Prompt: Walking in the Aftermath

We’d been two hours on the road when I saw the first sign. It was one of those big green signs that used to hang over the highways, but this one was torn in half and crumpled like paper, dangling from a bent support pole, with one corner digging into the torn up ground beneath it.

I pointed, and Darren nodded. “Stone trolls?” I asked quietly. He shrugged. I sighed and stared at the sign as our horses walked steadily past it. He was right. It probably was. It didn’t really matter. We’d deal with whatever we found. We had to, until we could find Karina and put an end to this.

I wasn’t ready to face what that might mean. I’d killed humans and monsters since the Rending. I wasn’t sure I could kill my twin. Even if she’d taken my heart’s wish for magic in the world and done…this…

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

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Dogs in House	Houdini
Time writing	15 minutes
November word count	Too low :(

Book Review: The Cipher, by Diana Pharaoh Francis

	Title	The Cipher Book 1 of The Crosspointe Novels
	Author	Diana Pharaoh Francis
	Genre	Fantasy
	Publisher	Bell Bridge Books
	Pub Date	Jun 30 2014
	Source	DRC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley

Welcome to Crosspointe. Where if you don’t control the majick, it may control you…

Publisher’s Description:

Lucy Trenton’s ability to sense majick is one of her most dangerous secrets. But only one.

A blackmailer knows the other.

Suddenly, Lucy is caught in a treasonous plot to destroy the crown, and she’s trapped in the tentacles of a desperate, destructive majick. Her only hope is ship captain Marten Thorpe, who—by every account—cannot be trusted. With time running out, Lucy must find a way to win a dangerous game or lose everything she holds dear.

What I liked

I think the strongest elements in Francis’ writing are her terrific world-building and her characters.

The world-building is rich and complex. Francis uses a lot of her own words within the story, which may sometimes get confusing. But they are well-placed in context. The visual descriptions are very well done. I had no trouble visualizing the scenes—places, people, and action—as I was reading. I particularly liked the complex majick and how it is both used and feared by the society in general and our characters in specific.

I genuinely liked the narrative voices of both Lucy and Marten, the two POV characters, despite the fact that these are both flawed people—more antihero than hero. Lucy starts off kind of stand-offish and selfish, although I liked that she was a strong, dedicated professional woman. Marten’s a would-be hero with a gambling addiction that leads to his ruin and contributes to Lucy’s and many other people’s difficulties (even deaths).

Francis writes them in such a way that I *wanted* them to overcome their many obstacles. I *wanted* them to succeed in their quest, and I wanted them to work things out together. They both grow throughout their journey. There’s a touching reunion with a friend near the end of the novel that highlights this point.

I liked many of the secondary characters as well, and they had enough to do in the story that I felt like I got to know them through the eyes of the main POVs. The villains were sufficiently nasty, if sometimes one-dimensional, and Francis did an excellent job with Marten’s conflicted relationship with his brother.

What I didn’t like

The storytelling bogged down in places, but never enough to make me really give up. It was a combination of too much description and not enough action or forward momentum. But overall, I enjoyed the narrative language and the storytelling very much.

I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the ending. Pretty much *everything* happens in the last three or four chapters, so it felt too abrupt at times, after so much struggle to get there. And the actual ending felt limp after the tension of the dramatic action right up to it. I appreciate the circular nature of the beginning and ending, but it made me wrinkle my nose nonetheless.

The foreign Jutras were given very vivid physical descriptions, and Lucy even has sympathy for some of them at times. But we don’t get to interact with them at all, to see them as real and complex characters in their own right. Their final scene is pretty horrific, and it will be a challenge for Francis to build any reader connection with them in future books. I hope she will do so, and give us a more fully realized culture to provide a context for their actions in The Cipher.

Caveats (potential triggers)

There is some sex, some threatening sexual language, and fairly detailed graphic violence.

Summary

I found this book on NetGalley and requested a review copy. I enjoyed the story very much and plan to continue Francis’ series of Crosspointe novels. I give it four out of five “sparks”.

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

Dogs in House	Brindle
Music Playing	Soundtrack to Rent
Time writing	Much too long, but necessary prep for my first book review
September word count	7,962

Prompt: Prague has a cherub problem...

Thanks to "sunafterrain" for the lovely "Mighty Cherubs", used under CC2.0

Thanks to one of my favorite artists, Lee Moyer, for the unintentional prompt!

His phone rang as Andrej Prochazka leaned into the BMW S1000RR, rounding the deep curve onto the R1. Tapping the back of his Bluetooth earpiece, he said curtly, “Da. Twenty minutes….da.” Soon the familiar skyline of Praha rose beneath the sunset hues before him.

Andrej parked the bike and tucked his helmet over the handlebar. With a subtle wave of his hand over the bike, he set the protective spell. Anyone who touched it would feel insects swarming all over their skin. He’d never had anything stolen from his bike. Climbing the cathedral steps, he saw the first shapes swooping across the darkening sky. A priest stood at the open doors, twisting a rosary in his hands. He reached out as Andrej drew close and pulled him into a tight welcoming embrace. His hand tugged Andrej’s shoulder, turning him around to look out over the city. They stood silently for a moment, watching the aerial acrobatics. Andrej sighed heavily. “You’re right, Father. Praha has a cherub problem.”  

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

Dogs in House	Houdini, Brindle
Time writing	Too long, including research on motorcycles, Prague, and Czech names
September word count	7,013

Prompt: Dragons stalk the streets, puffing out smoke and clattering their mechanical wings

Quote credit: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

Photo credit: Robert Dalton, “MojaveDesert Sand Dragon” (cc 2.0)

Prompt Credit: Unknown origin, found on Pinterest

At the first tremor, Jakov dropped the fabric bolt he had been considering and looked around for Clara. Another tremor, and people began to clear the market square, shouting and running in alarm. Where was the brat! Mother would kill him!

As the square emptied, Jakov ran into the center, turning slowly with sharp eyes focused at knee level, searching for Clara’s white-blond curls. He spotted her gazing up at sparkly suncatchers, and beyond her, the dragon’s head appeared around the corner.

Jakov froze. What could he do? No use to call out – the dragon would hear him, not Clara. He couldn’t run to her, or the dragon might attack them both. He couldn’t move at all, in fact, without the dragon’s metallic eyes latching onto him. No one wanted to attract the notice of a dragon.

Fear warred with anger. Why had the clockwork mages built the dragons and animated them to roam the city? Great metal-scaled beasts, they blew smoke when calm and roared fire when disturbed, leaving terror and destruction in their wake. The mages were long gone, but the dragons ruled in their stead.

The dragon’s head lolled left and right, searching for….what? Movement? Scent? Jakov knew the moment it saw Clara, and his heart stopped. The dragon lowered its head and stretched out its long, thick neck, moving closer and closer to Clara, who remained oblivious to the danger behind her. She lifted her arms and waved in a happy dance with the spinning suncatchers.

She spun around and stopped short when she came nose to snout with the dragon. A thin curl of steam wrapped around her. They stared at each other, unmoving. Clara reached out a hand and laid her palm flat on the dragon’s nose, then slid it up, leaning forward…closer and closer to those terrible long fangs.

Jakov wanted to turn away, before he saw his sister snapped up by the great beast. Instead, he watched with horrified fascination as she fearlessly stroked the dragon’s nose and along its cheek. The dragon’s eyes blinked shut, and it blew a gentle puff of steam around her. Clara’s fingers moved against the dragon’s scales, and Jakov knew she was signing. He wanted to tell her somehow, the dragon would never understand.

Clara leaned even closer and pressed her lips on the dragon’s snout. He fingers traced signs across its scales once more, then she wrapped her chubby arms around its nose and hugged it. Jakov felt hysterical laughter bubbling up inside. Before it burst free, the dragon pulled away, turned around, and returned through the street beyond, with a single flick of its tail as it disappeared.

Jakov raced to Clara and dropped to his knees, gathering her in a tight hug. She wriggled free and reached up to trace signs on his cheek, as their mother had taught them for as long as Jakov could remember. Dragon! Did you see?

Did he see? He wasn’t sure his heart had started beating again. Yes, I saw. Are you crazy? How could you let it get so close?

Clara cocked her head, curls bobbing in the sunlight. She tapped her fingers against his cheek, thinking. He waited. There was no rushing her. Dragon friend.

No, Clara! Not friend! Danger!

Clara pulled away, then grabbed his hand and signed once more. Friend. You’ll see.

She marched across the still-empty square, and Jakov watched her for a long moment before he jumped to his feet and ran after her. Ghods help him if she got home first and told Mother she had made friends with a dragon. Mother would kill him. Maybe he should go after the dragon instead.

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And so, with a loving heart, I offer you

Namaste

I’ve heard many translations. Here’s one I love:
The light of the universe that shines within me recognizes
the light of the universe that shines within you.

Dogs in House	Houdini, Brindle
Music Playing	Sinners & Saints: The Ultimate Medieval & Renaissance Music Collection
Time writing	~70 minutes, including image/quote research
September word count	1,766