Lost and Found
Rhonda Parrish
Manuscript (ARC)
80 page Novella
Speculative Fiction/Fantasy

Note: This review contains spoilers.


“When I created Aphanasia [I wanted] to have a world where I could hop from character to character, story to story and culture to culture.” —Rhonda Parrish

It would seem Rhonda Parrish is getting her wish. On February 1st, 2010 she released a novella called Shades of Green. The book was released through samsdotpublishing.com and features the world called Aphanasia. You can find my review of that little gem at Alternative-Read.com. Now, tying in with Shades of Green we have another Aphanasian novella looming on the horizon. I’ve had the pleasure of reading the manuscript, entitled Lost and Found, and other than the few errors a proof reader should catch, Parrish has provided us with another solid piece of entertainment.

A bullet of a story, Lost and Found takes us back into the Reptar swamps in search of a stone with the power to save Colby’s brother (Bayne) from a Vampyric infection. Along the way Colby pairs up with a creature named Xavier. The man has been the subjected to medical experimentation that has left him very little of his humanity. Xavier’s master (known only as Scholar) will not suffer the loss of his masterpiece and is assuredly in hot pursuit.

Even though the duo is now on the run, there seems to be no reason for Colby to give up her search for the stone. And when she and Xavier are captured by a Reptar scavenging detail, there’s still room for hope. But imagine the pair’s surprise when they’re forced to enter the bowels of a strange tree named Z’thandra. In that tree a number of things happen: Colby realizes that the tree and the broken stone at the heart of it are benign; Xavier realizes he has a shard of the original stone buried in his chest; and he understands that it can be used to save Bayne (Colby’s brother).

Z’thandra, having deemed the two travelers not dangerous, sets them free. The Reptars still ask them to leave the village. Unfortunately, on leaving the swamp and in clear sight of their goal, Colby and Xavier run into some of Scholar’s people. Oddly enough it’s Colby who’s captured and Xavier who escapes. Now it’s up to the human monster to find Colby’s brother Bayne, cure him and raise a party to help rescue Colby. You might think this would be easy to do, but you don’t have Xavier’s massive horns, silver eyes, reptilian colouring, two sets of tentacles, gills, webbed feet and a shadow with a mind of its own.

The rest of the novella is devoted to what I’ve already mentioned. Thus, I shall turn my attention elsewhere. When I reviewed Shades of Green earlier this year, I asked Rhonda to think of me when she had further work to be reviewed. Here’s why…

“Shades of Green is a novella that feels like a short story. You begin reading, then suddenly there are just a few pages left. I remember thinking “How can she wrap all this up in a few pages? This should be a novel!” Then author Rhonda Parrish performs her own magic, standing the story on its nose and stepping off onto an unseen trail. The ending of Shades of Green is one of the best literary surprises I’ve had in a long, long time.” —Clayton Bye

Now, Lost and Found takes up where Shades of Green left us. Various characters and species populate the ruins of a planet destroyed by war. As they struggle to make lives for themselves, Parrish thrusts them into all sorts of dangerous situations, many of them demanding that the individuals put aside prejudices in order to survive.

The author will no doubt be criticized for bringing in all sorts of characters without explaining their past or even why they’re in the story. After all, convention dictates all be explained before the last sentence is read. Aphanasian stories don’t work this way. Instead, the author drops the reader into the middle of a situation and makes us dig for information, much like what a real observer would have to do. I like this.

Parrish represents a fresh and powerful voice in fantasy. She pulls you in and curls around you until you are deeply wrapped in her story. In fact, the realism, the fearless presentation of old and new as the entire population faces post-apocalyptic life, makes me think of this work as speculative fiction rather than pure fantasy.

One criticism… Keeping in mind the author’s statement at the beginning of the review, I ask her why is Colby from another world? You see, I feel like Parrish has missed an opportunity to introduce another Aphanasian culture to her readers.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye