A Timely Raven is worth looking at, if only for the excellent integration of web tools, such as Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, and some cool ajax stuff. I’m a bit of a web geek myself, and this is the type of thing I have wanted to do with The Germaine Truth, but haven’t had the time. Simmons has pulled it off with style. It is a site which is beautiful to look at and meticulously designed.
Raven is a common messenger of death in southeast Native American lore, which is one of my primary interests of study. In Cherokee myth (I am an enrolled Cherokee), Raven Mocker, The Stealer of Souls, comes to the dying in the guise of Raven. Myth can be retold in a modern setting (Neil Gaiman, for instance, is a master at this), but the writer must listen carefully to the voice, and know the narrator, and know the reader.
Although the writing is competent, and the concept is interesting, I am less impressed with the narrative than the design. Mostly, I had trouble with a bird, even a spirit-bird, knowing about such things as Twitter, or that the place he/she is flying over is called the Mary Moore Searight Park. There are devices which could make this easier for me to accept, such as, perhaps, Raven takes human form at night, or maybe Raven holds the memories of the souls he’s taken. But, I need to have this spelled out for me.
Much of the writing I have found on Web Fiction Guide deals with magic, vampires, zombies, and other such supernatural things. I write myth, magical realism, and science-fiction/fantasy, myself, so this is not a negative prejudice, but a lot of this stuff, with a few notable exceptions, I find boring and immature.
I do not include April Simmons in this group. Her premises and the stories are both promising, but just need to be developed with a keener ear on her main character: Raven. And overcoming the readers disbelief.
Even with my reservations, I gave A Timely Raven a four-star and a recommendation, because I think it’s a site you should check out simply for its design, beauty, and innovation.
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