When you think of fantasy, the first non-humans you typically think of are Elves or Dragons. Some of you might think of Orcs or even Dwarves. Practically no one ever thinks of Gnomes. I mean, they really don't have the best PR team. Elves get hot actors to portray them and get to act all mysterious and aloof. Dragons fly around burning stuff and/or seeping venom to lay waste to the land. Orcs have an entire video game series that co-stars them. And Dwarves had the whole Hobbit trilogy to show off. What have gnomes had? Lawn ornamentation and a children's t.v. show about a wild animal veterinarian.
So, Kenny Soward steps forward to fill the void I didn't even realize I had regarding gnome-based fiction. In the first novel of the GnomeSaga series, we are introduced to the siblings Niksabella and Nikselpik (Niksa and Nik for short), who are outcasts in their own way in gnomish society. Niksabella has strange and unconventional ideas regarding the combination of sorcery and mechanical devices that have caused her to be expelled from guilds and the good graces of the authorities of the city of Hightower. Her latest invention might just revolutionize the Gnomish world as she knows it, but it also brings her a lot of unwanted attention from rival tinkerers and mages. Nikselpik is a practitioner of necromantic sorcery with an addiction to "bugging" (a type of stimulant secreted by insects) that Hightower reluctantly uses whenever things get too hairy for normal sorcerers to deal with. His meddling with Ultraworlders embroiled in a bitter war in dimensions far beyond (and yet a little too near) his home may have put his sister, and his world, in grave danger.
The story is paced pretty well, though it does start a little slowly. I enjoyed the complexity of Nik and Niksa's relationship - neither "inseparable siblings against all odds" nor "light and dark competing for dominance". The actual characters themselves are pretty standard, and some of the development falls along the lines of the average D&D story, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. I had a hard time following the actual war going on at the moment, but there's plenty of action that's spilling out into Nik and Niksa's world because of it. Since it's the first book of a trilogy, I'm content to let that over-arching plot unfold at a slower rate.
The only real weakness I felt that this book had was the budding romance between Niksabella and a high-ranking gnome from another town. The romance felt tacked on at best, and a like a convenient wild card to play when the author wrote himself into a corner at worst. Since there was a lot of action and development going on in this book, I really didn't think that the romantic subplot was especially necessary, but it may be important in later books, so I'll withhold final judgement until I finish the series. Who knows, maybe all of this will be tied up more elegantly in the final book.
Overall, I think this is a pretty good debut novel for a series. There's just enough complexity in the story to keep you interested and wanting to know what happens next, yet you don't need a flow-chart/family-tree to keep track of who is whom and which faction they're loyal to at any given moment (I'm looking at you Game of Thrones). Plus, it highlights an often overlooked fantasy race and makes them cool and important. I'm looking forward to future installments.
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