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This Dark Magic
Charlie Landers is a reporter for the Capital City Gazette when his hometown turns deadly. It begins with a blackout, and escalates to a crime rate so high that it’s a miracle that anybody has lived to tell about it. Finally, he must do something when not only his life but the life of a loved one is threatened. In this quirky dark fantasy story, Charlie Landers must navigate a dangerous world of black magic in order to save his little corner of the universe. Somewhat silly and crap-your-pants scary in places.
This Dark Magic is approximately 9,840 words. That runs about four or five somewhat long chapters when comparing it to most modern novels.
This Dark Magic is approximately 9,840 words. That runs about four or five somewhat long chapters when comparing it to most modern novels.
32 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 11, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 13, 2011
*I received this e-book from the author for review*
I went into this book with a bit of an acknowledged prejudice against independently published authors. My previous experience had not been good. Initially I wasn’t going to review This Dark Magic, but I thought I’d give this book a chance to change my mind.
First thing I noticed about This Dark Magic was that it had been edited well. Now you may think all books would be thoughourly edited, but my experience with IM’s says otherwise. So straight away I started to be less cynical about this book.
The first problem with the book that I encountered, was the metaphors and similes used in This Dark Magic to describe situations e.g. “The skyscraper resembelled a rectangular soup can, not brooding and cool but ugly and barely functional”. While I think I got the general idea of what Wymer was portraying with this metaphor i.e. that a soup can in the form of a rectangualr prism would be not as functional as a round one etc., I think a general description of the scene would have given more insight into what I should be imagining. A metaphor could have been used to highlight the description.
In addition, I think more description would have also helped with the pacing of the story. For such a short book, the pace of the story felt surprisingly slow. There were times when the book jumped from one description, to another, without explaining what happened in-between or making appropriate transitions. For example, the story went from describing the skyscraper, directly to this quote: “Fifth floor. The elevators were down so I took the stairs two at a time, wheezing by the time I hit the third floor.” The problem: what happened between being outside in the car and climbing up the stairs? The change seemed noticeable and I was momentarily confused. Likely because there was no real reason to end and begin at those places in the story.
The writing was a little stilted. In the same manner as the scenes jumped, a lot of small sentences were used to quickly jump through the story and while this is perfectly fine grammatically, I found that reading the story was a little impersonal. I found it hard to relate to the characters and easily follow what was happening. However, while the story didn’t always flow smoothly, the short sentences did create an appropriate atmosphere. The short sentences heightened the feeling of desolation within the fractured city and from the city residents (including Charles). I wouldn’t like to read a full length novel written in a similar manner, but for a short story it was distinctive.
So, what did I enjoy about the book? The idea about a city, which had a massive rise in killings and crime, was good; and the main storyline about a journalist who was looking into a story when he was cursed with dark magic was also promising. I also enjoyed the way the sentences were composed, in an English skill sense. It was evident that the author has a talent for writing and will likely improve her storytelling. Alot of the phrases were witty and cleverly composed. In addition, the book got more enjoyable towards the end. It was less confusing with a reduced amount of jumping between scenarios.
In general, for the first book of an Independent author, I think the story was good. For an e- book that only costs $0.99 to buy at Amazon, I would recommend that fans of Urban Fantasy give this book a go. It fills a good market niche for people wanting something to read immediately when they have already maxed out their book budget. I was happily surprised by the quality and I think a lot of other people will be as well. I personally, don’t often read short stories and for people who do enjoy them more than me, it’s likely you will enjoy this book more than I did. If the book was compared to full length novels then areas such as world building and character creation could be further explored. However, these aspects can’t be expected to be explored in more detail, in such a short amount of time.
My rating out of 5:
3/5
I went into this book with a bit of an acknowledged prejudice against independently published authors. My previous experience had not been good. Initially I wasn’t going to review This Dark Magic, but I thought I’d give this book a chance to change my mind.
First thing I noticed about This Dark Magic was that it had been edited well. Now you may think all books would be thoughourly edited, but my experience with IM’s says otherwise. So straight away I started to be less cynical about this book.
The first problem with the book that I encountered, was the metaphors and similes used in This Dark Magic to describe situations e.g. “The skyscraper resembelled a rectangular soup can, not brooding and cool but ugly and barely functional”. While I think I got the general idea of what Wymer was portraying with this metaphor i.e. that a soup can in the form of a rectangualr prism would be not as functional as a round one etc., I think a general description of the scene would have given more insight into what I should be imagining. A metaphor could have been used to highlight the description.
In addition, I think more description would have also helped with the pacing of the story. For such a short book, the pace of the story felt surprisingly slow. There were times when the book jumped from one description, to another, without explaining what happened in-between or making appropriate transitions. For example, the story went from describing the skyscraper, directly to this quote: “Fifth floor. The elevators were down so I took the stairs two at a time, wheezing by the time I hit the third floor.” The problem: what happened between being outside in the car and climbing up the stairs? The change seemed noticeable and I was momentarily confused. Likely because there was no real reason to end and begin at those places in the story.
The writing was a little stilted. In the same manner as the scenes jumped, a lot of small sentences were used to quickly jump through the story and while this is perfectly fine grammatically, I found that reading the story was a little impersonal. I found it hard to relate to the characters and easily follow what was happening. However, while the story didn’t always flow smoothly, the short sentences did create an appropriate atmosphere. The short sentences heightened the feeling of desolation within the fractured city and from the city residents (including Charles). I wouldn’t like to read a full length novel written in a similar manner, but for a short story it was distinctive.
So, what did I enjoy about the book? The idea about a city, which had a massive rise in killings and crime, was good; and the main storyline about a journalist who was looking into a story when he was cursed with dark magic was also promising. I also enjoyed the way the sentences were composed, in an English skill sense. It was evident that the author has a talent for writing and will likely improve her storytelling. Alot of the phrases were witty and cleverly composed. In addition, the book got more enjoyable towards the end. It was less confusing with a reduced amount of jumping between scenarios.
In general, for the first book of an Independent author, I think the story was good. For an e- book that only costs $0.99 to buy at Amazon, I would recommend that fans of Urban Fantasy give this book a go. It fills a good market niche for people wanting something to read immediately when they have already maxed out their book budget. I was happily surprised by the quality and I think a lot of other people will be as well. I personally, don’t often read short stories and for people who do enjoy them more than me, it’s likely you will enjoy this book more than I did. If the book was compared to full length novels then areas such as world building and character creation could be further explored. However, these aspects can’t be expected to be explored in more detail, in such a short amount of time.
My rating out of 5:
3/5
January 30, 2012
"This Dark Magic" by Chryse Wymer is a self published dark fantasy novella set in a city that appears to have fallen on bad times. It basically follows the trials of journalist Charlie Landers as he gets caught up in the machinations of someone using dark magic to control and exploit people for their own gain.
The story is quite quirky as it tries to embrace fantasy, horror and even a little comedy. The setting of the novel was nicely handled with a short and punchy sentence structure that helped make you feel the desolation in the city and its residents. As it is a novella don't expect any deep character development but the protagonist himself was the best part of the novel in my opinion; his wit, and dry humour was enjoyable to read. Then there were the chapter titles, all of them seemed to contain a little bit of humour within that had me smiling as I started each one.
The novella itself seemed to be well edited to me which was nice to see in a self-published book as I have seen some horror shows in the past. The one issue I did have with the writing though was in some of the descriptive techniques used: some aspects of the story would have better served by a straightforward description than by using some rather convoluted metaphors or similes. The best example of that is the following line, “The skyscraper resembled a rectangular soup can, not brooding and cool but ugly and barely functional”. In all honesty I am still not sure what this sentence is even trying to make me picture in my mind.
I also think the shortness of the story did let it down a little bit as it seemed to result in the author quickly jumping from scene to scene which did leave me a little bit confused at times as I tried to follow what had happened. However, this did reduce as the novel progressed and by the last few chapters I felt I could follow the scene changes without any real issue.
Overall, I think this would be a good quick buy for people that enjoy Urban Fantasy and want to try out something new. Personally, I found the wit and dry humour in the story to be enjoyable, and it was just a shame that the short length resulted in a rather jumpy narrative.
The story is quite quirky as it tries to embrace fantasy, horror and even a little comedy. The setting of the novel was nicely handled with a short and punchy sentence structure that helped make you feel the desolation in the city and its residents. As it is a novella don't expect any deep character development but the protagonist himself was the best part of the novel in my opinion; his wit, and dry humour was enjoyable to read. Then there were the chapter titles, all of them seemed to contain a little bit of humour within that had me smiling as I started each one.
The novella itself seemed to be well edited to me which was nice to see in a self-published book as I have seen some horror shows in the past. The one issue I did have with the writing though was in some of the descriptive techniques used: some aspects of the story would have better served by a straightforward description than by using some rather convoluted metaphors or similes. The best example of that is the following line, “The skyscraper resembled a rectangular soup can, not brooding and cool but ugly and barely functional”. In all honesty I am still not sure what this sentence is even trying to make me picture in my mind.
I also think the shortness of the story did let it down a little bit as it seemed to result in the author quickly jumping from scene to scene which did leave me a little bit confused at times as I tried to follow what had happened. However, this did reduce as the novel progressed and by the last few chapters I felt I could follow the scene changes without any real issue.
Overall, I think this would be a good quick buy for people that enjoy Urban Fantasy and want to try out something new. Personally, I found the wit and dry humour in the story to be enjoyable, and it was just a shame that the short length resulted in a rather jumpy narrative.
July 22, 2012
It is the perfect length for a short story, a nice quick read, except do not read it to quick or you will get a bit lost. The writing style is first person narrative, reading in an almost noir-esque fashion, somewhat like a private eye tale. The voice of Charlie Landers, our lead character, is what you would expect from a seasoned journalist in a small town and his internal dialogue a bit hard at times to follow where he is, is funny.
I think my only issue is that this would be a better NOVEL, there are missing spaces of time that are a bit confusing, but because it is a short story, it was put together in such a obviously staggered fashion, you are as much displaced as Charlie is!
The cast of characters is a hoot too, Master aka The Dork of Darkness! The descriptions of his coworkers, the colorful choice of metaphors and as I said noir-esque style of writing. Perhaps more of a parody of noir writing! It is a rumble tumble ride to save himself, despite having to turn to the one thing that does seem to scare him, (because running away from the cops certainly didn't), and that is dark magic! Who will get the switch in the end? Well you are going to have to fork over 99¢ and find out!
(This review is my own honest opinion. Though the book was gifted to me by the author from Amazon, she was providing it for my own enjoyment and there for this review was not solicited. I wanted to host it for my book meme Sunday Shorts. HOWEVER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NEW FTC GUIDELINES I do, in addition to purchasing my own books for review, I also receive books free of charge in exchange for an honest review.)
I think my only issue is that this would be a better NOVEL, there are missing spaces of time that are a bit confusing, but because it is a short story, it was put together in such a obviously staggered fashion, you are as much displaced as Charlie is!
The cast of characters is a hoot too, Master aka The Dork of Darkness! The descriptions of his coworkers, the colorful choice of metaphors and as I said noir-esque style of writing. Perhaps more of a parody of noir writing! It is a rumble tumble ride to save himself, despite having to turn to the one thing that does seem to scare him, (because running away from the cops certainly didn't), and that is dark magic! Who will get the switch in the end? Well you are going to have to fork over 99¢ and find out!
(This review is my own honest opinion. Though the book was gifted to me by the author from Amazon, she was providing it for my own enjoyment and there for this review was not solicited. I wanted to host it for my book meme Sunday Shorts. HOWEVER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE NEW FTC GUIDELINES I do, in addition to purchasing my own books for review, I also receive books free of charge in exchange for an honest review.)
July 22, 2012
t is the perfect length for a short story, a nice quick read, except do not read it to quick or you will get a bit lost. The writing style is first person narrative, and reads in an almost noir-esque fashion, kind of like a private eye tale. The voice of Charlie Landers, our lead character, is what you would expect from a seasoned journalist in a small town.
The cast of characters is a hoot too, Master aka The Dork of Darkness! The descriptions of his coworkers, the colorful choice of metaphors and as I said noir-esque style of writing. Perhaps more of a parody of noir writing! It is a rumble tumble ride to save himself, despite having to turn to the one thing that does seem to scare him, because running away from the cops certainly didn't, an that was dark magic! Who will get the switch in the end? Well you are going to have to fork over 99¢ and find out!
The cast of characters is a hoot too, Master aka The Dork of Darkness! The descriptions of his coworkers, the colorful choice of metaphors and as I said noir-esque style of writing. Perhaps more of a parody of noir writing! It is a rumble tumble ride to save himself, despite having to turn to the one thing that does seem to scare him, because running away from the cops certainly didn't, an that was dark magic! Who will get the switch in the end? Well you are going to have to fork over 99¢ and find out!
October 2, 2010
This novella reads like an unforgettable Poe tale with a Noir feel. There are a number of ultra-creepy moments in The Dark Room that I won't ever be able to shake. This is one of those books that you don't want to put down. Charlie Landers, the main character, is three-dimensional, likeable, and adds humor in all the right places. The tale builds and never makes a predictable turn. Chryse Wymer, an author on the rise, wields her pen with intelligence, style, and a vivid voice, that never talks down to the reader. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I highly recommend.
April 13, 2012
This novella reads like an unforgettable Poe tale with a Noir feel. There are a number of ultra-creepy moments in The Dark Room that I won't ever be able to shake. This is one of those books that you don't want to put down. Charlie Landers, the main character, is three-dimensional, likeable, and adds humor in all the right places. The tale builds and never makes a predictable turn. Chryse Wymer, an author on the rise, wields her pen with intelligence, style, and a vivid voice, that never talks down to the reader. A thoroughly enjoyable read that I highly recommend.
January 21, 2013
I like an abstract story as much as the next person but I couldn't follow this one. I couldn't get a handle of why the events were happening and how one was related to the other. It felt like the story jumped around a lot.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews