Review – Unreliable
My decision to write Unreliable wasn’t just based on the fact that it would be a lot easier than coming up with a new plot for NaNoWriMo 2023, heh.
It was also because I wanted to correct a lot of the issues in Untrustworthy. I was also glad to be able to add to the Untrustworthy universe, and fill it out a lot more.
Background
Tathrelle really had no childhood in Untrustworthy. But she had to have had one! When I scoured the old book, one thing that really leapt out at me was a throwaway line about remembering an earlier life of vagrancy. So, I took this one short line and I ran with it.
Plot
The plot of Unreliable is essentially Tathrelle, Ixalla, Velexio, and Adger before the events of Untrustworthy really kick off.
Before the events of Untrustworthy, Tathrelle runs from a man who reminds her of her father. When she runs into Ixalla, her life changes. And, at the same time, the lives of all Cabossians start to change.
Unreliable Characters
The characters are Tathrelle, Ixalla, Velexio, and Adger. Students aren’t really seen but they are heard. Ixalla’s supervisor, the Lead Instructor, is also present, but this is the person in that position before Untrustworthy starts.
Are the characters truly impossible to rely on? Are they lying to the reader (or, at least, to Tathrelle), or are they simply ignorant of reality?
Memorable Quotes
The fashion of the day—such as it was—was sensible monochrome slacks and tunics, regardless of age or gender or fertility status. The only colors anyone ever wore were various shades of tans and browns. The entire populace of Caboss could blend in effortlessly with the reedy herbs growing on either bank of the Central River if they chose. Tathrelle’s mismatched patched tunic and slacks could fit in even more seamlessly.
But that camouflage was only good for the sides of the river. It did not work for an urban setting. The buildings, as uniform as the people, were all done up in shades of gray, their brutalist architecture spare and lean and efficient with no niceties or flourishes.
The only thing differentiating a school from a medical facility, or a nutrition market was an equally boxy, squarish sign, its letters perfectly, uniformly painted in black against pure white, no serifs allowed.
A Rating That is Anything But Unreliable
The story has a T rating. There is a particularly violent flashback. I am not kidding. You have been warned.
Takeaways
Unreliable answers questions which range from why the Cabossians have such stilted speech to whether a planet with transportation sleighs is covered in ice.
I think what I love the most about it is that I am a much better writer than I was when I wrote Untrustworthy. The proof is in the prose.