Wistrix Donn:
The Mystery and the Miracle
Peter DeVries
Reviewed by Byron Merritt
Wistrix Donn: The Mystery and The Miracle is a high fantasy novel that contains worlds within worlds, the Wistrix Donn being a kind of glass gateway into a new realm created by a disciple of one of the main characters.
But this new realm within the Wistrix Donn is a threat to “the real” world, and Noetic (The Miracle) along with Ontic (The Mystery) must overcome the evil that lurks beyond. But at what cost...to themselves as well as others?
As Noetic and Ontic travel with multiple companions, many side-stories occur throughout the lands (the lands beyond known as the Ehrda-Lute) where many species--men, dwarves and other beasts--live in an uncomfortable, war-ready world. The question might be "Is the land within the Wistrix Donn really that much worse?" Noetic and Ontic are going to find out, and the results will be deadly and surprising.
The negative aspects of The Wistrix Donn far outweigh the positives. But there were positives. Most notably among them were the book’s layout (very professional) and Peter DeVries’ able handling of dialogue (probably the author’s greatest strength from what I can tell). There were a few dozen typos throughout the novel but these bothered me very little.
The Wistrix Donn's biggest let down was its narrative flow. At times I could tell when the author had reached down and pulled up some great information, and this is when the narrative whipped by. But this was the exception rather than the rule. About 80 percent of the book dragged--it took me over seven weeks to finish it, which speaks volumes about the novel’s problems because I’m usually able to finish a book of this size in less than a week.
The author also utilized flashback/backstory far too often, which completely stopped the forward motion of the story (in fact, more than halfway through the book I found an entire chapter which was pure back-story...albeit a short chapter, but still all backstory).
Another problem was with the basic storytelling. If you “tell” a reader something then “show” them in the very next sentence what you just told them, it reveals some amateurishness with relation to storytelling skills (example: Ontic spun around, her face a twisted mask of anger. “You have angered me!”...please note you won’t find this passage in the book, but is just a stylish example of what awaits the reader). Some more professional editing would’ve aided in resolving this particular issue.
And the final nail in the coffin (at least for me) was the fact that there were no appendices. None. No list of characters names. No definition of terms. Nothing. For a book that has so many new words, characters, places and other names, this was a serious oversight. Let me show you why:
1) Names: Noetic, Ontic, Daegred, Insu, Dokkur, Hodun, Maya, Nehushtan, Kilak, Gurtaz, Falk, Cintall, Lemliss, Ani, Anryss, Pallin, Balaam, General Ceylos, Nessus, Tegg, Dell, Flynn, Grold, Quasaht, Sennit, Nathair, Wict, Derdan of Pahno, Pek, Yantaq of Drakkon, Bishma of Sarras, Jonuss, Honn, Corann, Gonch, Lok, Beltain, Neytal, Yopi, Ojerdin, Goff, and Audess (and there are others).
2) Places, etc: Blue Mountains, Ehrda-Lute, Wistrix Donn, Sinn-Oll-Tydel, the Nochar, Moors of Orlanesso, the Vostok, Tervonic Circle, Delvonic Triad, Spire of the Kolmer, Book of the Order, Tervonic Heptad, Eldresse, Amaranthine, Ochfin, Nithera, Cayou, Keylon, Portesse, and so on. If this seems like quite a list, this is only a fraction of what the reader will encounter.
I’m going to end this review by saying that I read SF/Fantasy quite a bit (including J.R.R. Tolkien, Jasper Fforde, Ann McCaffrey, Gregory Maguire, James Morrow, etc.) and enjoy the genre. But The Wistrix Donn doesn’t come close to being a good read for the SF/Fantasy afficionado.
