The Crimson Kestrel

The Crimson Kestrel by Leslianne Wilder

Reviewed by Jenny Barber

 

Found in Issue #114 of the ever-fabulous Beneath Ceaseless Skies, The Crimson Kestrel is a fun swashbuckling tale that's part Scarlet Pimpernel and part Three Musketeers with daring acrobatics and adventure, hidden identitites and just the slightest touch of romance. 

 

By day, Mademoiselle Ivette du Brielle is just one more pampered socialite fluttering around the imperial court of L’Echelle; night, however, is another thing altogether as she launches herself from the balconies and into the streets below to serve a little justice to the local thugs while taking full enjoyment in the thrill of the hunt.  And it's this joie de vivre that elevates her as a character as her own enthusiasm for her adventures is infectious and hooks the reader quite firmly. (Though one does wonder how she can fit quite so many gadgets and weapons under her fashionably generous skirts and still manage to walk without clinking... :-P )

 

There's intrigue and amusement to be had from the mysterious stranger who she rescues and combined with a wonderful depth to the world behind the story, creates an appeal that makes the reader want more adventures both in the setting and with the characters.  Great stuff!

Read The Crimson Kestrel here.  More about author Leslianne Wilder can be found on her website here.

Bitesize Recs of the Week

While the Shiny Shorts team get their heads around longer reviews again, here's some bitesize recommendations...

Blood Oranges by K.C. Shaw - Daily SF.  A fun flash tale about a vampire wanting to share his hobby with his beloved.

Fire Exit by Mhari Simpson - Tales of the Nun & Dragon (from Fox Spirit) Another fun tale, this one about an inn beset by dragons and the girl who wants to escape it.

Cursed Motives by Marissa Lingen - Beneath Ceaseless Skies #105 A young imperial princess with a knack for casting a curse stops an invasion and rescues her ship with a couple of well placed curses. An enchanting and highly readable story.

What the Sea Wants by P. Djeli Clark - Daily SF.  A haunting story of the perils of going away with merfolk and then leaving them to return to land.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #86

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #86
Reviewed by Jenny Barber

This issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies gives us two stories: Calibrated Allies by Marissa Lingen and The Lady of the Lake by E. Catherine Tobler plus an audio fiction podcast (to be reviewed at a later date) of The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Her Field-General, and Their Wounds by Seth Dickinson which was first published in BCS #85 in December.

In Marissa Lingen's Calibrated Allies we have a revolution seen through the eyes of student and recently freed slave Okori whose skills in modifying automata are put to good use in the opening acts of the conflict, and suggest interesting times ahead for the people of his home island.

There's a curious distancing effect at work in this story, with a stilted tone in the prose that gives you a distinct feel of an outsider looking in. Something which serves to show Okori's isolation from his fellow students and revolutionaries but does also stop the reader from connecting with the main character, at least until the last section where things loosen up a little. Having said that, it's still a compelling story.

The Lady of the Lake by E. Catherine Tobler is my favourite of the two despite a few early difficulties with the formal feeling language. It's a story full of trickery where no-one is who they first seem. Not Min, the dead woman who lives on an island and calls herself a lady of the lake; not Susanoo-no-Mikoto, the god of sea and storm whose quest is the catalyst for the story; and most especially not Sun Lin, the bubbling child whose visits delight the solitary Min.

Anyone familiar with the Japanese story of Susanoo-no-Mikoto slaying the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi will know roughly where it's going but having no knowledge of this particular branch of mythology (which I didn't) is definitely not a hindrance. Despite a couple of jarring paragraphs at the beginning, the story settles into an enchanting and enjoyably well told read.


Beneath Ceaseless Skies is available for free here. and can also be read in PDF, mobi and epub editions. Check out their website for the details!