Dimmare Press, $0.99, ISBN 978-1-7774062-0-2
Fantasy, 2021

Oh, that is a lovely cover. The color scheme, the intriguing motive… I don’t even mind that the font is the same one used by every other freaking book cover these days, because the whole thing is gorgeous.

Right, right, the story. VR Friesen’s Rules of Crane is set in a city that has experienced a dystopian event called the Shattering. This thing, originating from a structure called the Tower, distorts all rules of physics in the area. Gravity doesn’t work like it should, for example, and you can never tell whether you’d still be on the ground or hurling into the sky in the next minute.

The entire place has been quarantined since the Shattering, and no one from the outside comes around to poke their nose here and there… until Ryan Latrans, that is.

He starts demanding to be led to the Tower, and to our heroine Crane’s surprise, the local gang leader Zenobia Allan agrees and tasks Crane with the task of escorting him to the place. What is he looking for in that place, hmm?

More importantly, can they keep him from finding out the true secrets of the Tower? 

This one is a prequel, and it does exactly what a prequel should do: give me a good idea of this world, make me intrigued, and get me to check out the next entry in the Gravity Shattered series.

The heroine isn’t anything I’ve never come across in this kind of stories—plucky abrasive tough gal, yadda yadda—but she has a voice and presence strong enough to be a distinctive lead character. The pacing is solid, and when things are suspenseful or full of tension, I can feel it. 

So yes, this one is great, except for Ryan.

Maybe I’m way too old to appreciate that boys that pull gals’ pigtails are just showing how much they care or some nonsense like that, but this goon makes me grit my teeth hard each time he is in a scene, and sadly, he’s in practically every scene. 

Ryan has every annoying shtick of a young adult hero: goading the heroine for no reason, keeps addressing her by an annoying nickname even after she’d told him repeatedly to stop, and generally being the whole tool section in Home Depot. Sure, he’s not an outright prick, but my god, he will do these small little things that will add up to make one explode—and then he will goad Crane by saying, ooh, it looks like she’s finally going to kill him now.

How old is this guy, and am I supposed to find such antics amusing or cute?

Anyway, it’s too bad that the wonky physics in this case can’t create a black hole to suck Ryan out of the story, or else this baby is a clear four oogie material.

As it is, though, I’m intrigued and I’m sold, so yes, this one has still done a good job, even with that annoying turnip stinking up the joint.