Reviews

 On this page, you can find published reviews of new books from Kashallan Press.

Amazing Stories Magazine

CLUBHOUSE: Review: “Refugees and Other Stories” by Celu Amberstone

 review at this link: https://amazingstories.com/2024/07/clubhouse-review-refugees-and-other-stories-by-celu-amberstone/ 

review by Richard Graeme Cameron

Publisher: Kashallan Press, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Note: All stories are written by Celu Amberstone

Refugees

Premise: 

Some believe aliens have been abducting humans from earth for thousands of years. If true, whatever became of them?

Review:

The only inhabitants of the Earth Mother planet are descended from humans abducted from the original Earth by space-going lizards fully in tune with natural wisdom. By dint of the Lizard’s shared knowledge, the expats are alive to supernatural energy, enabling them to travel spiritually among the stars and commune with myriad like-skilled races. The only fly in the ointment is that more and more children are born so damaged by mutation that they must be put down. Is the extra-Earth branch of humanity breeding itself out of existence?

A crisis comes when the lizards rescue a batch of modern humans from Vancouver, British Columbia, just before the Earth destroys itself in a manmade catastrophe. They are needed to broaden the gene pool, but they resent and hate their new home and new hosts. They don’t want to fit in. This is a natural consequence of the refugees not being vetted properly, due to the speed of the impending disaster.

All previous evacuees had been healers and scholars of natural lore, the “Earth Mother” concept the core of their beliefs and customs, and had, as a consequence, been persecuted by the followers of new gods and creeds inimical to nature. The aliens normally chose to rescue a few representative samples of natural believers before their particular “tribe” is hounded to destruction. Alas, the newcomers share the lack of understanding common to all enemies of the natural order. How do you assimilate such wrong-hearted monsters? Especially when they practice unthinkable sins like paranoia?

It quickly becomes apparent that both sides assume they alone are right and the “others” are deluded fools. All manner of rationalization and appeals to “the truth” are utilized to reinforce and justify irresponsible altitudes on both sides. It can be argued the story is a metaphor for the unreasoning divisiveness of modern social trends. At the same time it is a refreshingly heart-felt glimpse of an ancient belief system, one portrayed as something so normal as to be embraced and taken for granted, and yet not immune to human failings. Which begs the question; is the human race doomed to failure no matter what we believe?

Celu explores the horrors which can arise from the best of intentions, but leaves the door open as to our ultimate fate. The point may be that our duality is a forever-war of sorts, but not necessarily cause for despair. A curiously hopeful story despite its accurate portrayal of our complexity.

An Act of Power

Premise:

Can spiritual power stop loggers? Depends.

Review:

Candace is very upset. Grandma Dorothy, a revered elder, has been killed by a speeding logging truck. Worse, her powerful medicine bundle is nowhere to be found. What if it falls into the wrong hands?

This isn’t a simple tale of heroic First Nations vs. evil logging interests, or heroic loggers vs. backward natives who don’t know what’s good for them. It’s not a matter of the simplistic propaganda which often passes for public relations these days no matter what the cause. The reader doesn’t “meet” so much as a single logger. With the exception of an outside lawyer who is totally clueless, all the characters are members of a First Nation’s tribe bent on using the means available to them to halt the loggers intruding on their land. Faith in law and government arbitration being in short supply, spiritual power is the weapon of choice.

The story takes for granted the beliefs associated with this power, offering insight into the mindset of First Nations, a vision presented without doubts or hesitation. But it is much more than that. Again, we witness the human failing of rationalization warping intent, trotting out the old argument that the end justifies the means, and leading the ambitious to sincerely believe that they alone are acting for the greater good. Something inevitable about it.

Candace’s growing situational awareness plunges her into despair. She feels so conflicted she is on the verge of abandoning the struggle, yet she, too, begins to wonder if the solution lies within her rather than anybody else. Unfortunately, this attracts the attention of the competition. There are no easy solutions.

The resolution of the story is impossible in the real world, if your take on the real world is literal and contains zero belief in the supernatural beyond the natural. But if you accept the reality of the unreal, then the ending is quite powerful and quite satisfying.

Granted, I am totally non-spiritual, but I accepted the premise for the duration of the story and am impressed at how effortlessly and convincingly Celu laid out the matter-of-fact reality of a belief system I don’t share. The mark of an excellent writer.

Guardians of the Bright Isles

Premise:

When is inheriting a mansion a bad thing? When the neighbours don’t think you belong.

Review:

The title is a giveaway the story is based on Celtic tradition. Mara, having inherited a rundown mansion on the coast of Eire, has come all the way from Boston to settle the estate. Her fiancé, Adam, is eager to assist. The question is, what to do about Inis Gheal, the Bright Isle she also owns? It’s just a short boat ride across the rough waters. One wee, slight problem, the crofters who live there are not as welcoming as they were when she used to visit as a child. Apparently, years of absence do not make hearts grow fonder.

On one level, this could be a “Wuthering Heights” sort of tale, entirely devoted to frustrated longing and real estate. Further, it would make a suitable backdrop for a murder mystery. In fact, the Celtic supernatural is the principle driver behind plot and motivation. Nothing less than a highly personal contest of wills between mortal humans and supernatural beings, and a few individuals who are both. The action is relatively simple, the pacing slow, yet the story bubbles with tension as Mara attempts to make sense of the madness around her. Is it she who is mad? Or her environment as fraught with peril as her paranoia suggests? For that matter, is she paranoid, or merely observant? Everyone she turns to for advice only pushes her tumbling thoughts deeper into an abyss of confusion and uncertainty.

She’s facing quite the conundrum. If she’s imagining what is going on, obviously she’s losing her mind. But if she’s merely paying attention, then reality isn’t what she thought it was. Either way, her world is turned upside down. Kind of hard to remain calm and optimistic in these circumstances.

I have felt similarly helpless at certain points in my life. I think everybody has. Thus Celu is able to draw upon our innermost doubts and fragile memories to render Mara’s struggle credible. As a writing technique, it strikes me as a vampiric form of method acting, utilizing our deepest uncertainties to fuel our empathy for Mara. Rather clever, that.

A quietly impactful story. The more I think about it, the more I like it.

Magic of Crimson

Premise: 

Can you love a stealer of souls?

Review:

Shashil lives alone on an island for 3 months to complete her transformation into womanhood. Coming across a wounded seal who turns out to be a man was a complication no one had trained her to expect. Even more surprising, the monsters who return to finish him off.

A coming-of-age story more risky than most. Though, come to think of it, the real world currently offers far worse. Be that as it may, a truce between locals, both imbued with spiritual powers and often thought to be enemies, in order to combat an intrusive presence of a supernatural nature truly alien to them both, makes for an intriguing story. Quite a challenge, especially when emotions clutter up the kind of automatic responses a magical warrior, or any warrior, has been trained to do.

The story is told from Sashil’s viewpoint. The basis of her power is familiar to us all but here emphasised to remind us of the respect automatically accorded to women before the advent of the sky gods like Zeus switched the “magic” from women to men. From Earth Mother to empty vessel is quite a demotion. I believe the intent of the story is to act as an antidote to the past three thousand years or so. In a sense, one of those “life was better when” stories, but referring, not to our childhood, but to the childhood of civilization itself. Or, to put it another way, a declaration it’s not too late to have a more balanced spiritual perspective on gender significance. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part. At any rate Sashil is no shrinking violet given to vapours, she’s very much a blast from the past and rather admirable.

Mother’s New Sweetie, or, the Daring Adventures of a Scandalous Crone

Premise: 

An aging mother being sent to live in a convent inadvertently meets a troll.

Review:

A light-hearted tale spoofing family life in medieval times. More options available than you might think. Puts new meaning into the old saw that you can choose your friends but not your relatives. Genuinely amusing. The supernatural can be fun.

A Dragon’s Price

Premise: 

A slave whore is unused to meeting dragons. It’s generally virgins they’re interested in, but not this time.

Review:

At first I thought this would be another humorous story, but it very quickly raised many dark issues. It is indeed a question of price to be paid, but by whom and how much? On the one hand, the danger of violent violence (as Ed Wood Jr. would undoubtedly write), but on the other, unparalleled opportunity and potential salvation from life’s woes. If you can bargain with the Devil, is it not just as feasible to bargain with a dragon? What price selfishness? Much to ponder.

CONCLUSION:

If there is a theme running through this collection, it is unexpected takes on relations between mortals and supernaturals, relations which Celu explores in new and profound ways. She has the knack of inserting subtle complexity into interactions where the reader might normally expect good vs. evil simplicity. The result is refreshingly original.

Above all Celu takes elements from her combined Celtic/First Nations heritage and crafts them into solidly credible revelations of those belief systems at a level which comes as a delightful surprise to those previously ignorant of the full implications of what is often dismissed as mere myths by the literal minded. She brings so-called folklore vividly to life, writing fiction which empowers its subject matter. Remarkable.

Amazing Stories magazine

Clubhouse: Review at https://amazingstories.com/2022/02/clubhouse-review-the-dream-chosen-by-celu-amberstone/

review by Richard Graeme Cameron

The Dream-Chosen: Tales of the Kashallans, Book 1  – by Celu Amberstone

Publisher: Kashallan Press, Victoria, B.C., Canada , 2021.

Premise:

An intelligent parasitical race may have to look for a new host species.

Review: 

 Parasite is a  loaded word. It conjures up movies like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956) or VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) where aliens attempt to supplant the human race. But the underlying concept of this book is infinitely more subtle than the 1950s era cold war paranoia of those entertaining and thoughtful films. Though paranoia plays a role, the aliens, known as the Khutani, are actually symbionts, creatures seeking a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit for both them and their hosts. Not necessarily a bad thing; indeed potentially decidedly the opposite. Most important of all, open to interpretation which allows for a wide range of character response and reaction to the evolving situation. All sorts of dramatic possibilities.

But how do you introduce the basic premise in a convincing and intriguing manner? A mere info dump won’t do. Certainly John Wyndham in his novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (which was the basis of the film THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED) had a bang-up opening. Everyone in a small English village falls unconscious for a few hours, and a while later it turns out that every healthy woman in the community has simultaneously become pregnant, presumably when they were all unconscious. Now there’s a source of tension!

The first chapter of THE DREAM-CHOSEN is entirely devoted to the Khutani. Not at all an info dump, but rather an action sequence where the leader of a pod dares to revive the Ancient Khutani named Gladdris from a state of suspended animation. This is not without risk, since an Ancient tends to eat its descendants during the revival process. Like us, burdened with instincts. However, each member of the pod has brought food as an offering. In essence they open the cave to initiate the process, dump the food, and retreat, sealing the cave behind them. Very logical.

Then, after a joyful meet and greet, the premise is laid bare. The Khutani live on the badly-damaged planet Timorna. The priesthood of the host species Avairei are suspected of being up to no good. It is decided that the time has come to lure a new, more suitable host species to Timorna. The discussion both sets up the premise and establishes the compassionate nature of the Khutani in that they insist the host species must be suitable and without any built-in or inherent danger of being harmed by the act of symbiosis. Good. We are beginning to get a grip on the Khutani’s nature, concerns, motivation, and goals.

But here’s the thing. Though the Khutani can communicate telepathically, just as efficiently as we speak aloud abstract and complicated concepts, their equivalent of intonation and facial expression to communicate emotion is provided by their sense of taste. Every emotion has a flavour. Thus they writhe about each other tasting with their facial tentacles. They secret regret. They vomit uncertainty. It’s a rather messy way to communicate via chemicals, but it’s far more precise and specific than our use of hormones.

I can’t tell you how refreshing and original this opening chapter strikes me. Not only do we begin to understand the premise of the book and the mindset of the Khutani, we also learn, in a visceral way, how truly alien they are. Even better, we begin to take their personal habits for granted and accept it as a legitimate form of communication, albeit not one we would choose to use. After all, we know dogs depend heavily on their sense of smell to understand the world around them. Easy to make the leap to a sentient species depending on their sense of taste. From now on the reader reacts to the alien Khutani in terms of observing their emotional state as opposed to reacting in disgust. Brilliant.

In short, the opening chapter introduces the Khutani wonderfully well. Definitely makes you want to read more.

In the second chapter we are introduced to the current host species, the Avairei, intelligent furred creatures with tiny claws. We’ve been led to believe they are treacherous, but the female called Sagas seems a decent sort as she dream conjures a trip among the stars. However, she is terribly upset. Her dream has turned into a nightmare, with a close approach to a planet where shiny objects are blasting each other out of orbit. Fortunately a “Maker,” one of the Khutani, who are noted for resurrecting dead races, appears to coil about her body and clutch her face with its tentacles. Sagas finds this reassuring.  She trusts the Makers who appear in her dreams, even though she has never met one in real life.

There’s a brief discussion on interspecies relationships. “You can’t hide the bitter taste of your lies from us forever.” “We mean no disrespect—we hoped only to spare you torment.” This indicates the threats to symbiosis is more than mere good aliens vs bad aliens, but a convoluted series of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. Maybe. Remains to be seen. But the tension between the two races is further elaborated and the reader is hard put to determine which they should empathise with. Perhaps both.

Then the khutani guides Sagas down to the surface of the planet in her dream to confront the nightmare and learn what it actually represents. Seems Sagas had accidentally been drawn to its vicinity by the mind-contact launched by the Khutani to attract the local inhabitants as new hosts. Sagas sees them as four-limbed, mostly hairless Avairei-like creatures with beautiful manes. In fact they are human beings who have come to the planet Dymar and occupied it, only to be challenged by a different group of humans who are on the verge of winning their war of conquest. Point is, the elements of the chapter dealing with Sagas are dynamic, involving flight from and reluctant return to a planet engulfed by warfare, yet slipping in details concerning Avairei intelligent, emotions, and dream powers. If this is an info dump, it is well disguised as an action piece evolving the plot.

The last part of chapter two concerns Dunnagh Kai, an officer commanding two squads on a reconnaissance patrol. The Green Squad under O’Neil has gone missing. Dunnagh uses his Psy powers to attempt to locate O’Neil’s squad, but fails. At one point he goes into “Cumbersaid” mode, his spirit rising above his body tethered by a silver cord. Nothing less than Astral travel, I gather. Approaching enemy troops firing beam rifles forces Dunnagh to pile his Blue Squad into an armoured hovercraft and flee.

Again, a dynamic, changing situation, in this case used to introduce humans into the mix, establish their courage and compassion, not to mention describe the level of both their technological and spiritual powers.

Okay, three races involving an unusual biological relationship, hints of treachery and betrayal, hints of past and futures disasters, moderately advanced technology, highly advanced psy powers, magic and spiritual power taken for granted, and a galaxy-wide environment. This is space opera writ large combined with both fantasy and hard SF. That’s one heck of an accomplishment to establish in two short opening chapters. Even without knowing there are multiple volumes, it’s obvious the Kashallan Tales constitute a genuine epic written with such skill that you will be enthralled however long the series lasts.

The first two chapters are the set-up which gives you everything you need to know to anchor yourself in the story, accept the premise, and go with the flow. A more competent opening for an epic would be hard to imagine.

In the remainder of this first book you are introduced to several more races and a large number of characters. Begins to have a “War and Peace” feel to it and I mean that in a good way. You quickly develop a sense of exploring not only a sequence of events but also plunging into greater and greater depths of relationships and meaning. The societies and their patterns of thought become more and more fascinating. Satisfying your curiosity makes for fast-paced reading.

At the same time there is a great deal of action and perils encountered but not always overcome that creates a sense of adventure with an ancestry going back to the earliest pulp fiction, yet imbued with a selfishness and narrowness of perception that is curiously modern. In a way, each race isn’t struggling to cope with the unknown so much as striving to shoehorn the unexpected into preconceived notions easier to deal with. Very much like contemporary politics, in fact. This combination lends a timeless air to the work. It will be as fresh decades from now as it reads today.

In other words, no obvious satire or commentary on current politics, and yet… and yet… more than “mere” derring-do. Much subtlety to contemplate, mostly in the area of overall themes like the advantages and disadvantages of colonization as it impacts both natives and settlers in myriad, often unanticipated ways, rather than anything that makes you think of individual politicians or historical events. Yet there are lessons present if you look for them.

Many of the characters are loads of fun. A certain Lizardman for instance, who is both monstrous and oddly endearing in his arrogant, brutal habits and mindset. And I don’t think it is too much of a spoiler to reveal that  the human Dunnagh Kai is the first of his race to be contacted by the Khutani. This doesn’t make his life easier. Far from it. All kinds of problems rear up, not only with the aliens, but with his fellow humans. Boils down to more potential enemies than he had ever dreamed of possessing. And he’s not alone. None of the multiple characters have an easy time of it. But they’re all in there struggling, even if they’re not quite sure against whom or what.

 CONCLUSION:

This is a richly detailed fantasy/space opera that is positively addictive. Celu Amberstone has the knack of weaving elaboration and action into a vivid tapestry of action and character. Well rounded, deftly written, and a joy to read. Highly recommended. Consider it a useful antidote to mundane life these days. THE DREAM-CHOSEN is a genuine pleasure you owe yourself.

 

Many thanks to Cameron and Amazing Stories for this review!

The Dream-Chosen is available at this link: http://books2read.com/dreamchosen