The Shackled Scribes

by Lars Teeney, Zhivko Zhelev (Illustrator)

Futharkia is a city built upon the layout of an ancient rune shape, and a foundation of slavery. The Broxanians have been enslaved by the Olgoikhorkian Masters to exploit the Broxanian talent for rune-scribing. In exchange, the rune-scribes are compensated with the sweet, golden liquid, Ichor, that the giant worm-like Olgoikhorkians secrete from their glands. The Ichor also happens to be highly addictive and psychoactive. The system has worked for millennia.

However, the Great Fern Jungle that surrounds Futharkia is dying, being bleached white by some unseen force. Coupled with the fact that the simian-like Fern Lice have been hunted to near extinction to provide for Futharkia's ever-increasing demand for food, Futharkia's ecosystem is near collapse. It is amid this setting that Cyesko Limariar, an aging rune-scribe makes one last attempt at greatness to lift himself out of poverty, even if by fraudulent means.

Genres: Fantasy

192 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2016

About the author

Lars Teeney was born in Montana. After going to an art school in San Francisco, and working for years as a freelance designer for the start-up culture, he became burnt out. He abandoned the Bay Area for the Pacific North-west, where he could hike and bike to his heart’s content. He has a keen passion for politics, history, science and art.

Reviews

[Archit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's get the cat out of the bag.

It's one of those books that are described as "queer".

The Shackled Scribes is an excellently written book that transports your mind directly from twenty first century to a fantasy world from where you would not like to come back. An interesting and engaging read it was.

Seeking around for fantasy and want to try a book that stands not as contemporary then I would not hesitate in suggesting this book to you. Writing style and the plot has impressed me immensely.

The blurb builds the story up for you. You take a mug of coffee (in my case an imaginary, because I don't drink coffee) and gear up for weird things to happen to your neurons.

The names are tongue twisters and contrast with the lucid storyline of Lars. The dystopia level is crazy and you should read this book away from your parents. Else be labelled demented by the society.

I am having a hard time naming the primary genre of the book.

All in all, it is worth reading and entertaining. The author has left no aspects where he doesn't astonish you with his creative imagination. It is a fast paced book and grabs your attention attributing to its gruesomeness.

It is a book you would not like to gift to anyone but your friend who gets your level of creepy. *winks*

4-mind-squashing-stars.

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

They were slaves to their conquerors, slaves to their addictions, but they were also gifted rune scribes and their talents were as treasured as the Ichor they received as a reward. It has been this way for centuries, and would continue far into the future, or so the Masters thought. Around the city the Great Fern Jungle was dying, many of its creatures being hunted to extinction. Is there a rune with the power to save the eco-system or have these beings only repeated the mistakes of others?

Always expect the unique, unusual and fascinatingly different from Lars Teeny and you will never be disappointed as he takes us to the city of Futharkia as they are about to meet their greatest peril. The Shackled Scribes is a journey to a land of unusual creatures, where feathers and beaks replace hair and mouths and the names are tongue twisters in themselves. If you’re like me, I don’t let the names distract me from the tale, I kind of hum through them, no offense Mr. Teeny!
Be prepared to exercise your imagination and remember to cut the cords of reality completely as Lars Teeny takes you through his twisted tale of fantasy that even makes a statement on a couple of contemporary topics, either that or I took my own fantasy trip without the Ichor!

I received this copy from Lars Teeney in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Publisher: Xcism Press; 1 edition (September 20, 2016)
Publication Date: September 20, 2016
Genre: Fantasy
Print Length: 194 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews & More: http://tometender.blogspot.com

[Liis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book broke my mind from the very first page. It was one of those situations where you don’t want to look but you still look?!

While the blurb told me there was going to be some hard to pronounce names, it didn’t mention the things I would visualise as Lars Teeney was feeding me descriptions on the pages of the book. It was all just bloody weird. And I love weird. World needs a whole lot more weird.

Characters: The rune scribes are bird-ish? They have feathers anyway. There are Imps and Fern Lice (who are being hunted and turned into canned food) and then there are the worms. The wobbly, double-chinned, ambitious worms from wormholes. So, the scribes and imps are totally addicted to Ichor which comes out of the worms’ teats but the Ichor only flows freely when the rune scribes provide worms runes full of power. Just… trippy!

Plot: Yeah, there’s a storyline there. The current situation, the revelation of “maybe nothing is quite as it should be in this world” and then the future… I wish I could tell you more, but I can’t form a coherent thought after finishing this book. I don’t know what just bloody happened.

Writing: No complaints by me. It was readable, even though I wanted to stop and hide the book away somewhere under the floorboards of an old shed, but something kept me reading. The weirdness…

I don’t think I fully understand the what could be seen as sheer brilliance of the absurd and fantastical world the author has created. Sure, I like the idea of wormholes, I do… and I can fully appreciate a novel which can blow my mind by breaking down the barriers of reality but I felt like a virgin at a Satanic ritual.

My rating? I’m going to give it a solid 3 stars. The novel had structure. I have no idea if there were any plotholes because darn it if I could understand what was happening half of the time but I just couldn’t “look away”…

*I received a copy of the book directly from the author for an honest review. The Shackled Scribes is will be released on the 20th of September*

[Galit Balli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lars did an excellent job writing this book. It is a wonderful fantasy world that you wish you would live there, even with all its weirdness. My main genre of reading is Fantasy so I was thrilled when Lars gave me an ebook of The Shackled Scribe.

Both the writing style and the plot itself was written with great thought, and I truly enjoyed myself every minute of reading this book. Even before you read the story you see the gorgeous cover that lures you in, the blurb is written in such an enticing way that builds up the story and sucks you inside. From the very first page, I knew I would love this book and I did.

This fantasy world takes place in a world that is powered by runes. The storyline Lars built here is amazing. It's a Fantasy world mixed beautifully with dystopian elements in it, all together weaving a dark and weird place, that lets your mind run free with his great images. Every once in awhile, I called out loud "Wow" and "No way", I loved it.

The characters were built so realistically and they did a great work with moving me through the pages. Lars built solid characters, even though the naming of some was a bit too hard to pronounce, but they were still fun to follow.

Cyesko is such a unique character and all he wants is to be a well known and honored rune scribe. we follow his addiction to this golden drink he received as payment for his work.

Tialina is a very gifted and strong rune scribe. Together they are stronger and they make a very powerful rune, that soon enough brings a lot of trouble with it.

I think the characters in this book are so strong and smart that they change the entire world around them. These characters really move the plot forward and make the world they live in, even more, real to the reader.

Lars did a magnificent job in weaving this world and the characters in it, to make it a very fast paced read and an addictive story, that you will never forget (trust me).

I loved the use of dystopian elements in this world, it made the story a better read and making the story flow smoother and faster. Before you know it, the story has ended. This is a fantasy with everything it, but with a dystopian twist to it. There are creatures like imps, bird-like people, worms and more. Making the adventure you take even better and more weird/exciting.

Overall, I think the story is a must to read. The ideas, the images and the creativity all makes the book a perfect weird read. This is a unique fantasy world with even more unique characters and I can't wait to see more adventures in this world. My only wish was that this book would be longer ;))

The author gave me a free ebook of his Fantasy book, for a free and honest review. If you want to give this book a read, it's free on Amazon (right now), so hurry up and grab it while you can.

As always, thank you so much for reading <3
Read more on Coffeennotes

[K.T. Munson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Characters
I am going to start by saying some of the names in here were freakishly long (just look at the summary) and I had to glaze over them throughout the book. Eventually most of them got nicknames. Cyesko is supposed to be an unredeemable character, so he stayed true to form throughout the book. I probably wouldn’t have enjoyed this as much if it wasn’t for Tialina. Her character really saved the book for me. Plus the Olgos (my nickname for Olgoikhorkians) were pretty unique and they were vividly portrayed to the point of disgust - but they were exactly like masters lording over slaves. It was really well done.
Plot
Interesting premise that went a little haywire from time to time. The one thing I really liked about this book was the idea that the conquerors get to write history and thus the history books. This was a central theme to the book. Other awesome themes too, like people being slaves to their addictions and the space travel through wormholes. There is storyline there, throughout the book, but it is just plain weird. Also the author doesn’t try to explain all the time what is going on or why…nor does he explain everything that happened (Cyesko’s dream).
Overall
I had a really rough start with this book. The copy I received had a section from another chapter accidently inserted into the first page of the first chapter. I was completely lost as to what was happening because of this mishap. It took quite a while for me to get a rhythm going after that happened. The writing was decent but more than once I wasn’t sure what was happening or what everything looked like. I have a robust imagination but even I had to go back sometimes and reread to see what I had missed. The Imps are eventually really clearly described and once you get it, it was awesome. That being said about half way through I couldn’t put the book down. I wanted to know the ending! It had mind blowing moments that made the book seem so real…just not all the time; so pretty brilliant world-building over all. Also, as a warning, the ending is a bit anti-climactic.
Rating
3 stars
I liked most of it, despite its weirdness, but the ending really wasn’t satisfactory (for many reasons). So in the end it was just okay. If you like weird fantasy novels where the main characters are aliens - this book is so for you!!
I received a copy from the author in exchange of an honest review. More reviews at creatingworldswithwords.wordpress.com.

[Mike Siedschlag · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Lars Teeney gave me an e-copy of The Shackled Scribes for review.

Having read and enjoyed two other books by Lars Teeney (both Apostates books), I was quite surprised by The Shackled Scribes. It was not the Lars Teeney I was expecting; talk about changing up your style-Whew!

The Shackled Scribes is at once, serious fantasy and demented dystopia. It rates a 12 on the 10 point "EWWW!" scale. It is a tale of slaves, masters, and how symbiotic this arrangement can be.

The Shackled Scribes does not spend much time moralizing on the rightness or wrongness of the slave/master situation, or the addiction used to keep the slaves willingly subjugated (therein lies the EWWW factor). It is what it is for the most part.

In an interesting twist, the heroine of the story (at least in my mind) does not get all that much print. She has a major impact on the story line but does not spend that much time as the focus of the book. Different, but I found it a great way to tell her story.

The society is as dystopic as they come, but very few of the participants have any real problem with that. This is another departure from the main stream of the genre. Usually there is a large segment of the society that has been marginalized/oppressed/victimized and are active in their opposition to the ruling class. Not so here.

The Shackled Scribes by Lars Teeney shows what a talented writer (though fans of The Apostates already know this) our author is: to write something so totally different from his usual work. If I wore one, my hat would be off to him.

Little sex, some violence (not particularly graphic), lots of story, mega ewww. The Shackled Scribes is truly unlike any other book I have read, and I read a lot. If you can handle being grossed out a bit, I think you will agree with me. Enjoy!

Mike

[N.N. Heaven · Rating 3 out of 5]

A craftily created reality of four kinds of creatures living an inter-related existence. My first thought was that is just like Avatar. I strongly feel that every person who ever saw that movie needs to buy and read this book. It will captivate the Avatar fan to the max! Very highly recommended to that kind of fantasy fan.



The book didn’t work for me personally for a number of reasons. The biggest flaw, in my view, were the transitions from chapter to chapter. I was left lost nearly every time…flipping back to the end of the last chapter to see if I had missed a page. That got very frustrating by the 15th chapter. The final section was a bit hurried in presentation and a lot of the story that needed to be told was simply summed up in a paragraph or two.



The time spent in detailing the historic battle of Broxys and Ferns vs. Imps and Worms could have been shortened to allow for more space in the last part. I really feel the end needed more development and better explanations to fulfill the readers’ needs.



My Rating: 3 stars



This review first appeared: https://princessofthelight.wordpress....

[Margaret Chadwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to thank the author, Lars Teeney, for generously sending me a copy of this book. This was a truly interesting read that managed to grip my attention right off the bat. I finished this book really quickly as I found that it was impossible to stop reading. When I read the synopsis I became excited to receive this book as it sounding thrilling; this book did not disappoint me at all and neither did it dull the excitement I felt for this book. I would recommend this book to any reader who enjoys Science Fiction novels. This book will be staying on my shelves forever and a day. After reading this book, I am certain that I will be buying more books by Lars Teeney.

[Ashley Tomlinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was very interesting. It had some scenes that were hard to read for me but I also couldn't not read them. Lars Teeney has a way with describing his odd scenes that made me visualize it perfectly and cringe at what I was seeing. I like weird but this book was way, way out there and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. There are a lot of unusual creatures like these weird bird things and imps. I liked that it wasn't the usual characters because who wants to read about humans all the time.

I kind of liked the storyline and loved the whole wormhole thing. All in all, this was a crazy fun and disturbing book wrapped up in fern lice paper.

[Carol Bosselman · Rating 3 out of 5]

As bizarre as it started, ended up being a good story. However, I rated it lower because of the amount of mispellings and typos. Pus is referred to several times, and mispelled as "puss" every single time, which gets tiresome, but there are a lot more. Serious editing needed.

[Rachel Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Free copy for an honest review.

This ain't a book for everyone. The description doesn't quite do justice to the scenes where the Ichor is harvested or given, nor the Broxanian reaction to said Ichor. It's not quite graphic, but the imagery is there. If you were grossed out by the episode of Futurama with the Slurm factory, you won't like this.

That being said, this was an, overall, entertaining read. It was certainly fast paced and the world piqued my interest enough that I wish there had been more information. I'd love to actually see some of the rune designs that the main characters, Tialina and Cyesko, come up with. For all the "ick" factor that parts of the book contains, there are also some pretty scenes. The natural beauty of the Fern Lice village, Tialina's feathers and the runes. That cover image does not do the descriptions justice.

Because the story is so fast-paced, I'm glad it only focuses on three characters, Tialina, Cyesko and Chingus; the good, the bad and the ugly. Despite their differences, each of their stories is about their personal quest to rise among the ranks. Of course, this doesn't mean that you'll like them or be willing to justify their actions, but it's an interesting parallel, nonetheless.

I do recommend that Teeney go through the book again with a proofreader's eye. There were some notable errors that kept pushing me out of the story.

Other than that, this was an enjoyable read. Not entirely my cup of tea, but definitely entertaining.

[Dhwani Swadia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read full review here: https://thereandtheir.com/2016/12/20/...
It had been quite a while that I had read a book of this genre, so it was a refreshing change.

Even though the Shackled Scribblers is based in a completely different world, it does not take much time to get in the groove. The narration is such that you immediately understand what is going on and start rooting for the characters.

The pace of the book is quite fast, as one thing happens after the other, as readers, we are always on our toes. As the story starts we are introduced to two characters: Tialina, a female bird who is a natural when it comes to making runes and Cyesko, an old bird who has spent years perfecting the art of rune making in exchange for half a bottle of the golden liquid, Ichor.

[James (ObservantRaven) · Rating 3 out of 5]

review coming soon