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A review by willdrown
Wings Unseen by Rebecca Gomez Farrell
3.0
Wings Unseen is a debut novel by Rebecca Gomez Farrell about a kingdom that is prophecied to be saved by three heroes: a slayer, a seer, and a weapon. And, as the unlikely characters come together and submit to the pressure of destiny, a rather standard but well-executed plot unfolds.
The setting is Lansera, once huge, now split into Medua, which is dying under the tyranny of religious fanatics and oppression the likes of which you only see on the evening news. There are no doubts about morality here, Meduans are portrayed as horrible people that treat women like furniture, flay friends for fun (a good alliterative pastime is always key!), and are just evil in general.
Lanserim, though, are kind, welcoming, and would never run around and hurt you, unless it's for the prophecy.
As strange occurences fill the land three POV characters have to come together: Janto, a gentle prince; Serra, his betrothed; and Vesperi, a mean young woman, whose whole life was miserable, because everybody in Medua is miserable because Medua is evil.
This is some pretty typical genre fare with a few Chosen Ones, magical creatures (a silver stag!), and some reaaaally basic look at gender roles (Lanserim treat women the way like people, Meduans treat them like North Korean government treats North Koreans, no deep musings there). But it's written competently, it's not overly long, and the action, while surprisingly sparse, is always fun. It is quite impressive, though, just how easily Farrell does three different, distinct characters.
The problems are present as well, though.
A) The characters are varied, the POVs are barely so. Once the trio converges it gets increasingly tough to tell who is leading the chapter as everybody gets pretty equal "screen time", so it doesn't really feel vital to give each character separate chapters.
B) The fourth POV, which was so brief, inconsequential, and aimless that one would be forgiven to see it slip their mind at the end of the book. See, about halfway through we get 2-3 chapters from the perspective of some villain mook. These do nothing to humanize him, they don't progress the plot in some unique way, and they definitely didn't justify their existence. Trimming those would do wonders for the book, especially considering that his plotline could barely even be classified as such.
C) The ending is super rushed. Farrell spends about 20% of the book setting up the world with dozens of new phrases and names, as well as namechecking events that are never expanded on (not that they needed to be). Because of all this worldbuilding the start of the book feels more like a chore. This is remedied rather fast as Janto's Murat begins, but up to that point it's all quite dreary. This leads to the problematic pace at the climax, as the "big battle" takes up less space than Serra's mind-numbing adventures with the Brothers. There is barely any true lead-up as the characters just suddenly go "BTW, let's go visit this place and save the world, yeah?". This robs the climax of some gravitas and makes it seem as if the book was mean to be longer/split into two novels. Either way, unfortunate, as the climax itself is fun, if formulaic.
D) The lovestories were a tad unnecessary, honestly. Especially that of Serra, she seemed just fine without it and tacking it on as an epilogue just seems kind of disrespectful to the character.
Overall, this is nothing extraordinary, but if you're a fantasy fan itching for a well-executed stand-alone novel that won't take up too much of your time - give this a try!
The setting is Lansera, once huge, now split into Medua, which is dying under the tyranny of religious fanatics and oppression the likes of which you only see on the evening news. There are no doubts about morality here, Meduans are portrayed as horrible people that treat women like furniture, flay friends for fun (a good alliterative pastime is always key!), and are just evil in general.
Lanserim, though, are kind, welcoming, and would never run around and hurt you, unless it's for the prophecy.
As strange occurences fill the land three POV characters have to come together: Janto, a gentle prince; Serra, his betrothed; and Vesperi, a mean young woman, whose whole life was miserable, because everybody in Medua is miserable because Medua is evil.
This is some pretty typical genre fare with a few Chosen Ones, magical creatures (a silver stag!), and some reaaaally basic look at gender roles (Lanserim treat women the way like people, Meduans treat them like North Korean government treats North Koreans, no deep musings there). But it's written competently, it's not overly long, and the action, while surprisingly sparse, is always fun. It is quite impressive, though, just how easily Farrell does three different, distinct characters.
The problems are present as well, though.
A) The characters are varied, the POVs are barely so. Once the trio converges it gets increasingly tough to tell who is leading the chapter as everybody gets pretty equal "screen time", so it doesn't really feel vital to give each character separate chapters.
B) The fourth POV, which was so brief, inconsequential, and aimless that one would be forgiven to see it slip their mind at the end of the book. See, about halfway through we get 2-3 chapters from the perspective of some villain mook. These do nothing to humanize him, they don't progress the plot in some unique way, and they definitely didn't justify their existence. Trimming those would do wonders for the book, especially considering that his plotline could barely even be classified as such.
C) The ending is super rushed. Farrell spends about 20% of the book setting up the world with dozens of new phrases and names, as well as namechecking events that are never expanded on (not that they needed to be). Because of all this worldbuilding the start of the book feels more like a chore. This is remedied rather fast as Janto's Murat begins, but up to that point it's all quite dreary. This leads to the problematic pace at the climax, as the "big battle" takes up less space than Serra's mind-numbing adventures with the Brothers. There is barely any true lead-up as the characters just suddenly go "BTW, let's go visit this place and save the world, yeah?". This robs the climax of some gravitas and makes it seem as if the book was mean to be longer/split into two novels. Either way, unfortunate, as the climax itself is fun, if formulaic.
D) The lovestories were a tad unnecessary, honestly. Especially that of Serra, she seemed just fine without it and tacking it on as an epilogue just seems kind of disrespectful to the character.
Overall, this is nothing extraordinary, but if you're a fantasy fan itching for a well-executed stand-alone novel that won't take up too much of your time - give this a try!