Tuesday 22 February 2022

Kirkus review of Alliance Metamorphosis

Not sure how I feel about this one:

TITLE INFORMATION
ALLIANCE METAMORPHOSIS
David Oliver-Godric Independently Published (235 pp.) $12.34 paperback
ISBN: 979-8632409629
April 16, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
An Indigenous community faces off against an antagonistic shaman and navigates an alliance with a potential colonizing force in Oliver-Godric’s historical drama.
The story begins in 1031 B.C.E. with three young hunters of the River People, an Indigenous group in a coastal land east of China. Hawk, Seabird, and Boomer discover an unfamiliar trail running through their territory, which they follow to a grassland village that’s been taken over by a sinister shaman hellbent on war. The three witness his murder of the chief, and the resulting retaliation of a young woman named Midnight, who’s forced to flee her village. She brings the warning of impending conflict to the River People, who accept her as their own, and they fortify their position with the help of traders from the more technologically advanced Song people of mainland China. Throughout this tale, there are few shades of gray; good and evil are clear and separate entities with obvious representatives. There’s no internal strife among the River People, and Hawk and Midnight are born leaders whose resolve never falters and whose decisions never go awry. Through it all, Midnight’s pet raccoon, Nosey, accompanies her as a loyal and comedic animal familiar who’s reminiscent of a Disney-film sidekick. The people, as Hawk notes, are industrious and intensely community-oriented: “I see no rivalries, no conflicts, no selfish maneuverings. The People work as one entity against a power that seeks to crush and enslave us.” By contrast, the enemy is portrayed as awkward, rash, headstrong, fueled by greed, and poorly skilled. These strict characterizations grow tiresome at times and readers seeking a character-driven work, rich in interiority, may want to look elsewhere. Overall, Oliver-Godric’s prose is sprightly and his plot fast-paced. However, it’s in the service of an intensely idealized reimagining of Colonial era contact between peoples, in which war is waged on a whim and respect is given everywhere it’s due.

A tale of community and cooperation that reimagines history in a wholesome but unrealistic manner.

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Winston Churchill:

And do not suppose that this is the end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This is only the first sip, the first foretaste of the bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless, by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigor, we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time"

Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.

All great things are simple, and many can be expressed in single words: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.