96 pages
Published 2021
Read March 6
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I was today years old when I learned (thanks to a feature in issue 1 of New Edge Sword & Sorcery) that Silvia Moreno-Garcia, one of my favorite authors, wrote a Sword & Sorcery novella. It was also today that I learned the book was already out of print and getting fenced for $120 online. (Such is the life-cycle of anything from Subterranean Press.) Fortuitously, I was able to borrow a copy from someone and get right into it.
The story begins in media res with our protagonist Yalxi wounded after a confrontation with her one-time beloved Xellah. As so often follows, we get some awkward exposition slapped together immediately afterward (one reason I tend to dislike in media res openings). It isn’t until the very end of the first chapter, when we get introduced to a familiar nahual spirit who must be cajoled into aiding Yalxi, that the story finally clicks. That wouldn’t matter as much in a longer work, but a novella this size doesn’t have space to spare before engaging the reader.
Luckily, the pacing gets much better. In fact, it becomes one of the better-paced novellas I’ve read recently.
I adore the flavor of Moreno-Garcia’s setting, and her portrayal of magic as a draining force, demanding blood and youth, is solid. Her prose has clearly improved over the years, but even at this early date it was mostly serviceable. The story is a standard series of quests to obtain items to help Yalxi defeat Xellah and reclaim a sorcerous diamond. Nothing unique, but a solid, fun outing. And absolutely not worth $120.
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