The Emancipation of Giles Corey

Michael Sortomme Singing Lake Press, 2010 Despite having one profound drawback, this was a very interesting story to read. Michael Sortomme clearly did a lot of exhaustive research on the geography of Salem and the surrounding areas, if not directly "boots on the ground" then at least with sheaves of maps and photographs. The realism is at such a level that the reader can almost smell the rotting autumn leaves of New England. On the face of it, "The Emancipation of Giles Corey" is your standard Boy Rescues Princess plot-line, except that since this is pagan fiction the hero is naturally a woman and the victim is a man. He's also very dead, and for an interesting twist (and this isn't really a spoiler since the reader finds this out up front) the male victim being rescued is one of the heroine's past lives. This makes for an interesting adventure, popping back and forth from 2007 to 1692, both eras written with a satisfying depth of narrative. The plot develops well too, incorporating various 17th century political intrigues and exposing the web of family connections involved in the Salem Witch Trials as Sophie St Cloud and her amiable band of pagans adventure around the countryside on a quest to free the earthbound souls of executed witches. The main drawback of this book, however, is the main drawback of all ideologue fiction, the tendency to sermonize. It's a natural human tendency to expound on the things we know, especially our personal passions, but the whole purpose of fiction is to engage the reader's imagination and take them on an adventure. Fiction can be educational, but if it interferes with the flow of the story then it doesn't belong. Sophie St. Cloud is clearly a Mary Sue character, but that could be excused if she weren't so obnoxious. Again and again, Sophie lectures the other characters about karma, the disabled, morality or some other subject. While this seems to be in character, we don't need to READ the lectures or have it waved in our faces how annoying the other characters find them. The ritual narrative isn't much better, either I don't need to read a full page describing a Spirit Bundle, what each ingredient means and where it came from. This was a full page which could have carried the story farther along and, while some would enjoy reading "Sleeping Beauty" if the author described at length how the Prince buckled on each greave and cuisse, debating whether the bevor on his sallet-helmet would interfere with True Love's First Kiss, most readers would simply lose interest. Despite my personal opinion of Emancipationin terms of composition, the story itself was very compelling, with an impressive level of environmental detail. I felt the architectural and landscaping information added to the experience and made the story more involving and realistic, but I feel all the Wiccan material might alienate readers with backgrounds in other magic-using traditions. Overall, mancipation would be a great book, if the author could knock off about thirty pages of exposition. I might have given this four and a half broomsticks, because it really is a good story with an interesting twist on reincarnation and Soul Retrieval. Unfortunately, I could not get past the composition, and as it stands I give it two broomsticks. Wade Long