Official Review: No Honour Amongst Thieves
Unread post by ALynnPowers » Yesterday, 23:37[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of “No Honour Amongst Thieves” by Phillip Leighton-Daly.]
3 out of 4 stars
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No Honour Amongst Friends by Phillip Leighton-Daly is a short story, published as No Honour Amongst Thieves on Amazon. This brief tale tells the story of two brothers, Joe and Josh, who have been disfigured by leprosy. After spending the past thirty years on a leper colony, they have moved into the nearby home of a deceased fisherman. A local mermaid queen is upset by the passing of the fisherman, not due to mourning, but because she wanted his bones for herself. She seeks retribution by sending her warriors to collect the bones of Joe and Josh instead. Not only are the two brothers in danger from the mermen, but also from a couple of local bushrangers. Even their dog isn’t safe from what is yet to come.
There was a lot of story packed into this short narrative. Without being overdone and drawn-out with verbose wordiness, the author told a complete story with just the right amount of background information to set the stage for the present tale. It’s nice to see concision in a story amidst the countless trilogies, lasting for thousands of pages, that seem to line all of our bookshelves these days.
For some reason, this story gives off a Of Mice and Men vibe to me. I would even say that it has a very “classic” feel to it in general, and the well-written prose only adds to that feeling. There is not a lot of information within the text that gives an exact date of when this story takes place, so it also has a rather “timeless” feel to it. The story will age very well, and I could easily picture this story being shared for decades to come.
Despite liking how concise the story is, my biggest criticism of this book, oddly enough, is that there is too much happening, It seems more like two shorter stories crammed into one. The beginning of the brothers’ adventure with their encounters with the merfolk seems to come to an abrupt end, followed by a completely unconnected second problem for them to solve. Honestly, I think the fantasy element of the merfolk could have been taken completely out of the story, and it would have been just as effective of a story with only the encounters with the bushrangers.
I definitely liked this book, and I think the writing is excellent. Some moral and ethical elements I didn’t even talk in this review about come into play as well, only adding to the enjoyment of the story. The only thing that took away from my enjoyment was the disconnected feeling of the beginning and end of the story. I am giving this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars, but if I had the option to give half points, I’d prefer to give a 3.5 just because it is so well-written.
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No Honour Amongst Friends
View: on BookshelvesLatest Review:No Honour Amongst ThievesFriends by Phillip Leighton-Daly
Phillip Leighton-Daly's Short Stories. 