Reviewed by Chris
TITLE: The Legend of Gentleman John
SERIES: Warmest Wishes – 2018 Advent Calendar
AUTHOR: T.J. Nichols
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 36 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2018
BLURB:
Banyn, a fae, escorts the souls of children to Magh Meall, but one Christmas, he comes for a lad who isn’t quite dead, and he breaks a rule rather than wait while John fights a battle he’ll ultimately lose. So begins a long-running affair that crosses the border between life and death, the human and fae realms, and even oceans to strange countries with different gods and rules.
John Rourke renounced a religion that had no place for him and returned to the old ways. Convicted of theft, he is sentenced to transportation and suffers brutal punishment—until he escapes to live on his own terms as a bushranger. When vengeance against his tormentor consumes him and threatens his life, John finds he has only one holiday wish—to see his fae lover one last time.
REVIEW:
This short story is about the somewhat crap life of John Rourke. John has been a thief, a convict, and an outcast. Born in Ireland, and shipped to one of the Australian penal colonies, during the early 1800s, John has lived a life outside the bounds of law and society. Not so much because he wants to, but because it is the only way he knows he will ever be able to be John. But the price of his identity could very well end up being his life, unless a little bit of faery magic from his homeland finds him on the other side of the world.
While I was initially a bit turned off when I realized that this story was going to be half-told in flashbacks, it didn’t take long for John to win me over. It may not have been told in my favorite of narrative structures, but the story itself was very engaging and packed quite a bit of feeling into its barely 35 pages of length. And the way it switched back and forth between the “present” and the “past” actually did a great job of making you care for John’s dire situation.
I also really adored the “twist” in this story. Not going to spoil it for you, because it was when I realized where the story was going that I went from “this is ok, I guess” to “oh, yeah, I’m so here for this,” and I would hate to deprive others of that experience.
This may be one of the shorter stories this year from Dreamspinner’s Advent collection, but it was a short story well told and well worth reading.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Thank you for the review ^^. I’m a bit torn about this one, but it never hurts to start a short story 🙂
Thank you for the review.
What an intriguing holiday story! Much thanks for the review.
Thank you for the review! I’m not too sure about this one but sounds like I should give it a try anyway.
This seems rather dark for a holiday story, but it looks like the twist makes it worthwhile.
I’m intrigued by this one!
Now I probably would be put off reading this one for a long while with the blurb but your review has encouraged me to give a go earlier!
Thanks for the review. I was looking forward to TJ Nichols’s story, because I enjoyed the past few Christmas shorts a lot. Again I wasn’t disappointed.