By Vitora
Consider his many achievements: a dedicated SPAGer, a much-loved member of Terrouge forums, and—above all—the proud bearer of the prestigious title, winner of Questors Bold III as Torry Steggims the stoatling. But Falar Ransted has more beneath his belt—he is the author of a lengthy work entitled Vengeance Denied. After reading it, I—Vitora, Falar’s co-writer—came up with a few thoughts on this, his earlier work.
The first chapter struck me as a bit…forced. The writing was in hard, sharp sentences, and vividly descriptive without being active. And the villain, Yar, was too cliché for my tastes. But, knowing Torry/Falar’s writing as I do now, I kept reading, keeping in mind that he probably wrote the beginning chapters a good while before the end.
Aside from the odd SPAG error, the story swiftly begins to shape up; we meet Falar Ransted, the hard-eyed but soft-hearted warrior mouse, his family, and Cooky the dormouse cook. The writer’s knowledge of ship anatomy and “government”—whether real or faked—is shown in such a way that the reader is forced to believe it, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not.
Chapter three opens with a sleepy morning and then a bang as the corsair ship is spotted on the horizon; I was instantly hooked, especially since the author had done an excellent job of subtly foreshadowing the deaths of Falar’s family and I was eager to know if my mental predictions proved true.
And those were just the beginning chapters.
Accents are wonderfully sprinkled throughout the tale, lending it a distinct Redwall air. When Fraddle the bard entered the scene, I immediately took a liking to him (and marked him for death later in the tale, but I shan’t tell you if my predictions proved true—as Falar would say, “That’d be telling”), as was the case with Jacko the charming young squirrel. At the Freckled Frog, a bar/inn combination full of character, a nice twist is revealed. And the dialogue was as clipped and natural as I had seen in his writing as Torry.
Time flew a bit fast for me—the transitions were along the lines “four seasons later”—but that was just a minor hitch. Colorful new characters had been planted, and I was thoroughly enjoying the read.
But there was one part that bothered me—the main plotline: the classic story of one mouse’s burning desire for revenge upon the creature who heartlessly murdered his family. It seemed too easy, and considering Torry/Falar’s level of talent, it surprised me that he had utilized such an overused storyline.
That, of course, was before the end.
Tears sprang to my eyes. And I shall leave you with one spoiler—the title. Congratulations on a tale well told, Torry.
Vengeance Denied can be found on Tsarmina’s Redwall Fan-Fiction board.