The Four Forges: Leave this one on the shelf

The Four Forges by Jenna Rhodes

Rarely do I not like a book at all. But occasionally, a novel just doesn’t resonate. Sometimes it’s just reading the novel at the wrong time, perhaps at a time of reading burnout, or a style that just doesn’t click. But even rarer is the book that I find to be just awfully written. Jenna Rhodes‘ The Four Forges is just awful. Rhodes writes an epic fantasy with a great setting, but a disturbing lack of a central plot.

The setting, which I found to be unique, and part of the reason I picked up the novel in the first place, is full of high fantasy elements. The Four Forges Is a story about two orphans. Sevryn is an accomplished street waif who rises to become the right hand of the queen of the elves. Rivergrace is an orphan who ends up being raised by a loving family of hobbit/dwarf-like people called Dwellers. In this story, however, the elves are not native to the world, and in fact came to the world of Kerith by some magical accident. The elves (called Vaelinar) quickly assert their dominance over the other goodly four races of Kerith, three who are native, one which was created by the human magic users. The magic users of Kerith have destroyed themselves, long before the Vaelinar came, and the world consists mostly of city states and fiefdoms. Elves are the only people with magic anymore, and that comes from an innate talent.
Sevryn, a human/elf hybrid, has a magical talent which he uses in service to the queen of elves. Rivergrace is without magic, but there is something unique about her nature which is revealed in the final chapters.

The Four Forges was awfully written. The tale really doesn’t start until about the last 150 pages of the 611 page mass market paperback edition. Everything that comes before is a simplistic character building interspersed with action that the author feels is necessary to keep your attention, but does little to move the plot forward. The story is full of plot threads, subplots, and a multitude of characters which Rhodes is unable to pull together. What the reader gets is a lot of loose threads, fraying at the edges. While the end of the story is foreshadowed in the beginning, there are so many rabbit trails and unnecessary scenes that the reader loses track of the point of the tale.

For example, one scene calls for the two primary characters to travel together for some weeks to retrieve a particular item. All Rhodes does with this entire chapter is establish that they are being followed and are in danger (a fact previously established in many other chapters and scenes). Rhodes eventually has these two characters get together in a love match, but rather than build that love story in this scene, it is left alone, such that when these two get together, it is a surprise, especially for the Rivergrace character whose emotions are never elucidated, though the opportunity had presented itself many times. Essentially, the chapter is wasted. Especially since it was unnecessary, as the item they retrieve could have been kept by Rivergrace’s Dweller mother in the beginning of the story. These sort of extra scenes are common throughout the story, and add length but not depth to the tale.

The plot is so convoluted and unconnected that after reading the story, I found myself unable to summarize it. I could summarize its final pages, as that is where the story really happens, but that’s it. There are a lot of scenes with things happening, a whole side plot regarding the Dweller families money troubles, and a second focusing on Sevryn’s past, but they have little to do with how the story ends. Nor does the title have anything to do whatsoever with the story. There is a poem about the four forges that is somehow tied to Sevryn, but rather than unraveling the mystery of it, Sevryn (who had lost 18 years of his memory at one point) simply gains it all back by seeing an item of his lost mentor’s. It makes no sense to include the four forges poem if you are not going to use it as part of the story.

Rhodes also writes a great deal in passive voice which makes the tale eminently harder to read, and makes it near impossible for the reader to get excited about events the author is relating. Additionally, Rhodes uses phrases that are distinctly modern and out of place in a high fantasy world. The most jarring was “take them out,” which sounds more like a ’50s gangster than an elf warrior.

Much of the dialogue is dull, usually consisting of one sentence question and replies. Rhodes’ writing instead relies on long paragraphs of description in the passive voice. The characters are thereby flat, dull, and uninteresting, even Sevryn, whose perspective is written in first person.

The beginning of The Four Forges uses dates beneath the chapter number and the end does as well, but the middle portion of the book has no dates whatsoever on it. Why use a dating system if you don’t plan to use it consistently? It is more confusing than helpful.

The Four Forges has two redeeming qualities. First, the setting is unique, and in more capable hands, I would want to know a great deal about the world of Kerith. As it is, I barely understand the history that is informing on the actions of the present. Secondly, Rhodes is good at writing about the family unit. The story of Rivergrace and her adopted Dweller family is cute, and Rhodes does a good job of showing their intimacy and the ties that bind them. She also gives them mundane problems which resonate with the reader.

I had to force myself to finish The Four Forges. It’s a loose collection of unrelated subplots, has poor characterization and an annoying writing style. It’s not worth your time.

FanLit thanks John Ottinger III from Grasping for the Wind for contributing this guest review.