My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
A novella that begins at the end of the main character’s life is one that you know is going to take you for a bit of a spin. Jade Star succeeds in that regard with flying colors. Not being a long tale, it had somewhat of a twitchy start… meaning lots of things happened in a hurry. However, once you see where things are headed, you quickly become focused on the emotions of the main character.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about this story was that I felt as if I ALREADY KNEW who Jade Star was. Don’t ask me how, but I did. Because this is a novella length story (and on the short side of that range), there isn’t a lot of time for character development and plot. I personally think it could be expanded somewhat to help with that, and to loosen some of the suddenness in the story shifts. Even so, it still works. You just have to be willing to accept the deep emotions of the main character and the few others in the story at face value to get the ‘pulled-in’ effects that I did. I found it easy to do myself, having read so much other fiction that I unconsciously filled in the unstated character motivations.
I enjoyed this read, and it left me wanting more of Jade Star and her universe. I guess I’ll need to read Tanager’s Fledglings when it comes out! I give this one 3.5 stars and call it a Grabbing Read.
Words from the Wampuscat 
Thank you š
Actually, I tend to write tightly on purpose. For one thing, I was trying to keep this short – it’s the build-up to a novel, not a novel itself. And for another, to have expanded much would take away from the reader. It’s a technique I am emulating from Heinlein (Friday, in particular), and I know I have not yet got the chops to pull it off, but on the other hand, I’m still learning and growing. However, the idea is to do just what you noticed – put you in a world without having to spend precious momentum explaining.
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Yep, I completely saw what you were doing here! (That doesn’t make me not want more though! hehehe) I haven’t read Friday, so I will have to in order to see what you mean in your comparison. I would like to be able to write concise short stories as well, so thanks for the suggestion!
BTW: I would have explained exactly where the ‘twitchy’ part was, but I didn’t want to spoil anything for other potential readers! That’s also a difficulty I have as a reviewer of shorter works… doing it without spoiling. Goodreads will let me put ‘spoiler tags’, but WordPress will not.
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It’s hard to write an analytical review without them, I try not to on my blog, but occasionally it happens and I try to warn readers and give a big space so they can click away.
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