Spirit of a Kyrie

I had a very difficult time reviewing this book. There are some writing elements I found fantastic, while others were horrific. For the most part, though, the overall feeling I had while reading this was that it was okay. I had some difficulty finishing the book, frankly, but since it was a Goodreads Giveaway I felt I had an obligation to see it through and give it a full and honest review.

Spirit of a Kyrie is a book in the Sky Lands series, which at present appears to be just two books by T.L. Rese. The books are standalone stories in the world and are not required to be read in any specific order. I have not read the other book in the series, so I can't offer any opinion on whether doing so would have improved this read. I can say that the author has spent a great deal of time and energy on world building. While it wasn't executed at the level of a Brandon Sanderson, for instance, there was obviously a depth to the world beyond what happened in those pages.

The strength of the world building was in its organization and diversity. The author created various new forms of wildlife, of plants and terrain, and even basic elemental landscapes. The deserts don't work quite like our deserts, or the oceans like our oceans. Fantastic creatures fill lands dominated by unique and mystical environs. Unfortunately this aspect of the story, arguably the finest skill of the author, was weakened by a failure to explore the descriptions of these fantastic pieces in a way that could ground them in a relatable reality. T.L. Rese has an obvious gift for descriptive prose when she puts effort into it (often found at the beginning of chapters, but quickly falling away as they progress). Unfortunately these descriptions often spiraled away from the task of setting the visual stage as they degraded into the ethereal psychological and metaphysical. I applaud her imagery, but the cost of so little set up was a lot of confusion, and worse, a disconnection from the narrative.

The characters in the novel are interesting, though not particularly dynamic. There is a modicum of growth in the core cast, but ancillary characters are nearly non existent and do little to add depth or color to the story. The energy was clearly all spent on Kit, who herself is quite interesting and deftly written. She manages to avoid many tropes of the genre and carries a clear sense of self throughout the story without leaning on the classic crutches of self doubt, romance, or a faux-strength. She is confident and driven, caring and complex. If the rest of the cast were treated with the same level of expertise, T.L. Rese's writing would be a force to be reckoned with.

For a final note I'd like to mention a relatively minor point, but one to which I am particularly sensitive. It is a sign of a weak editor in the process, not necessarily a deficiency in the writer herself. There is a point in the final act of the novel where a character is about to take a bath. The narrative is then immediately interrupted in order to explain the differences in all the previous locations' bathing processes and facilities. These were not elements in the story at any point to date, and their facts were rattled off the way a drunk friend at a bar would interrupt himself to explain, "Oh, let me backtrack and explain the rules of baccarat before I finish telling you about my date."

In the first place, the details served no purpose to the story. They were elements of the world that crept into the book and would have colored it nicely as a backdrop. Unfortunately the backdrop came to the foreground where it had no business. This isn't necessary a problem in writing, this happens. Normally we just breeze on by and never notice. The problem was only compounded when it illustrated the obvious need to do revision work. The author remembered an aspect of the settings that she wanted to make clear to her audience, but only came to the idea near the end of the book. The settings deserved to be in place, in context, but those scenes were already written. Here's where the editor should have stepped in and made the recommendations that would have helped with the first issue I mentioned regarding setting.

I say all of this as a way of demonstrating a theme I encountered while reading the book, not for the specifics of that example. This is a book with a solid compelling story written by an author with obvious talent for both prose, world building, and characterization. The book scored three stars for me, and I have a sense some of that score stems from my guilt over criticizing and author who was kind enough to sign a Giveaway. The problems in this story are all something that can be overcome with attention to the writing craft and with time and experience. I fully expect T.L. Rese to vastly improve in the books to come, just as Brandon Sanderson grew through similar issues in Elantris into the powerhouse he demonstrates himself to be in the Stormlight Archive.

I hope my review, if seen by the author, sends the message, "please keep writing and give us better and better stories." She surely has the potential.