Because nighttime is when the brain works best and is the most cranky.
Status: Batch 1 CLOSED
(Slow, sometimes weekly updates)
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I take a lot of elements into account in order to give you a proper review on what I think about your story and/or...
Book Title: Of Fire and Ashes –A compilation of short stories Written By: walkingnorth- Chapters Read: 2 (up to current update)
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Cover: 4/5
I think the book cover is really neat! It shows off the title very well and has some nice background manip techniques too. Adding in a more... uh, vibrancy would've made it more eyecatching as it is, after all, a fantastical story about magic and its roots and how it affects people.
Though in my opinion, it carries out that fantasy theme really well, and since this book is a compilation of short stories, I think it was really well made. Simple and neat.
I do wonder how the title came to be though, since usually a short story compilation book correlates to either the first short story, or the overarching theme of what the short stories would eventually be about. Fire and Ashes just seemed like it had nothing to do with the current ones I've read so far, so I was curious.
Blurb: 5/5
Personally speaking, short story blurbs would then be constructed differently from the normal novel or novella.
While I think it's a fairly good idea to add short, mini-blurbs of the individual stories, they would probably end up accumulating to a strange length the more stories there are and would look weird.
In my opinion, an oversight of what kinds of themes would the compilation of short stories be about would be nice, too.
Description: 4/5
From the first couple paragraphs alone, I was able to tell that this was gonna be a good read. There is an adequate amount of worldbuilding tidbit that allows us to understand what is necessary, but not so much of it so as to drown us in it. It was really interesting too, mixing in the rules of the magic as Astra travels along in the Night Market before she meets the woman.
We get an introduction and an understanding of it all in a short span of time, and it just makes each sentence itself such a good, gripping read. The transitions to her thoughts, her actions, and her reactions are smooth as heck and I found myself thoroughly intrigued to read on.
Actually, I kinda thought that the woman who ran the magic shop was gonna be revealed to as Astra's mother since she lost her daughter too — until I realized it wasn't by the description of her figure in the water. One thing I thought I'd mention here was the fact that it wasn't said how the mother died, though this one in particular is coming off from a personal taste.
Overall, I genuinely enjoyed the first story!
The second story talks about bargains and prices. While I liked the whole premise of it and the price she had to pay in order to get... uh, what she wanted, I wasn't quite as hooked in as the first story did. More about the characters in the Character section.
