Evie Manieri has always been fascinated by intricacy. Her studies in medieval history and theater inform her writing, and when not weaving together the threads of her plots, she can be found creating airy lace shawls or singing Renaissance polyphony. The only thing she likes more than a thunderstorm is a really violent thunderstorm. Evie lives in New York City with her husband, her daughter, a drowsy dog and a badly spoiled parakeet.
Blood’s Pride by Evie Manieri
Blood’s Pride is a debut fantasy from Eve Manieri that unfortunately reads not so much like a first novel, with all the usual attendant issues of a first novel, but more like an early draft of a first novel. There’s the very strong opening scene that one could see perhaps sparking the whole idea, a few intriguing “what if one character did this to another character” plot points to create both internal and external conflicts at the outset, and several neat background ideas concepts with regard to mythology or world-building. But the execution just isn’t fully there — sometimes failing due to a lack (say, of clear, precise settings) and sometimes failing due to an excess (too many of those complicating plot points).
The novel opens with a bang, as we watch an entire people, the Shadari, nearly destroyed by group of raiders from the sea, known to themselves as Norlanders but called... Read More
