A River Is a Lot to Lose by Mason Frey

A River Is a Lot to Lose Reviews

• 
  Sarah

  Review originally written for my
  blog
  
  So, I got this book for free on Amazon not that long ago as a special promotion by the author and at the same time as I downloaded it, I also got all the Kindle Unlimited books I'd checked out. I actually thought this was one of them (it is on KU) and as it was short, I decided to read it so I could return it and get another book. I didn't realise until I'd already started that it was one I owned. Anyway, that explains why the cover...isn't the greatest to put it mildly. That being said, I've seen much worse covers and my main issue with it is that I'm just not a fan of that font.
  
  So, I've put this down on my Fantasy shelf because the author shared the post about it in /r/Fantasy but really I'm not sure what to class it as. It describes itself as a narrative riddle, which isn't that accurate and there are slightly otherworldly aspects which leads me to place it in Fantasy. 
  
  The basic premise is fantastic, they're travelling down a river and then manage to lose it and get lost in the woods. I really enjoyed that and the fact they seem to keep going in circles while meeting all sorts of odd inhabitants. The ending let me down quite a bit though and it felt a bit rushed at the end.
  
  The characters though, the characters are all very flat. It alternates between referring to them as their titles (such as the Surveyor) and using their names and to be honest it refers to them so little that I could hardly every remember their names which in a book this short and with just three main characters is...not a good sign. I can understand not wanting to refer to them too often but seriously, this was sparing at best. Another big issue I had was with the dialogue - it hardly ever mentioned who was talking other than perhaps at the start and then left it up to you to figure out who was speaking. Their personalities weren't that distinctive enough for me to be able to recognise them based on dialogue alone and I feel this is something that really should be fixed as it was a major hindrance to my reading. I do not enjoy having to actively stop and go "Wait, who's speaking again?" or go "Wait, who is Malory? Which one is he again?". 
  
  The writing itself wasn't too bad, but could definitely still use some improvement as a lot of the time, I felt the chapters could be fleshed out a lot more with more descriptions, more interaction between the characters and more insights into their thoughts. It all felt a bit shallow and constantly hinted at the potential for something much deeper - rather like how the characters themselves felt at the fact that they knew the river was there, they just couldn't find it. One major thing too is that while reading, I noticed one very glaring mistake that should have been picked up during proofreading which was using "your" instead of "you're" (if you're the author and you happen to read this, it's 17% of the way through).
  
  All in all, this book let me down and I think I'm being harsher on it than I usually would due to the fact that I loved the concept and felt it had so much potential and could be so much more if it was just a little more polished and expanded on. That being said, if the author releases further books then I'm likely to give them a try to see how his writing has improved because there's definitely talent there and I think this just needs a good editor to make it into a much better book.
  
  Currently, I would not recommend this book due to the issues mentioned however I am adding this author to my to-watch list as I have a feeling once their writing improves, I'll be a big fan.
• 
  Anthony

  There is peace in the kingdom, and so a team is sent out to shore up loose ends. To bring civilization back to parts of the nation that have not seen so much as a tax collector in years and years, where nature has reclaimed so much that any official maps are beyond useless, where the law of the land has been forgotten completely.
  
  A RIVER IS A LOT TO LOSE follows three men--a surveyor, a sapper, and their captain--as they plot a course downriver through a long-stagnant part of the country, hoping to map the terrain in preparation for civil works projects that will eventually build roads, schools, and re-tether forgotten villages and settlements to the kingdom. Their plans are complicated, however, by their river all but disappearing beneath them. Not exactly lost, but not exactly certain of their surroundings, the men continue on into dense forests hoping to find precious landmarks that will guild them back to the water. But the territory proves to be much more wild than any new map can rectify, and the men find themselves going up against forces both real and mystical that begin to play havoc with their mission, turning a carefully-plotted plan into a game of survival.
  
  Part-THE REVENANT, part-THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, part-ANNHILATION, all bound up into a low-fantasy setting that was downright unsettling to read at times, A RIVER IS A LOT TO LOSE is simply a wonderful novella and a refreshing concept within the genre. The plot is pushed forward with short chapters that detail the three protagonists' descent into dark country that, even with their experience as veterans of a violent war, they are rarely able to rationalize. Frey is fantastic at maintaining a sense of malevolence that hangs just beyond the periphery, taunting the three men out of their sense of character, duty, and well out of their wits. Their slow, grim acceptance of just how lost and just how out-of-control their situation has become after losing the river is excellently plotted, as well as their encounters with the abnormal, the long-isolated, and, perhaps, the supernatural.
  
  At 144 pages, the novella can be devoured in an afternoon, and in some ways this works for the story and against it. The book advertises itself as "an extended narrative riddle," but this in itself only serves to confuse. Indeed there are cases, such as the rather abrupt ending and epilogue, where the writing gets a little too cryptic for its own good. Frey wisely keeps the narrative laser-focused on the experiences of the protagonists, their mounting fear and paranoia, which likewise keeps the reader questioning *everything* about the men's surroundings. It allows a fantastic sense of dread. That this is set up to be a fantasy story, perhaps, enables the imagination to wander a bit too far as to just what IS causing all of this mayhem. Answers are kept a little too close to the chest, occasionally revealed to characters but not the reader. Instead of a riddle, I would've much rather enjoyed something at least adjacent to a revelation.
  
  Still, despite what I found to be a questionable ending, A RIVER IS A LOT TO LOSE is a taut and unsettling story that sets up a locale that will have readers distrusting everyone the protagonists meet, as well as the very environment they inhabit. The writing is skillful and the characters are well-drawn. The first great book I've read this year.
  
  (Originally published on Amazon)
  
  ---
  
  And as a sidenote, I don't think I could disagree more with the bulk of the previous review. A RIVER IS A LOT TO LOSE is a novella. It's meant to be short: to get you in, get you out. Regardless, there is most certainly characterization. The protagonists are well-drawn (as I said) and are leagues away from flat. They approach every "engagement," we'll call them, with their own baggage, history, superstition or lack thereof. I got their sense of duty, I got the sapper's paranoia, I got the captain's fear of failure and loyalty to the state, the surveyor's logical approach (and his more secular leanings). That's not flat!
  
  The writing was fantastic, as well. Skillful, I stand by that. And I don't know that bringing up typos (or fonts, for that matter) is a fair criticism if there are barely any to be found. I think I found one that stood out, which puts it on better footing than most hardback releases.
  
  HOWEVER, I will agree with the other reviewer on three points:
  
  1) The cover, while it gets the job done, should do more to communicate what's going on in the story: flintlock fantasy, horror, the supernatural, incomplete/useless maps, encroaching civilization, three ex-soldiers, backwater locales, unseen terrors, twisted landscapes. This cover simply has a river, which is the shyest character of the story. (Similar criticism for the author's other stories. I'd discourage basic images for complex stories.)
  
  2) Personal preference, I think sticking with "the captain," "the surveyor," and "the sapper" as their names was fine. Revealing their actual names and sparingly referencing those names them only served to confuse. I'd say come down on one side or the other. I brought up ANNIHILATION, which does this. Everyone is referenced by their occupation.
  
  3) The ending. Pretty much what I pointed out in the review. Maybe a little too cryptic for its own good. The reappearance of the lights, the lights themselves, the reappearance of the river, the emptied village, the fetid basement, the passing, the spooky tree, the dead birds, the herbalist's disappearance, the surveyor's death, the woodcutter, the woodcutter's daughter, the mask people, the pellar epilogue. The dots never really connected for me. I can place an idea there, but it doesn't seem sufficient.
  
  These are small things, though. Really. Four stars would still be fair. Two stars, no. This is a wonderful novella. Can't wait to dig into the author's other stories.
• 
  Nathan Towns

  It has a cool location. It's like the fantasy equivalent of 18th century frontier Kentucky. But none of the characters are very fleshed out—and what little development is done is hard to remember since the characters are intermittently referred to as their titles instead of their names and not in tandem often enough to remember which person is the captain, which the pellor and which the surveyor.
  
  I like the idea of the story better than the story itself. It's short which would help with memory of characters et cetera had I not read it off-and-on between longer readings.
  I have a hard time recommending this, but if you do decide to read it, try to read it all in one go.