Tincture - Laced With Goodness!

Okay, my minions, we are proud to do a review.  What pleases us most, and the reason we must make such a show of it, is that there have been so few PB.com entrants of sufficient worth to warrant a mention.  But now we may share our profundity regards a winner!  Tincture, An Apocalyptic Proposition (TAAP) by Matthew M. Jordan, like so many successful salmon before it, beat it's little fins hard enough to reach The Promised Land - a review by us!  This is fantasy, not exactly post-apocalyptic, a genre we tired of many a moon past, and is really dark fiction, maybe weird fiction.  Whatever label is appied, TAAP is a commendable effort.

Here's his tag:

Rhamuel and the last of his family, Abranyah, travel their barren world, shack to shack, selling tinctures to keep a full belly and evading the dogmatists to keep their throats safe. Time has turned funny after The Whatever, an apocalyptic event that few remember and even fewer can explain, danger now as commonplace as the unrecognizable relics of war, and the madman Aphulan—along with an iron rule over his small township—may hold the answers. With a cure for The Sick and a passion to uncover what happened to their world, Rhamuel and Abranyah set off on a journey to the “other place,” the days before The Whatever, and ready themselves for a glimpse into what happened, and what was always meant to happen next.

NARRATION:   Very nice indeed.  We are unfamiliar with the voice, and no specific attribution was made as to whom it was.  We presume it was Mr. Jordan (hint hint, Mr. J - add attributions!).  As a solo read, there was sufficient articulation of voices between characters to distinguish amongs them.  Also, the anonymous narrator (oh how we admire anonymity) gave a spark, an energy to each main character which fit the personalities well.  There was a confidence in the narration which is surprising to find in a novice.  Very laudable.  We Would give 19 points for this category, about as high as a solo read may garner. 

EDITING/TECHNICAL:  There was one missed over-dub in a later episode, but just the one.  There were a few too-long-a-pauses, but, again, not enough to detract from the overall pace of the story.  Music outros could be a bit long.  Not that the music wasn't pleasing and well matched, it occasionally just ran a bit amok.  Sparse sound effects were bland and probably should have been deleted, but they  were not bad, just... melba toast.  We dole-out 15 points in this grouping.

ORIGINALITY OF STORY:  Back very much on track here, this is a unique tale.  We are unfamiliar with a similar yarn.  As original could be a bad thing, we must definitely state the originality was refreshing.  Several story-twists and elements caught us, scared veterans as we are,  completely by surprise.   This speaks well for the imagination of the author.  A wild and vivid imagination is such a gift, both from the Muse to the author and the author to us readers.  Thank you, kind sir!  An unreserved 20 points here.

QUALITY OF WRITING:  Ah, Mr. Jordan, if you're reading this, you may wish, at this juncture, to take a prescription tranquilizer, if available.  Wait twenty to thirty minutes, then read on.  The rest of you may proceed directly ahead - sedatives optional.  TAAP is more a story told more than a novel written.  This is not a bad thing, but it is not a good thing in and of itself.  Our ancestors sat around many a campfire at night listening to a bard tale tale like Beowulf and the like.  Good stuff!  Writing serious fiction is another art form and it is the one we pine-over.  That said, this is an expansive story with palpable characters who develop intriguing personalities.  Well done, good sir!  But technical flaws do hamper the effort.  There is an on going convolution to the story, scene out of time, if you will.  Think, for illustrative example, of Slaughter House Five.  Done well, this devise is wondrous.  In TAAP, we think the tool may have been over-employed, leading to a bit of jarring and miscomprehension.  The vagueries surrounding the beginning were almost enough to earn TAAP a WSRH.  But - for you dear reader - we persevered and found ourselves caught-up willingly in TAAP. 
Another Serious flaw was the dreaded Anticlimax.  The story came to a truly endless series of saw-toothed ending points, only to launch-forth into another riveting, poignant interlude.  We flash on the image of a fish dying slowly on the floor of a boat.  Will it ever stop flopping?  A final critique.  Mr. Jordan, please vary the word skull for the abused word brain-pan and pepper-in time as it is significantly less liberally.  That is all we'll say.  Zip.  We ladle-forth 10 points here. 

WOW FACTOR: There is clearly some in TAAP.  The prowess of the solo-narration is impressive.  The unbridled imagination of the setting the story is told in is most commendable.  We will always reward an author who spawns a new world and them leads us though it with loving care.  Just say no to zombies and vampires shall always be our motto, or battle cry.  TAAP stays light-years away from the cliche.  Finally, the music, which was a bit long at times, was spell-binding, well-matched, and a pleasure to hear.  You should be proud of yourself, Mr. Jordan!  14 wow-points.

EXTRA CREDIT:  They say in baseball, that if you watch long enough you'll see something you never have before.  And so it is here, a first in the annals of our saged reviews, a negative extra credit.  TAAP is the first to earn a subtraction.  We strike 3 points off the podcasts total for the blatant and unapologetic plagiarism of Fire Fly/Serenity.  We are huge fans of this body of scifi goodness.  But the dialogue in TAAR is clearly a photocopy of the jerky-western drawl of Malcolm Reynold and the rest of the Brown Coats.  It was a brilliant tool for Fire Fly, but when so overtly recycled, it shows a clear lack of originality.  As our close and personal friend Doctor Who has said, "Originality is cool!"

TOTAL:  75.  Well done, TAAP!


Their website is:  http://tincturestory.com/