Angel Leya, $0.99
Fantasy, 2016

Raven was written for an anthology revolving around sirens, but when it wasn’t included in that anthology, Angel Leya decided to publish this one herself. That’s the spirit, if I may say so. After all, why let other people dictate whether or not your stuff is good or bad… uh, wait a minute, forget I said that.

Actually, I wouldn’t accept this story either if I were the one putting that anthology on sirens. No, it’s not that this story is bad. The prose is readable enough, although this story isn’t long enough for me to form a more concrete opinion of the author’s writing style. My issue is that this story has no build-up.

We have our protagonist, a hunter, who is looking for a kill that will make him a worthy husband to that lady he has his heart set on. Instead, he fights the titular creature, best described as a bird woman. He believes that she would make an extra bonus prize to capture his sweetheart’s affection, on top of the creature he aims to kill and bring back to the village as evidence of his ability to provide for his sweetheart, but alas, the creature in question may not be the lucky charm he is hoping it to be.

Now, I say there is no build-up because the ending just comes up to me, just like that, without giving me any satisfying lead-up to that ending. Let me explain. After he has found the creature, that creature sort of remains the background and our protagonist spends way more time trying to catch his other prize. Hence, when that bird lady takes center stage late in the story for the denouement, it’s like it has just sprung out of a jack-in-a-box to hit me in the face. For so long, there is nary any clue given as to whether this creature is going to do… that… well, I can hazard a guess after reading the author’s foreword, but that is kind of cheating as it is not technically part of the story itself. At any rate, the denouement feels abrupt, like a way for the author to hastily wrap up the story just because she feels that the story needs to be done at that point.

Perhaps if the author had made this one longer, the story may develop in a more natural pace. I may get more and more clues as to what the possible nature of the bird lady creature is. I may get a better idea of why the protagonist is going through all the hurdle to win his sweetheart when the lady in question comes off like an utter bitch in that one scene she appears in. Has that place suddenly run out of marriageable females, or is it a cultural thing for the men of this setting to find such bitchiness endearing?

I don’t need the author to completely explain to me what the bird creature is, but I’d appreciate getting enough hints to form my own guess. It’s more fun that way. Instead, I get a story where it’s this, that, this… A-HA, THE END. This is a short ride, and I get off the train, so to speak, not really sure what I have just gone through. I only know that maybe I’d be able to form a more coherent opinion if the ride had been long enough for me to savor the journey.

I am giving Raven three oogies mostly because it is a painless read with some nice cadence in the prose, but at the same time, I can’t really say I like it or not. It’s just sort of there, and while it’s going for $0.99, there are surely other stories at the same price that would make a bigger impact on me.