A Turn of Light

4.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Jenn Nalynn is about to turn 19 and ready to leave the confines of her tiny village of Marrowdell. She also wants a husband, and her invisible friend Wisp may fit the bill, if it turns out that the old magic spell she's found will work. Only her friend turns out to have been a dragon. Forced into human form by Jenn's spell, he's damaged and vulnerable, just when more and more threats have come.

Review
I was first exposed to A Turn of Light through chapters posted on Czerneda's website. But then I never got around to reading them, because a) I think they were PDFs, and b) I decided I preferred to see them in their finished state. But because I had the book, it took me a long time to actually buy a true copy. And then, of course, my TBR pile grew out of control. In the interim, I read Czerneda's standalone fantasy novel, The Gossamer Mage, and was underwhelmed. So I had some trepidation about this book, and have only just gotten to it. Now, I'm sorry I put it off.

It's not perfect – the protagonist, Jenn, is a little too fickle to be really loveable, and a little too widely loved to be really credible. There are way too many people introduced too quickly. The latter half gets pretty messy, with too much going on all at once – it's meant to show exactly that, but as presented is difficult to follow. Some clever little turns (e.g., an incantation) are dropped and apparently forgotten. And it's never really clear how the key goal is resolved.

But largely, it's a lot of fun, and I zipped through the ca. 700 pages in just a couple of days. Czerneda does a great job of turning the usual fantasy epic on its head by having no distant travel and (almost) no swordplay. It's a sunny, feel good, happy story that works. The romance, and this is a romance, is in some ways the story's weakest point; it's on the predictable side and a little too easy. But the rest largely works, and the worldbuilding is fun.

This reads very much as a standalone book, yet is the first of a trilogy, so I'm curious to see what happens next. In any case, I recommend this first volume to anyone looking for happy fantasy.