The Word Trove reminded me of Flatland, a book about the world of geometric shapes. This is a similar concept. The protagonist is a word, we don’t know which one, that is taken on a journey that will lead it to discover who it really is.
The first two chapters are promising. They promise an adventurous journey. I bet we will meet several other characters in the next chapters. And the final addition to the second chapter of hungry creatures on the hunt make the whole thing more interesting. This is not only a discovery journey, but also a survival one. Where there is a villain, there is conflict, and where there is conflict, there is plot.
The style is neat and simple. Enough is left to the imagination to fill in the gaps. For example, words are said to have syllables, but also hands and knees. Thus, it is not described how a word is actually shaped. The reader is free to imagine their own words moving like humans in a world which looks like ours but it is not quite like ours.
A loud shout goes to the graphics. Every chapter has a great cover and sometimes little lovely images appear throughout the text. They are all very beautiful.
Overall, The Word Trove looks like a promising book from its first two chapters. The audience is probably quite young, although there are clever and deep references sparkled here and there. I’d imagine also this would not be a long book, thus promising quick satisfaction to the impatient reader.
***
Chapter 1
The Word wakes up, it stretches its sylabae and yawns. At the breakfast tables, it argues with its father about the danger or no danger of being spoken by a human. The father says words should cooperate with humans, but this sounds like a revolutionary theory. Everyone is afraid of humans.
The Word leaves its house and goes visiting its friend Deaf. Deaf is a peculiar character. Not being able to speak, Deaf manages to chat thanks to the hundreds of servants that fill its house main hall. Deaf simply points with one finger to a servant and that servant speaks the word it is. “I!” Then it points to another servant, which shouts its own word. “Am”. And so on.
The Word and Deaf chat for a while until some vocal cords appear in the hall and suck in word after word. The Word tries to avoid being sucked in, but it cannot resist. Deaf is the only survivor. It survived thanks to its ability to rearrange itself: at the last second, Deaf became Fade, and it escaped its end.
Chapter 2
The Word is surrounded by vocal cords, entangled with other words in a dark space with an open abyss before it. The other words are mainly Deaf’s servants. It recognises Hint, Perhaps and Can. Hint gives it a few tips: don’t put a fight, take a deep breath. The Word is going to be spoken by a human.
The word It is spoken and as it is catapulted from where Word is to the opening of the abyss. As It flew, it had shouted itself. The Word is spoken too.
The Word wakes up, but a woman voice tells it to stay down and rest. A man’s voice speaks as well, but the Word falls asleep before it can see who it was.
When it wakes up, Word finds an old word looking after him. The Word does not remember anything. Soon after, a woman, Rhyme, brings in its breakfast: “Buttered toast, syllable salve and verbal tea.” The woman explains that a human spoke him out loud. It was the only word they could find. They often find words that have been spoken out in their fields. The mend them and help them recover. But it never happened that a word would lose their memory. If you lose your memory, you don’t know who you are, you don’t know who your family is and what your meaning is. “Because without family and without meaning, you are nothing.”
The Word leaves the couple and starts its journey to discover itself. In the meantime, two creatures catch the scent of their next victim.
The first two chapters are promising. They promise an adventurous journey. I bet we will meet several other characters in the next chapters. And the final addition to the second chapter of hungry creatures on the hunt make the whole thing more interesting. This is not only a discovery journey, but also a survival one. Where there is a villain, there is conflict, and where there is conflict, there is plot.
The style is neat and simple. Enough is left to the imagination to fill in the gaps. For example, words are said to have syllables, but also hands and knees. Thus, it is not described how a word is actually shaped. The reader is free to imagine their own words moving like humans in a world which looks like ours but it is not quite like ours.
A loud shout goes to the graphics. Every chapter has a great cover and sometimes little lovely images appear throughout the text. They are all very beautiful.
Overall, The Word Trove looks like a promising book from its first two chapters. The audience is probably quite young, although there are clever and deep references sparkled here and there. I’d imagine also this would not be a long book, thus promising quick satisfaction to the impatient reader.
***
Chapter 1
The Word wakes up, it stretches its sylabae and yawns. At the breakfast tables, it argues with its father about the danger or no danger of being spoken by a human. The father says words should cooperate with humans, but this sounds like a revolutionary theory. Everyone is afraid of humans.
The Word leaves its house and goes visiting its friend Deaf. Deaf is a peculiar character. Not being able to speak, Deaf manages to chat thanks to the hundreds of servants that fill its house main hall. Deaf simply points with one finger to a servant and that servant speaks the word it is. “I!” Then it points to another servant, which shouts its own word. “Am”. And so on.
The Word and Deaf chat for a while until some vocal cords appear in the hall and suck in word after word. The Word tries to avoid being sucked in, but it cannot resist. Deaf is the only survivor. It survived thanks to its ability to rearrange itself: at the last second, Deaf became Fade, and it escaped its end.
Chapter 2
The Word is surrounded by vocal cords, entangled with other words in a dark space with an open abyss before it. The other words are mainly Deaf’s servants. It recognises Hint, Perhaps and Can. Hint gives it a few tips: don’t put a fight, take a deep breath. The Word is going to be spoken by a human.
The word It is spoken and as it is catapulted from where Word is to the opening of the abyss. As It flew, it had shouted itself. The Word is spoken too.
The Word wakes up, but a woman voice tells it to stay down and rest. A man’s voice speaks as well, but the Word falls asleep before it can see who it was.
When it wakes up, Word finds an old word looking after him. The Word does not remember anything. Soon after, a woman, Rhyme, brings in its breakfast: “Buttered toast, syllable salve and verbal tea.” The woman explains that a human spoke him out loud. It was the only word they could find. They often find words that have been spoken out in their fields. The mend them and help them recover. But it never happened that a word would lose their memory. If you lose your memory, you don’t know who you are, you don’t know who your family is and what your meaning is. “Because without family and without meaning, you are nothing.”
The Word leaves the couple and starts its journey to discover itself. In the meantime, two creatures catch the scent of their next victim.