The Cloud Enchanters by NS Ford
I would like to thanks the author for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Published - Out Now
Price - £1.79 ebook
Seven fantastic fantasy tales to enthrall and entertain you. Dragons, witches, prophecies, sorcerers and more…
At a café in the sky, a fugitive angel finds new friends. A reclusive man has to care for newly hatched dragons. A witch builds a tempting gingerbread house, but where are the children? An archive assistant goes on the run when he reads a prophecy about himself. Can a group of middle-aged warriors addicted to quests be persuaded to settle down? An apprentice authoress uses magic to speed up her writing, with life-changing consequences. A girl with her head in the clouds is recruited by an elite group of people who can charm the weather.
One thing I love about short stories are how authors can play with format and the craft of a very short take can also be quite effective to set up a character or situation and sometimes surprise the reader by taking a different direction to the norm. NS Ford’s new fantasy collection while short delivers that really well
We start with ‘The Authoress’s Apprentice’ Melvana works for a powerful sorceress but is mainly being a ghost writer for her employer now. Worked to the bone a simple spell can save some time but it goes very wrong. A neat spin on the Apprentice tale and has a little tweak of the nose at publishing too that I enjoyed.
The character work comes across in ‘One More Quest’ where a Princess is trying very hard to persuade a group of heroes it’s time to let the next generation have a go. Ford plays with the usual charcters but with added dimensions all in a fairly serving scenes but the desire for adventure is very hard to resist for characters just as much for readers. A take with a lot of heart.
Another subversion of expectations awaits in ‘Gungerbread’ take a witch and kitchen and we know what to expect but it’s the big reveal why things won’t go to plan that really works and has a neat threat too suggesting playtime is over.
I really liked the mix of contemporary and fantasy in ‘A Dozen Dragons’ the not appropriately named Mr Merry lives a very quiet life until he discovers his egg delivery is actually a group of hatching dragons. The humour here really works with the story but it’s also about how kindness and letting some magic in can sometimes just sometimes make things better. My favourite in the collection.
The surreal and the fantastic collide in ‘Cafe In The Sky’ where angels go to a flying cafe to find a missing member of their flock. I loved the story for its creativity but also the message that sometimes we all need a fresh start.
There is something just a little menacing in ‘The Prophecy’ where we meet Henric a a young archivist who can’t resist temptation and reads a prophecy about himself. Ford plays with narrative, plot twist and yet the endings wonderfully disquieting what is actually going on here? I like a story where the reader has some doubts they saw all the clues.
Finally a short but gorgeously described tale awaits in the ‘The Cloud Enchanters’ with storms, families, magic and revelations all compressed in a few pages.
This is a collection that while a quick read is a varied and very entertaining one. Highly recommended for short fiction fans.
