Written by Sedigitus Swift
Humour is a funny thing. It always aims to be funny, but everybody has experienced humour they didn’t find funny. It’s always going to be subjective, based on the sense of humour of both the joke teller (or, when it comes to books, the author) or the receiver (in this instance, the reader). Subjectiveness aside, however, for humour to work in a broad sense—regardless of whether it’s broad or more eclectic—it needs to be paced well to make the punchline sing. Author Sedigitus Swift understands this, and in the follow-up to The Eye of Ksera (which I reviewed a little over a month ago), he has crafted a book full of expertly timed and landed humour.
Much like its predecessor, Sorceress for Hire is a novella. At 149 pages on your favourite eReader (at the time of writing, I don’t have a page count for the paperback edition), it’s a slightly shorter read than its predecessor, perfectly sized to be read in a single sitting, or two to three if you’re short on time. The length works perfectly for the book, providing enough time for Swift to tell a story that isn’t too taxing, while imbuing it with a smart sense of humour, all the while ensuring the book doesn’t wear out its welcome.
The book focuses on Sinta, the sorceress featured in The Eye of Ksera. Sinta is talented, yet young, with limited experience working for clients, looking for an honest day’s work. This leads her to various misadventures through the course of the novella, including conflict with another sorcerer, and hilarity ensues. While the book’s plot is light in service of the humour, it entertains at every turn. It suits the tone of the story nicely, and is paced well, moving along quickly without ever feeling rushed.
In being not just a novella, but one whose primary goal is to keep the reader chuckling, the book’s characters aren’t multifaceted complexities. As much as I enjoy deep characterisation and hidden layers bubbling to the fore, adding further complexity to the characters would slow down Sorceress for Hire’s peppy pace. The characters are far from cliches however, and the book delights in turning tropes on their head. Every character is not only engaging, but genuinely funny in their own right. As the book’s protagonist, Sinta is an absolute delight, someone the reader can enjoy following, while wanting her to get her happy ending.
A large factor in the success of Sorceress for Hire’s characters lies in their dialogue. Being a humour book, the dialogue is packed full of witticisms. Given the high fantasy setting, the characters sound like they come from a bygone era. Where this often leads to a stereotypical sound, the book avoids this at every turn. By reading the dialogue, the fantasy setting is obvious, but also unique. Although the author has written the dialogue in service of the humour, it sounds relatively realistic. Everything about the book’s setting—Ondiran, per the series title—is heightened, and this includes the dialogue. The heightened dialogue suits the heightened world, and in this context, it’s beautifully believable. Every character has their own distinct voice, which makes the conversations flow freely while keeping the reader chuckling.
As delightful as the dialogue is, the true star of Sorceress for Hire is its prose. It’s reminiscent of Terry Pratchett’s writing without ever feeling like it’s aping his style. Some parts are laugh out loud funny, while others simply have an amusing undercurrent to them. Every sentence in the book is filled with humour. Swift doesn’t throw jokes at the wall and hope some stick, he has integrated the humour into the writing seamlessly. The prose has a sharp wit to it, and it builds from sentence to sentence, playing off what came before. It includes various asides throughout the novella’s pages, and instead of distracting the reader from the story, it begs them to keep reading. As is the case with the first book, each chapter includes some text from a fictional book from the world, which provides an amusing aside while adding a little more detail about the world.
Throughout Sorceress for Hire, the author builds upon the world he introduced readers to in The Eye of Ksera. Ondiran could have easily been a generic fantasy setting, and the book—as well as its predecessor—would still work. Instead, it presents a fantasy world that’s as unique as it is familiar, ensuring fantasy fans won’t feel ostracised from the book, but offering something new.
If you skipped the book’s blurb at the top of the review (it’s okay, you can scroll back up to read it), it mentions that Sorceress for Hire is a free-standing novella. It notes that while reading the first book beforehand will add depth to the experience, it’s not a prerequisite for enjoying this one. Although I have the benefit of having read The Eye of Ksera, with the added context it brings, Sorceress for Hire stands perfectly alone. There’s no need to read that previous book to understand this one’s goings on, though I suggest you read it—before or after this one—for another foray into the book’s world, to spend time with its characters, and most importantly, to have a good laugh.
Humour may be subjective, but if you like your humour to be filled with wit instead of being broad and bombastic, you’ll appreciate how it’s been packed into Sorceress for Hire. The humour permeates through the characters, their dialogue, and the book’s prose, and has been masterfully handled from beginning to end. With highly entertaining characters and a fun plot, Sorceress for Hire is a fantastic read that won’t demand too much of your time.
Favourite Passage
Having considerably exaggerated her pyrotechnic skills, Sinta returned home in something of a panic after securing the lucrative commission. She knew how to throw fireballs, of course, and she had a vague recollection that by adding certain physical spell components, the flames could be made to appear in different colors. She could also use her spark-throwing spell. With the exertion of enough spell power, no doubt it could be quite impressive. But the more elaborate displays that she remembered from the Vendritan celebrations of her childhood must have been based on spells she did not know.
A rummage through her notes confirmed that a pinch of rose madder would turn a fireball red, while indigo would turn it blue. These could be mixed together, or with yellow sulfur, to achieve other colors in various shades, or one could resort to oxidized copper for green, or the shells of certain mollusks for purple, or lapis lazuli for ultramarine. Of course, most of these ingredients were expensive and hard to come by at short notice. It occurred to her, however, that if the chancellor would grant her access to Bentilan’s workshop, she might find stocks left over from previous years. Better still, by searching his library, she might learn how to cast some of the more spectacular spells. This thought reminded her to consult her copy of Shengrod’s Grimoire, but all she found there was a spell to call down lightning during a storm, an effect that—while impressive—seemed of limited usefulness at a festival.
Sorceress for Hire: Tales from Ondiran, Book Two, Chapter 10
Sorceress for Hire: Tales from Onidran, Book Two was provided by the author for the purpose of an honest review.
Sorceress for Hire will ve available in paperback and eBook, from retailers, including—but not limited to—Amazon from 1 December 2023.
Note: I do not post scores for reviews on this website, but do post them on my Amazon and Goodreads reviews:
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Interested in purchasing Sorceress for Hire?
Please find a link below; please note I do not collect any proceeds from the sale.
Sorceress for Hire (Tales from Ondiran Book 2)
wastanley.com 