2020 fantasy novelette, stand-alone in the Regency Faerie Tales
series but best read after Half a Soul. In 1812, Albert Lowe meets
Elias Wilder while marching on a road somewhere in Spain.
As Atwater's afterword explains, she had originally planned to
say more about Elias's experiences in the Peninsular War in the novel
that introduced him—but tonally it's very different from that novel,
which is mostly Regency comedy of manners with some significant dips
into the grim reality of poverty and workhouses. This is all grim
reality.
Half a Soul gave a reasonable overall impression of how Elias came
to his power, but here we have rather more detail, even if it's as a
series of vignettes. Perhaps Albert doesn't quite come over as the
officer he's meant to be but in the context of the fantasy it just
about holds together.
Not worth reading unless you've already enjoyed Half a Soul, but if
you did and you don't mind something a bit grimmer, you may find it
worth seeking out.
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