Of Rust and Rain by
Tony Colina
Webaddress
All I can say is, WOW. I have a new
favorite. Not only is it a well told story, but it is an original one
told in a unique way with a very unique writing style.
What irks me is this, I know this story
isn’t flying to the top of the editing pile for a reason, and I
know what that reason is, but what I don’t know is what to suggest
to the writer to overcome. The writer here uses a very different
writing style than most people are used to seeing. The style uses a
rhythm and tries to add an almost poetic feel to the narrative,
without actually being a poem or series of poems. Really describing
this fails because I have never actually seen anyone pull this style
off before. Like the book was written in the style of some old
country songs, the ones that told stories like “Devil Went Down to
Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels band (without the rhyming scheme of
course).
The issue here though is with first
impressions. Today the word “different” when coupled with
“writing” tends to be synonymous with “pretentious”. Seldom
is the writer, these days, which goes out of his way to write in a
unique style, who isn’t trying to make a point about how insipid he
thinks the art of writing has become, and often this is proved, by
writing in a unique style, and purposely sucking at it. Yes, many
people have asked for something unique, but they want it to be good
on its own merits, rather than the book form of Kazimir Malevich’s
“Black Square”, something that in its own right is unimaginative
and dull, but you have to like it because otherwise intellectuals
will call you dumb.
However this story tells a sci-fi
fantasy story that could work with other writing styles, using the
unique style to make the story stand out even more than it would have
on its own, and actually it would have stood out on its own just
fine. The narrative is present and suspenseful, there is character
development, detailed backstories, intrigue, sexual overtones and
even gore. The writer does not appear to be trying to “make a
statement about modern writing” rather just wanting to share a good
story in an intriguing way.
Now to the score. The story scored 9
out of 10 regular points, which means in my mind says it is
publishing material. I can’t suddenly change the scoring and give a
bonus for style (though I wish I could) though I can give 1 bonus
point for a few very memorable characters. In total out of a full
twelve possible points that it receives a solid 10. It is the third
story out of nine to score this high. (Remember, I only review the
ones that hit at least 7.)
As to objectionable material… oh
dear. -2 for a natural and realistic amount of blood spilling. -2 or
even -3 for scenes of direct torture. (Yes, to the level that
normally I would have stopped reading, if I didn’t understand the
story to be condemning the behavior and not embellishing it.) -3 for
characters both good and evil being killed. -3 for many sexual
encounters and not of a romantic kind either. -1 for an element of
horror. However in the end everything presented was presented with
the purpose of making you NOT like the bad guys and making you take
pity on the victims. It made it feel like what I was reading was
necessary to understand the horrible things that were happening in
this world. However with a score of -12 out of -25… yea, this isn’t
a bed time story.
________________________________________________
Of Rust and Rain is fantasy sci-fi
story told in a unique rhythmic writing style. The characters and
story lines will stick with you long after you put the book down and
the writing style, though different, is NOT hard to adapt to over
time. Do give the story a chance even if you are caught off guard by
not seeing the traditional five sentence paragraphs. Rare is the
person who can speak in rhythm and tell a several chapter story, but
Tony pulls this off beautifully.
________________________________________________
Plug
for author out of the way, and here we go.
Warning:
Spoilers may be ahead.
Full scoring explanation
- Spelling/Grammar
Score:
¾
Here
comes the hard part about rating a story so uniquely written.
Sometimes I would come across words that seemed to be misplaced, but
not really being used to the writing style, I wasn’t sure which
perceived misplacements were actually mistakes, and which ones were
just part of the writing style. The author here is going to have to
search high a low for a good editor, because spotting bad grammar in
a story that doesn’t use convetional grammar rules isn’t going to
be easy.
- Interesting Plot
Score:
1
I
really can count off on one hand the number of sci-fi fantasy stories
I’ve read and enjoyed written with a rhythmic writing style. 1.
This one. More to the point though, the story of the man taking in an
abused child and protecting her, set in a fantasy setting is played
very well here. The villain has a very interesting and disturbing
back story, and his rival, Queen, is also built up very well. The
plot itself is very simple to describe, yet wonderfully complex in
execution.
- Good Direction
Score:
1/2
Oh
dear. Well yes, most of the story was great, top notch, wonderful and
all that. However there is one scene I would strongly recommend
fixing a little before presenting this to a publisher. In one scene
Queen and Big Daddy seem to have some kind of psychic battle. After
which the lady, Queen, is found mauled by dogs and reported dead. She
then shows up again, alive and unharmed (this story’s definition of
unharmed anyway) with no explanation as to what happened in the
intervening time. This is why the story couldn’t break beyond a
score of ten, even with a bonus point.
- Author Interest
Score:
1
The
author tries very hard to promote this story and follows up on read
trades from what I can see.
- Believable Main Characters
Score:
¾
This
is another slight problem area. Usually I don’t mind characters
being embellished and overdone a little to highlight their
attributes. However the dark theme with which these characters tend
to be stricken is sometimes too much. Does ANYTHING good EVER happen
to these poor people? Big Daddy does not seem to have any real motive
for his behavior, besides a general affinity for evil that was bred
into him for no ascertainable reason. Queen and Hazelnut do not seem
to have had any pleasant memories at all. I did understand McArtrey,
and though his story was rather grim, he really did feel like a real
person in mourning. He had good and bad memories, likes and dislikes
and even was able to have a chuckle here and there in his current
life. His wife seemed a little on the perfect side, however she was
being remembered post mortem, which in real life can tend to make a
person seem entirely unblemished.
- Likable Main Characters
Score:
1 + 1 bonus
Being
memorable does not mean I would like to meet a certain person. In
this case Big Daddy, though he was pretty one dimensional, actually
stuck out very well. He was a sadistic warlock who was so twisted in
his every deed that you could easily call him a manifestation of the
devil himself. Also McArtrey was a great protagonist, being in
constant mourning over his wife perhaps, but having a life, memories
and drive, beyond just that mourning. It’s rare that an author can
pull off both a strong sense of loss in a person, as well as a sense
of… well still being a person.
- Likable Side Characters
Score:
1
The
key to side characters, as I’ve said before, is making them sound
like they’re people with lives that exist outside the narrative.
They have feelings, reactions, and histories of their own that we get
glimpses of when we see them. None of the key side characters felt
like they just filled a role and then exited the story, never to be
heard from or cared about again. In fact, a few to them the story
could have followed them for a time.
- Good Scene Descriptions
Score:
1
This
is where many rhythm based stories fall apart, description.
Describing action and emotion in a rhythm is easy, as those things
can be described several ways and they’re elements feel in flux
anyway. However a series of stationary objects that are fixed in
nature are difficult to describe, as they’re fixed. However this
writer pulls off describing homes and environments without “missing
a beat”.
- Targeting
Score:
1
It’s
hard to tell who this story is specifically targeted at, but probably
a more artistic crowd. After all, many people really aren’t
interested in a completely new writing style, and those who are, are
generally looking to have a new kind of story to go along with it.
That being said both the story and the style in which it is written
are both unique, so this audience should be satisfied.
- Broad Appeal
Score:
1
While the story
is told in a unique way, takes some chances in its subject matter to
make itself feel unique and in all is a story you’ve not likely
heard before, it is sci-fi fantasy in the end. In other words this
isn’t a novelization of Edgar Allen Poe, meaning a good portion of
readers just won’t get what it’s about. This is a story written
about the modern world, using modern English, common ideologies and
even themes that normal people will easily understand. Anyone, if
they could sit down and look past the unique writing style (and
provided they were over the age of 18, considering the violence),
could enjoy this story.
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