The following review will go as follows:  First I’ll cover the story’s website and the features it offers.  Then I’ll give a very brief rundown of Courier’s Creed, my first impressions, overall story comments, and the final verdict.  So here we go . . . 

THE SITE:

GabrielGadfly.com, which was launched recently, has a clean proffessional design.  I found it very easy to navigate.  The site also offers short stories, poetry, and book reviews listed by date posted.  An RSS feed offers overall news related to the site, NOT exclusive to "Courier’s Creed", and there is also the option of email subscription.  There seems to be a budding community on GabrielGadfly.com, and after signing up, you can see more of the forums and join in on the conversations. 

The site seems to work off of an interesting reward system.  Certain actions earn points, which increase your user rank and thus allows you more access to the site’s features—like the right to join in on poll votes, see special content related to "Courier’s Creed", and the right to see private forums.  I ended up signing up for an account myself under the username, "cajeck".

At the time of this review, there were 12 chapters available to read.  The format they were presented in was simple and straightforward.  I experienced no technical problems while reading.  Proofreading also seems to be top notch.  I didn’t catch any grammatical errors.

STORY SUMMARY:

The protagonist, Hermes Swift, is inducted into the dangerous life of being a Courier—a sort of interdimensional traveler that keeps order.  Their powers are centered around the basic concept of the messenger:  When they read their messages (called Edicts) to the intended recipients (Immortals, who are like powerful gods that threaten the balance of life) it strips them of their power.  Naturally, Hermes has the important title of ‘Edict-bearer’, and must deliver the Edict to the immortal Arcadias . . . or die.

MY FIRST IMPRESSION:

The story starts off with little fanfare.  Not much of Hermes Swift is offered aside from the fact that he’s your typical young boy stuck with a responsibility that fails to earn his complete respect.  His family, shown briefly, are on the verge of being completely stereotypical.  The unnamed Grandfather is the oldfashioned archetype who makes his work his entire life and takes complete pride in it.  The unnamed father follows in respect to seniority.  Paul is your handsome blond, older brother archetype who seems to excel at everything.  The only line we hear him say is a wince-worthy cliche that raised the question:  did the author just not care about the family or this setting at all? 

Descriptions for Chapter one were straightforward—a little too straightforward I thought.  Perhaps Gadfly really didn’t feel the need to put much effort into the first chapter as we’d be departing from its banality soon, but introductions mean everything in our society of impatience and immediacy.  Shouldn’t more care have been placed, atleast in the introduction of Hermes?  The protagonist’s name, by the way, placed my tongue firmly in my cheek. but I ignored my initial misgiving because it reminded me of the campy comic books and childrens’ stories I remain fond of to this day.

Things got better toward the end of the first chapter, where we were immediately launched into action.  But I still wondered if it was worth continuing, despite the exciting end to an unexciting chapter.

THE STORY OVERALL:

If I were short on time, I may have stopped right there and never looked back . . . but luckily I had plenty of time to devote to this story, so I proceeded further, and was very glad I did.

"Courier’s Creed" reminds me of those fantasy stories I used to dig up at the children/young adult section of my local library when I was younger.  It’s easy to get into, with catchy terms like "Nodes" and "Infinite Spiral", and despite its intrinsic simplicity (Joseph Campbell would be proud) the overall concept itself is interesting and original enough to make it stand out.

THE VERDICT:

Overall, I enjoyed reading "Courier’s Creed", and will continue reading it with each new update.  The chapters on their own aren’t long to read, and at my reading speed I got through all 12 within an hour (factoring out interruptions and the pauses I took to take notes for this review).  It feels like a tween tale of adventure and magic, though the setting, after it revealed itself in full, proved to be a little more mature than that.  Be prepared for the occasional cliche’d lines like, "She had large blue eyes that Hermes wanted to fall into."  Ouch.  That aside, the mythos is rather neat, and though Hermes himself doesn’t strike as that interesting a protagonist, the characters he meets will win you over one way or another.

Recommended to those who enjoy fantasy adventure books such as Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, and Inkheart.

3 of 3 members found this review helpful.
Help us improve!  Register or log in to rate this review.