The Lies of the Ajungo, by Moses Ose Utomi
A short novella attempting to tread the line between mythic storytelling and a closer more personal story, and in my opinion not quite getting the balance right.
The mythic elements felt good, well constructed and each part of the story following naturally from what had come before it to tell the kind of story that myths are made to tell. It had the logic of stories that come from the folk tradition. But it also tried to include more psychological reality for its characters than really felt like it fit the myth logic, and it left me feeling like I never quite got to know any of the major characters as people and yet they didn't embody a Type the way characters in folk traditions often do either.
Also there are a number of extended, violent fight sequences. And yes I'm not the right audience for such things, I'm usually just not that interested, but I also felt like those diluted the focus on the Story and the Themes, like, yes the results of the fights are important to those things but we don't need a blow-by-blow to get what's needed out of those. it felt to me more like those were included because the author enjoys fight scenes tbh.
Idk. Overall there's a lot about it that's very promising, in an early book by a new author, and the story it's telling will I think be sticking with me for a while, but ultimately the way the book's put together just doesn't quite work for me
The mythic elements felt good, well constructed and each part of the story following naturally from what had come before it to tell the kind of story that myths are made to tell. It had the logic of stories that come from the folk tradition. But it also tried to include more psychological reality for its characters than really felt like it fit the myth logic, and it left me feeling like I never quite got to know any of the major characters as people and yet they didn't embody a Type the way characters in folk traditions often do either.
Also there are a number of extended, violent fight sequences. And yes I'm not the right audience for such things, I'm usually just not that interested, but I also felt like those diluted the focus on the Story and the Themes, like, yes the results of the fights are important to those things but we don't need a blow-by-blow to get what's needed out of those. it felt to me more like those were included because the author enjoys fight scenes tbh.
Idk. Overall there's a lot about it that's very promising, in an early book by a new author, and the story it's telling will I think be sticking with me for a while, but ultimately the way the book's put together just doesn't quite work for me