Iron Shoes | |||||
J. Kathleen Cheney | |||||
219KB | |||||
A review by Trent Walters
Enter a horse she just bought, sight unseen. Paddy, the ranch's best trainer, tells Imogen it's sick and
he doesn't know what to do. Imogen knows immediately. The horse is a fairy, Guiare, trapped in the
horse form due to all of the iron binding it -- from harness to the shoes. Against her better judgment,
she releases Guiare, and one night he comes into her room, naked, with a bargain she can't refuse. There's
a reason why she knows he's a fairy: it's a secret buried deep in family history. Meanwhile, Mr. Hammersly,
her neighbor, continues to badger her about joining their ranches in a permanent union, which she
rejects. Worse, Blue Streak, the horse they thought would help out the ranch, is shot while Paddy is
riding it. The horse falls and breaks Paddy's leg. The ranch, stunned, has to come up with another way
to get the money.
Perhaps as an ordinary male, this reviewer will find some aspects of this romance difficult to
understand. One ordinary man approaches her with words, one magical man approaches her boldly naked,
sneaking into her bedroom unasked. Which does she choose? Men out there will have to wonder if this
is the way to go: magic tricks and birthday suits. Of course, these are fantasies, and men have
penchants incomprehensible to women. But it is curious and worth noting. Granted, Hammersley is a
baddie, but her response is cold before we learn to the extent to which he'd go to get Imogen.
It's a fun read, nonetheless, because we're all rooting for the protagonist as she fights to save
her ranch and to fall in love. Imogen returns in a sequel, Snow Comes to Hawk's Folly. Perhaps
these will all be collected into one book. J. Kathleen Cheney seems the type of author who could attract
a strong and passionate platoon of faithful readers.
Trent Walters teaches science; lives in Honduras; edited poetry at Abyss & Apex; blogs science, SF, education, and literature, etc. at APB; co-instigated Mundane SF (with Geoff Ryman and Julian Todd) culminating in an issue for Interzone; studied SF writing with dozens of major writers and and editors in the field; and has published works in Daily Cabal, Electric Velocipede, Fantasy, Hadley Rille anthologies, LCRW, among others. |
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