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The First Corridor
Exiled to his home village because of forbidden love, Stian, a soldier serving the High Lord of Bel Arus, finds his world changing in fundamental ways. In the forest primeval beings stalk amongst the trees, while normally solitary creatures begin gathering in the gloom. And a mysterious woman appears, whose connection to him runs deep into his soul. Betrayed by the ones he once served and beset by foes all around, will Stian discover who he can trust, and who his true enemy is? Andrew Huck has been writing and telling stories ever since he was a small child. In his free time, he enjoys reading, painting, and drawing, though his true passion is the creation of epic tales that sweep the reader away into fantastical worlds where they can escape from the rigors of the natural world for a time, hopefully catching a glimpse of something greater that all can aspire toward.
- GenresFantasy
410 pages, Paperback
Published August 29, 2022
2 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 21, 2023
Stian arrives home having been away for a number of years. There appears to be some mystery as to why he’s returned (we get told later in the story) and he’s quickly put to work as a guard for his old colleague, Ailward.
Very quickly some strange things happen and we’re left to wonder what is going on. There is a lot of repetition in the first third of the book which gets a little tiring and we see Stian jailed for apparently abducting the daughter of Lord Buck from Bel Arus. This leads to a chain of events that moves the story forward.
However, we never find out what Stian’s purpose is. Yes, he’s returned home, and he desires to reconnect with his forbidden love from Bel Arus. For the first half of the novel, he escapes jail with Ullah, they get chased by a host of creatures and humans through thick forest that we spend an a lot of time in. The author writes quite passively and so Stian is constantly wondering what he should be doing, where he should be heading, and it gets a little tiresome.
Well done to the author for writing a 400-page story. The story probably would have worked better as a 250-page one with a clearly defined goal for Stian. The author has a good imagination with creating some strange and unusual creatures but as the title of my review states, I finished the story with no real idea as to what it was about. And this goes back very simply to a poorly defined hero’s character arc. In addition, the flow on to this is that Stian isn’t a very good hero because we don’t know what he’s trying to achieve and so we can’t root for him on his quest. I liked Ullah and thought for a lot of time she should be the story’s hero as she is more intentional in most of her actions and demonstrates more heroic qualities.
The outcomes of action scenes at times appeared a little unrealistic. Either, Stian and Ullah survived battles with the dangerous and vicious creatures or were outnumbered by soldiers. Good soldiers and deadly huge creatures would account for Stian and Ullah if they were all the author created them to be. Yes, there were occasions Stian was transported to another place which saved him but this again wasn’t well explained nor fully believable as it was a little too convenient when used as Stian didn’t know anything about what this mysterious gift was. This added to my thoughts that the story was being over managed by the author rather than allowing his characters to tell their story and let them take the reader on a journey.
By all accounts, this is the first in the “Wanderers Saga” and yes, Stian is a wanderer which kinda sums up the story well: there’s too much aimless wandering and insufficient intentional activity from Stian.
Very quickly some strange things happen and we’re left to wonder what is going on. There is a lot of repetition in the first third of the book which gets a little tiring and we see Stian jailed for apparently abducting the daughter of Lord Buck from Bel Arus. This leads to a chain of events that moves the story forward.
However, we never find out what Stian’s purpose is. Yes, he’s returned home, and he desires to reconnect with his forbidden love from Bel Arus. For the first half of the novel, he escapes jail with Ullah, they get chased by a host of creatures and humans through thick forest that we spend an a lot of time in. The author writes quite passively and so Stian is constantly wondering what he should be doing, where he should be heading, and it gets a little tiresome.
Well done to the author for writing a 400-page story. The story probably would have worked better as a 250-page one with a clearly defined goal for Stian. The author has a good imagination with creating some strange and unusual creatures but as the title of my review states, I finished the story with no real idea as to what it was about. And this goes back very simply to a poorly defined hero’s character arc. In addition, the flow on to this is that Stian isn’t a very good hero because we don’t know what he’s trying to achieve and so we can’t root for him on his quest. I liked Ullah and thought for a lot of time she should be the story’s hero as she is more intentional in most of her actions and demonstrates more heroic qualities.
The outcomes of action scenes at times appeared a little unrealistic. Either, Stian and Ullah survived battles with the dangerous and vicious creatures or were outnumbered by soldiers. Good soldiers and deadly huge creatures would account for Stian and Ullah if they were all the author created them to be. Yes, there were occasions Stian was transported to another place which saved him but this again wasn’t well explained nor fully believable as it was a little too convenient when used as Stian didn’t know anything about what this mysterious gift was. This added to my thoughts that the story was being over managed by the author rather than allowing his characters to tell their story and let them take the reader on a journey.
By all accounts, this is the first in the “Wanderers Saga” and yes, Stian is a wanderer which kinda sums up the story well: there’s too much aimless wandering and insufficient intentional activity from Stian.
January 30, 2023
A great first stab at high fantasy by an aspiring young author. Can’t wait to see what comes next!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews