Wiz Duos 3 - The Sheltering Flame by Ruthanna Emrys and Walking A Wounded Land by Andrew Knighton
Publisher – Wizard’s Tower Press
Published – Out Now
Price – £13 paperback £4.99 ebook
The Sheltering Flame by Ruthanna Emrys
Three old friends fleeing from their lives in academia take on a unique restoration project in the hills of New England, only to find that the stewardship of their crumbling new property comes with a magical obligation. When a desperate teenager turns up on their doorstep claiming sanctuary, it brings them into direct conflict with an ancient power of the land – one who rules over its debtors without mercy. The Hearth’s new keepers have 24 hours to save their new friend, fulfill their unexpected obligations, and claim the future they didn’t know they wanted.
Walking a Wounded Land by Andrew Knighton
Ghosts linger amid the fields and streets of England, waiting to be summoned by those who can walk their paths. Paul is one of the walkers, returned home to follow in a friend’s last footsteps and learn how he died. But the land is a place of conflict, caught between connection and control. To find peace, Paul will have to confront his own past and other people’s power, in a poignant tale of grief, justice, and walking your own path.
The joy of stories is the variation. Authors can take a theme and spin very different tales with a host of different characters, settings and plots/ The Wiz Duos series has combined two novellas linked around a theme and in Wiz Duos 3 we get a sumptuous combination of tales with The Sheltering Flame by Ruthanna Emrys and Walking A Wounded Land by Andrew Knighton about reaching a point in your life and deciding what you’re going to do about it; but in very different circumstances. The effect is a beautiful balanced set of light and dark tales but both offering the reader hope for the future
The Sheltering Flame by Ruthanna Emrys – This story takes us to New England and three friends have decided to abandon their careers in academia for a different pace of life repairing a dilapidated house away from it all. However, a knock on the door brings a young woman needing sanctuary and so Leah and her friends Del and Candace find themselves now the latest owners of a powerful magical house and they are the keepers of the hearth. They have the responsibility to help those seeking shelter and suddenly find themselves up against a literal Mountain seeking to enforce a magical bargain. Leah and her friends soon must negotiate magic before they lose their home and just possibly their lives
This tale sparkles with energy throwing us like Leah who narrates the story into the deep end. Emrys here plays with multiple ideas. The idea of a magical place of shelter combined with the long-standing tradition of queer households offering shelter for those also desperate in need. Here a young college student finds her parents have decided it would be far better to bind their daughter to just one woman and the powerful Mountain force known as the Notch has agreed to give them his prized succubus in exchange for power. While the story is fantastical Emrys finds the sad reality in parents who want to control their children’s lives and that gives the story a real emotional stake to resolve. We then get Leah and co learning the rules of magic ad especially those bargains while throwing in a host of strange entities to meet from plant like lawyers to a mysterious grey man who wants control of everything. We also find the succubus is being used against her will and her growing friendship with Leah also adds complexity to the solution the group need to find. Emrys knows when to add menace, danger and humour and this story feels incredibly fresh and engrossing. A reminder that sometimes just standing up for someone is what we should be doing and that may find us a purpose too. I loved this for its sense of heart.
Walking A Wounded Land by Andrew Knighton – Now this story I loved too but it’s a completely different tone to Flame. Where there its about constant action this is a slower more bittersweet story. Here we move to England and meet Paul. He is a Walker someone who can walk a path and see all the fragments of the past from the neolithic to the modern day that have walked it. He has finally returned to the small town he called home and is shocked to find his former friend Ben has died at just 28. Ben too was a walker; Paul reunites with another friend an Artist named Star and decides to find out what has happened. Did Ben’s passion to sae the land around their home lead to his death and is a ruthless landowner to blame.
Here we have a character in Paul who has rejected his former home and friendships. Someone who has found his place and wishes to go no further. But going home again unearths a lot of buried memories and guilt. The relationship between Ben, Paul and Star is slowly unpicked and here is a story about people taking a long hard look at their pasts, understanding their choices and then deciding what comes next. Knighton excels at the intimate character work here as we unpick people’s hidden motivation and all the cast we meet have shades of light and dark to them which makes it hard to judge who is to blame. This is a story about understanding others and most of all yourself. The power of memory here is well used not just for the gorgeous magical moments we keep seeing history come to life around a town but as Paul begins to look at his relationship with ben; what was not said and deciding what he wants to do about it. I particularly liked how Knighton avoids the idea of the lone hero putting things right and as we find in the plot that path can be quite destructive. It’s a beautiful and unusual story I really was very impressed by.
As the turn of the year means we both look back and forward at our lives and hopes, I think this Duo of novellas would be a perfect read balancing light and dark just as we need at the time of the solstice and a reminder doing the right thing always offers hope. Its strongly recommended!
