Tuesday, August 16, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Tinderbox by W.A. Simpson

 




Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on August 16, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.     

Tinderbox is a debut epic fantasy novel from author W.A. Simpson courtesy of small press Flame Tree Publishing. It's the type of novel whose description would usually make me skip it - seriously the summary that shows up on its publishing page and on NetGalley, which kind of feels like word salad, with each sentence being an incomplete thought and it all feeling stilted and just odd to read.  Still something about it's cover intrigued me a little bit, so I did wind up requesting it on NetGalley anyhow to see if its contents were better than what it's description suggested. 

And the answer is - sort of: Tinderbox is a folk tale inspired (as in Grimm Fairy Tale type tales - such as the classic ) epic fantasy story with a pair of very enjoyable lead characters, who I did in fact grow to care for.  It also is overly complicated, throwing together way too much in there to the point where it's original antagonist is out of focus for nearly all of the book and then winds up being far less threatening than he should be in the end, and does have a bit of that stilted dialogue and descriptiveness within its full pages.  This is the type of novel that probably could've used a better editor to form a really good novel, as the core of that is definitely here, just muddled.

Trigger Warning:  Attempted Rape
-------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------
Isbet has been years away from the town where she was raised by her grandmother, a powerful village witch.  She returns to find her grandmother murdered, her body left on the ground where it was decapitated....and to find her grandmother's most precious possession, a magical tinderbox that provides the wielder with command of three deadly and powerful dogs, having been taken.  Isbet resolves to obtain vengeance for her grandmother, and to get back the precious Tinderbox....but Isbet's own magic soon reveals that the murderer/thief she is looking for has used his power to become a powerful and well guarded King...on whom vengeance will not be so easy to get. 

That same King has used the Tinderbox, and possibly other darker magics, to wage war upon the continent and to conquer several other nations....and to take the Princes of those nations as hostages for their good behavior.  One of those Princes was Bram, who now has to serve as the "son" of the very man who took him from his home and killed his father, to Bram's immense disgust and self-loathing.  But when a task for the King finds Bram caught in the powers of a Gifted magical enemy, Bram finds himself saved only by the intervention of Isbet...a woman he knows he shouldn't necessarily trust...and yet he cannot bring himself to stay away from her. 

Together, Isbet and Bram will find themselves searching for the root of the dark magic behind the King's rise, dark magic stemming from the Fay and non-human parts of the lands, whose source seeks to rise up once more and consume all in its path.  And only working together can they achieve not just Isbet's vengeance and Bram's freedom, but also the saving of the land from the encroaching darkness.....
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Tinderbox is at times a rough novel to read - the prose is sometimes overly wordy (and sometimes under-so) in the way you expect from a novel that is either self-published or published by a press small enough to provide little editing support.  It's also overly stuffed - the story begins with a clear take on the Tinderbox folk/fairy tale, with it seemingly going to be a story about Isbet trying to get revenge and Bram trying to get his own freedom....but soon gets massively more complicated, adapting parts of a number of other fairy tales (Jack and the Beanstalk), and then morphing into an epic fantasy-esque tale of Fae/Dwarves and other fantasy beings fighting against a dark, indescribable force...such that the original vengeance/freedom plot line kind of gets lost.  The power of its main protagonists also varies throughout, with Bram going from an absolutely useless fighter in the face of magical foes at one point to him being the absolute force in the face of the Dark with pretty much no justification for the shifts whatsoever (Similarly, the countries being threatened by the Evil King have seemingly so much magical power it's hard to see them actually being threatened).  In a lot of ways essentially, this novel is a mess. 

And yet, I actually enjoyed Tinderbox overall, mainly because its protagonists were highly enjoyable.  Isbet is a powerful witch who seeks revenge, but is not just good-hearted but also understanding of her own limitations, while also not being some perfect heroine.  She struggles as new things come up and demand her attention, as she finds Bram and others who can possibly help her in her quest...but whose activities may cause her to go out of her way - especially when their combined activities get them involved in a world-spanning quest to save the world.  And her dialogue with her sentient staff Gaemyr is often very amusing, with Gaemyr's witty exasportated comments and reactions to both her and Bram.  Meanwhile, Bram struggles with his feelings of anxiety towards being a hostage "son" of the King who conquered his nation, his desire to go back to his nation but fear that doing so will jeopardize those he cares for; he also tries to do his best for the boy who is taken as a similar hostage by the evil King, all the while fearing he is only doing more harm.  And as he gets caught up in greater magical threats, ones beyond his understanding, he worries more and more...even as he tries to take steps to ensure the right thing is done and evil is beaten back.  And well his relationship with Isbet is really done well, culminating in the inevitable sex scene, which is pretty solidly done.  


Again, this book is very messy and sometimes the prose is a struggle to read, but its main characters are really well done, so I didn't really mind even if so many of the side characters (the various queens/sorceresses from other factions in particular) kind of blurred together.  So if you're okay taking a chance on a rougher non-big-publishing fantasy work, you might enjoy this one.  
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