2 out of 4 stars
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In Bela’s Rift, Stig and Meg of an elf like race called the Manna enter the human world to catch the human villain, Anet. With the help of unexpected allies, human and manna alike, Stig and Meg need to stop Anet’s nefarious plan to destroy all Manna and steal their gold.
Bela’s Rift has many good qualities. The main characters are interesting and, though flawed, have their own individual charms. It’s told with a compelling narrative, rich in detail that paints the world almost as well as the charming illustrations. In the background are hints of a deeper story and history.
Stig’s most endearing traits are his love of machinery and technology and a basic sense of responsibility that leads him to pursue Anet into the human world and to pay for taken goods with his gold buttons. His fondness for Meg is very clear, and his patience with her few mistakes makes it so that you almost don't notice them as well.
Meg, much to my delight, is a well rounded character with real flaws. Her deep love of plants and animals is her most defining characteristic as well as her instinctive understanding of them. The very fact that she’s so passionate and enthralled that she could drain the batteries looking up information about them is kind of adorable. She’s not passive about it, either, actively protecting plants and animals against humans that would do them harm. In fact that same determination was present in the first few chapters, when she refused to be left behind.
Unfortunately, its charms did not outweigh its flaws. The truth is that most of its virtues only become apparent further on in the story and if I hadn’t been reading to write a review, I never would have gone past the first two chapters. The reason for this is a simple thing that I can’t believe bothered me as much as it did; the excessive and inappropriate use of Italics.
The author uses Italics in four ways. First is to denote inarticulate noises made by animals or inanimate objects in the vicinity. The second is to indicate thoughts. The third is to denote the section is a change of perspective and lastly, it’s used on verbs in a sentence denoting inarticulate noises made by animals, inanimate objects and ways of speaking. For Example. ...There was a thump and the hounds yipped and bayed… (Ch.1,p.1) There are fifteen uses of italics in the first chapter, all two pages of it; 1 thought, 5 inarticulate noises, and 10 verbs.
This was distracting. It interrupted the flow, pulling me out of the story each time. It’s bad enough to have your reading interrupted fifteen times in a row. As any avid reader would tell you if anyone did that, you’d be seriously considering murder. But for the book itself to do that to me. Nope. Big Nope. And that’s a shame because this book has a lot to offer. Though I do actually like the use of italics to denote a thought. It’s much clearer than ‘ versus “ .
While getting rid of a majority of the italics would improve the readability a great deal, the other flaws however are a bit harder to fix. Aside from a first chapter that draws you in, you also need a compelling villain, equally compelling heroes , and The Hero’s Journey. It doesn’t matter what the plot is, the characters themselves are what make or break any story, no matter the medium. This book is severely lacking in how it handles all three as well as it lacks in a fourth way unique to books that are part of a series.
Anet is a largely absent, one dimensional villain. She’s evil, clearly cartoonishly evil, speaks evil things, and has no real reason behind her actions. Yes she wants gold, but why does she feel the need to get it in such an excessively evil way? According to this book, because she’s evil. There is one brief part of the book where it’s suggested that Anet found her way to Stig’s world while trying to commit a murder-suicide, with her cat as the unwilling victim, but the promise of richer characterization is never realized. She’s a blip at the beginning of the book and the end, leaving the bulk of it to be, the Hero’s Journey.
Stig’s Hero’s Journey has a very nice entertaining quest with wonderful riddles, but it’s sadly lacking in one of the most vital pieces of all Hero’s journeys, the mental and emotional development of the hero himself. In stories where the villain only bookends the journey, the real enemy to be defeated is one’s own self. Unfortunately Stig is never made to account for his flaws and weaknesses, the consequences are ignored or hand waved, and he’s no different at the end of the book than he is at the beginning.
It’s possible in the previous books, Stig has had major growth, or Anet was more fully characterized, but with books in a series you always have to make sure that vital information conveyed in previous books is conveyed in all the books in some way. Not everyone starts with the first book. Or even know what the first book is. For example, I still have no idea how big exactly the Manna are. I know they’re smaller than humans but beyond that the things they do and the sizes implied vary. The two of them are big enough to impersonate a fully grown human, but they can also go inside a hole in a tree comfortably. I also had no idea that Stig was just a boy and not an young/adult manna until I read a review for the first book in the series. Though that made a lot of juvenile things about them all make much more sense. There is absolutely nothing in the book that tells you where they are developmentally. If I went by their sense of humor, morality and behavior, I’d say eight, ten at best. Some of these things are important details in interpreting the text. An twenty year old who acts like an eight year old and an eight year old who acts like an eight year old are two very different kinds of people, as is the opinion you form of them.
In this journey Stig needs someone to help balance him out, like a wise mentor, a friendly stranger, a consequence to his mistake so severe it makes him seriously think about his behavior, or even just a foil, who is his opposite. But nowhere in this book does he get any of that. The wise mentor figures just make a few snide remarks about his flaws but Stigs impulsive and reckless behavior ends up helping things instead of making things worse. The friendly human stranger never takes offense at Stig’s prejudice against humans, or is affected or hurt by them mocking humanity in front of him which might have made Stig rethink his attitude. Meg, who is clearly meant to be his foil only gets irritated at his actions, never says what she’s irritated about and just lets it go unaddressed.
I have to confess it’s pretty realistic and I loved that about Megs character. In fact her flaws could make her equally a hero. Both of them have different but unacceptable prejudices against humanity. Stig writes them off as evil and greedy and while he pays for the things he takes with gold, he doesn’t seem too concerned with the damage he does to their things and potentially to them. And neither does Meg. While she’s outraged and adamant about risk to the plants and animals, she shows almost as little concern for humans and their possessions. She even joins in with Stig making fun of their appearances and size.
Even her speech to Stig about not hating humans was less ‘Not all humans are the same. We can’t just assume they’re all like Anet’ and more ‘don’t let yourself act as badly as they do'. It’s understandable given the history they have with humanity, but it’s a belief in both of them that could have been addressed. There was that opportunity with Nobby who had spent more time among humans than they have, but he’s just as ignorant as they are. Tony the human, while he wins their trust and affection, is in the end told ‘You alone are one special human’ which in context is too close to ‘You‘re a credit to your race’ to indicate a changed mind at al. There is absolutely no real change in Stig or Megs prejudice. And absolutely no indication that anyone else thinks there should be.
In conclusion Bela’s Rift was at times very enjoyable and had a lot of good moments, and good qualities, including a few good jokes. Unfortunately it’s flaws both hampered my ability to immerse myself in it, and left the conclusion ultimately unsatisfying. Therefore, I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars.
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Belas Rift
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