Book Review: "The Undone Life of Jak Dreadth" by Shawn Speakman

 

In this novella prequel to The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey, a young man searches for his place in a world far more dangerous than he knows.

Jak Dreadth lives a life of privilege and comfort in a far-future city of Erth, the son of a powerful house vying for political leverage and a stronger future against ruling House Angelus.

But when a conquering force from the stars returns to subjugate the planet’s people, Jak is thrust into the pilot box of Viridian—a massive battle mech built to keep the peace. Unknown to him though, machinations within House Dreadth sabotage his efforts as war scorches the sky, leaving him for dead in a desert wilderness rife with hardship.

There, Jak meets Agnez al-Kol, a goatherd who could be a Will Master of an ancient religion or just an eccentric old woman. Together, they travel the sands of the Splinter and, as they navigate the harshest of elements, they will discover their lives are intertwined in ways neither could have imagined—for the past is rarely contained in the past, and the future is dependent upon courage discovered in the present.

Grappling with family intrigue, bounty hunters, and dragons, Jak will learn that living a life of consequence is the only life worth living.

Or he will die trying. - from Amazon.com

Shawn Speakman reached out to me, and offered me this novella since I had enjoyed the first book of (what I hope to be) the Antiquity Gray series. I am gladly giving my review.... Many thanks!!

This  tale starts at the time of the mech war between those on Erth and the Celestials. We are introduced to a young Jak Dreadth, who has just crash-landed one of the mech war machines, and is in the middle of the desert. With little in the way of provisions, he plans to set out on foot to return to Solomon Frye, his family home, to return to the war - somehow. He is surprised by Agnez al-Kol, who is a Will Master, who decided to lead him across the desert. This starts a traveling together, the twines their futures.

*** Spoiler Alert ***

So Agnez ends up dying from a wound caused by another soldier, who was trying to rob the two of them. Her staff and pet lizard are left with Jak, as well as her herd of goats. He feels drawn to return them all to Agnez's family of nomad dwellers, the arabi. Once he finds them , Jak discovers that he is not able to relinquish the staff, and the lizard has some sort of bondedness with him as well. The Will, as it is called, requires Jak to be tested, and he begins a journey into the mountains. Events happen that that he meets a dragon-rider, the persei,  who has a male dragon egg (to start a new aerie) that gets stolen by Celestials. This requires them to travel back to Solomon Frye to face the Celestials and his Father. Long story short, the egg is recovered, a Celestial bounty hunter is killed, and the tale ends with Jak and the persei supposedly returning to her family's new aerie.

So, what is there to NOT like in this tale? Well, it was too short. I also feel it was long enough to make me draw my own conclusions as to what truly happens in the time frame between the two stories. It is clear Jak eventually becomes the Head of his Family, who is politically (if not more) against the Grays (Angelus). And he is a Will Master? How does that affect he decisions that are made leading up to Antiquity Gray, and the hidden machinations of her grandmother? I don't recall anything about a staff in the later story, so is there something that happens to it prior to him returning the lead the family? Too much thinking....

This is a great novella and was completely easy to read and understand from a YA reader level. The author has helped expand a bit more on some the cultures in his story, and their "religious" idealisms in such a way that it is easy to understand, and not 'pushy' to the reader. There is only a short area of world travelling, and not much speculation on times/distance traveling when (I am guessing) on foot, and the map at the beginning makes me think there were weeks of walking from point to point. All of this is just some side speculation and doesn't detract from the story. I definitely recommend this series for readers of pretty much any level.