Remember when you were a kid, and there was that book you read—or that your parents read to you—that was full of magic and secrets and danger and adventure, and it sits there, even now, at the back of your mind, colouring in your dreams?  A Change in the Weather is that kind of story: dark and mythic.

The story begins in a little old thatched cottage, on the edge of Bracken Wood, a dark, mysterious place into which nobody ever goes.  It’s an old wood, the kind of place you might meet a ghost, or a faerie, or a dragon—a place full of secrets, and not all of them good.  Eliza is a wise old woman who has lived in that old cottage forever, certain of her place in things, certain of her task in life.  But things are about to go very wrong, for tonight she will have a visitor, a visitor who she had thought long dead—and well so—a visitor in a black, hooded cloak who will demand things of her she will not give.

As far as I’ve read (10 chapters), in terms of its story, A Change in the Weather is quite successful.  The world is rich and interesting, with hints and more of all sorts of mythic beings, magical places, and intrigue.  There is evil at work, and good to fight it—and the good has some catching up to do.  And, from what I’ve read so far, I expect things to live up to the story’s obviously lofty goals.

Unfortunately, the prose is a little less successful than the story.  A story like this . . . it needs velvety, smooth writing, full of atmosphere and wonder, with a soft, lingering finish.  It should have that shimmering, disappears-when-you-look-straight-at-it aura of magic to go with its themes.  It should pull you in with an offer of hot chocolate and wrap you in a warm blanket by the fire, safe from the raging storm outside.  A Change in the Weather never quite reaches that level.  The prose is modern, with a lot of hard edges.  It cries out for more warmth—for more softness—in its manner.  Also, the dialogue often seems forced—almost all the voices sound the same, young or old, mundane or magic.  And, more to the point, the dialogue seems too tightly bound up in service of the plot—there are no sidetrips, no texture to the dialogue, no distinct personality to any of the voices—and it left me a little cold.

That said, I did enjoy reading the story, and expect I will continue to do so.  But, I travelled through it under my own power.  I wanted it to suck me in, to drag me from chapter to chapter, to keep me up all night until I’d read every last word.  It didn’t quite do that for me—at least, not so far—but I still think it’s a solid piece of work.  The writing I’ve read so far is over a year old—I’m up to chapter 10, and the story is at chapter 76—and I’m hoping the writing will develop as the story progresses, and will soon become what it has the potential to be.  If it does, I think I’ll be waiting with everyone else, with bated breath, for the next chapter.

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