Eden
Forest is a novella and the first instalment in The
Saskia Trilogy by Aoife Marie Sheridan.
Narrated
in the first person present tense, Eden Forest opens in Saskia with
Marta giving a description of the land and alerting the reader to her
pregnancy, which we later know is from a love affair with the King of Saskia.
We also learn about Saskian laws and traditions and how Saskians are immortal
and born with an affinity of air, water, earth, fire or spirit. At first
glance, Marta appears to be a caring person.
The
reader learns that Saskia is a world parallel to earth and that a fire barrier
separating the two worlds can be crossed but with great difficulty.
Eden
Forest is written from several perspectives, all in the
first person; however we are told whose point of view we are reading at the
beginning of each chapter, avoiding any possible confusion. It is a very
interesting way of writing – the first I've read seen – and it gives character
depth. Through this technique, Sheridan merges with each character making them
come to life on the pages of her novella.
The
author has an abundance of intriguing characters, but what I liked most was how
each character has a specific role to play in the story – even eight-year-old
Mei. Some have minor roles but are expected to have much bigger ones in the
coming parts of the trilogy.
As the
novella progresses, two characters stand out in contradiction; Marta and her
daughter Sarajane. Whereas Sarajane is caring, believable, down to earth,
intelligent and understanding, her mother, Marta, is unmotherly-like, as
opposed to what we have seen in the first chapter. A face-off between Sarajane
and King Morrick makes this point clear. Moreover, most of the time we see
Marta, she is crying; yet the reader feels that her emotions are not deep. And
when she finally sees her daughter after a long absence, all she is concerned
with is food! (Of all things!)
Another
interesting character is the conflicting, contradictory Tristan, King Morrick's
head Guardian and who is later given the task to retrieve, or rather kidnap,
Sarajane. Until the end of Eden Forest, the reader cannot read this
particular character.
The massive contrast between Saskia's King and Queen makes the
reader wonder how they ended up together. That bit comes at the end of the
story.
Eden
Forest is a quick and easy read. Its pace is fair at the
beginning but starting chapter three, the pace and events become intense. You cannot
put the book down and you feel the need finish the novella and skip work and
sleep in the process.
I truly
enjoyed Aoife Sheridan's Eden Forest and can hardly wait for the next
two parts, which I expect will have more details about the elemental affinities
and focus more on characters briefly mentioned or introduced like Carew.
