Review: The Ryel Saga by Carolyn Kephart

Rating: 4.9 out of 5

Verbosity.

Most of the time when I pick up a book and see this in action, I roll my eyes and mutter, “Oh, no.” There are just way too many authors that fall in love with their own words, with their ability to craft clever phrasing. They overdo it and overdo it until you just can’t stand to look at the endlessly droning sequences of words any longer. This is usually the result of a writer who’s trying to emulate “traditional” literature without understand what that is in the first place. I’ve struggled through a few of these types of books, and it never ends well.

However, there is a rare breed of verbosity that stems not from self-indulgence, but the uncanny ability to turn a manuscript into magical, epic poetry. In these instances the words are necessary. They build atmosphere, envelop the mind, and spiral the reader into a world they could’ve never imagined.

That, my friends, is Carolyn Kephart’s The Ryel Saga in a nutshell.

I have to admit that at first I was a little wary of this book. It’s long (twice my usual 120k word count limit), it’s wordy, and the plotline spirals in many different directions, seemingly at once. But what I failed to take into account as I first dove in was that this is the work of an author at the top of her game, a writer who fully understands human emotion, doubt, and yearning, a woman who knows how to build a world and recognizes that there are many, many different types of beauty…even in darkness.

The Ryel Saga is named after its main protagonist, Ryel Mirai, a wysard (aka magician, sorcerer, mage) from the mystical city of Markul. He leaves the city in which he’s been raised since his early teen years (when he was lured from his home in the Steppes by his uncle Edris) when he is offered a vision of his dearly loved mother, stricken with sickness and dying. Being well-trained and powerful in the use of the Arts (the Markulian term for magic), and having been trained to be a healer, Ryel brings it upon himself to save her.

Along the way he discovers that he is being sought by a daemon named Dagar, an old sorcerer of dead magic (I guess you could call him a necromancer) whose soul (or rai, as it’s called in the book) lives on even after his body has been destroyed. It seems Dagar wants Ryel’s body, and he’ll stop at nothing – and stoop as low as he can, making Ryel’s life far beyond miserable – to make that happen.

Ryel has other adventures, as well. He uncovers lost family, finds out information about his beloved uncle Edris that rattles his world and turns him into a man possessed, falls in love, thwarts a revolution, starts a revolution, uncovers the mysteries of his Art and its legacy, suffers an ancient malady, and finally fights in a massive battle to save not just the city of Almancar, but the entire realm, as well.

There. I’ve just compressed seven-hundred pages of plot into three short paragraphs. Of course this isn’t everything there is to it – there are intricacies aplenty woven throughout the story – but if I were to make this an actual recap, the review would be fifty pages long.

And besides that – and though this might be funny to say – the strange thing about The Ryel Saga is that the plot, as complex and well thought out as it is, is almost a secondary aspect of the book. Actually, now that I think about it, it might be third in line.

The first thing that grabbed me about the book was the scenery. I mentioned at the beginning how this reminded me of poetry, and the settings are what made me think of this concept. Each city and realm visited is so vividly described that they come to life in the mind’s eye. But, oddly, there is a lot left to the imagination, as well. This might sound like a contradiction, but it’s not. From the sway of the Steppes grasses to the mists surrounding Markul to the gardens and excesses of Almancar to the filthy, deprived buildings in and around the cursed city of Ormala, most everything is explained…so much so that what is left out feels mystical, such as the feel of the street under foot or the gust of the wind on a character’s face. It’s a strange sensation to have while reading…and a wonderful one.

The second, and most fantastic of all, are the emotional ties that bind the characters, both to each other and themselves. There is love aplenty – between siblings, lovers, old rivals, even enemies. There is hatred, shown the most in disease and the scars that result from a life filled with torment. (Two characters, the brothers Essern, beautifully illustrate this point. Look out for their characters. My two favorites in the entire book, after Ryel, himself.) There is the anguish of loss, and the hope that some how, some way, those lost loves might be returned to you. There is longing, for life, love, and family. There is honor amongst heroes, and none among the religious.

And this, as a matter of fact, might be the most profound aspect of the story. In the world of Destimar, religion is as much a bane on the populace as would be cancer on the human body. Religious leaders use their preaching to motivate, organize, and manipulate their charges. And yet the text does not lose sight of the everyday person’s need for belief. I completely loved and appreciated this facet of author Kephart’s storytelling. She comes across as evenhanded, highlighting the wonders and necessity of faith while at the same time illustrating via her fantasy world the way leaders throughout history have used the peoples’ desire for understanding and salvation to turn one sect against the other, triumphing the longing of the many in order to heighten the gains of the few. She doesn’t form an opinion about this and isn’t preachy; she just presents it as simple fact. Though truth be told this reviewer thinks she tips her hand at the end and lets us know, in the tiniest of ways, how she might actually feel about the subject of spiritualism and conviction. I could be wrong, but that’s the way it seemed to me.

Above all else, The Ryel Saga is the story of faith – faith in one’s self, in one’s principles, in one’s ability to overcome. Ryel is the embodiment of this. He believes in his quest. He may doubt himself at times, but he never truly falters. He knows what he’s capable of and trusts in his Art, his magic, and his capacity to learn. In fact, throughout the whole book he never stops learning. He’s like a giant sponge, an advocate for the quest for knowledge, of the viewpoint that to gain knowledge only leads to the desire for more knowledge, and that in the end, we can never stop, but we’d be damned to a life of slow death if we stopped trying.

In case any reading this review need it spelled out for them, despite my initial misgivings, I fell in love with this book. The Ryel Saga is a poignant, touching, somber, and exhilarating read, all in one. The sentiments are real, the small scenes take priority, and the action sequences are tastefully done. In a lot of ways it’s like going on vacation to the island of St. Thomas. You know it’s ornate, you know it’s a commitment, and yet once you get there you can’t help but sit back and enjoy the experience. Reading this book is just like that – like sitting in the sun, letting the emotion of the moment grab you, and allowing it to take you where it may. To run your eyes over each word is a grand event by every definition of the word grand. Let it capture you, let it overwhelm you. Once you reach the end, you’ll understand that you’ve undergone something rare, something beautiful, something you might only see two or three times in your life.

At least this reviewer did. And it’s definitely an experience I’ll never forget.

(Final note to say I docked a single point from the execution grade because of some minor formatting errors, aka a few missing quotes and some character name confusion. These weren’t major issues, however, so the damage is minimal. Definitely does not take away from the enjoyment of the story. Obviously.)

Plot - 10

Characters - 10

Voice - 10

Execution - 9

Personal Enjoyment – 10

Overall – 4.9/50 (4.9/5)

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Interview with David McAfee

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The following interview with author David McAfee was conducted over the span of 4 days via email. David is the author of five books - 33AD, Saying Goodbye to the Sun, Grubs, The Lake and 17 Other Stories, and A Pound of Flash. You can read more about Mr. McAfee by visiting his website, McAfee Land.

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Journal Of Always: Hello, Mr. McAfee, and welcome to the Journal! I'd like to start off by asking you to expound a bit on your journey into the realm of independent publishing. Was this a decision that came about easily, or were you hesitant? Was there a specific event that directly led to you going this route?

David McAfee: Depends on the timeframe you are asking. It was a difficult decision to start self publishing, but once I did it became an easy decision to keep doing it. I toiled for years trying to land an agent or a publisher with zero success, but with the new ease of ePublishing, I discovered I don’t need either anymore. Not that I wouldn’t accept a contract from a big publisher, mind you, but I’m much happier letting my work roam the internet and bring in readers than I was when the only people who read it were friends and family.

There were a lot of events that added up to make me self publish, but the straw that broke the camel’s back came when Ghostwriter Publications decided they didn’t have to pay me for any of my work, regardless of contract. I don’t want to go into specifics here, because it would take up thirty pages or so, but anyone interested in knowing the whole story can read all about Ghostwriter and my experience with them on my blog, mcafeeland.wordpress.com. After that fiasco, I decided I was better off doing things myself, and so far I’ve been right.

JOA: What advice would you give writers who are considering going this route?

DM: First, make sure you have a quality product. By that I mean, don't slap together a story and say, "This is good enough," and then shove it online. Believe me, if it's a first draft, it ISN'T good enough. Part of the problem is people don't want to wait. They want their work out there earning money and fame and accolades NOW. But if you care at all about the quality of your work, then give your story the patience it deserves. Write it. Then edit it. Then edit it again. Then again. And again. Then send it to beta readers for their opinions. Then revise the book again.

Sound like a lot of work? It is. But work is how you get better. It's how you improve your craft. And it's how you win over readers. If you don't care enough about your book to put in the work, why should readers care enough about it to read it when you release it? So before you go and publish that masterpiece, make sure it's as good as it can possibly be, then edit it again and make it better. :)

JOA: I agree completely. I've heard many a writer complain about the editing process, but it is entirely necessary for the construction of a solid piece of literature.

On that note, there is a stigma in the publishing world that self-published novels are "below standard". What do you think we, as independents, can do to help change that image? Do you see the problem as being one of holding on to old prejudices in this new age of marketing, or are we as authors to blame?

DM: Absolutely. There is definitely a stigma against indie (or self-published) authors in the reading community. I'm not going to win a lot of points for saying this, but it's not entirely undeserved, either. Like I said above, one of the things that people should do before self-publishing is to make sure they are bringing a quality work to the marketplace. LOTS of indies do not do that, or they don't do enough to ensure their work is on par with the work of some of the traditionally published authors. Oh, you hear a lot of arguments like "Well, Dan Brown sucks as a writer and he's huge," or "I find typos in traditionally published books all the time." And both of those may be true (depending on your opinion of Dan Brown - personally I think he's awesome!), but it's NO EXCUSE. And when people delude themselves into thinking that publishing work that has been improperly edited and revised is all right, well, that's where the stigma comes from.

To be fair, there is a LOT of quality indie fiction out there, written by authors who actually want to succeed and who care about what their readers think of their work. But there is also a lot of crap, and the readers are the ones who have to wade through that crap to find the good books. That is there the stigma comes from, and the only way to eliminate it is for more people to take their craft seriously. I'm getting preachy here and I don't mean to, but I could literally spend hours talking about this one topic.

JOA: The way others approach writing intrigues me. What is your process, from inception to final product? Do you outline, or let the story roam free?

DM: I usually start with an idea and go from there. I’ve never outlined anything, preferring to let the story evolve on its own. In that way I’m often surprised by directions the characters take when I write. For example, there is a character in 33 A.D. that turns traitor. That wasn’t planned. I had no idea it was going to happen. I was just writing the scene and when it came to the end the character surprised me by doing something he shouldn’t have done. If I’d been working from an outline, I don’t think that would have occurred. That's the type of thing that makes writing fun to me.

JOA: I've read and reviewed 33AD, and found it to be a fantastic read. (read the review here) The storyline is original, and also, dare I say, a bit brave. To take the story of the crucifixion (or any religious event) and use it as a backdrop for a work of fiction is walking a bit of a metaphysical tightrope. You open yourself up to criticism from both sides of the fence. What was your inspiration for the story? Did you in any way want to say something profound, or just tell an entertaining story?

DM: Thank you. I was thrilled that you enjoyed it.

I read a book back in 2007 called Violent Sands, by Sean Young. Violent Sands takes place in Biblical Jerusalem and follows the activities of Barabbas, about whom little is mentioned. Young's work was so thoroghly researched and so brilliantly well written that it took me back in time to those dusty streets. I could see everything, smell everything, and hear the constant din of Passover in first century Jerusalem.

Of course, I found myself wondering what the vampires of the day might have thought of all the hooplah surrounding the young rabbi from Galilee, and that's how the idea came about. The rough draft took me 5 weeks to write, and two years to fine tune into the book it is today. :)

I really wasn't trying to do anything more than tell a story, but quite a few people have told me they found something of import within the texts of 33 A.D. I'd love to say that is intentional, but it isn't. In my case, I think if there is anything profound to be gleaned from the story it is less a case of masterful authorship and more a case of art imitating life. To put it simply, I'm just not that clever. :)

JOA: The response to 33 AD has been overwhelmingly positive. Many are screaming for a sequel. Is there one in the works?

DM: Yes, there is. I am about 1/3 of the way through the rough draft. I had hoped to have the rough draft completed by now, but my wife and I are expecting our first child. Add those new duties to my 50 hour a week day job and the fact that the Holidays have once again crept up on us with all the stealth of a panther, and you can see how much time gets eaten up with non writing things. However, I AM working on it, and I hope to have it out to my readers no later than this spring.

JOA: You have four other books - Saying Goodbye to the Sun, Grubs, The Lake and 17 Other Stories, and A Pound of Flash. Please tell us a little about each and why we should care about them.

DM: Saying Goodbye to the Sun will always be my baby. 33 A.D. gets all the attention and all the reviews, and it is a fine book, but SGTTS was my first novel. That will always have a special place in my heart. I started writing it in 1997, when I was in a very dark place in my personal life, and it became a type of therapy. I did everything I could in that book to break the main character, Vincent, and twist him into my vision of what a vampire should be. I think I did a pretty good job.

GRUBS was written as a short pulpy horror piece for my former publisher, who requested just that sort of work. I'd never done anything like it before, and I wasn't sure that I could. But once I got the ball rolling, it was a lot of fun. I mean, come on...mind-bending grubs that turn the dead into walking servants and the living into slaves? Guts and gore splattered on almost every page with a bizarre love triangle and a sick, twisted pervert thrown into the mix? Who could resist? GRUBS is a fun, quick read that doesn't try to be anything more than entertainment. If you're looking for deeper meaning, you might wanna look somewhere else. But if you're looking to get lost in the woods of northern Maine and be chased by nightmares that only a very unstable mind could create, then GRUBS is for you. I can't give any better endorsement than this: Amanda Hocking liked it. A lot. 'Nuff said. :)

The Lake and 17 Other Stories, as well as its follow up A Pound Of Flash, are short collections of horror fiction that I put out for 99 cents as kind of an intro to my work. Some of the stories are sick and twisted, some are gory, some are funny, and some are just plain odd, but all of them are fun. As a bonus, each features guest stories by some of my indie friends like David Dalglish , Daniel Arenson and Mike Crane. Good stuff in there, and definitely worth the price of admission. One last note on these is they contain quite a few pieces of microfiction. These are horror stories that are told in exactly 100 words – not 99, not 101, but 100, including the title. I can't begin to tell you what a challenge it is to compose a complete story in only 100 words, but it's brutal. Word choice is everything! They were so much fun to write that I'm thinking of doing a third collection, just because I enjoy them. I also enjoy showing off just how warped my mind can get.

JOA: You say your mind's warped, eh? What's the craziest idea you've ever had for a story - and was it ever written?

DM: Heh. I've had some pretty off the wall stories, and there are plenty that you will never know about. :) The weirdest one that I'll publicly admit to involved a former SS Officer who traveled back in time to assassinate Hitler but didn't make it because he was bitten by a poisonous snake. Turned out the snake was planted by a group of profiteering gun runners who didn't want Hitler killed because they were making too much money off the war. there migh have been a few paranormal elements, like a ghost Captain who tried to warn the officer and possibly even a time traveling vampire Nazi that let the gun runners know what was going on, but I won't say for sure. Told ya it was odd. And nope. I never even bothered to write it down.

JOA: You've made no secret you're a huge Cowboys fan, David. How do you explain the fact they haven't won a playoff game in almost 17 years?

DM: I am a HUGE Dallas Cowboys fan. Even when they are doing poorly I still wear my Cowboys gear every chance I get. I have autographs, figures, pictures, shirts, bags, ticket stubs, helmets, and a million other items of Dallas Cowboy love cluttering my house. My wife says I'm obsessed, but I'm not so sure...

But what team are YOU talking about? It can't be the Dallas Cowboys, who won the Wild Card round of the playoffs just last year by stomping the crap out of the Philadelphia Eagles. 17 years? Try last season, Rob. ;)

JOA: Oh, jeez. My bad. That’s a little embarrassing. I think I'm looking at the world through my Pats-colored glasses and ignoring everything else. That being said, sports opinion time! I loved watching Barry Sanders run the ball. Every handoff was an event. What football player - any team - have you enjoyed watching most over the years?

DM: *sigh* you had to ask. You are going to make me admit a deep, dark secret, Rob. I LOVED watching Emmit Smith play. mostly because he was on the Cowboys, I'll admit. And I really enjoy Tony Romo's game when he's hot, not so much when he's cold. But if I'm being honest, in terms of sheer excitement and how much (grudging) fun it is to watch an individual player, I have to admit that Tom Brady is easily the most exciting player I've ever seen play the game, and that's coming from a Brady hater. I don't like him at all, but Dear God that man can play. Pisses me off.

JOA: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, David. It's much appreciated.

DM: No problem, Rob. Thanks for having me back. It's always a good time.

Review: Powerless: The Shadowing by Jason Letts

Rating: 4.1 out of 5

“Heroic? The only heroes are the people who happen to get it right when everyone is watching.”

When we talk about heroism, about doing the right thing, are we doing so because it’s honorable or simply to be rewarded for doing something we think to be so? What does it mean when we look inside ourselves and find out we really don’t know who we are, that those we trust are less than trustworthy, that those efforts to gain acceptance through the previously mentioned gallant acts are meaningless? Do we let the pain and suffering define us, or do we rise up against the torrent of doubt and push to define ourselves rather than allow the situations we’ve found ourselves in to define us? And which way is the correct one?

These are some of the core questions asked in “The Shadowing”, the second book of the “Powerless” series by Jason Letts. It is the tale of Mira, the lone girl with no special abilities in a world where every other person has a superpower of one type or another.

This novel begins where the previous book, “The Synthesis”, left off; with the students, fresh off their confrontation with the baddies who attacked Mira’s house, saying goodbye and ready to head off to become “shadows”, or apprentices, in order to further learn to become experts with their powers. (As a side note, I did have a bit of a problem with this method of beginning the story. I felt there should have been at least a month or so gap between events. The way it's written seems a little rushed. Luckily, however, this awkward tone dissipates quickly and the story picks up steam again.) They disperse, heading off to learn their craft and ready themselves to fight in a war that is their mutual destiny.

It is in these training sequences that this particular novel shines. The teachers are all fresh characters, and to see the way the main protagonists – Mira, Aoi, Vern, and Will – change is accomplished with clever plotting and more than a trace of subtlety. The rancher who guides the hotheaded Aoi, for example, is a man of such calm that at times he seems to be a pillar of stone in a raging windstorm. To see his affect on a girl whose temper and angst had previously ruled her life was to witness the birth of a woman from a little girl. It was achieved with sensitivity and respect for the characters, which for a writer is sometimes very hard to do.

But it is the changes that occur within Mira that are the crux (and heart) of this tale. She heads off to find the only individual she thinks can help her – Flip Widget, the author of the science manuals that have guided her life, whose name is both humorous and, as you glance deeper into his character as the story progresses, deeply prophetic.

She is put through trials she barely survives, given information that rocks the core of her world, and in the end discovers a supposed truth about herself that causes her to question her place in the world – which, as for any of us, always comes down to our place within our own families, because when it comes down to it, our families ARE our worlds.

Seeing the change in Mira as this chapter of a much larger tale reaches its climax is heartbreaking. This was a girl of such innocence and drive, and when the innocence is ripped from her, the remaining ambition is driven in murky and sometimes unforgivable directions. And yet we can understand the thoughts that run through her head, the anger she feels, because each and every one of us has been betrayed at some point in our lives. Each of us has felt the slaughter of our self-definition and the desire to lash out at those who’ve wronged us, even if they aren’t around. And by the last page, as Mira is gazing at the sky, crying and wondering whatever she did to deserve the torment forced upon her, we are right there with her; disbelieving, cynical, and, more than anything, sad.

I have to say, for a second installment in a series, this book goes to some unexpectedly dark places. I appreciated it so much. In that way, it’s a step ahead of its predecessor. However, in other ways it lags behind. A sensation of innocence prevailed over everything in the first book, and the dialogue suited that tone. In this one, however, it becomes a bit stilted at times; robotic, almost like reading one of George Lucas’ “Star Wars” scripts. I assume this was because the writer had a difficult time transitioning them from adolescence to young adulthood. It is an awkward transition, and for this reason I am willing to overlook it. Just as the characters are learning about themselves, author Letts is learning about them at the same time. I have a feeling that come the next installment, this issue will have been worked out, and all will flow smoothly. After all, it was simply something I noticed, not a distraction.

One other thing I feel I must mention is the writing style. Once more, this is a book told in third person omniscient. As I’ve stated over and over again, this can be more than a little distracting and maddening, and those who are sticklers for point of view must be forewarned. Now, being that this is my own brain, I can choose to ignore the things that annoy me if I think the story itself is good enough. On the other hand, as a reviewer I have a responsibility to the reader to point out the flaws, and so I will.

Despite this, however, I still loved the book. It’s a wild romp through the treacherous maze of the teenage mind as adulthood lurks right around the corner. It’s about desiring to choose the right path and being able to forgive yourself if you fail to do so. There is pain, there are fleeting moments of joy, and behind it all there’s the growing portent of an evil that will surely swallow these brave young people whole if they don't rise up to the challenges ahead of them.

In all, it’s a book I enjoyed very, very much. I feel adults will get as much out of it as the YA crowd it's written for. I look forward to the next book, and can’t wait to see whether Mira and her friends can overcome the horrors that await them. I have a feeling that the losses will only mount as the series moves onward. In that way, whoever reads this book should cherish those innocent moments that still exist, because in all probability, they aren’t going to last long.

Yes, this books gets a resounding, “Go and buy it!” from this humble reviewer. So do it already!

Plot - 9

Characters - 9

Voice - 7

Execution - 7

Personal Enjoyment – 9

Overall – 41/50 (4.1/5)

Purchase The Shadowing for the Amazon Kindle