In fantasy tales, the acronym MICE begs for an answer. The words are milieu, idea, character, and event.

Milieu is the story’s world. Here it is undefined medieval times. It is an exceedingly cruel and dark society, especially in human actions rather than hostile terrain. The narrative strikes sharp lines between shallow depictions of good and evil, however, the narrative rendition does not rank high in creativity or importance. Idea is the process of the reader learning information. It may be a question of why is this ancient civilization the way it is or what created it? The author placed little emphasis on ideas.

The “C” in MICE is character. Imsun, daughter of Gaedor Carr, undergoes a blood-letting to be able to engage in sorcery. Best described as the viewpoint character, she rates but a notch above a stereotype. Lacking for the reader in The Twilight Flame is seeing what Imsun and Sienna see, knowing what either thinks of what each sees, and how either interprets what each sees. This is contrary to this excerpt from Miracle Cure by Harlan Coben:

             George got out of the car and went toward  the trunk. This was the part of the job  George found most intriguing. He always   wondered what was going through the  victim’s mind. A little earlier, his world  had been normal, average, seemingly safe.  Suddenly, he had been threatened,  assaulted, and locked in a trunk. 

            No longer did he have  any say in what happened to him.

             What was going through his mind?

              It was a fleeting thought. In the end,  George knew it didn’t matter. For George, only the finished job mattered.                    (page 101)

At times, the author gave inanimate objects human senses. Weather has a voice, if not a personality. A street listens.

This can either be distracting or intriguing. It’s a reader’s choice.

 The “E” is event. The Twilight Flame is an event story. Something is wrong. The world order is in a dangerous predicament. The story driver is a restoration. Imsun must find the secret pool of Actudale, said to grant wishes and restore what is lost. Therefore, Imsun engages in a quest, and each step is an event. Think of Indiana Jones.

 Of the four MICE categories, it is the event sequences that are most memorable.

While this review was a free advance review copy, the expected errors appear, i.e., dropped quotation marks, attribution missteps, and strange chapter formatting. What’s not to put into this category is the following quote:

                She walked under the snow, coated only  by the huge torn wool, weakened by age and the fact that it was not really wolf   skin as the seller had claimed, but of course, she would not have been able to  afford the original one.

 Is it clear prose? Is it understandable where she’s walking? Who is weakened by age? She or the wool?

Is the wool weakened because it’s not wolf skin? What was she not able to afford?

 Reviewer Donan Berg is the author of two fantasy novels on amazon.com. Both are recipient of novel gold medal awards. He has a third gold award for a romance. He leaves this review voluntarily.