Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet

Scattered across the wilds of the Expanse, House Abascar is growing restless of the ramblings of their supposed king, Cal-raven. They are tired of hearing him talk about the invisible Keeper and the disappeared Auralia. Soon Cal-raven and Tabor Jan turn to House Bel Amica for help. House Bel Amica is the rich kingdom by the sea who give their glory and praise to the moon-spirits, as they are directed by the mysterious Seers. Cal-raven believes that Queen Theresa's daughter Cyndere is the only Bel Amican who can be trusted because of her actions toward Auralia. As House Abascar makes their way toward House Bel Amica for help, Cal-raven encounters many strange circumstances that cause him to question what he formerly called truth. The Keeper is still a mystery, and Auralia, the only person he thinks has any answers, is missing. The Seers are waiting to take control of Abascar because of all this doubt, but few can stop them.

As if Auralia's Colors and Cyndere's Midnight weren't hard enough to decipher and understand, Raven's Ladder is harder. Jeffrey Overstreet's cryptic and abstract writing style does not convey correctly the story he wants the reader to understand. I know this because there is a What's Gone One Before chapter at the beginning of Raven's Ladder, and what it says makes the first two strands of the Auralia Thread useless because the reader cannot draw from these two books what Overstreet portrays at the beginning of this third book. Therefore, Jeffrey has wasted another work of fiction with his nonsense.

Cal-raven is a strange guide to the mysterious and abstract world called the Expanse because he is a mental case himself. He sees things that other characters cannot see. His viewpoints of the plot are a random string of nonsensical scenes that only serve to confuse the reader and muddle the book. There are many other characters such as Jordam, Krawg, Cyndere, Tabor Jan, Ark-robin, Say-Reesa, Luci, Madi, Margi, Ryllion, Theresa, Emeriene, and Wynn who are all undeveloped and half-used because there are far too many characters. Jeffrey did not spend enough time on each individual character and their subplots because there were too many other characters to think about. The Seers are interesting enough villains, but once again, are not expanded upon for the same reason. Jeffrey has a lot to learn about character development, clearly.

There are many interesting otherworldly elements such as triplets who can thought speak together, a healer who takes on the person's illness in order to heal them, and people who can mold stones like clay, but none of these align together to form a plot. Jeffrey throws them all onto the pages of this book without bothering to form a plot with them. I suppose this is the book's biggest problem: there is no sturdy plot. Between all the characters Jeffrey must juggle, Cal-raven's abstract visions, and Overstreet's lack of background or description about the Expanse; there is no plot. There are many interesting ideas stuck to the pages of this book that could be used by a better author in a better way, but Jeffrey Overstreet is clearly not the man for the job. Throughout the book, he seems to be trying to convey an interesting foundational idea having to do with finding the real Keeper, the God figure of this world, but these questions are not answered in the end but rather compounded, making for another wasted book in this underachieving alternate world series.

There is a fourth book in this series coming out soon in which Jeffrey will have to answer some of the questions he's been dancing around for three books now.

Even so, Jeffrey has a lot to learn about writing fiction. He needs to grow out of his abstract writing style and actually write some real fiction.

1.5 stars

Cyndere's Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet

Cyndere is the heir to the throne of House Bel Amica, but when her husband of three months dies in a hunting accident, she fails to see the meaning in life. But soon her paths cross with a beastman named Jordam who wants revenge on House Bel Amica. They form an unlikely bond, and soon, Cyndere discovers that it was Jordam's brother who killed her husband.

The ale boy (nameless for no reason) continues to wander the countryside and spread Auralia's colors to those who need them. He soon discovers that he has been gifted with the gift of fire walking, that is, walking through the fire without being burned.

Overstreet remains to leave his reader in the dark about what is going on in the Expanse. Obviously, he is the only one who understands what creatures like beastmen, vawns, and viscorcats look like. However, since this book delves deeper into the politics of the beastmen, the reader can catch glimpses of what these mysterious creatures look like. But still, the editor should not have let this book go to the press without some more descriptiveness.

But that's not the only problem. The plot of Auralia's Colors was more original than the plot of Cyndere's Midnight. Cyndere's Midnight cleverly disguises a typical plot with features that are sure to wow Christian spec fans. There are pieces of Literary Trash such as false key character deaths, typical romantic subplots, showdowns and perfect characters.

The characters, mainly Cyndere and Jordam, spend most of their time wandering around the countryside whining about what hard lives they have. They don't get much accomplished as far as moving the story of House Abascar along. Actually, House Abascar and their hiding in the caves is brushed under the rug for basically the whole book. There is a rare mention of them throughout the whole thing.

Cyndere's Midnight

is basically a complete waste of time. I hope that Cal-raven's Ladder, the Gold Strand in the Auralia Thread, is better than this one.

2.5 stars

Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet

When a young orphan girl is found in the snow by a band of thieves, they immediately take her into their culture. They live as outcasts in the land of Abascar, a land where a stingy king reigns who has outlawed all color.

But as the young girl, Auralia, grows, she discovers that she has and uncanny gift of coloring the colorless objects of the kingdom. This gift gets her into a lot of trouble with the royal house of Abascar. The good thing about her is that she is no superhuman, she simply finds color in nature where others pass over it.

Despite the original end of this book and the general originality of this debut novel, there are several problems with it.

First, there are many creatures in the world that have no explanation or description. The reader is simply supposed to understand what those imaginary creatures are supposed to look like. The reader gets lost among these undescribed animals and people.

Second, the political houses and parties are also vague and hard to understand. There are several other houses such as the Bel Amicans, that have no explanation as to who they are and where they stand with the House of Abascar. There are also several other cultures and peoples around the area that lack explanation. Perhaps this will come later in the series but we could have used it in the first book.

Third, none of the other characters have personalities, but at least they are imperfect and slightly believable.

I like most of what Overstreet has done with this novel, and I expect greater things from him down the road. I just wish Auralia's Colors could have been Elite.

3.5 stars