The Dead Well

So after looking at the goofy cover, and reading the description that didn't really make me understand what this was about, I passed over this a few times. Finally, curiosity got the better of me, as it always does, and I checked this out to find an amazing fantasy tale with great characters and a deep world with loads of rules and lore of its own.

My worries of it just having the weirdness factor cranked up to eleven all the time with nothing to ground it was unfounded thankfully, although the beginning almost makes it seem that way. The story opens with a festival where giant creatures named Horvu that can look like all sorts of things eat one another and birth others at the same time. It was pretty odd. Then all sorts of strange words and things are introduced to the reader that just don't make a whole lot of sense. But after a while, it all began to click for me, and I got into it. Needs some time to ease into it, all the great character stuff comes after the weird introduction.

Not that the story doesn't retain that weirdness. To give you the major example that still sticks out to me... a demon is summoned in the book by his sphincter first appearing, then from it his pink flesh comes forth and he begins to form in the world. So yeah, a demon basically craps itself into existence. There's loads more of this kind of crazy in here, it's always fun and makes you think... what the heck!?

So basically the story is as follows. Helz, a sorcerer longs for the companionship of her Aunt Lona, who was once as close as a sister to her, once again. Holneby, Lona's rather manipulative husband keeps her under his control and doesn't let her see Helz anymore. They all three come to an arrangement that allows Lona to see Helz on the weekends, Holneby needs an invention of hers to assist him. While this is great for Helz at first, things go awry and sets off a tale of revenge and adventure across this crazy and fun fantasy world with lots of strange places and encounters. Her story of course eventually intersects with Tuckle and the wizard Monfro, who are in the introduction, the story is told out of order at first.

I understand why the store description didn't tell me what this was about after reading the story... It's a deeply layered tale that is hard to tell potential readers about because it's hard not to spoil it, hopefully, I explained it a little better without ruining it for anyone.

The three main characters are all great, Helz, Tuckle, and Monfro. They have a lot of great moments and despite the zaniness of the story they all somehow manage to ground it and keep it from spiraling into that weirdness always cranked up to eleven thing I was worried about. Helz especially has a great character arc, and she was pretty much the stand out character to me. (And to think she doesn't even get a spot on the cover!)

I mean there is just so much to talk about here and this is already way too long, I know. Blottick stones, how they cast spells in this, all the strange and fun little creatures... I just can't get into it all, I'd write a novel-length thing myself. There is simply a lot to this, and it made for great reading.

Does it have problems? Yep. The pacing is weird, it goes a long time between the sets of main characters and all the terms and weird words and spell work were hard to follow and understand sometimes. In the end, it didn't truly affect my enjoyment of it though, I loved this book.

A very complex fantasy world, layered storytelling, incredibly weird things that are grounded by great character work... If you only pay attention to one thing I have written in this stupidly long review, make it be this... This is worth reading.