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The Key
An award-winning story from Writers of the Future...
For Benjas, a mercenary mage, finding the next Key is an important contract with great consequences. For Cassandra, a fanatical warrior, it's the quest of a zealot. Secrets and fears pile up between them until success becomes more dangerous than failure, and only the Key can separate victors from victims.
Includes a preview of the epic fantasy novel, Sword and Chant.
For Benjas, a mercenary mage, finding the next Key is an important contract with great consequences. For Cassandra, a fanatical warrior, it's the quest of a zealot. Secrets and fears pile up between them until success becomes more dangerous than failure, and only the Key can separate victors from victims.
Includes a preview of the epic fantasy novel, Sword and Chant.
63 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
25 people want to read
About the author
Blair MacGregor
8 books14 followersBlair writes fantasy -- adventurous, epic, and dark. Her debut novel
Sword and Chant
was included in the first Indie Fantasy Bundle through StoryBundle, and her more recent novel
Sand of Bone
was included in the 2015 Fantasy Bundle.
Her short fiction has appeared in Cicada and Writers of the Future. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise and a member of SFWA.
She also teaches and speaks on a variety of topics -- martial arts, education, wellness, failure and resilience -- for audiences ranging from a couple dozen to a few thousand. Most evenings, you'll find her teaching karate at her local dojo. In between all that, Blair hikes and camps, grows organic produce, and indulges in the occasional ziplining excursion. She loves traveling to places both wild and domesticated. She currently lives in Colorado with her one son and two goofy dogs.
Her short fiction has appeared in Cicada and Writers of the Future. She is a graduate of Viable Paradise and a member of SFWA.
She also teaches and speaks on a variety of topics -- martial arts, education, wellness, failure and resilience -- for audiences ranging from a couple dozen to a few thousand. Most evenings, you'll find her teaching karate at her local dojo. In between all that, Blair hikes and camps, grows organic produce, and indulges in the occasional ziplining excursion. She loves traveling to places both wild and domesticated. She currently lives in Colorado with her one son and two goofy dogs.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 16, 2013
Quick, simple, and kinda boring.
Perhaps if this were the introductory chapters of a full novel, I would offer up higher praise and more stars. Unfortunately, it's a stand-alone novella and as a result, doesn't shine nearly as much as it could or should.
The warriors and the mages hate one another on the flimsiest of premises, but they're forced to work together for... no reason, really. The assumed good of the islands and tribes.
Except all we know about the tribes is that they're people who abandoned an unknown world/dimension to escape corruption - presumably moral - that we are never shown and is only mentioned in passing.
The leader must come from the original world because s/he cannot be partial to any of the tribes or either of the factions, which makes sense except for the part where they abandoned that place because of corruption. So their leader has somehow escaped this moral/ethical/unexplained decay.
Our main characters are likable. The mage and the warrior thrown together on a contract/quest to find the latest Key and prevent their society from falling into a state of civil war. They bicker slightly, play off one another, and generally show themselves to be pretty okay as characters.
One throw-away reveal that pissed me off a whole lot? Pointless, and it takes away from the character.
I'm sorry, in a novella setting, this doesn't work. I liked the idea well enough to stretch and give it three stars, but it's a disappointment.
Perhaps if this were the introductory chapters of a full novel, I would offer up higher praise and more stars. Unfortunately, it's a stand-alone novella and as a result, doesn't shine nearly as much as it could or should.
The warriors and the mages hate one another on the flimsiest of premises, but they're forced to work together for... no reason, really. The assumed good of the islands and tribes.
Except all we know about the tribes is that they're people who abandoned an unknown world/dimension to escape corruption - presumably moral - that we are never shown and is only mentioned in passing.
The leader must come from the original world because s/he cannot be partial to any of the tribes or either of the factions, which makes sense except for the part where they abandoned that place because of corruption. So their leader has somehow escaped this moral/ethical/unexplained decay.
Our main characters are likable. The mage and the warrior thrown together on a contract/quest to find the latest Key and prevent their society from falling into a state of civil war. They bicker slightly, play off one another, and generally show themselves to be pretty okay as characters.
One throw-away reveal that pissed me off a whole lot? Pointless, and it takes away from the character.
I'm sorry, in a novella setting, this doesn't work. I liked the idea well enough to stretch and give it three stars, but it's a disappointment.
Displaying 1 of 1 review