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Farthane Stories
First Call
An ancient cataclysm. A mystical order. And a little girl with a kitten.
Ailsa Farthane tried to keep her truth-sight a secret, but no one can keep a secret from the Judicars. Now two of them have arrived in Ailsa's village, and they want to take her away to become a Judicar herself.
If Ailsa goes with them, she will have to leave her parents, her only friend and her treasured orange kitten behind. Though she's just eight years old, Ailsa knows three things about Judicars: they can see the Truth, they never lie, and their magic is older than the mountains that guard her country's borders.
FIRST CALL is classic high fantasy set in a world where secrets hold power and Truth can be wielded like a weapon.
Length: 5,100 words (25 pages), plus a short novel excerpt
Genre: fantasy, action & adventure, coming of age
Market: written for adults but YA-friendly (no sex, no swearing)
Ailsa Farthane tried to keep her truth-sight a secret, but no one can keep a secret from the Judicars. Now two of them have arrived in Ailsa's village, and they want to take her away to become a Judicar herself.
If Ailsa goes with them, she will have to leave her parents, her only friend and her treasured orange kitten behind. Though she's just eight years old, Ailsa knows three things about Judicars: they can see the Truth, they never lie, and their magic is older than the mountains that guard her country's borders.
FIRST CALL is classic high fantasy set in a world where secrets hold power and Truth can be wielded like a weapon.
Length: 5,100 words (25 pages), plus a short novel excerpt
Genre: fantasy, action & adventure, coming of age
Market: written for adults but YA-friendly (no sex, no swearing)
27 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 18, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 26, 2020
Would recommend to anyone
Amazing story to read, I enjoyed going on the adventure of this book to the very end of it :)
Amazing story to read, I enjoyed going on the adventure of this book to the very end of it :)
November 1, 2012
I read the short, but entertaining and intriguing work of Kary English's "First Call" in an evening. I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't what I got. Wowza. Kary is an amazing writer. Seriously. I wish I could write like this.
From the first paragraph to the last, you get swept away in descriptions that are almost poetic, without being long-winded or hoakey. I could actually picture the things she was describing in my mind, with a soundtrack playing and everything - like a movie. That Kary is able to do this in a book is remarkable. Here's an example: "And when the riders' cloaks are woven of midnight and starshine, the tale travels faster than ripples through ripening grain." Have you ever seen rippling grain in the wind? I have! Just recently, in fact. And the image that this description provokes is absolutely perfect. I couldn't think of a better metaphor if I tried. And like I mentioned, they're not long-winded - just long enough to create the image and then back to the action. Perfect.
The characters were well drawn, as well as they could be in a story of this length, I think. The story of a group of people who answer The Call to go out and find those who have a certain gift is very unique and lends itself to all kinds of adventures and conflicts, à la the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (I noticed Kary is a fan of Tracy, as am I, so I'm not surprised to see his influences here).
I'm looking forward to reading the continuation. My only complaint is that it was short because I would have liked to read more; but that doesn't downgrade my review in any way, since I was warned in the blurb that it was a short story. The only other issues I noted, which is typical for this genre (high fantasy), is that it took me a little while to understand who was "what" in this story, since it's a new realm for me. I also found the names hard to pronounce which slows my reading a bit. These issues are so very minor, they mean nearly nothing to my reading experience. So this book gets a solid 5 stars from me.
Highly recommended for those who like high fantasy.
From the first paragraph to the last, you get swept away in descriptions that are almost poetic, without being long-winded or hoakey. I could actually picture the things she was describing in my mind, with a soundtrack playing and everything - like a movie. That Kary is able to do this in a book is remarkable. Here's an example: "And when the riders' cloaks are woven of midnight and starshine, the tale travels faster than ripples through ripening grain." Have you ever seen rippling grain in the wind? I have! Just recently, in fact. And the image that this description provokes is absolutely perfect. I couldn't think of a better metaphor if I tried. And like I mentioned, they're not long-winded - just long enough to create the image and then back to the action. Perfect.
The characters were well drawn, as well as they could be in a story of this length, I think. The story of a group of people who answer The Call to go out and find those who have a certain gift is very unique and lends itself to all kinds of adventures and conflicts, à la the Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (I noticed Kary is a fan of Tracy, as am I, so I'm not surprised to see his influences here).
I'm looking forward to reading the continuation. My only complaint is that it was short because I would have liked to read more; but that doesn't downgrade my review in any way, since I was warned in the blurb that it was a short story. The only other issues I noted, which is typical for this genre (high fantasy), is that it took me a little while to understand who was "what" in this story, since it's a new realm for me. I also found the names hard to pronounce which slows my reading a bit. These issues are so very minor, they mean nearly nothing to my reading experience. So this book gets a solid 5 stars from me.
Highly recommended for those who like high fantasy.
September 11, 2015
Just finished this delightful tale. It ranks as one of the most well written pieces of prose in the fantasy genre I have read in several years.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews