Okay. *Tomorrow* I’ll attack my FimFiction feed. Really wish there was a way to sort them. Like, all the updates from a single person. Then I could nibble away at it bit by bit. Ah well.
Turns out my assumption was wrong. The main character in this one was the secondary character in One Drink.
Overall I liked this. A few spots were not as exciting, I had the big problem more or less figured out about halfway through the story. So I got somewhat frustrated with the characters not seeing what seemed obvious to me. I, however, had the advantage of knowing that the events were a story and therefor had to make narrative sense. Plus I have read a story that had pretty close to the same basic premise/plot. Details were wildly different, but the broad strokes were pretty much identical.
Don’t really have much else to say about it that wouldn’t be spoilers. Good characters, interesting magical danger for the big reveal/finale. Would have liked a bit more of the main character’s magic. Animal-speaking shaman goes to the southwest and doesn’t talk too or meet a coyote? Or really any of the desert/scrubland animals? Missed opportunity.
Even though I found Rocke (main character from previous short story One Drink) a bit cliche, I found that I missed him in this one. So I guess my reaction to him was a bit more situational than the character’s fault. Or that cliche doesn’t mean bad writing.
Recommended for anyone who enjoys urban fantasy and a good introduction to the genre. I might suggest reading it before One Drink, but either way is fine. The two don’t build on each other in any kind of narrative fashion.
The City of Doors 