Gnomes of Coyul: The Crystal Staff

by Ben Ditmars

Motty is a melancholy gnome, seeing little purpose in his humdrum life and dead-end job. Things seem finally too much for him until he meets a human named Theo, who rescues him from a barrage of attacking elves. They become fast friends as the elders confine Theo to live within the boundaries of the tree-city forever. But fate has more in store for them than this. As the same forces chasing Theo unite to assault the gnomes’ tree the man and gnomes are forced to flee toward safety.

Their journey begins, as they discover the only way to save their civilization, and the world at large from further conquest, is by defeating a demented Elf-Queen living far away. Through fairy prisons and realms of unicorns the gnomes and man must battle past vicious trolls, winding tunnels, and other harrowing villains and locations to finally end up in the elfish city itself and accomplish the task of destroying an Elf-Queen and her magic staff.

133 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2010

About the author

Ben Ditmars was first published in his college publications the Cornfield Review and KAPOW and has since been featured in several online literary journals. He is the author of six poetry books including Night Poems, Haiku in the Night, Inhale the Night, Sleeping with Earth, Number Poetry and Splinters with Susie Clevenger. He lives in Ohio with his wife, De’Garrica, and dachshund, Elsa.

Reviews

[Helle Gade · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read about gnomes my whole life and I must say that I’m really impressed with the author’s gnomes. They are a feisty bunch with big hearts. The book has everything, love, battle and an ending that brought happy tears to my eyes. Gnomes of Coyûl is an awesome book. I loved it and highly recommend it.

[Cinta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very curious about this book since the very first time I heard about it. Having read other books by the same writer, and having loved all of them, I hoped and expected to love this one as well. I got a bit disappointed. The story is really good, but I think that this story would have worked better if it had been made into a short story or short novella.

The story of a gnome whose life gets way more interesting when he meets a human. Together with other gnomes, they all will live some adventures in their quest for the evil queen who is making the gnomes' lives miserable.

There are a lot of topics in this book, and I think it is a very clever way of criticising things that happen in our contemporary world. Love, war, death, and more are the topics that will keep you thinking while you read this book. It is an enjoyable read, but at some points I got confused. Add to that many typos, missing words, and left-aligned text (if a text is not justified, it distracts me, for some reason).

So an overall good book that just needs some editing polish.

[Charity Parkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Come on, who doesn't love gnomes? This was a cute story and very well written. I bought the book because it looked a little different from all the other books being offered, and the price was good. I wasn't disappointed and I don't think that you will either.