Scattered Magic
The Sidhe (Urban Fantasy) series, Book 1
S. A. Archer and S. Ravynheart
Ravynheart Publishing
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Faeries and Kin, Hidden Wonders, Urban Tales
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Description
In the fey realm of the Mounds, miles beneath the earth, the long struggle between Light and Dark, Seelie and Unseelie, has finally ended. But some forces cannot
be reconciled, and some unions bring only disaster. Jhaer, ruler of the Unseelie Elite, tried to warn his people of the fatal consequences, but nobody wanted to hear...
until the Mounds collapsed and the All-Mother perished, a catastrophe that Jhaer alone survived.
On the Earth's surface, Jhaer vows he will not be the last of his people. Learning to sustain himself via ley lines, he is reborn as Donovan, determined to unite fey
exiles and half-breeds in a new Sidhe court. It won't be easy - most have no training, and predators, from vampires to wizards, constantly prey on their undefended magic
- but survival never is... and Jhaer-turned-Donovan is nothing if not a born survivor.
A Kindle-exclusive title. Originally titled Aftershock, Book 1 of the Rise of the Unseelie series.
Review
A short story kicking off a new urban fantasy series, Aftershock wastes little time on setup, plunging the reader straight into the fall of the Mounds and the doomed struggle of Jhaer to save even his enemies from utter destruction. Nevertheless, despite the traumas I witnessed Jhaer endure, I never felt a connection with him, or with any of the other characters. Things happen, but with minimal follow-through. Characters are introduced, but never stay on-screen long enough to care about. The whole story read like a movie preview or a series of internet clips, enough to provide a taste of the action without absorbing the audience. As a stated introduction to a new series, by the end I should've been invested in the characters and the mytharc. Instead, I barely knew the characters and the mytharc left me indifferent. While I've read far worse, this is a series that can unwind without me.