Six hundred years is a long time. Longer if you’re not the winners of the most recent blink of the Yochni’s Eye.
Imagine a world where, once every six hundred years, a super-being blinks, and in doing so, grants the wish of the champion who made it there in time for the blink. What could go wrong?
Would you be blinked out of existence? Into slavery? Maybe you’d even be blinked into existence. What if I won and I wished for calorie-free-but-every-bit-as-good Golden Double Stuf Oreos? One thing everyone knows about wish-granting tales is that there are always unforeseen consequences. Same here.
Bogeys are the current dominant species on the planet. I see them as supersized balvarines (The Fable series) or permanent werewolf type critters. Once you win the competition and wish yourself into dominance, it kind of sucks to be a different species. The Yochni’s been around for a long time – long enough for the planet and its history to be completely muddled.
There are humans, bogeys, dwarves, water dragons (who knew?), Ent-like tree people, and a character who is described as the third-place prince of the bogeys.
Morrison sucks you in to the tale immediately and you need to be buckled in. It’s a fun, fast, ride with a complex cast that reminded me of both Tolkien and Sanderson. It’s rated for those over 12, but a strong reader could absorb this earlier. Some violence and mayhem, but nothing you couldn’t read in school or at work.
Morrison’s got a gift, and I hope we’ll be seeing lots more from her in the future.
On the Feral Scale, this one’s a strong 8 for story and a N/A for science – it’s a fantasy novel after all. Grab the book (currently free on Kindle Unlimited) and a burrito, and tuck into both.
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