Rob Donovan’s Ritual of the Stones reviewed by fellow author Michael Watson.
Every twelve years in the land of Frindoth twelve random people receive colored stones indicating that they’ve been selected to participate in the Ritual. These twelve are contestants in a lottery of sacrifice to appease the Gloom, a wraith-like creature of immense power. One person is randomly chosen and…eaten (it’s unclear what exactly happens to the ‘winner’) and the rest go home scarred for life. If the Ritual is disrupted in any way the Gloom goes on a good ole rampage across the land. The Ritual itself makes an excellent engine for the plot of the book and is its greatest strength. The plots and subplots related to the Ritual keep you reading along and the central arc of the story is brisk but paced well.
Honestly, one random sacrifice every twelve years to prevent wanton, widespread destruction from an invincible and tireless monster seems like a good deal to me. But the protagonists of the novel disagree! Which is good because otherwise we’d have no story.
Ritual of the Stones is something of an un-heroic fantasy. The protagonists are less paragons of the land and more regular folk. They’re all believably human in that they don’t have a complete (or even a significant fractional) view of the big picture. Sure, they’re kings and princes and witches of the mysterious Order, but also just regular people with the misfortune of being selected for the titular Ritual. Some are attempting to circumvent or stop the Ritual, while others dutifully try to carry out their unlucky role in it. And they make mistakes. Oh boy, do they make mistakes. Because they’re rather uninformed and largely act in the spur of the moment, their actions are often quite shortsighted. Yet this works to the book’s benefit and lends a lot more tension to the plot than the actions of more traditional protagonists would.
There’s a certain off-beat appeal to a fantasy novel with these sort of characters driving the action. It’s a little refreshing even if you’re frustrated that the characters are, frankly, kind of foolish. But it’s a forgivable “Yes I suppose someone in your situation would make that choice” brand of foolishness. On the other hand, you have little sympathy for them and might even celebrate when they receive some well-deserved comeuppance later in the book. This extends to the villains of the story, though in their case they’re simply underwritten and somewhat cartoonish. They do things because plot and not for any rational, stated reason.
The narration is clear with something of a classic, old-school feel to it. It’s not stylish and gets the job done though it could have used another scrub in the editing process to prune out a handful of redundant sentences and strange, if minor, continuity errors. In general everything is well-structured. Donovan gamely juggles a fairly large cast in not-so-many pages, giving most characters full arcs though a few balls do get dropped as sacrifices for setting up a sequel.
The world building is serviceable. A lot of thought clearly went into the setting but the execution follows more of a “mention other places here and there” model. The different parts and peoples of Frindoth are given brief highlights and don’t really stick with you. It’s not that the setting is flavorless it’s that the book’s quick pace doesn’t leave a lot of room to let that flavor shine through.
Overall, Ritual of the Stones is a mixed bag but worth your time if you find the central premise or a cast of flawed but ‘normal’ characters intriguing.
Michael Watson is the author of Valkwitch.
