The Language of Writing: For Such a Time as This - Heather L. L. FitzGerald (Release Day Review!)

In For Such a Time as This, award-winning author Heather FitzGerald has created a hilariously offbeat retelling of Snow White by combining genres galore. Seriously, all we need are some spaceships and then this story would have everything.

When the snowy-skinned Esther (yep, the biblical niece of Mordecai) is forced to register (which, in a dystopian future, involves being implanted with a GPS microchip and having digital records made of you), she is called up in Xerxes’ beauty draft. His scheming sorceress-queen, Vashti, has finally gone too far and been removed from her position, and he’s in the market for a new queen—one who will respect him for the man he wants to be. Afraid for her safety, Esther flees to the Hinterlands, where she encounters evil plants before taking refuge with seven dragons. All she wants is to stay there peacefully until her uncle can join her. She has no interest in becoming one of the king’s numerous concubines.

But Vashti can’t imagine that any woman would turn down the opportunity to use her beauty to gain power. She won’t rest until every one of her rivals for the title of “fairest” is gone.

High Points

I’ve got to say it: Vashti is the best villain. She’s such a schemer, and the ambitious Haman makes the perfect villainous counterpart. They’re just so entertaining to read about. I love it when they end up working at cross purposes. If Haman hadn’t been indulging his grudge against Mordecai by pressuring him into registering Esther, Vashti’s evil plans would probably have succeeded! As in the biblical book of Esther, the villains end up falling into a trap they dug themselves. (Only this time instead of banquets and decrees we have dragons!)

Mordecai also made me smile. With his commitment to living off the grid and growing his own food, he reminded me a lot of my own family. I loved his confrontation with Xerxes after he snuck into the king’s palace.

Caveats

I love the diverse elements in this story, but I think they’re also its biggest weakness. I had a hard time understanding the setting as a coherent whole. If it’s basically our world after a disaster—which, from occasional historical or literary references, it seems to be—where did the dragons come from? If it’s a world that has always had magic and dragons, would the technological elements really have developed the same way as they have in the real world? Would you really put years of effort into inventing computers with artificial intelligence in order to watch people if you could just scry them? I eventually decided that Time occurred in an alternate fantasy world with similar tech to our own, but it took me a long time to figure this out, since new elements kept appearing as the story went on.

Bottom Line

I had a lot of fun reading this story. It’s creative and unexpected and never boring. I’m really looking forward to reading Heather’s award-winning Tethered World trilogy!

Links

You can find For Such a Time as This here. It’s ridiculously cheap. Go forth and read!

Add it on Goodreads here.

Heather's bio

Award winning author Heather L.L. FitzGerald writes from her home in Texas while dreaming of being back in the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up. She is drawn to stories that become good friends--friends you want to revisit--the kind you wish to keep close. Those are the type of novels Heather aspires to write, ones worthy of delicious coffee and a lingering relationship.

The Tethered World was a finalist and The Flaming Sword a winner of the OCW Cascade Award for Speculative Fiction. So far in 2018 The Genesis Tree has become a finalist for a Realm Award, a Selah Award, and an OCW Cascade Award. Heather is a member of ACFW, Manent Writers, and CAN.

Find her online at: Website || Facebook || Twitter || Newsletter || Instagram || Amazon

Magic Mirrors

Heather’s story is part of the Magic Mirrors co-release—a group of seven Snow White stories by six different authors, all becoming available the last week of October. Watch this space for more Magic Mirrors reviews! Or navigate to organizer Kendra's blog to join the Rafflecopter giveaway!