One Bright Star to Guide Them

This week John C. Wright released a novella called One Bright Star to Guide Them.

First off, I can’t remember being so filled with a novella. I feel as if I read a 400-plus page fantasy novel. So much to unpack from it and think about and the story is really something I want to re-read.

It contained an interesting premise where a group of children had previously gone on an adventure together and survived the quest in some instance of fairyland. Now they are adults who have put such ideas behind them. A new challenge threatens their own lands. I liked the playfulness is part of this idea. To be challenged to go on a quest and yet don’t you have bills to pay and a job to maintain?

There are slight echoes of Narnia without some of the ham-fisted allegory. A deep understanding of human nature makes this quest go off not quite as you would expect. John C. Wright has a talent of invoking much with his words without having to go deeper into side stories. Just his phrases paint a picture of events such that your own mind renders the details to fill it out. There is always a sense when reading you are participating in a story, in this case I felt I was participating by imagining backstory.

I found this story totally satisfying and no doubt I will find it the same in the future.