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Eventide


Castle Herald

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[Special Note: The new website is now live. As a result the links throughout this thread are invalid except for the latest posting to the thread. All of Arthur's stories can now be found at Arthur]

NEW STORY
Chapter 1 presented by Arthur

Edited by Zach Caldwell
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(spoilers through the end of chapter 2)

I have read the first two chapters so far.  The chapters are long but well-written, with a good sense of location and an overall mood that draws me in.  On the less positive side, to this point it doesn't feel like it is Eventide's story.  While there has been a lot of foreshadowing concerning who he might become, he has actually done very little yet has received huge rewards.  He is introduced well, showing talent as he defends himself from assault.  Later we see he has at least some degree of proficiency with the (quarter?) staff.  He hasn't actually use it yet, but is able to handle it well when he receives a fine staff early on.  His honesty and lack of ego has gone a long way to impress others.  It seems though, that everything he has gained has been through the luck of who he has met, not in what he has done.  Mahmud has been the youth to actually accomplish things.

I fully expect to see Eventide grow and become a player in his own story.  The joust event was fun to read and see the strategy and tactics used by the commoners against most of the squires. I was just disappointed that there was no direct comeuppance at the hands of Eventide for the dishonor he had received when the horse dung was thrown at him by the lead squire.  While the Bedouin as a whole were able to demonstrate that they are not the worthless foreigners many of the squires thought them to be, Eventide himself basically just stood there and looked cool.

Castle Roland's library classifies the Eventide story as a fantasy, but my expectations for this classification have not yet been met.  The story has been a medieval adventure. I can't remember anything that has actually been fantastical in nature.  It has been stated that Eventide descends from the "old ones", with strong hints that he might be a druid.  I look forward to this sort of thing come to fruition.

While this post focuses on the elements which disappointed me, I am enjoying the story overall.

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Zergrinch, I wasn't really complaining about the classification.  My point was simply that in the first two chapters nothing "magical" had happened yet.

Actually I have completed Eventide, and there is a minor amount.  It is not a major plot element, and almost everything is accomplished via normal means.  That's cool; not every story needs a lot of fantasy.  I was happy to see that Eventide did become more central to the story, and he accomplished some pretty cool things using his talents.  The story relates that he himself felt that most of what had happened to him early on was due to luck.  He is also given a lot of credit for helping to plan the first joust.  I don't remember anything like that being mentioned in chapters 1 or 2, but his strategic and tactical skills become major story elements after that.

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