Book Review: Tales of the Fall

I was asked by a friend of mine to review the book he had written and published, called Tales of the Fall by Jon Wynn.

The book is intelligently written, and the language is educated yet easy to understand, aside from the few terms the author invents and the parts of the Fourth Tale that use military terminology and acronyms. The book is a compilation of four tales relating to the fall of demons Sitri and Berith (as far as I can determine). The concept revolves at first around the fall of these demons from the "Dark Lord's" grace, and of how they attempt to redeem themselves.
The first tale begins with a traveling storyteller, and reads (at least at first) like a back story to a Dungeons and Dragons game. The author gains his voice slowly, delving deeper into the characters that his storyteller is weaving, but I found that unfortunately there are few places in the book where you actually feel for the characters.

The sense of time throughout the book is not set, and becomes an issue while trying to understand the scene and presence of each story. The first tale seems to be written in the medieval past, and the second jumps into what I assume (given the sudden presence of a modern vehicle) to be the present time. That comes into question, however, when "Sigil" (whom we only much later realize is a different identity for Sitri) brings the two children that he saves/kidnaps to The Abbey, a place that seems frozen in yet another Medieval-style time period. The fourth tale opens in the distant future, which we are thankfully told early on. But the confusion caused by the lack of a sense of time in the three previous tales does little to help your understanding of the complex stories the author is weaving of a celestial and cyberpunk future.

There are parts of the novel that are heartwarming, such as the author's attention to detail when describing the feelings and actions of the young girl Mara, especially concerning her feelings for her toy bear Brownie and her brother, Solomon. The first tale ends abruptly and somewhat confusing; what is the "surgery" that Corrinna is supposedly being forced to face in light of her brief, non-sexual liaison with Sitri? Why does Sitri change his name to Sigil? Does he live forever or is he human and continues to be reborn?

The book has a solid IDEA behind the stories, and the further you read, the more each bit comes together. The final chapter, involving Anomalie and the future world after the strange war that Sigil is part of in the Third Tale, is actually the most clear of the bunch. The author had found his voice by this time, but it looks as if it was difficult to fully build on the myriad stories he had weaved in the previous chapters. The final tale makes the most sense, aside from Anomalie referencing the "Twilight Zone" in the world where she clearly states that such creative media from the past are strictly forbidden from view. The epilogue, however, brings us back to the storyteller at the Inn from the very beginning of the novel. have we jumped through time again? Does the book actually begin in a post-apocalyptic backwards future?

There are so many questions asked while trying to figure out this book, that I honestly think it could use a re-write and the experienced touch of an editor. Tales of the Fall is well-written and intriguing, filled with celestial beings, re-birth, magic, and technology. If it is worked on and re-released, I think it could become an excellent start to a new kind of Sci-Fi series.