The threads of fate are not so easily unwoven.
There is a growing fascination among the Dusk Tribe with the land of the dead. The Tribe’s shamans work tirelessly day and night to find a path to communion with their people’s lost souls, but answers are slow to uncover.
As both the son of a shaman and the Tribe’s only Futureseer, Zarrow is ordered to view the days and weeks ahead to reveal the source of the Tribe’s successful discovery, but when he does so, he finds not celebration, but destruction. Devastation. Sacrifice. And those closest to him bloodied by it all. Zarrow must find a way to prevent his visions from coming to pass, and he must do so quickly.
For the pale night approaches, and it promises a curse that may leave the Dusk Tribe forever haunted.
-Goodreads
Book Information
- Title: Pale Night, Red Fields
- Series: The Spellbinders and the Gunslingers #0.5
- Author: Joseph John Lee
- Page Count: 80
- Genre: Fantasy
- Rating: 4.25/5.0
- Date Read: September 28th, 2024
Opening Thoughts
Pale Night, Red Fields by Joseph John Lee is a prequel novella to book one of The Spellbinders and the Gunslingers series (The Bleeding Stone). To be honest, I read book one over a year ago and even though I really enjoyed it, the series kind of dropped off my radar after I picked up book two. Now that I have my handy spreadsheet tab tracking my reading progress with series, it’s back in my sights. Now due to reading two larger epic novels recently, I felt the need to take a bit of a break to finish off September here. That’s why I opted to pick up Pale Night, Red Fields. It would allow me to get a bit of a reset as well as still ship away at a good series.
Pacing
The pacing of this read was smooth yet still fulfilling. What I mean by this is I can struggle with some novellas because of their shorter length. I’ve had this type of experience where it seemed the author may have rushed the story a bit. That was not the case here. This is even more surprising coming into this read just under 100 pages from a read close to 900 pages. I did fear this drastic shift of gears. Fortunately, I picked a good novella to transition with. The author does a great job still making the characters and world seem very substantial. I had no issues with names of locations or character to trip me up either.
World Building
As I just mentioned the world building really worked for me in this one. The most obvious point to make is that I really enjoy novellas and short stories that add depth to a story and series and this certain achieved that goal. The continued religion or magic in this world keeps things interesting in this one. We learn a bit more backstory about our eclipseborn characters from the first book which was nice.
Character Development
The character development was also really good here. We have some really good relationships and difficulties for characters to overcome, or attempt to at the very least. This novella has a dark and ominous vibe throughout. The protagonist appears to be trying to find out who he is all the while finding out not only who he is but what the future potentially holds for him, his friend and their tribe.
Roundup & Recommendation
All in all this was a very good companion read to the Spellbinders and the Gunslingers series. I really need to get to the second book and then wrap it up with the third. Maybe I can squeeze in book two still by the end of 2024 and wrap up the series early in 2025. We shall see.
If you haven’t read The Bleeding Stone (book one) yet, and like a dark, rich fantasy world and story, you owe it to yourself to give it a go! If like me, you found yourself stuck in the mud of our TBR after reading the first book and just want to get a bit more of the series, Pale Night, Red Fields will certainly do the trick!
Scoring
World Building 4/5
Pacing 4/5
Character Development 4.5/5
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