The Storyteller: Fires in the Sky
Community Rating
Description
[First story complete. Put on hiatus until the next story in this series starts going up.]
Come children, gather round the fire and listen to stories of when the earth was young. Of when mankind stood high above all of creation, and proudly ruled the land, sea, and sky. Of times before the storms and the hunters. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something from the past that will help guide your future. Now grab a warm drink and listen on a cold night to how the heavens themselves came to be.
The first in a series of short stories about ancient mythology set in a post-apocalyptic world that's just trying to make sense of natural phenomenon and how mankind fell from grace. Our first tale is about two siblings, the Sun and the Moon, and how rivalry, jealousy, neglect, and fear led them straight to the jaws of death.
Information
- Status
- Hiatus
- Year
- 2022
- Author
- Spencer Havens
Tags
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.5/ 5.0
- Views
- 2,282
Chapters(7 total)
Reviews
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Community Reviews(1)
- OnyavarRoyal Road★★★★ 3.5Like all my reviews, I place scores while comparing the story with the best ones I have read so far. Since this is supposed to be the first short story in a series of several more, I'm less strict in my ratings and decide to give the author the favor of doubt.
Right away, even for a short story, this still felt somewhat unsatisfying. The framing story is about a story-teller of the long-lost human civilization, telling a fable to his students / children. The framing story is the first and last chapter so far; while the fable is the meat of the story, and five chapters in total. This gets relayed beautifully, but my own interest would have been on the framing story, where the reader doesn't even learn if the frame is supposed to be a SF or a fantasy world. (on the other side, a short story like this won't involve much worldbuilding, so I give it a pass).
Regarding the character score, there isn't much to judge: the framing story has wonderful details in it, while the fable/fairy tale is very stylized and doesn't allow the characters to shine much in their roles (readers will get the pun).
This stylized nature of the story is highly appreciated, and this author knows what he is doing apparently, strictly adhering to genre conventions of both the "mythical fairy tale"/"origin legend", and the genre of the framing tale.
The grammar seems to be perfect, I didn't notice errors.
So overall this is a nice story, but I'd like to learn more about the frame in which the story is set, so I'd appreciate a continuation at some point. Thanks for sharing!