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The Horned Scarab
Arn knows better than to get embroiled with the city's crime lords, but when a monk turns up dead and a panicked old friend fears for his life, Arn has no choice but to set things right. He'll get dragged deep into Ghorad-Gha's underbelly, where the biggest, baddest crime boss reigns, The Horned Scarab.
Ghorad-Gha, once magnificent city of clay and bronze, crumbles. Those prosperous few burden the shoulders of the downtrodden. In a city of forgotten glory, the lawless thrive.
Ghorad-Gha, once magnificent city of clay and bronze, crumbles. Those prosperous few burden the shoulders of the downtrodden. In a city of forgotten glory, the lawless thrive.
95 pages, ebook
Published August 26, 2016
2 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Marchitto
4 books14 followersMatthew Marchitto is a writer with a penchant for creating worlds both bizarre and wondrous. He writes fantasy and science fiction with an action adventure bend. You can read his most recent novella, The Boneman, in Three Stories About Ghosts. Prior to that he self-published two novellas, Moon Breaker and The Horned Scarab.
Matthew lives in Canada, where he spends his days creating new weird worlds, and giving scritches to the goodest pup.
Matthew lives in Canada, where he spends his days creating new weird worlds, and giving scritches to the goodest pup.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 15, 2016
The Horned Scarab caught me off guard at first. For fantasy, the writing style is quite compressed, like modern contemporary fiction with a semi-comic touch that has been edited to within an inch of its life, in a good way. Commonly, fantasy writers fatten their books with world building and scene setting; long explanations about how and why characters, magic, places and events came to exist. The Horned Scarab isn’t pompous fantasy. It’s shameless fun.
I kept waiting for Marchitto to step in and give all the strange names and references context, but I soon realised he wasn’t going to waste my time re-explaining already familiar fantasy tropes. In fact, there are passages where the characters verge on poking fun at things left unexplained. Marchitto chucks you in the deep end because he’s confident you’ll swim if you’re a fantasy fan. We discover the world and its inhabitants alongside our heroes as they unravel the mystery before them, and what emerges is a fast-paced, plot-driven story unencumbered by onerous detail.
Read it if you’re after a refreshingly different adventure to the slab-like tomes you normally see on the fantasy shelves at the library. My thanks to Matthew Marchitto for giving me a copy of The Horned Scarab in exchange for an honest, non-reciprocal review.
I kept waiting for Marchitto to step in and give all the strange names and references context, but I soon realised he wasn’t going to waste my time re-explaining already familiar fantasy tropes. In fact, there are passages where the characters verge on poking fun at things left unexplained. Marchitto chucks you in the deep end because he’s confident you’ll swim if you’re a fantasy fan. We discover the world and its inhabitants alongside our heroes as they unravel the mystery before them, and what emerges is a fast-paced, plot-driven story unencumbered by onerous detail.
Read it if you’re after a refreshingly different adventure to the slab-like tomes you normally see on the fantasy shelves at the library. My thanks to Matthew Marchitto for giving me a copy of The Horned Scarab in exchange for an honest, non-reciprocal review.
October 29, 2016
The Horned Scarab is a short, private-eye mystery set in a fantasy world. The city of Ghorad-Gha kind of reminded me of Venice, but not quite. Arn and Rohqim are investigative privateers tasked with figuring out why a broken off chunk of statue cost their client’s partner his life.
I liked the characters in the story the best, particularly the idea of the sculpted, stone people, Lodee and Rohqim. They’re fascinating. Who shapes them? It’s obvious they can heal, but I’m left curious about just how much stone they are. Anyhow, they’re neat. I also loved Resa. Her plight and her nature are intriguing. There’s some interesting stuff going on in the city, too, with just the right amount of background and world building.
Then again, it took me a while to get into the mystery because I was having trouble keeping everything straight. It seemed to be thought out and well-written, a good cadence to the words and some really fantastic descriptions that just blossom to life, but it wasn’t until almost the end that I realized why I was having trouble keeping up with the actual storyline: the transitions.
First, there are a lot of them. Also, the scenes seem to jump around like lightning. It’s like you blink and you’re now in someone else’s head or several hours have passed or maybe something’s happening at the same time as the scene you just read, both within the chapters and between them, and unfortunately, it isn’t always clear which of these it is. It’s disorienting. I think a few direct words added to the very beginning of each new scene to orient the reader in time, space, and character would go a long way.
So overall, I liked it. It’s a read folks who enjoy fantasy and mystery might enjoy. I’m hoping some of the jumpiness will be sorted in a future edition, but until then, I’d just say read it when you’re fresh so you don’t miss anything. You’ve got to be paying attention.
I received the review copy of this book from the author.
I liked the characters in the story the best, particularly the idea of the sculpted, stone people, Lodee and Rohqim. They’re fascinating. Who shapes them? It’s obvious they can heal, but I’m left curious about just how much stone they are. Anyhow, they’re neat. I also loved Resa. Her plight and her nature are intriguing. There’s some interesting stuff going on in the city, too, with just the right amount of background and world building.
Then again, it took me a while to get into the mystery because I was having trouble keeping everything straight. It seemed to be thought out and well-written, a good cadence to the words and some really fantastic descriptions that just blossom to life, but it wasn’t until almost the end that I realized why I was having trouble keeping up with the actual storyline: the transitions.
First, there are a lot of them. Also, the scenes seem to jump around like lightning. It’s like you blink and you’re now in someone else’s head or several hours have passed or maybe something’s happening at the same time as the scene you just read, both within the chapters and between them, and unfortunately, it isn’t always clear which of these it is. It’s disorienting. I think a few direct words added to the very beginning of each new scene to orient the reader in time, space, and character would go a long way.
So overall, I liked it. It’s a read folks who enjoy fantasy and mystery might enjoy. I’m hoping some of the jumpiness will be sorted in a future edition, but until then, I’d just say read it when you’re fresh so you don’t miss anything. You’ve got to be paying attention.
I received the review copy of this book from the author.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews