Sometimes You Just Have to Root for the Thief!

"Shadowcursed" by Gelo R. Fleisher is a fantasy novella featuring a thief named Bolen.  Bolen is getting up there in years - 43summers have passed him by - and he wants to pull off one last risky job.  Why?  Well, just to see if he can still do it.  Now, you don't usually get to be 43 in the thieving occupation unless you are good, because in that line of work, failure usually means much more than losing just your occupation.

In his head, Bolen can still do all of the things he needs to do.  His body, however, might disagree.  When your knees make worse sounds than the rusty doors you are trying to open quietly, there could be some problems.  Jumping from rooftop to rooftop might also be thought of as a "younger man's game."

So who to target for your last "job?"  Hey, why not sneak into the the mayor's house who is known by all as the "Mad Lord" - sneak into his basement that is home to his vault of personal treasures and see what we can find?  Really, what could go wrong....  Apparently, Murphy's Law was alive and well during the Middle Ages as well.

I enjoyed this book immensely.  It took me all the way back to my Dungeon & Dragon playing days - and let's just be honest - it is sometimes more fun to be the "not so good" guy.  Fleisher does an excellent job all the way around in this story - I was hooked and couldn't wait to get home to keep reading it.  It is very apparent that Fleisher is a great story teller, not just a writer.  I was leery that in 78 pages that he would be able to develop the characters enough to make me care - but that worry left soon after I started reading the book.  Fleisher has a unique ability to build up an entire new world, characters, plot, and action in probably a third of the words that other writers take - and then they still miss the mark.  This is not to say that the story or the writing is overly simple or straightforward - but instead Fleisher chooses his words carefully and doesn't lose his great story to a blustering flurry of adjectives (such as I just used!).


Strengths

• Everything.  Plain and simple.  I am not exaggerating when I say that I loved it!

• There was a point in the plot (which I won't spoil here) that puts Bolen in an impossible (literally) situation that just had me chuckling inside at it's absurdity.  It's not absurd because it's a huge stretch of the imagination, it's absurd because Bolen's life mirrors everyone else who has had the pleasure of living with Murphy's Law.

• This is an easy one or two day read that you will wish you could somehow stretch into a Game of Thrones six book 8,000 page saga.

• Fleisher even has a game that he created around the book himself.  Way to go, Gelo - raise the bar for all of the indie authors out there.  Keep it up and we will all hate you for it!!!  LOL.   What's worse is that it's FREE!

Weaknesses

• None.  Give me more!!!

Amazon Link 

Link to the Requiem Free computer game