Assessment:
Overall rating (3 votes)
Recommended by 1 member.
Eikasia
A serialized novel, updating weekly.
Nyx is an Ailuran—a feline shapeshifter. Alone and desperate, she struggles to survive in a world that despises her on the basis of prejudice alone. Elmiryn is an intrepid woman warrior on a quest to kill the astral demon, Meznik. She is brave, ruthless, and strong—and she’s also taken an interest in Nyx. After the warrior rescues the shapeshifter from a group of angry farmers, the young girl somehow finds herself aiding in Elmiryn’s quest. Not the bravest or the strongest, Nyx struggles to reconcile her feelings of fear and exasperation over her love for her dubious companion.
Eikasia
— contains some graphic sex, graphic violence, and harsh language —
Tags: action adventure cats comedy demons fantasy gay lesbian magic online novels quest romance shapeshifters sword and sorcery
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Editorial Reviews
Good start
I wasn’t sure if I’d like Eikasia. In some ways, I’m still not sure partially because the story is still just beginning.
However, the story starts out solidly enough. We are introduced to Nyx, a shape shifter (always fun). I don’t necessarily agree with why she is stealing, but over all she is a sympathetic character without it feeling forced with the "take pity on me syndrome" so many stories have.
She then meets Elmiryn, who saves her life. I think that Nyx could have been a little more grateful about it, but perhaps it was just her feline nature (you know those cats, terribly ungrateful creatures).
As with most fantasy, there is a quest involved but it doesn’t involve saving the world from the Big Bad (well so far at least) so bonus points for that.
The writing is mostly solid. Sometimes it gets a bit too mythic and grand for its own good with an overuse of adverbs, but that is forgivable.
I’ll be keeping an eye on this one and, since it’s still updating and still "young", this review is subject to change.
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Most Helpful Member Reviews
Half a star for the future…
As some one non-indigenous to the worlds of High Fantasy, I generally find myself instinctively shying away from any narrative which mentions a "Quest," particularly in the first ten pages, and especially if it involves some kind of Demonic Overlord.
In the past this aversion has been a bit of a cripple, causing me to shy away from some otherwise fine reading material. "Lord of the Rings," for example, took a good long run-up. I still haven’t quite plucked up the resolve to go anywhere near Narnia. And I very nearly passed over the world of "Eikasia," which would have been entirely my loss.
"Eikasia" is good. In fact, it’s very good. The writer clearly has considerable talent- she works the language well, and although the prose occasionally harks toward the grandiose, it never strays too far for too long.
An interesting example of the lingual tightrope chanced by the writer is the main characters’ habit of explaining long words to one another. At first this was cute characterization, it started to become tiresome . . . and then the author saved it by turning it into a significant motif. It takes a skilled hand to achieve this instead of coming across as, say, vapidly obsessed with one’s own vocabulary.
(As an aside, there are a couple of moments when the author does repeat herself a little too often- for instance, she seems very, very concerned that the reader be aware of one character’s status as an "auburn woman." It’s really a minor quibble, though, and probably a side-effect of writing in installments).
Splitting the narrative between a first person protagonist and her third person ally proves an interesting and effective way to go, and the website’s efficient design allows you to sort through the different strands of story with ease. The two main characters themselves seem quite well fleshed out, and there are shades of progression early on- particularly for viewpoint character Nyx, who soon suffers a fascinating . . . development . . . which allows the author to experiment effectively with fonts and spacing.
Of course, nothing’s perfect, and Eikasia is still a relatively young story. In parts it feels a bit like a road-movie transposed into a fantasy setting. While the primary duo make a vivid impression, most of the ancillary characters seem to fit altogether too well into the bigoted-and/or-violent-Local archetype. One the other hand, at least one side-character has managed to come across as instantly interesting despite having only a couple of innocuously placed lines and a prudent drop of potentially Chekov-ican poems, which bodes well for the future.
All in all, Eikasia is a good start from a talented pen. If the story fulfills its early promise, then it will be well worth keeping track of- even if it means braving a Quest . . .
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Shifting views
Eikasa shows promise. The word “promise” is used often in reviews at WFG. In most cases, I think the reviewers are trying to find a nice way to say that it is not very good but a miracle might save it, or that with an awful lot of editing it might be readable. In some cases the reviewer is too nice to say, “You can’t write, try water skiing or something.” . . . Although I am sure that in many cases they do mean it. In this case, for example, I do mean that Eikasa shows promise.
The website is quite attractive, but has some major flaws; my IE8 kept changing the font size on the right-hand-side columns and also tried to keep refreshing the page every few seconds. Very distracting, but it may have more to do with my browser. Links are clearly marked and the author allows you to search the chapters by POV, helpful if you want to revisit an earlier scene for clarification. An RSS and Twitter feed are provided, as well as a link to the author’s main blog page and art. The author is, without a doubt, a talented artist, and her artwork is worth visiting. As of the posting of this review Eikasa has 4(.4) finished chapters, each containing three or four parts.
This web novel starts right out of the gate in chapter one assuming that you know a lot about Fantasy, shape-shifters, Ailurans, and warriors, (Which I did not), and it takes a little time for a reader like me to begin to understand what is going on. However, I assume most Fantasy readers are at least a little familiar with these archetypes and can follow easily from the beginning. The writing is brisk and easy, carrying you with little effort into the main current of the story.
The story itself is interesting and is written in the first person through the eyes of the protagonists, Nyx and in the third person through other characters like Elmiryn and Elle. When scenes involving Nyx are described in the third person it can be a little confusing, but the narrative carries you on, and you learn to accept this point of view (POV) changes. Nyx describes herself as “ . . . quiet, cautious, and unassuming” but seems to be everything but, arrogantly getting into trouble at every turn.
The author has a good vocabulary and uses words in interesting, but always correct, ways. This word usage, as in this sentence: “ . . . Quiet as a bog creeping through swamp . . . ”, or this one: “My brown cotton pants were baggy, and the seat of them molted with wear . . . ”, adds to the sense that the writer has a “voice” that is quite unique.
The Author uses adverbs ending in “ly” too often, removing punch and power from her sentences, and in many cases the characters seem to only be able to “flit” here or there, but the author, I believe, has talent and yes, shows promise. In the end, this is a web novel that is carried by the story, and if Fantasy is to your liking, I am sure you will enjoy Eikasa.
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