Shara and the Haunted Village, by +Jeffrey Getzin
I was recently directed
to this novella via a casual mention of it on Facebook, of all things. I can
honestly say I usually run like the dickens from the deluge of indie books
hawked to me via Facebook, as I’ve had some bad experiences with getting suckered into downloading and attempting to read poorly edited drivel that way. I don't ususally find books through Facebook any more, no matter how "free" they are. Sometimes "free" is still too much to pay, unless I know the author's work.
However, this very short book is written by indie author,
Jeffrey Getzin, whose work I have enjoyed before. The cover art is nothing less
than amazing, and was created by the very talented +Carol Phillips, who also
did the art for Getzin’s wonderful epic fantasy, Prince of Bryonae. Once I saw
the cover and read the blurb, I was hooked.
Two pages into the tale, I was mesmerized. I couldn’t sleep until I had finished the
tale.
The Blurb:
A Desperate Gamble
An ancient mystery, a
legendary wizard, ghosts, magic, a demon … and Shara, an impoverished
seamstress.
Shara has fallen on
hard times recently. She’s starving, has just lost her home, and she can’t find
work anywhere. However, a chance encounter with a sociopathic giant and a
charming rogue might just be her escape from her hand-to-mouth lifestyle. All
she has to do is guide them to the haunted village she had stumbled upon when
she was a child.
But can she trust them?
My Review:
This is a fairytale in
the most classic sense - and it most definitely is NOT a riff on an old theme.
The plot and the heroes combine to make a completely new and original tale, written for the
modern reader. Fairytales take the
listener away to far-off lands, where wondrous, amazing things happen to
ordinary people. That is exactly what happens in this tale. This is a truly
epic fantasy, in the form of a novella.
The initial setting of
the tale, the city of Cerendahl, is a teeming, prosperous city. There, the rich
are rich beyond measure and the poor suffer.
A small, comfortable middle-class exists precariously between the low and the high,
and Shara once belonged in that comfortable stata of society, but overnight she has fallen into the lowest station, with no home, not food and no hope. The reader immediately
feels familiar with this place, seeing the real predicament Shara will be in if she
can’t find work as a seamstress.
Shara is an ordinary
young woman. She’s fallen on hard times, but
she still has her dignity and the precious sewing box that she has earned her
living with since the death of her mother. Shara’s old childhood friend, Gil, reluctantly
introduces her to two men who need a guide to a place she and Gil had stumbled
upon when they were children. She accepts the job even though she is terrified
by the larger of the two men, because she is desperate and also because she has
never had an adventure. The two men, D’Arbignal and Gianelli both interest and
repel her. Gianelli has the charisma of a walking corpse but he holds the purse
strings. D’Arbignal could charm the birds from the trees, and is clearly the
sort of man who talks himself into and out of trouble almost daily.
D’Arbignal is a rogue
and he knows it, introducing himself as an actor, a magician and, among other things, the greatest swordsman in the world.
Gianelli, on the other hand, is a hulking thug with no redeeming qualities and nothing more. Shara
is surprised to find that the intelligent, witty D’Arbignal is not the leader, but is also in the
employ of Gianelli who apparently has an endless supply of gold to compensate
for his singular lack of common courtesy.
Shara has a keen
awareness of her own frailties, seeing herself as unattractive, and naïve. She
is a fine seamstress, telling D'Arbignal at one point that she is the "quickest stitcher in the world." She has all the confidence in the world in her abilities as a seamstress but
outside of her work, Shara is terrified and humbled by the situations she finds
herself in. Yet, D’Arbignal continually finds ways to show her that she has
more courage and ability than she ever thought she had. The characters of Shara
and D’Arbignal are vivid and compelling. Getzin has the knack for creating uniquely
individual characters—even the most minor characters are clear in the mind’s
eye as the reader progresses.
I loved the plot twists
that Getzin puts his characters through. There are no speed-bumps that get in
the way of the enjoyment of this fast-paced tale. Even the occasional outbursts
of cursing are in keeping with the characters and the situations. Neither Shara
nor D’Arbignal ever descend into vulgarity, and that, too, is consistent with
their characters.
All in all, Shara and
the Haunted Village is a wonderful grown-up fairytale and a great escape. This
book is a stand-alone story. I thought the ending was perfect, and actually at
one point, I laughed out loud, waking up my long-suffering spouse. The final
pages are completely in line with the way those characters would think and I
felt the tale had ended well, despite my wish that it wouldn’t end. For the
very reasonable price of .99 US you can immerse yourself in a fantasy that will
keep you thinking about the characters long after you are done, wondering what
happened next.
