Seagrave’s Journey - The long way back home, a web-serial by Feidor S. LaView is an urban fantasy with Western world meeting Eastern lore including Jiang Shi (zombie/vampire) and shape-shifters. The globe-spanning trip is a turbulent, occasionally psychedelic, ride dotted by beautiful pools of reflection.

In a poignant opening, alone with a forgotten dead man on the sidewalk, Jordan Seagrave decides to leave his life with Troy Corporation behind and go home. In a mysterious Shanghai Café enjoying a “extraordinary” and relaxing cup of coffee, Seagrave’s Journey begins in a re-awakening into a strange world full of magic. There from the start, Seagrave learns to run and adapt quickly.

During the first many episodes, the title character is primarily reactive, but given the fantastical circumstances Seagrave finds himself in, reaction is expected. When faced with a powerful foe, the best decision is to run or fly away. In contrast, Seagrave’s guide, Wu Ming, is very proactive. Watching Seagrave grow from his fumbling about within this strange world is part of the fun.

Overall the story is written well, but some wording issues and occasional grammar errors may cause a few stumbles. Keep in mind English is not the author’s native language, and part of the charm is when LaView shares non-English dialogue smoothly translated. It’s refreshing to find dialogue attributed by the em dash instead of quotation marks, as the author describes, to help keep the tempo. The author is in search of his style, and writing a serial is a good method to tune in. Bumps build foundation of experience.

LaView’s project began as a flash fiction piece for #FridayFlash community, which is how I discovered Seagrave. Soon after LaView turned it into a web-serial with defined episodes, some nearly able to stand on their own. Circumstances caused the author to take a break in 2014, but the memorable story stuck with me, and I had no trouble picking right back up again. As indicated by the contents page, LaView plans on posting weekly episodes and finishing the story in June 2015.

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