Review: Archer’s Moon by J.W. Webb

Divine worlds collide and hunting hearts tangle in Archer’s Moon: Dawn of Legends (Legends of Ansu Book 1) by J.W. Webb, a high-fantasy adventure that explores the unique essence and emotional depths of human nature.

From her celestial perch above the planet of Ansu, Argonwui peers down in wonder and longing at the world of humans, a recent creation of her grandfather, the Weaver. However, her mother Elanion, the Emerald Queen, is the custodian of Ansu, and forbids her daughter from any such meddling and mixing with mortals; her roving father Oroonis does enough of that for the whole family.

In a burst of rebellious curiosity, Aggy secretly slips through the Well of Worlds and descends to the land of the living. Arriving near the fabled Rundal Woods, she takes on the enigmatic form of Saryna, and encounters Eltayn Elafan, an outcast hunter from a nearby village. What begins as a defiant fling becomes an evolving obsession with the young man, especially after his village is razed by raiders and Eltayn embarks on a god-guided quest of rescue and revenge.

As Oroonin the One-Eyed Wanderer warns, human beings “spook easily and die easily,” so Aggy’s newfound fascination seems doomed to end in disappointment, death, or heartbreak, but their fates have intertwined in more ways than one. A source of evil locked away on Ansu by her family has begun to leak out into the world, breeding fear, violence, and the threat of a magical war that could rage for generations. Torn between the celestial indifference of immortality and the raging emotions of her freshly made human soul, Aggy must find a way to save the hunter she loves from cosmic chaos raining down from the heavens.

Aggy is a brilliant and compelling figure at the heart of this novel, defined by a fascination with humans that is familiar in pantheon traditions, but she is given increasing depth as a character as the novel goes forward. She often acts with the whimsy or petulance of a child, but also shows flashes of ageless wisdom and entitlement gained in the three thousand years since her genesis.

The mythic similarities don’t end with Aggy’s attraction to humanity; Elanion and Oroonin mirror the antagonistic dynamic of Zeus and Hera, the dismembered Saan echoes tales of Osiris or Dionysus, and Aggy herself should remind readers of Artemis, bow-wielding goddess of the hunt. Despite these nods to mythology, however, every character in this novel feels original with a fully formed mythology of their own, as well as three-dimensional believability – simultaneously heroic, vulnerable, petty, powerful, liberated, and endlessly locked in the Weaver’s dance of destiny.

On a technical level, the writing sparkles on the page, vividly bringing the various realms of this novel into sharp focus, from Aggy’s divine but dull towers among the clouds to the magically charged land of Zorne. The scattered action sequences are riveting and visceral, hitting the sweet spot between manic bloodlust and organized movements that are easy to follow among the chaos. There are occasional imbalances in the storytelling, including scenes overly loaded with dialogue, and others where narration is relied on to fast-track the plot in ways that can feel rushed, but overall the writing is clear and the story well-plotted.

A gripping story of forbidden romance with Earth-shattering stakes, this is an exceptionally strong introduction to a fantasy series, which will appeal to new and veteran fans of the genre.