Book Review: The Cider of Legend

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'Anyone can make a difference. It doesn't have to be something earth shattering. It can be small. A gesture. Some kind words to brighten someone's day. If we all looked outside ourselves just once a day and tried to fill someone's bucket, the world would be a better, safer and kinder place to live.'



Let me begin by saying I do NOT like snakes! Hell, they actually creep me out!! They slither and hiss and bite and are positively abhorrent if you ask me!

And yet, I'm giving this book starring snakes a big fat 5 star rating and I admit I really love the two slithering MCs. Mik'hai and Le'thal are a pair of sidewinders that anyone would love!

In a world where 'hand washing twenty times a day was marshal law, food shopping came equipped with a temperature check and full body screening and surgical masks and hazmat helmets became the new reality.... the light-builders started hiding in their homes and praying for survival.' And the disease affecting them started spreading. Until it reached the little corner of the desert belonging to the sidewinders.

And this is how the story of our slithering MC, Mik'hai begins.

Before I tell you what it is about, allow me to show you why I instantly kind of liked the little bugger. Because of his own warning.
'Now, before you start getting all judgmental, let me just say that that doesn't automatically mean I'm an as***le.'

So I gave the poor snake a break and got on with his tale. Mik'hai was a very happy snake. Madly in love with his beautiful wife Le'thal, as well as his six kids. And he didn't even mind when he had to get her a crate of cider because she was feeling kind of low. Despite the fact that 'for a dude with no hands that was hard work.'

Until the day disease falls on their sandy home. Everyone is getting sick. Food is getting scarce. Fear is on the rise. And the Cider is gone!

Their only hope is the Cider of Legend, according to a very old and wise snake. The geezer claims a drink brewed from the pears of the mystical cactus, Spiky McNeedlebottom is the only solution to their problem. One sip, so the stories say, will cure any disease. And Mik'hai decides to go find it.

And this is how Mik'hai and his wife find themselves on an impossible quest full of perils, in which they'll have to risk life and tail to survive. Coyotes, hawks, hunger, and snark will stand in their way. All that and desperation, perhaps even hope.

Can the two sidewinders survive their quest and change the fate of the world? I'll leave that for you to find out. What I will tell you though is that their adventure may seem a little confusing and senseless at times. Just like real life! Because, if we sit and think about it, ....

'... that's life. It's messy and confusing and doesn't make any sense sometimes, but other times it just feels so right.'

Fast paced and entertaining, The Cider of Legend is jam-packed with both adventure as well as snark and humor. It is an epic fantasy quest with satiric touches that beautifully juggles with both dark and humorous undertones.

The humor is crude and rough at times but subtle and light and others, beautifully highlighting every single theme in just the right way, From family to friendship, from courage to selfishness and from fantasy tropes to writing style, all of it is perfectly balanced.

The Cider of Legend is a downright memorable tale. Partly because it is appropriate for these present times, as our slithering friend put it...
'Current year is f-ed up....nothing makes a bit of sense.'

Partly because the satire and humor do not stand in the way of the seriousness of the tale.

And partly because of the message it conveys. Honor and duty as well as little kind deeds - sadly in short supply these days... they matter and shouldn't be forgotten.

Bottom-line, because I held you enough, this book here is a little page turner, that will prove very difficult to set down.
And you don't have to take my word on it! Just go ahead and give it a try!

Happy reading everyone
and remember!
'Anyone can make a difference.'

Check out this book and more of Michael Evan and JMD Reid here