I was asked if I would like to review this charming little story while it was on a free give-away, and I’m not sorry that I read it.
Classic fantasy, the story follows a boy as he is growing into maturity. While it employs various cliches of the orphan with a mysterious past, and the elderly bard-teacher, I still found it a fresh take on the old story of coming of age. It reminded me a bit (only no dragons!) of McCaffrey’s dragonsinger tales.
When his teacher fails to come one winter, Cricket finds himself in the big city, at music school (of sorts) and learning to play his flute and harp. He finds a friend, buys another, and has adventures. I can’t give away much more… this isn’t a novel, it’s a short story (Amazon says 82 pages).
The story carried me right along smoothly, and while some of the peripheral characters were only thumbnail sketches, for such a short work that was quite sufficient.
Which was a disappointment, as the story ended before I was ready for it to be over. I will keep an eye out for more when I want a sweet, calm story to enjoy.
