Early Reviewers

While Sam is canoeing on a wilderness lake in Canada he’s abducted and taken to a moon deep in space. Sam is near death when a young girl, Willow, saves his life. Later, he saves her from a life of abuse by the leader of her society. In doing so, he incurs the leader’s wrath and must flee for his life along with Willow, her mother, and her uncle.

During their long journey they make enduring friendships and deadly enemies in their quest to find a place to live in peace. A quest that increasingly becomes hopeless and tragic, until a battle in which they are greatly outnumbered decides their fate.

When reading On a Blue Moon, or book II, The Daughters of Firth Tales, it’s tempting to classify it as Science Fiction. While there are alien beings, space and time travel involved, true Science Fiction is steeped in known science, or credible scientific theory, which does not apply here.

How about Science Fantasy? If space and time travel were central to the storyline, that would be valid, but they are not. They are only used as a portal to worlds where natural laws are expanded upon, and life forms redefined. Portals to another world can also be: a rabbit hole (Alice in Wonderland), a mirror (Through the Looking-Glass), a wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia), etc.

It is suggested these tales be considered a Fantasist’s Memoir told from the collective viewpoint of characters within the tales, the teller of the tales being one of those characters. That genre is alluded to by the first paragraph of Willow’s Prologue to On a Blue Moon:

“There are many voices inside my head, of people and other beings I’ve known. Voices of those I have loved. Voices echoing from thousands of years in the past, and calling back from hundreds of years into the future. All want their tales to be told.”

From Willow’s own experiences, and through the experiences related to her by people, and other beings she’s known, she gives voice to their life’s journeys.

Though Willow is the teller of the tales, she tells them in the third person, representing all the voices, not just her own. However, it’s not an omniscient perspective. Instead, the perspective is her own, combined with those of her companions, but not of any characters whose perspective she had no knowledge of.

Make note that Willow is the teller of the tales, as in oral rather than written. The society she is born into has no written language, the history of the society being passed down orally. Over time the people’s ability to memorize is enhanced, especially true in Willow’s case.

In that one must suspend disbelief to fully appreciate fantasy tales, it is also suggested to suspend disbelief and imagine Willow is telling you the tales as you read them. And keep in mind that, for efficiencies sake, there is a certain brevity in verbiage that tends to make the telling move along more quickly than if it were written.

The tales are interconnected by an initial conversation Willow has with other characters. Their dialogue carries on from one tale to another, leading into the telling of the next tale. In essence, it ties the five tales together into one story, a memoir of Willow’s life, and that of the people and other beings she’s known. A