SFINCS3 Review: The Weaver and the Wyrm by Ben Galley
- Angela Boord
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website.
We're now in Phase 3 of the SFINCS competition: the finals! There's no more elimination in this phase; the ten books in this phase were chosen out of the original hundred and made it to the end! In Phase 3, they'll all be ranked by score until eventually one book comes out on top.
Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole.
Farden is a Written mage: a living weapon, the brutal fist of the Arka, trained in the schools of magick and forged in fire and blood. There are few that would dare to trifle with a Written, but there are always those too stupid or too ambitious to heed the warnings.
Driven from the city of Krauslung and the Arka by family shame and gossip, Farden hopes the far-flung land of Albion will give him the peace and anonymity he craves. Shunned by the rest of Emaneska, Albion is a land of cruel dukes, rolling hills, and narrow minds who have rarely seen true magick.
When his new and unusual superior Durnus immediately dispatches Farden on his first mission to recover a valuable weapon, the mage’s hopes of lying low are dashed by the Weaver: a grifter with poisonous ambition and other ideas for the weapon.
Battling bandits and a hunter with a score to settle, Farden not only has to claim and keep ahold the weapon, but he must find out why it has half of Albion – and the Arka – chasing its tail.
Review
The Weaver and the Wyrm has a retro-fantasy style that reminded me of 80's and 90's fantasy with a more modern pace. If you're looking for a quick, entertaining, action-packed fantasy focusing mainly on plot, I would definitely recommend this.
Farden is a Written--a powerful mage whose magic resides in the tattoos covering his back. Although he’s placed himself in self-exile to the backwater land of Albion, he can’t escape his reputation or his vocation. He’s soon summoned by a mysterious and powerful order of clerics whose leader sends him on a mission to find and recover what Fardon assumes to be a magical artifact... but turns out to be so much more.
Farden and Durnus (his boss) feature prominently in Galley's Emaneska series, beginning with The Written, and I think that--as with most prequel novellas--if you're coming to this story with the knowledge of these characters from the main series, you'll probably bring more to the story than I did. But I did feel like this novella was more completely standalone than other prequel novellas I’ve read; you don't need any prior knowledge to follow or enjoy this story, and I think that's a particular strength.
This is a plot-driven story, and the focus is on Farden’s abilities, untangling the intrigue, and kicking ass. I really liked the magic system and the action scenes are great. Still, I wished for more character work. The Weaver and his henchmen in particular struck me as being over-the-top props for the plot rather than real people (even real awful people), and I really wanted more set-up between Fardon and the hunter he meets later; their relationship felt rushed for the emotions we were being asked to feel.
Farden himself is grumpy and arrogant. Because there isn’t a lot of character development in general, these characteristics are pretty much what you get, though I did feel like his friendship with the wyrm added depth that was missing otherwise. Farden’s grudging, developing friendship with the snappish, poisonous wyrm was my favorite part of the story—well, the wyrm in general, was my favorite. I liked every little scrap of Wyrm Galley gave me, and these scenes felt the most realistic in a character sense. They softened Farden a bit and gave us a tiny peek into who he might be under the tattoos.
Related to this, I did also feel like Farden had some plot armor that allowed him to triumph over a few complications that felt like they should maybe have been more serious. Farden is a badass, which is fun, but there were a few occasions when the badassery stretched my belief a bit.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the world. I have to admit that all the gritty descriptions of rain and rotting things and seedy taverns were probably my favorite part of the novella after the wyrm. Were they a little tropey grimdark? Maybe. But I didn’t care, because I like those tropes.
If you need some escape for an afternoon and you’re in the mood for a gritty throwback fantasy with strong plotting and excellent action, then definitely check out this book!
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