The Adler’s Bay Chronicles tells the stories of Silifrey (a warrior woman) and Toe (a storyteller and sometime thief).

The characters and setting remind me strongly of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and the city of Lankhmar. What you’ve got in both cases is a barbarian from the north who is friends with a more civilized, sophisticated person. Similarly, in Adler’s Bay and Lankhmar, you have merchants, a port, and seedy city life for the lower classes.

I probably shouldn’t compare the two, however. First, because comparing any given work to a classic in the genre simply isn’t fair. Second, because there’s no obvious sign that Neale Mitchell (the author) has read Leiber’s work in the first place.

Considering "The Adler’s Bay Chronicles" for itself, what you’ve got are a series of short stories. They chronicle the (mis?)adventures of the two friends as they get hired, get kidnapped, get angry at each other, make up, and generally try to survive in a new place.

The stories put the main characters in a variety of situations where they get to confront their pasts, each other, magic, monsters and a constant lack of money.

The characters’ personalities come out effectively and fit the sort of story they’re in.

The writing is good, containing no noticeably incorrect grammar (well, that I saw) or spelling mistakes. The author seems to have a good sense of when to describe and when not to for the most part. Occasionally, I skimmed sections that I felt overly long, but that may have been me.

For better or for worse, the writing style felt a little formal to me, and it’s hard to put my finger on why. Whatever the case, that sometimes seemed a little wrong for the setting (the slightly seedy lives of the main characters), but not strongly so and not very often.

One other thing worth noting about the website: a couple stories have different fonts and font sizes from the others. It doesn’t make things unreadable, but it’s worth changing for the sake of consistency.

All in all, it’s worth taking a look at. People who like swords and sorcery will probably enjoy it.

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