Book Review: The Elect Stories, #1: Purpose, or, The Swordbearer's Lament

Purpose, or, The Swordbearer's Lament is a brief read that is designed to quickly strap you in and send you on a whirlwind roller coaster narrative. If the sense of delight and discovery found in the opening chapters of a new book is one of your favourite reading experiences, then The Elect Stories series by John Crye was practically purpose-built to deliver that to you.

I think the biggest pull of this short story was the crisp dialogue and snappy descriptions. The author knew that he was working with a small page count and uses the writing skills he’s developed through the concise medium of film to do a lot with very little. It has the punch of any fully-fledged epic fantasy novel with the brevity of a screenplay. I especially enjoyed lines that measured time in an action scene by heartbeats, or when a verbal spat between two master swordsmen was talked about in terms of jabs and ripostes – it’s both cleverly written and woven beautifully into the aesthetic of the setting.

Where this story goes slightly astray is in the world-building. There’s simply too much of it, and it leaves everything feeling incomplete in a way that it wouldn’t if the book was more focused on being an extended action set piece. When the names of fantasy streets and their landmarks are being described in full detail 75% of the way into a 90~ page tale, I can’t help questioning its placement. It is possible that future entries might eventually expand and ultimately justify this skewed storytelling focus, but even still, I sense there’s room for improvement here.

I also noticed one particularly hard to ignore instance of repeated description, which would get swept into the background if this were a longer work. As it stands, having a character’s beauty and eye colour described in one paragraph, and then two paragraphs later having a character perspective repeat those exact same descriptions makes me believe that maybe another round of editing was needed.

I overall enjoyed my time with Purpose, or, The Swordbearer’s Lament. One of the many advantages of short stories is that they almost never overstay their welcome, yet it’s also harder to create a truly memorable experience, and to John Cyre’s credit I think there’s enough here to entice potential readers. If anything I’ve said so far has teased out your curiosity, or if you’re just looking for something you can pick up and finish in one sitting, then perhaps consider giving it your time.