Review: Gathering of the Four by A. E. Bennett – A 2022 Indie Author Review Selection
Description • The Review • Author Interview • More About the Author
Description (from Amazon.com)
“In the Realm, every citizen knows their place.”
Leora of Mae is a young woman orphaned at birth and raised on a remote farm. As a wielder of Xanthcraft, her abilities set her apart from her adoptive family and the other villagers.
Shortly before her twentieth birthday, she learns of her family’s plot to sell her into servitude. Fearing for her life, she flees from the only home she’s ever known—defying societal conventions and breaking the edicts of the Realm.
As she runs, Leora meets Roland Shallowbrook, a traveler on the Thieves’ Road; Lady Aurora Verte, daughter of a powerful member of the gentry; and the White Rider Leopold, a soldier with a secret.
Together, this found family will have to band together to survive.
Set in the distant future during the return of the Hale-Bopp comet, Gathering of the Four is the first book in The Serrulata Saga.
The Review
In 1997, I remember standing outside one of my first apartments and looking up at Comet Hale-Bopp. Little did I know at the time that the comet–with one blue tail and one yellow–would play a part in the demise of a cult named Heaven’s Gate which I have since read about and studied ad nauseum. I recall thinking to myself at the time: “Self, what would life on Earth be like when the comet returns to the solar system in 4385?”
In the Gathering of the Four: Book One of the Serrulata Saga by A.E. Bennett, we are given one possible version, and it is one that I would not have guessed. Rather than some idyllic, technologically advanced future with flying cars and robots, the world of 4385 (at least within this first book in the series) is a medieval one that reminded me both of Game of Thrones with its various families and any other book set in pre-Renaissance Europe.
Leora–an orphan with yellow eyes and abilities that include producing fire, transforming her appearance, healing and more–learns that she is to be sold into slavery. She runs from her adoptive family and joins up with three other deep, and very well-developed characters: a thief and ragamuffin named Roland, a refined lady of the gentry named Aurora, and a soldier named Leopold. Together, they make strong bonds, escape from those who hunt them down, and learn to survive on the road.
Gathering of the Four is filled with adventure, high stakes, familial spats, and blossoming love while being reflective on racial prejudices, societal constructs and norms which are still apparent even 2300 years from now. The look back on our own version of life through the eyes of these travelers was great to see, and the character development was so complete and rich that they became “book friends” by the end. I want to drink an ale with them.
Bennett’s writing is crisp, witty, philosophical at times, and filled with great narration that rarely detracts from the storyline. I greatly appreciated each chapter’s epigraph and the detail with which the evolution and devolution of our society is both shown and hinted at. Gathering of the Four is the setup to a great series, and one that I am excited to continue.
Available at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZJRXBGV/
Author Interview
Gathering of the Four is set during the return of Comet Hale-Bopp in 4385. When did you first think of writing a novel set during this time?
This story has always been with me in one form or another for most of my life, but it didn’t really coalesce until after I graduated from high school in 2000.
I was obsessed with the Hale-Bopp comet when it came around in 1997. I gobbled up any and all scifi I could get my hands on, and I consumed almost every news article I could about the comet. This is going to make me sound so old, but I’m pretty sure the Hale-Bopp was the first subject I researched online outside of school. We’d recently gotten the internet at home, but I’d never really seen the appeal of looking for information about something while sitting in front of a screen before Hale-Bopp.
I’ve also always been fascinated by history and am still a bit of a history buff. Some news magazine at the time devoted most of an issue to what life was like the last time the Hale-Bopp came around. This got me thinking about what life on earth would be like the next time the comet comes to visit. A few years later, of course, you couldn’t get away from Y2K. There were a lot of apocalyptic scenarios floating around.
So, combine an epic comet visit with fears about technology causing the end of the world and—voila—an early, rudimentary version of Gathering of the Four was born!
How did you come up with the idea of Xanthcraft?
In every version of this story, Leora’s had magical abilities, but they’ve varied. (In one, I think she can float, for instance.)
A few years ago, I became determined to actually get The Serrulata Saga out into the world, so I started talking to an editor friend of mine. She took a look at my draft and told me in no uncertain terms that my magic was a mess and needed rules. (One of the biggest obstacles for me was figuring out how to limit the White Riders. In my first draft, they were pretty much all-powerful, which created a host of problems.)
As I was massaging the magic, I’d bounce ideas off of my husband. Like me, he’s a fan of the Dune books and Star Trek, but he also grew up reading a ton of comics, so he’s a fantastic person to discuss worldbuilding with. I would ask him, “Does this work? No? What about this?” It was really great having someone to bounce ideas off of like that.
Throughout the novel, I pictured various parts of the country as seen through the character’s eyes. Did you ever map it out on paper so you knew where they were relative to today’s landmarks?
I’m not an artist at all, so when I need to figure out where something is, distance-wise, I turn to Google Maps. Depending on where I’m describing, I then shift things several miles to the west to account for sea rise.
What kind of research did you do for the novel?
I had to refresh my knowledge of the Hale-Bopp (when it actually was visible versus when it was discovered, for example), so I did some reading on that. I also have a friend who is very knowledgeable about astronomy and he was gracious enough to look at early versions of my work.
Do you have a writing routine?
I write until I can’t anymore—literally. When I’m working on a draft or editing, I need to completely focus, so I tend to set aside Fridays after work. I’ll shut myself away from the rest of the apartment and work for four to six hours at a time. Sometimes I’ll do this on both Friday and Saturday nights, especially if the weather is bad (eg: rain, snow) and we wouldn’t be outside anyway.
I’m a fan of easter eggs in movies and novels. Did you have any in this one?
My easter eggs tend to mostly be geographic. A few of my readers from the DMV (DC, Maryland, Virginia) have told me they enjoy seeing the names of places they know—or bastardized versions. If you know New Market, Maryland, for example, you know it’s not a bustling metropolis. (I’ve got nothing against the place, but it is a relatively small suburb of DC.) Years ago we had a friend move up there and so I wrote New Market into the story to kind of poke at him.
Did you edit out anything you wish you would have kept in?
An early version had more scenes with Damek and Lady Isolda, but all of my beta readers hated Damek so much that I decided to cut them. Looking back, my betas were right (a good beta is worth their weight in gold). All those scenes did were describe Damek’s abuse in a gratuitous manner and make Lady Isolda sound shrill. Trust your betas, writers!
How has this writing journey been for you?
I learned so much last year about self-publishing and, honestly, I don’t think I did it all that well. I pushed GOTF out with no marketing strategy and then was crushed when people didn’t rush to buy my book. To be honest, I’m still struggling with marketing. I’m not great about hyping myself or my work. I’m trying to get better, but it’s a struggle! I took my perceived failures, though, and learned from them. I launched the romance prequel to GOTF, Yours and Mine, in December and feel like that was more successful. Every launch is a learning experience!
Gathering of the Four is the first of a series. When can we expect the second and how many more do you have planned?
Well, I just mentioned the prequel, Yours and Mine. (It’s a Regency-romance style novella about how Octavia and Gerald meet, fall in love, and get married.) That’s been out since December.
This spring, I will begin edits on Book Two—Test of the Four. (I just did the title reveal in my February newsletter.) If all goes well, I hope to launch Test of the Four this fall.
I’ve also completed the first draft of another romance novel, which will center around one side character from Book Two and one new character. Then there is the horror novella that’s been bouncing around in my head. Then I have to get started drafting Book Three.
So, I guess the TL;DR answer is…there’s a lot more of The Serrulata Saga to come.
More About the Author
A.E. Bennett (she/her) lives in Washington, D.C.
She is originally from North Carolina.
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