As part of the Amazon entry, they promised to write reviews. These just arrived last night.
ABNA Expert Reviewer
The concept of the dead being reanimated and then a knight in trouble in some kind of fantasy world are hardly new ideas. In many ways, the injured and mysterious warrior being treated by a young lady has been heavily overused. At this time, I do not see how the two main plot devices introduced in this excerpt can be combined. I did not find the story of great interest as it would take a greater expression of these old ideas to engage my interest.
And the other one:
ABNA Expert Reviewer
It is not yet clear whether this is a medieval novel or a fantasy. There are elements of both.
There is good tension being built. In the first chapter the cemetery has flooded and there are no bodies, only wedding rings. It is speculated that the bones of the dead have joined the flesh and are again living. THe abbey’s master halts the storm with a wave of his hand, evidently invoking the “Medium”. This is all observed by the nine year “wretched” – the help.
The next chapter is four years later and the wretched is awakened in the night by a man she learns is a “knight-maston” who has brought a wounded young man with him. As she works to heal the young man, the knight leaves telling her to take care of the youth and to keep him hidden while he gets the sherriff off his trail.
The girl is bright and denied the chance to learn to read, which is her biggest dream. One gets the feeling that someone will be her white knight and educate her. The terminology and the floating rock in the cemetery makes me think there will be a fantasy element to this book. If it were straight dark ages, I would be interested. Since I am not a fantasy fan, I would not be interested if it goes in that direction. That, however, is a matter of taste, not a judgment on quality, for the writing is good, and the early bits have good tension to hook the reader.
I thought it a little strange that they weren’t expecting the novel to be fantasy, since that is what it was categorized as in the submission. The comparison to the injured warrior archetype is fair – though it wasn’t a common theme in many of the fantasy novels I’ve read. Still, feedback is useful.
