Shadowtide

I quite enjoyed Joseph Carriker's novel, set in the world of Aldis, the setting for the Blue Rose table-top role-playing game.

The prologue opens the book with a dire situation that looks like certain doom to a pair of agents of some sort. The main text of the book then follows the adventures of a trio of agents sent to find out what happened to the first pair. Most of the book takes place in and around the smugglers city of Serpent's Haven, a ramshackle city built in the middle of a dire swamp, with all of the muck that comes with that sort of environment. Haven is thoroughly a hive of scum and villainy. The three protagonists are Soot, a self aware raven (in this world, self-aware animals are relatively common and called “Rhydan”) who has several magic abilities including the ability to heal wounds; Ydah, a brutish-looking warrior who is still dealing with a deeply personal loss she suffered a year previously; and Morjin, a master spy with a talent for predicting the future and a heart of gold that is his Achilles heel. The three who are more comfortable working alone must band together to unravel the mysteries around Serpentl's Haven before those mysteries come looking for them!

Most of the book worked very well for me. I quickly came to care about the main characters and several of the supporting cast. The pacing was excellent, managing to avoid a droopy middle section by continually ramping up the pressure on the protagonists. The descriptions were colorful without being overwrought. I had a strong sense of place in the city, and could easily picture it from the imagery the author provided. The surrounding countryside was less clear to me, possibly due to my lack of experience in swamps. It was at various times described as being mostly scrub and grasses poking up out of squelchy mud, and at other times as having plentiful trees. Most confusing to me was the hunt for a pool of water surrounded by a thick corpse of trees that wasn't seen until the characters were nearly in it. One other amusement was that, after being described as “rare” or at least uncommon, Rhydans make up a significant portion of the cast, nearly half of the introduced characters. That was fine by me; their presence added a great deal of flavor to the world.

The book also presented the amazing diversity that is a cornerstone of the setting. Beyond having self-aware critters running (and flying and slithering) around, the humans and humanoids in the novel didn't bat an eye at who people preferred as bed partners, nor whether they took part eras to bed at all. Morjin is an unrepentant flirt who falls into love (and bed) with both male and female lovers equally, and is an open “constellation” marriage with a man and a woman back home in the capital city (quit some distance from where the action takes place). This was presented merely as an aspect of the character as he woos another man in Serpent's Haven. Additionally one of the other characters is shown to be asexual or aromantic towards the end of the book, and while it leads to a awkward moment, everyone recovers with great ease and remain fast friends. It's refreshing, honestly, to escape the typical tropes that come from an adherence to heteronormativity.

About the only thing about the book that didn't work for me was how it ended. The exciting story introduced in the prologue ended in an exciting climax. But instead of a short denouement to wrap things up neatly, there were three more chapters detailing the loves of the characters as they made their way back to the capital city of Aldis, the living arrangements they all come to, how they celebrated a winter holiday, and introduces what seems to be the plot for a follow up work. I won't say it was tacked on, since it flowed naturally from the rest of the story, but it did have a feeling of a movie that went on longer than it should have (I'm looking at you, “Return of the King”). Perhaps I'm just too stodgy and set in my ways, but I prefer less drawn-out resolutions once the story presented in the first scenes has been resolved.

Overall a strong book, which I did enjoy a great deal. As I'm in the planning stages for a game set in the same universe, it helped bring the setting into clearer focus, and helped me understand the tropes and customs that are present in the niche genre. If you enjoy romantic fantasy, or have an interest in the setting g for the Blue Rose game, I strongly recommend picking this book up and giving it a read.