SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell

Witches of Lychford by Paul Cornell:

Witches of Lychford is the first in a series of novellas by British author, Paul Cornell.  Cornell is a well known and accomplished writer, but I've actually read very little of his work (Only his dark horror novel, Chalk).  So when I noted that the first three novellas in this series were available as hoopla audiobooks, I figured I'd give it a shot.  The result was very enjoyable and makes me definitely interested in going forward with the rest of this series.

Quick Note: I listened to this as an audiobook and the reader is pretty good.  It's only a little more than 3 hours long, so it didn't take me longer than two days to finish, which is nice for a change of pace.

More after the Jump:

Quick Plot Summary: The town of Lychford seems like an ordinary small British town, and a town-vote on whether to allow a big chain supermarket to come in seems like nothing out of the ordinary.  But Judith Mawson, eccentric old woman....and secret witch, knows the town serves as a barrier to evils from other worlds, and that the supermarket plan isn't as innocent as it seems.  But to do anything to stop it, she'll need to enlist some odd help - Lizzie, the new town reverend suffering from a crisis of faint, and Autumn, the skeptic owner of the local magic shop who had a traumatic experience with the fae - and even that might not be enough to prevent an act of town planning from destroying the world....

Thoughts: Witches of Lychford is a simple novella, with the story very clearly setting up the three characters as going to have to come together to stop the evil threat from quite early on, but it's executed really well.  All three characters are really well done in their personalities and characters, and while the basic structure of the plot is predictable, the particulars of that plot take some really nice and surprising twists and turns.  Again, this is not a particularly long novella, so I don't have much to say, but it does its job building this world and its characters really well, kept my interest, and ended in a satisfying yet tantalizing way for future books.  Recommended for those looking for a short read.