol.

4. The bank robbery, shootout, and death of Ray’s partner have been deleted.  These events are revealed later by Ray at his cabin, prior to the arrival of the orb.

5. Most of Dana and Levi running around New England, including their car accident, has been deleted.

6. John’s confession to Ray that he could have prevented Ari’s capture by the CIA has been deleted.

7. Changed the location of the theft of the GAU 8/A weapons systems from Barnes to Bradley, and added a more realistic response by base personnel.  Also mentioned the theft of B-29 turrets from the New England Air Museum.

8. Added a brief dream sequence with Dana and the Kira’To, which is mentioned again in Bitter Arrow.

9. Deleted other minor parts here and there that neither served to further the plot nor developed characters.

The book is now 91,000 words, and hopefully a more tightly plotted story.

New Story Possibility For My Next Book

When I eventually write a fifth book in the Reckless Faith universe, it might start off something like this.  This story would replace my last attempt, Fitz and the Flat, which I posted earlier.

 

“Hey, Agent Smith!”

Val was on his way from the front desk to the elevators when he heard someone call his name.  He turned to his right and looked into the lounge area.  His contact, Special Agent Ben Jones, was sitting at a small table near the bar.  Val approached him.

“Agent Jones, nice to meet you,” he began, “I wasn’t expecting to see you until tomorrow morning.”

“Please, have a seat.  Unless you’re absolutely bushed.”

Val moved his luggage to the side and sat down.  Jones was a man in his forties, with glasses and a small moustache.  He was wearing a polo shirt and khaki pants, and had his windbreaker draped over the back of his chair.  The jacket was the type with concealable lettering, which was handy for traveling.  He grasped a glass of brown liquor, and looked like he’d just arrived from the airport himself.

“No, that’s fine.  What are you drinking?”

“Oban.  Want one?”

Jones signaled the bartender and pointed to his glass.  The tired-looking woman smiled briefly and brought over another.  Smith took a small sip and let the smoky liquid roll over his tongue.  The lounge area was much nicer than the lobby, with wood paneling and well thought out lighting, and seemed to speak of a heyday for this location at some time in the past.  Val considered the other man for a moment before speaking.

The Sweet Sound

“That’s one of our Advanced Infantrymen?”

Doctor Sato’s first impression of Staff Sergeant Damascus was a surprise to her.  She was expecting a man somewhat different from the one who sat in her office.  She gazed at him on a monitor in the adjoining room for a few seconds.  Her supervisor stood beside her, an older and gruff man by the name of Doctor Mariella, silent for the moment.  He had insisted on the monitoring equipment, which would normally be a clear violation of the client’s rights, but both of them were begrudgingly convinced of its necessity by the higher-ups in the military.  After all, Staff Sergeant Damascus didn’t have any rights, yet.

Of Errors and Evangeline (minor spoilers)

When I wrote the timeline for The Fox and the Eagle, I was only thinking about Reckless Faith, which is fine, but I made a mistake in another regard, and that error made it into the book.  

Some years ago I took a stab at rewriting my first two full-length novels, Marionette and Indemnity, which were contemporary action/adventure stories with only a slight sci-fi aspect.  They weren’t very good, rife with ponderously detailed action sequences and action movie tropes.  However, the characters were pretty decent, so I decided to give them new life in Reckless Faith.  The rewrite came soon thereafter, and was an origination story for Kyrie Devonai, Chance Richter, and Evangeline Adeler.

The result was Hard Stripes, a novella that I previously posted on Live Journal and Facebook.  I was happy with it, but I couldn’t figure out how to expand it into a full-length novel.  I’d always considered diving back into it, so I was reviewing it yesterday and I noticed a big problem.  It is set in the year 2000, three years prior to the events in Reckless Faith.  Eva is supposed to be 19 years old.  In The Fox and the Eagle, set in 2019, Eva is 31.  Oops.  The easiest fix, had I noticed, would be to change the date to 2002 and make Eva 36 years old in 2019.  But there’s another problem, too.

In The Fox and the Eagle, Evangeline mentions that she had a romantic relationship with Chance Richter, a relationship that would have had to occur prior to his departure on the Reckless Faith in 2003.  Even if I’d corrected the above error, and made her 36, she and Richter would’ve been in a relationship with him at 26 and her at 17.  As it stands right now, if you’d read both books you would have noticed that Eva couldn’t possibly have been any older than 15 when the relationship occurred.  D’oh.

As such, I’m left with Hard Stripes either being apocryphal, or a tale of a budding romance between an adult male and a minor female.  Even without the novella, the age difference already evident in my books would give one pause.  I’m only inspired by Heinlein, I’m not trying to take his place!  The easiest way to fix this would be to change Eva’s age to 36 in the next book and hope that nobody notices the discrepancy.  And to salvage Hard Stripes, I’d still have to settle for the 26 and 17 age difference.

The last possibility is to have the relationship be nothing more than a crush on Eva’s part.  While it’s sort of creepy that she would refer to Richter as the “love of her life” for an unrequited crush from sixteen years ago, I think it would be a lot better than Richter returning her affection.