The Silence of Mistra: A Great, Quick Read

While I've read plenty of online fiction - mostly from other sites like Demensions - I've never read a book specifically designed to be read on my computer, much less reviewed one.

James Braun has made "The Silence of Mistra," his short fantasy novel, available as an Adobe Acrobat portable document file, or PDF. I'll talk about that later.

Story-wise, "The Silence of Mistra" is a great, quick read. The story's environment reminds me very much of an alternate, early colonial America: The British have established a foothold, have brought over slaves to work for them, have had some trouble with their neighbors in the Old World, and are quite nervous about the locals. Braun substitutes Azoria for the British, Itolia for (possibly) France, and the new land of Farshore for America. The slaves and servants are mythical creatures like trolls and dwarves. Elves play a part, too, but in a different respect than I've seen before.

The great thing about Braun's writing is that he introduces us to these elements with hardly any effort. Our protagonist is Creston Shawduke, a veteran of bloody battles against Itolia. He's joined up with a contingent of young men shipped off to Farshore for colonial duty and quickly finds himself at odds with almost everybody, including his fellow soldiers. We see events primarily, although not exclusively, through his eyes and while fantastic things happen, the trolls and dwarves, for example, are treated as normal.

But the action truly begins when Creston is attacked late one night by a great deer-like beast, ridden by a large, hooded, rider. Nearly at the same time, a spy from within Creston's own company steals, then loses, a valuable document belonging to the local governor, who ends up blaming the local servant trolls. The two events become linked as Creston, and several of his friends - and enemies, are sent deeper into the new land to search for the missing document.

Their quest quickly grows larger, as the small company heads for The Wall, an impossibly high barrier separating the Elvish natives from the rest of Farshore's local, as well as colonizing, population. Along the way, we are introduced to ogres, werewolf-type creatures, and more. Creston has to make hard decisions and none of them are cut-and-dry. He also has to deal with his conflicted feelings for a soldier who turns out to be a woman of skill, daring, and an independent will.

Through "The Silence of Mistra," Braun reintroduces familiar concepts in fanciful ways, introduces us to characters of enough substance to latch onto, but not with so much depth as to drag down a relatively short novel, and presents a story that readers can enjoy in a single sitting, while still being introduced to a fully realized world.

The story's conclusion will also satisfy the reader who is tired of neat endings. While Creston's quest itself concludes somewhat satisfactorily (leaving the possibility of a sequel - even if imagined in the reader's head), personal matters are left in a disastrous state, allowing us to see why he no longer follows his king blindly. It's for deeply disturbing reasons - as most things relating to war are - and quickly lead to Creston's labeling as an "anti-hero," as opposed to a golden one.

The only black mark on Braun's work is the creation of the PDF file itself. While the concept is a good one (I've used it myself to show off some of my early work to family members), the execution is marred by poor formatting. Odd instances of large spaces occur, sometimes in the middle of a sentence, chapters begin at the very bottom of some pages, and there were (a very few) spelling mistakes that a PDF file can't hide.

My only suggestion, then, would be for Braun to make sure he updates the file so that readers see what he wants them to - a wonderful start to what will hopefully be a great run of books.

Book Review: James Braun's The Silence of Mistra

by Martin L. Cahn

The Silence of Mistra: A Great, Quick Read