Quick Review:
3.7 stars
If you’re looking for fantasy and hidden magical worlds that manage to mix with modern vigilante crime-fighting, you’ve come to the right place. The change of theme threw me for a bit of a loop at first, but this book makes the two work together if you let it play out. Most of the stories follow Wolf, a vigilante trying to mitigate the high crime rates of his hometown, and Nemo, a young warrior that spends his time training and fighting with a group called the Elites in the magical realm beyond.
The plot, while it loops around and folds back on itself throughout the short stories, is solid and doesn’t step on its own toes. Sometimes the interruptions in the storyline are a bit on the frequent side, disrupting the flow of the main plot, but what’s contained in those interludes are pieces of backstory that are left for the reader to piece together. The twists are clever, well planned, and not overly complicated.
The characters never do anything that would make the reader say, “Well why didn’t they just do that instead?” And this is always a win in my book. They’re intelligent, work within the rules of the world, and don’t get away with their mistakes. Gotta love it when the consequences are real. Wolf can sometimes be a bit monotone, but then again, that’s mostly just the way his personality is. Nemo and his gang of fighters are often humorous and witty, one of my favorite lines from Nemo being, “That tail makes you look like a fucking lemur!” If you want to know the context behind that line, you’ll just have to read the book for yourself.
All in all, I think it leans on telling more than it needed to, and that can occasionally make the emotional blows less effective. There were fewer descriptions of the environment and people than I’d have expected, but then again, I know I’m a glutton for descriptions. However, the style is incredibly consistent and polished – I didn’t find a single spelling or grammatical error throughout the entire thing, which is impressive given that even mainstream books can’t seem to always manage that.
Oh, and I can’t forget about the drawings inside the book. They’re top-notch quality, and I love it when authors take the time and effort to place in maps and sketches of their world. I’m looking forward to the author’s next book, “Initiation” so I can see what happens to Wolf, Nemo, and their gang! You can check out the author of Order of the Spirits: Fragments here on Minds @vladimir_af and his book is available on Amazon and Goodreads. [I got the paperback version myself, and it’s a beautiful book.]
Long Version [+ SPOILERS]:
Okay, now I shall ramble.
Some overview stuff:
– Great consistency in style. I’ve read things where the flow of the story and the way in which it is told seems to jump around as if multiple writers had written it, but this one feels like it’s carved from the same stone, so to say.
– Lack of descriptions. I won’t go too hard on people for descriptions because I know I tend to expect them more than most readers. However, I still think it was on the lacking side. The atmosphere of many of the scenes didn’t always land, and I had a hard time picturing Krus until several chapters in since what descriptions there were had been scattered far between. Given that the start of the book has a cloaked figure on a mountainside fighting a demon, it was hard for me to switch gears once the scene in Krus opened up. I didn’t realize that it was a technologically advanced civilization until Sandra picked up Wolf’s phone, and my smooth brain still didn’t fully register that it was a real-world modern city until cars and streetlights were mentioned a few pages later. Basically, my picture of Krus went through a bunch of re-imaginings before I got it in line with what the book was aiming for.
– Good character consistency. Thank you, and thank you again for not having the characters violate their own behaviors for sake of the plot. The amount of times I’ve seen this happen in other works recently is terrifying.
– Heavy lean on telling when it wasn’t needed. One example I picked up on first was Wolf’s proclivity to anger. The book didn’t need to tell us that he has anger issues because the way he acts and speaks not only does it already, but it does it better. When you let the characters move on their own, their emotions will be communicated in a way that makes the reader feel it themselves rather than being told that it exists.
The main danger with telling over showing is that it tempts a reader to space out or set the book down, which is a fear I know all authors have. If the space allocated to the unnecessary bits of telling were cut out and replaced with more time on descriptions, I think you’d end up with a more punchy and emotionally gripping way of telling the story as a whole.
– Professionalism all around. I don’t just mean this book itself, though it is complied in a very clean and ordered fashion, I mean the author, book, and his blog as a whole. This is a book you pick up and think “This person knows what they’re doing”, and the same goes for his website. This will go a long way for getting readers since a lot of what marketing is about is image, image, image.
– Cleanliness of the plot. The interruptions and interludes could be a bit too frequent sometimes, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I mean that everything is neatly connected to everything else and the characters always used their brains to get out of situations. There were no twists that didn’t make sense, and yet they also managed to be surprising, which is not always an easy balance to attain. The laws of the world remained steady all the way through, which I also greatly appreciate.
Given the sheer quantity of times in mainstream media like the Harry Potter movies where the plot just completely implodes on itself a half dozen times per movie, it’s nice to see a story that doesn’t make you mad at the characters and doesn’t rewrite the rules of magic every other scene. I have a special hate for HP and I’m not gonna apologize for it. HP, at least the movies, were just a mess.
– Not very much downtime with the characters. There’s a lot of action, but then again, this is what it’s being marketed for and these are also short stories meant for introductions. Almost the entire relationship between Wolf and Sandra felt glazed over in favor of their backstory reveals and their training. When it came time for Sandra to go with Wolf to Under Realm and be left behind, the emotional blow of all that wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been. Also, Sandra seems to go along with all this really easily. Being a vigilante’s sidekick is one thing, but traveling through a portal into another dimension is a whole other ballpark. Elements within the story itself:
– So… what is Wolf’s real name again? There’s kind of a hint that he might somehow be Orr, but throughout this entire book (unless I am a blind person, which is possible) no one that he knows ever calls him by his real name. Also, it makes sense why someone within the order might call him Wolf, but how did this become his street name? The only wolfish thing about him is his mask, but the only person that seems to know about this feature was the Crescent Lord. “Spirit of the Wolf” is a pretty specific title for people that don’t know about his mask nor the Order of the Spirits.
– Maybe things in Europe are just different in this regard, but how on earth are people not all up in those underground tunnels like it was discount Disney World? Wolf’s main lair entrance is in the Ring, a druggie and delinquent hang out, and no one has found the entrance to that tunnel? That’s kinda sus. These tunnels also stretch across the city, and they’re part of a historical landmark. There’s also another entrance under/inside(?) a giant marble statue in a park and a sewer grate by the river. It seems like somebody would know about all this. Kind of on this note, Wolf has made such a presence on the Ring that criminals know not to venture up there anymore, and no journalist, gang, or cop in all this time has been made aware of that? With as many people that want him, you’d think that a whole hill being abandoned due to his presence would draw some attention.
– The duel between Nemo and the Sodren is one of the best fight scenes I’ve seen in a while. Using demon-cursed blood against a vampire- I mean Sodren – was excellent plot work. A+. And then the Sodrai being smart enough to take that blood afterwards just continues the trend of characters being intelligent, which makes them feel like legitimate threats.
– The group battle in Varkal Forest was also excellent, and it really fleshed out how all these different people act and fight. Alex the gunslinger was probably my favorite, followed closely by Nick.
– I’ll be interested in learning how the Order has managed to stay secret for all these thousands of years with people warping in and out between worlds. How do they keep Under Realm secret from governments and everyday people?
– Nemo and his haphazard approach to just about everything is great fun to watch. He’s got a lot of energy and it really comes through in his character. Setting everything on fire was a great way to get through camp.
Everything taken into account, I really enjoyed this story and the characters. I think Vladimir really has something he can work with here. If more descriptions were brought in and telling trimmed down a tad, this probably would’ve gotten a full 4 stars. I’ll definitely be grabbing a copy of Initiation whenever it’s ready.
For the funsies, I tried to untangle the plot since it kind of spun itself up into a web. So here are the basics of the timeline, as far as I could gather:
Unknown thousands of years before initiation – Ralin & Sirig fight ghost wolves and adopt Orr (…Who might be Wolf? Doesn’t seem likely given that it’s thousands of years ago and that he has a modern family, but Orr is one heck of a depressed child and Ralin was Wolf’s bow master somehow, so…)
110 AD Demon History
111 AD Demon History pt 2
-17 years – Baby Nemo bedtime stories (aww) + spontaneous blackouts for dad
0 – Initiation?
Bonerest Amnesia after Raven murdered somebody
215 – Meets Sandra and does/doesn’t recognize her? Oh right he got her sister burnt to a crisp.
217 – Some chick (Aleksandra) got shot and Wolf has her amulet
218 – Beat the crap out of some jockeys the night before, which are the guys that shot Aleksandra
227 – Sandra kinda stalky
235 – Prostitute chick Wolf saved got herself killed and he adopts a naive child
240- Sandra being way too touchy
245- Sandra speaking to ashes
Next week – Totally skip over the interactions with Ann & groupies
271- Training
300 – Training recollection
311 – Ditto
315 -Book symbols have meaning
327- ditto the ditto
349- ditto ditto ditto
357- Wolf awkwardly talks to the grave
365 (June 15th)- 2nd-degree depression + backstory
399- Heists and hostages
400- Debut solo for Sandra
407- Stealthy roommate situation + Castle battle
410- Wolf’s depression infects Sandra
? – Nemo kills the goat dude and the Vampires- I mean Sodrai are being shady af
? – Battle at Blekrin and an A+ sodrai duel
Nemo’s mom has Alzheimer’s
411- Dropping off Sandra at Magic Daycare
415- Talking to Ann
41? – Ice Demon
420 ish? Wolf’s family explodes (literally)
? -Dude’s brother is a rad raven mutant because reasons and he’s not even phased
? – Ann works at a fast food and chills with a vigilante
? – Ah, the chick at the end “Aleksandra” aka “Sandra” (didn’t catch that the first time) was Wolf’s partner(?)/friend or whatever which is why he scoffed at Sandra’s name when they met. Likely a romantic interest given that he can’t turn loose of that amulet and the whole “I watch you through a window” business.
I’m sure I missed some dots in that sum-up, but basically, that ought to be the jumbled timeline un-jumbled. I had to re-read some bits about Aleksandra and the amulet, and for a while, I thought the person that had been murdered was a chick named Raven rather than Raven being the murderer, which was a fun twist.
Anyway, that’ll be the end of today’s insanely long rant. Vlad, you’re probably the only one that would make it to the bottom of this, so congrats on your book, it’s great and I loved it!
