Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Here we are at the other half of the split team story. Charms of the Feykin doesn’t really follow Delvin, Sari, and Fizzle alone. They got a few scenes in the previous volume to create suspense about their adventure. This starts with the other champions going in search of Delvin and Sari who have gone missing. It doesn’t take very long for them to find out what happened and see that there is something weird going on. A jungle city of those with fey blood and a powerful priestess claiming Delvin and Sari are great heroes to be worshipped? How can that go wrong?
The biggest goal of this story was to push the Delvin/Nyx relationship to its inevitable conclusion. There was never any mystery about them eventually turning into a couple since Delvin was open about his feelings. Nyx wasn’t and that was where I needed to have a story that forced her to be honest. Not that it wasn’t clear that she liked Delvin, who might be the only one who didn’t pick up on the truth. Anyway, a big chunk of the story involves these two on top of figuring out the mystery of what’s going on in the jungle with the Feykin, this priestess, and a cult determined to wipe them out. A fun backdrop for a romance.
Speaking of the jungle . . . I could never figure out a good name for this place. Characters kept calling it the Southern Jungle even though there wasn’t any other on the continent. I had this issue with the desert too. For some reason, I couldn’t imagine these two areas having official names that every group agreed upon. Given that both are inhabited by individual groups and independent cities, I thought there would be a variety of names for them. Those outside of the regions would refer to them by biome since you can’t list a ton of names on a map. In 2016, I noted this in a post and stated that every tribe had their own name for the jungle. Also, that any person who did try to name it tended to be conquerors who would get defeated by the local fauna. Maybe this place simply refuses to be tamed and named.
Another part of this story is Sari. If I had to change anything, I would try again to push her more into facing her trauma. She reveals that Kira being the one to stay with Luke Callindor isn’t sitting as well as she thought it would. So, she’s lashing out and doing other things to make herself feel better. There’s some manipulation of her as well, but that’s a plot twist. Sari’s actions do make sense and I got her to vent a bit. Yet, I again found it nearly impossible to get her to face the pain she keeps holding onto and gathering under a mask of being happy. She really does focus on making others happy in order to avoid facing her own demons. I struggle with the idea that she’s a lost opportunity even though it is realistic that some people will hide their pain by helping others in the hopes of it going away. Maybe having one out of six champions be unable to handle their trauma in a healthy way works. I just feel bad that this is the book where she came the closest to getting some healing and it simply didn’t work.
Charms of the Feykin is probably the only book where I got to make every champion shine in some fashion. Each one got at least one great moment and I hit a perfect balance between them. With six protagonists, it’s really hard to pull this off without bloating a story or stretching events. Everything fell into place this time. The other books were good with this, but I feel this one hit the balance so perfectly. Wish I knew the secret on how it happened, but it is what it is.
Questions to consider:
- How would you feel if the person you were interested in started dating someone else?
- Do you think racism always has to exist in fiction?
- If you could change into a creature that combines different animal parts, what would kind of chimera would you become?
Legends of Windemere 
I’ve had #1 happen to me several times when I was a teenager. No fun, lots of tears.
When I choose a book to read, I hope that it doesn’t involve racism because there’s so many reminders of it in the real world. Unfortunately, the books chosen for my book club this past year have been all about racism, practically every book.
You already know I would be a griffin!
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Racism is tough to avoid. It’s a topic that people can either relate to or should be more aware of. It hits hard too, which is why fiction uses it so often.
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Iagree!
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So, a flying cheetah? With #2, I’ve noticed that racism shows up a lot in fiction, especially fantasy. The various races always seem to have some issues with at least one of the others.
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Yes! a cheetah who is extra! 😄😄 Lately, yes, I have seen a lot of that in book descriptions for adults and young adults. I haven’t read very many brand new books for those ages though I tend to read a lot of classic book series that I like. If I read anything newish it’s probably from over ten years ago.
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There’s a focus on using literature to broach these subjects in school. I think that means there’s more interest in stories that depict them.
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1) How would you feel if the person you were interested in started dating someone else? It would depend. If I really liked them, and it seemed like they weren’t in a very serious relationship, I might try to keep my hand in. But if it was serious, then I would wish them well and let it go. There are other people to date. Anyway, a lot of relationships don’t work out, so if I kept it cool I might get another chance.
2) Do you think racism always has to exist in fiction? No, we make world building choices in everything we write. If you don’t want to deal with racism, you don’t have to (and you’d probably do a lousy job of it.) You can certainly take the aspirational approach, like in Star Trek, that equity has been achieved, and make sure to include all sorts of people in your cast.
3) If you could change into a creature that combines different animal parts, what would kind of chimera would you become? My favorites are bobcats, dragons and owls, so maybe a bobcat covered in feathers with scaly wings?
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I did think of Star Trek when I wrote the question. Mostly how the franchise eventually evolved to include some racism. Almost like such a thing is inevitable.
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It (racism) is an important part of the world, and readers may want it to be dealt with. But still, the author has the final choice on what content they want to include.
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This has happened to me, and it doesn’t feel good. You get over it and move on eventually. Racism is a choice in fiction, but it isn’t a bad one. Stories need stress and this is a decent way to introduce it. We’re never all going to love each other, so it fits. As an animal, how about a combo eagle and wolverine. I’d a bad tempered griffon of sorts.
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A flying wolverine. That’s terrifying.
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Being open and honest definitely has it’s advantages. I like the manticore idea.
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