Review of Ever the Night Road by Michael Breen
A.E. Jackson Review Score: 3 / 5 Ravens
How was this review scored?
Dagny dreams of adventure but has never been on a real one. Michael Breen’s Ever the Night Road begins with active scenes from the main character’s perspective. There is strong action and activity which serves to tell a bit about the world readers have entered.
The character details and personality are dripped out through personal reflection against objects in the environment. Breen raises questions in the reader’s mind about the main character, and the other kids she meets, along with a few other elements of the world and how it works. Readers feel compelled to keep reading to find answers.
Michael Breen has crafted a fantasy about a city of water and glass. Drowned things and lost memories lay just below the surface. There are concrete slums, a decaying Oracle Tower, and a deep underground.
The tale is also a fantasy about orphaned children. Dagny Losh is an escape artist. The survival tactic is thrust on her at a young age as a way to break free from poverty and violence. While others died, Dagny emerged into a privileged world of opportunity.
At seventeen, Dagny is lonely and without purpose. She longs for a connection to her changing world. What she finds is a fragment of her old life, before the flooded river washed everything away. It will take all she has to protect it.
Ever the Night Road is Michael Breen's debut novel. The coming-of-age story features a female protagonist longing for adventure. Her wandering soon becomes a high-stakes quest guided by ancient myth, aided by companions, filled with dangerous criminal and supernatural forces. Dagny discovers true friendship, young love, and her own bravery in a brutal and enchanting world.
Breen welcomes readers into what feels like a full and living world! The place names hint at deeper histories and lore. Brief rich descriptions paint a vivid picture of a fascinating landscape readers will long to explore with Dagny.
Dagny is a complex and layered character. Small references to her past, her emotions, her fears and her internal struggles. Breen uses brief memories about Dagny’s brother, Morgan, to reveal many of her character traits. The author’s writing style and word choice will send the reader’s heart racing, emotions swelling, and body sensing along with Dagny.
However, throughout the entire reading, the novel felt like the author was trying to say something more. He built up to a point that he just never got around to making.
This unspoken statement leaves the reader wanting more. More from the world they’ve entered. More character development. More complete story structure. Overall, more resolution is desired.
Without knowing what Breen has planned for the future, the ending felt open to more adventures. Perhaps we will see more of Dagny, or more of this world in other books.
Michael Breen is an award-winning indie fantasy writer. He has a background in theater. Mike likes truthful fantasy, books that are fearless, and British TV shows. When not writing, he is usually thinking about writing or trying to figure out how a mandolin works.
Read more from Michael Breen at michaelbreenbooks.com and find him/her on social media at Facebook(@MichaelBreenAuthor), and Instagram(@mikepbreen).