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weaselweader's review
5.0
Enjoyable from first page to last!
Shara, a very hungry, very un-employed and singularly impoverished seamstress, has been offered an almost unimaginable amount of money. All she has to do is lead a dashing but definitely intriguing pair of rogues - D'Arbignal, a diminutive swordsman and bodyguard, spokesman and negotiator for the much more intimidating man mountain, Gianelli - to the haunted village. That Shara has only the vaguest childhood recollection of the village is beside the point. The siren call of the money and the adventure is irresistible!
In an all too brief novella, Mr Getzin has penned a story that is extraordinarily difficult to pin down. At once fantasy, young adult, comedy and light-hearted romance with a touch of horror, science fiction and, belive it or not, even mathematical topology, SHARA AND THE HAUNTED VILLAGE qualifies as a page turner from the opening paragraph.
Unlike Dickens, for example, who could write page upon page of breathtakingly detailed descriptive narrative putting the most complete picture of a character into the reader's mind's eye, Getzin wasted not so much as a single word in the effort. "Show ... don't tell" rules the day. Merely by being themselves, by doing what comes naturally to them, by participating in Getzin's imaginative story line, the protagonists reveal their characters. That mind's eye picture might come one piece at a time but, be assured, it is no less complete and no less compelling than Dickens' best efforts. D'Arbignal, the lovable, youthful, picaresque but romantically ham-handed swordsman whose antics seem modelled on Michael York's movie version of D'Artagnan is brilliant. Perleanane, the novella's meanie, manages to be at once demonic and comedic - a bizarre combination of Jabba the Hut, Tammy Faye Bakker and Gollum. I'm not kidding ... you have to read it to believe it.
Even vulgarity - the standard F-word - is used so sparingly that its effectiveness is really quite stunning.
Count me impressed. I'm looking forward to more of Mr Getzin's work and I'm definitely heading back in time to check out some of his earlier efforts.
Paul Weiss
Shara, a very hungry, very un-employed and singularly impoverished seamstress, has been offered an almost unimaginable amount of money. All she has to do is lead a dashing but definitely intriguing pair of rogues - D'Arbignal, a diminutive swordsman and bodyguard, spokesman and negotiator for the much more intimidating man mountain, Gianelli - to the haunted village. That Shara has only the vaguest childhood recollection of the village is beside the point. The siren call of the money and the adventure is irresistible!
In an all too brief novella, Mr Getzin has penned a story that is extraordinarily difficult to pin down. At once fantasy, young adult, comedy and light-hearted romance with a touch of horror, science fiction and, belive it or not, even mathematical topology, SHARA AND THE HAUNTED VILLAGE qualifies as a page turner from the opening paragraph.
Unlike Dickens, for example, who could write page upon page of breathtakingly detailed descriptive narrative putting the most complete picture of a character into the reader's mind's eye, Getzin wasted not so much as a single word in the effort. "Show ... don't tell" rules the day. Merely by being themselves, by doing what comes naturally to them, by participating in Getzin's imaginative story line, the protagonists reveal their characters. That mind's eye picture might come one piece at a time but, be assured, it is no less complete and no less compelling than Dickens' best efforts. D'Arbignal, the lovable, youthful, picaresque but romantically ham-handed swordsman whose antics seem modelled on Michael York's movie version of D'Artagnan is brilliant. Perleanane, the novella's meanie, manages to be at once demonic and comedic - a bizarre combination of Jabba the Hut, Tammy Faye Bakker and Gollum. I'm not kidding ... you have to read it to believe it.
Even vulgarity - the standard F-word - is used so sparingly that its effectiveness is really quite stunning.
Count me impressed. I'm looking forward to more of Mr Getzin's work and I'm definitely heading back in time to check out some of his earlier efforts.
Paul Weiss
see_sadie_read's review
4.0
This was pretty good for a novella. I say it that way because it also has a lot of the characteristics of a novella that annoy me. Namely, no world building, little character development, and a plot that boils down to a single, contextless and largely unexplained adventure. I know, that makes it sound horrible. But in 150 pages (if it's even that long) how much can even the most talented author include? It's a novella.
So, keeping in mind the limitations inherent in the literary form, it's pretty good. I enjoyed Shara and D'Arbignal. They were a little cliché—the innocent good girl with a tendency to cry and the dashing, fearless, hero—but I still enjoyed them.
The writing flowed well and it appeared well edited. So, for an extremely quick, fun read this one's worth spending an afternoon with.
So, keeping in mind the limitations inherent in the literary form, it's pretty good. I enjoyed Shara and D'Arbignal. They were a little cliché—the innocent good girl with a tendency to cry and the dashing, fearless, hero—but I still enjoyed them.
The writing flowed well and it appeared well edited. So, for an extremely quick, fun read this one's worth spending an afternoon with.
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