Indie Review: The Maze by Jason Brannon

Christian Allegory in the style of Pilgrim's Progress

Jamie Burroughs is a family man, happily married with a young son. But one day he is faced with temptation in the form of a very attractive ex-girlfriend, and he somehow finds himself in a supernatural maze that’s a manifestation of his life, complete with monsters and a dawning realisation that he’s not going to get out of this alive.

It is significant (although not stated) that Jamie’s life is symbolised by a maze, not a labyrinth. A labyrinth has only one path (unlike in the movie) and can be seen as symbolic of some spiritual journey. A maze has multiple paths, many of which lead to dead ends. Jamie is most definitely in a maze, one that he may never escape.

Jamie is a man who has made many mistakes in his life (so he’s pretty normal) and The Maze is designed so he can see the consequences of these sins and iniquities. He wasn’t a likeable or sympathetic character, which made it hard to care about his predicament. This wasn’t helped by a plot that moved from the realm of fantasy into the downright unbelievable and meant I was never able to forget that this was just a story.

While there was good use of language, the writing could have been stronger. Jamie talks to himself (which I found annoying), there was a lot of redundant language, I wasn’t comfortable with the reference to karma in a story from a Christian publisher, and I found the shifts between first person and third person took me out of the story. This made it difficult to believe The Maze was real (I suspected it might have been a dream), and meant I wasn’t convinced Jamie was in real peril.

The Maze was full of Christian symbolism and allegory in the same way as classic novels such as The Pilgrim's Progress and Hinds Feet on High Places. But neither of those novels attracted me as stories, and I had the same problem with The Maze. In addition, I never engaged with Jamie as a character, and that made it hard to empathise with his situation.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Jason Brannon at his website.

Review: Penumbra by Samantha Bennett

Norla is a slave, living in a hovel and carrying rocks under the eye of violent overseers on King’s Mountain. She is chosen to be the mistress of a handsome young lord, Count Pallo Belany, but will only consent if he will promise to free her mother. This is not something Pallo can promise: only King Vaskel can free slaves. Vaskel consents, on the condition that the pair completes a quest: they must locate the infamous criminal Penumbra, and bring back the book he stole. It seems like an impossible quest, but if they fail, Norla will belong to the cruel king. The quest takes them across half the kingdom, puts them in almost-constant peril, and reunites Norla with a childhood friend. And when they find Penumbra, things are not all they seem.

The two halves of this novel were quite different, and I’m not sure if that was a weakness or a strength. The first half introduced the culture (which was caste-based and somewhat complex) and the characters. It managed that well, without delving into generations of irrelevant backstory or culture; something that can be difficult to achieve in fantasy, especially for first-time authors.

The second half turned more allegorical, and at times it seemed as though the plot was being forced along by the need to stay true to the underlying Christian theme. Note that the story wasn’t overtly Christian: it was more similar to the Narnia stories, in that you could see the Christian themes if you were looking for them. I enjoyed spotting the allegory in the second half, but it might seem contrived to a young adult reader just looking for a good fantasy novel.

Overall, this was a good story, well-told. Recommended for fans of Christian allegory and young adult fantasy. Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Samantha Bennett at her website.