Review: Excellent
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 27, 2013
I like a short story occasionally. They're excellent for when you feel like reading something, but don't have a lot of time, or for between novels, when the last one is still lingering and you're not quite ready to submerge yourself into another world yet. The other time when a short story is good is when you want to taste an authors' style before purchasing a longer book. Intisar Khanani's The Bone Knife filled all these purposes for me and I was delighted to find a well-written, tight and sensitive portrayal of a girl with a club foot in a world where faeries and magic are feared.One of Rae's sisters has magic and she should have been given to the Council of Mages to be properly trained and sworn into the service of the King. When a faerie Lord comes to buy horses from the family, they are concerned that he will notice the girl and take her away and punish the family. This creates an air of tension, but the real drama in the story is when the townsfolk come banging on the door accusing them of harboring a faerie. How will they get the faerie away?Khanani has managed to get a lot of character development into a few words - a mark of skill - and to give us insight into Rae's inner and outer world. The story also has a nice little twist at the end - something I think all short stories should have - and leaves one wanting to know more about Rae and her world. It's the perfect primer for a soon to be released trilogy featuring Rae as the heroine.Clearly Inistar Khanani's can write extremely well and though I didn't read the excerpt in this book,  I don't doubt that her AIA novel, Thorn, is well worth a read.I approve this story for inclusion in the Awesome Indies list of quality independent fiction.