⭐⭐.5
Tree of Treason
⭐⭐. 5 /5 Stars.
Vehemence By William Thomas Brumley
A Spy tale that doesn't tell?
A short spy story. I don't have a lot to say about it.
From the beginning, interest in the story and its protagonist rises and falls. Tella, the story's main character, seems to be clashing with the persona that the story itself aludes her to be. In such a way that I found her behavior and personality do not live up to her reputation as a top spy with lots of experience under her belt.
While the main objective seems to be to get the audience to feel closer to her while showing her struggle in a vulnerable situation from the onset, I found myself looking for more reason to actually be attached to her character. Sometimes her actions, like cutting her hair at the beginning of the story for example, also seems awkward and misplaced? As if it was introduced to the audience as being significant, but gave no opportunity to build up to that. It was a pattern that repeated itself several other times in the book.
While some errors are pretty easily overlooked, the writing itself doesn't flow very well because of sentence structure and choppy descriptions or repetitiveness. Sometimes, even obvious redundancies.
The other characters as a whole are interesting but also lack enough character building to make strong impacts. While I could see how they intersect and what the author may have been going for, they didn't leave much of a mark on me either. Their potential was there, it was just not executed well enough to be monumental. The romance was also lacking and felt awkward.
The best thing about the story, in my opinion, is the action. Although I wouldn't call it perfect, Brumley has an eye for the kind of action that moves a spy tale along. Enough that some of those moments overshadow the rest.
Final thoughts: Balance is key. For a short story, it would have been nice if it had been more of a seamless reading experience. With a bit more work and editing, this could be much more enjoyable. Action is the strongest factor in the story and everything else took a back seat to it. This has to change to make the story great.