Book Review: Unscarred by R.M. Hamilton

Unscarred
By R.M. Hamilton

Aventine Press
1023 4th Ave #204
San Diego, CA 92101
http://www.aventinepress.com/

239 pages

ISBN: 1-59330-401-3
$15.50 Paperback

Following the brutal overthrow of King Jonathan, the Land of Eir is thrust under the thumb of Maurader and the army of the Eternal Flame. Unscarred really begins when Kyle is forced by Maurader to accomplish a task that only he can undertake. Throughout the journey, young Kyle learns far more than he bargained for and is forced into manhood through torture, conflict, revelations of his heritage, his desire to become whole again, and his growing need to rescue his homeland from the megalomaniacal Maurader. R. M. Hamilton gives readers a coming of age story of magic, conflict, and triumph.

This first novel is a valiant effort to pull together all of the tropes of the fantasy genre, but falls short in a number of areas. The narrative is told in the offsetting and untraditional first person present tense—a distraction that often makes the story itself inaccessible. While the core of the plot is unquestionably Hamilton’s, the ancillary characters, plotlines, and set ups are instantly recognizable for any seasoned fantasy reader as archetypal and predictable.

Navigating the world of self publishing can be difficult and fraught with issues that traditional brick and mortar publishing corrects, particularly when dealing with fantasy. Unscarred would have benefited from a good editor and copyeditor. In the more engaging portions of the story, typos and grammatical issues pull readers out of the story and onto the physical page to figure out corrections. In places the dialogue is frustratingly modern and conflicts with the setting and genre, while other places take the dialogue too far into the melodramatic excess that fantasy can easily become. In the end, Unscarred reads like a tabletop game transcribed—an excellent concept that requires more fine tuning.

Unscarred does, however, illustrate the imagination, dedication and understanding of the genre that R.M. Hamilton possesses. Based on the tone of Unscarred, I would be surprised if Hamilton doesn’t eventually find a successful following in the Young Adult section with his future works. With his first novel completed, I look forward to seeing where his writing turns from here.

Review by Dawn Papuga

Book Review: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders by Neil Gaiman

As with most things in the Gaiman-verse, you never know what to expect. Certainly there are shared elements of fantasy, horror, myth and legend, but in every work he produces, Gaiman manages to twist and mold these elements in entrancing ways. This collection of "short stories and wonders" blends short stores, poetry, and ballads to great effect.

"The Fairy Reel" is a haunting poem about the dangers of music and magic, and how a fairy's priorities are not to please you. Beautifully written, and not necessarily expected. Another poetic work, "Inventing Aladdin" recounts the anxiety that Scheherazade experiences night after night.

Gaiman's short stories comprise the bulk of the book and have themes as varied as his characters. "The Problem of Susan" is a reaction to the Narnia tales and the frustrating notion of Susan returning. The story approaches the problem (as many children and adults see it) from the opposite direction--not from Narnia, but from the workaday world years after the experience, while "The Sunbird" is a retelling of the Phoenix legend that places the rare mythological bird at the center of a hunt by a group of epicurians who are not prepared for what their least impressive member cooks up for them. Closing the book is a novella, "Monarch of the Glen," featuring Shadow, the bodyguard from American Gods, two years following the events in the novel. For American Gods fans, this story alone is reason enough to pick up the collection.

All in all the collection is varied, enjoyable, and well written. Touching on as many corners of the mythological universe as we can imagine, every Gaiman book is a treasure trove of allusions, retellings, and extensions of ideas and concepts most readers only wonder about. The style is markedly different from his graphic novels, and offers a glimpse into Gaiman's range. Through all of the incarnations of his writing--children's books, graphic novels, comics, screenplays, novels and short stories--the same underlying themes are present, only told through various different voices. Even if his other forms of writing don't move the reader, it is certainly worth investigating Gaiman's other styles. A nice feature of the book is the collection of brief biographies of each piece in the collection. Sometimes they offer insight into the story itself, other times they make the reading that much more interesting because the nativity of the work is hovering around while you're reading. All in all, a wonderful collection of stories.