2018;
102 pages. Book 3 of “The Chronicles of Willow Grey” trilogy. New Author? : No. Genre : Young Adult Dark Fantasy Adventure
(per the author and sounds good to me); Coming of Age. Overall Rating : 9*/10.
The Voyage of the
Pale Ship is over; young Willow Grey has returned to Tirlane! Or what’s left of it, after the evil Lamia
and her unstoppable minions have devastated the fair land, killing anything and
every living thing they can find. Vibrant, green
plant life has been reduced to brown-black dead fields, and the corpses of
animals, large and small, lie strewn everywhere.
A
few creatures remain alive: mostly those that are fleet of foot and have found
handy places to hide from the marauding predators. Willow hopes to come across some of these, to aid
her in her quest, since her beloved mentor, guide, and most of all, friend in
this strange world, Henu the Wealdsman, did not make it to the end of the voyage on
the Pale Ship. Now Willow must face her
Fate alone.
Alas, only Doom lies ahead for her. The Lamia
is many times more powerful than Willow, and commands legions of
fearsome and merciless beasts to do her evil bidding without question. Yet it is Willow’s lot to face the Lamia in a
battle to the death.
It’s a struggle that Willow cannot win, and the outcome can only be her
death. Yet the puzzling words uttered by
both Henu and the wise old healer Starababa keep echoing in Willow’s mind.
“Your time with us is nearly over. Remember, it is not death if you accept it.”
What’s To Like...
All Things True is the final episode in the
trilogy The Chronicles of Willow
Grey. The author labels it a “Young
Adult Dark Fantasy Adventure”, and that seems apt to me. The tension has been building for two books
now, and it is time to face the Lamia.
The
storytelling style is the same as in the other two books: there are lots of critters to meet and greet (most of which
are deadly), lots of places to visit, zero slow spots, and lots of
magical objects to ooh-&-aah over, including the thule which every creature good and evil covets.
The amazing thing is that Greg James packs all of this, including the final
showdown, into 102 pages, which my Kindle says I should be able to read in just
slightly more than one hour. That makes
it a novella, but don’t think of it as a quick read for a book report that’s
due tomorrow – this is not a standalone novel, and there isn’t much of a
backstory supplied, so you'd have to read the whole trilogy. Indeed, since the
other two books in the series are each less than 200 pages in length, this series screams to be marketed as a bundle.
There
aren’t a lot of characters to keep track of, and since there’s a
war-to-the-death going on, the mortality rate is somewhat steep. Willow finds a couple new companions to aid
her in her quest, and the lessons she’s learned during her voyage with Henu have
turned her into a formidable mage, at least when confronted with beasts other than the Lamia.
The book is written in English, not American, which I always enjoy. So things are meagre, feathers may be moulted, and you might apologise for your lack of armour. The 102 pages are divided into 17 chapters,
and a beautiful poem that serves as the Epilogue. This is a YA book; I recall only a single cussword: at one point an evil critter calls Willow a “bitchling”.
There are some neat extras at the back,
including a map of Tirlane and a glossary, which comes in quite handy, even for
those of us who have read the earlier books.
The Table of Contents is also there, and I can't for the life of me figure out why that wasn’t at the front of the book.
Excerpts...
“She’s still here
then?”
“She will be
until the last trace of life has left Tirlane,” Nastonik said, “which could be
any day now. The Behemoths will not rest
until they have consumed everything that draws breath.”
“D’you think she
can help us stop them?”
“Stop them? My, my, you are either ambitious, or very
stupid,” Nastonik said.
“You don’t have
to be rude.”
“I am merely
blunt. A Beorhan says what a Beorhan
sees.” (loc. 535)
“I’m surrounded
by nothing but death. Viril and
Nastonik, I fear I will lose them too.”
“Then, you must
lose that fear and let it go. Fear is a
part of life but if we live according to it, that is no life at all. It is said our time is like a narrow sliver
of light, much like this candle’s flame, caught between two kinds of greater
darkness; the time before we are born and the time after we are gone. All we have is this and so often we spend it
unwisely.” (loc. 569)
Kindle Details...
All
Things True currently sells for $2.99 at Amazon, the same price as
the other two books in the series, The Door of
Dreams and The Voyage of the Pale Ship. Greg James has a slew of other novels,
novellas, and novelettes available, all of them in the $0.99 - $2.99 range.
“Were you thinking bringing
home a two-legged stray would be enough of a good deed to make the rain turn to
vittles?” (loc
113)
Ah
yes, what to say about the ending without lapsing into spoilers?
It
is a satisfying conclusion to everything that’s been building for three books
now. It contains a twist that I can only
describe as stunning, yet is, in retrospect, quite logical. It is powerful and poignant; at the same
time both positive and dark. Chapters 16 and
17, plus the Epilogue poem, left a lump in my throat even as they reconciled
all the strange things that have been happening since the first page of Book
One.
Okay. I’m done gushing now. You can read the reviews of the first two books in the series here and here.
9 Stars. I'm guessing, but I get the feeling that The Chronicles of Willow Grey is a Labor of Love by the author,
possibly for one Natalie Kaleva, to whom this book is dedicated. All Things True
particularly resonated with me, as I have recently experienced a similar situation in my
life.
Then again, it all could be just a storyline that Greg James dreamed up, and
he’s simply that skilled of a writer.
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