Sandhailer

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

The deserts of Yalmae are relentless: its sands are scorching by day and freezing by night, ready to consume any unprepared travellers.A nameless man, known only as 'Sandhailer', sets out across the unforgiving dunes. His sole purpose is to deliver a message, and he has never failed to do so in time.But when he finds a wounded soldier, he has to choose between his mission, and his morals.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2021
Author: AllynCrowe

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 5.0/ 5.0
Followers: 9
Views: 4,502

Chapters(18 total)

Reviews

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Community Reviews(1)

glynRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
As the grand winner of the Gen 3 Contest (2021) hosted by the Literary Lounge, "Sandhailer" won the following review:
The moment I read the first few chapters of this novelette, I knew I’d have to write an in-depth review for it. Allyn’s writing deserves to be praised, and I am more than happy to take that responsibility, though I have taken into account what the other judges had to say as well.
"The sun impaled itself upon the jagged horizon."
My favorite thing about this novelette is the imagery; how easy it is to envision scenes and get lost in the world. You can tell Allyn took the time to paint a picture, and his hard work definitely paid off. I went through the effort of looking for a picture to portray this particular quote because I love it so much.
One of my favorite scenes is when the “old one” appears. It’s a great example of Allyn incorporating world building in the plot, creating danger for the characters by introducing a creature native to this fictional world. I wonder what it looks like and where it came from.
“Sandhailer” scored pretty evenly across the board in all subcategories of the atmosphere category with an average of 9.4. The world Allyn created was complete and integrated perfectly; this story would not be able to exist without the space it occupies, which is exactly what we were looking for. And every description, written so beautifully, can only be described as a treat—I felt spoiled. It was an absolute joy to read.
What stood to me the most were the casual but integral mentions of magic, politics, culture, and the rules of the land. Sandhailer has a clear role among the people, which earns him the title of Rubaan, and Swordeater . . . well, I’d rather not spoil it, but I was definitely surprised!
Something that was said in the judging forms about world building was that there was not enough of it. While it’s understandable that people would like to see more of the world, I don’t agree with this statement.
Sure, there could have been mo