In Sheldon Costa’s novel The Great Work, Gentle Montgomery has been living alone in the Washington frontier for a while, after his best friend Liam died while trying to unlock secrets of alchemy. Specifically, Liam died while investigating the strange appearance of a salamander in their area—a salamander which seems to have otherworldly abilities, drives people to their deaths, and might hold the alchemical secret that the two men have been seeking. But Gentle’s grief and newfound determination to finish what Liam started are interrupted with the arrival of Kitt, the son of Gentle’s estranged brother. Together, uncle and nephew soon find themselves in a tense situation, pursuing the salamander but also fleeing from various obstacles, from a crazed hunter to a doomsday cult.

As I’ve learned, I don’t mind Westerns or horror novels, as long as there’s a bit of a supernatural twist (and if all these things are combined, all the better—I really liked The Buffalo Hunter Hunter, after all). And this book did deliver on some of the same enjoyable elements.

For one thing, I liked the two main characters. They have such distinctive voices, suitable to the time period and to their own personalities. Further, I loved seeing them bond as family, even as they navigate such dangers. Their relationship was the best part of the story for me. And both their backstories—filled with peril and trauma a lot of the time—were very well written and compelling.

I also liked the side character Manon, the half-Native, half-French guide that helps Gentle and Kitt through the wilderness. I can’t speak to how well she was represented, but I thought she was a strong character and wish she’d been in the book more. The other side characters, from allies to enemies, weren’t nearly as intriguing to me, though. They certainly functioned in the story, but weren’t interesting to me as people as much as they probably should have been.

As for the supernatural alchemy elements, I did find those interesting, but not as well explored as I’d have liked. I think there was a lot going on, from the strange religious cult to the salamander’s visions to Gentle’s own alchemical goals, and the balance didn’t quite work for me. There were times where I sort of lost track of what the goal of the story was, or why the salamander mattered at all—it was unseen, off-page, for so much of the book as various other immediate problems rose up. Then, by the time the final climax came, I felt sort of confused. The entire scene did have a cool kind of fever dream feel to it, but it was also not entirely clear.

I also wanted much more exploration of Gentle’s friendship with Liam. Though the latter has been deceased since before the start of the book, this relationship was wonderful. Not enough books allow for a platonic friendship to serve as the driving motivation of the protagonist; I was moved by the author’s stance about how friendship should be considered as just as important as romantic or familial connection. That’s a lovely idea, and I wanted that to be more focused on. Often, I’d forget that Gentle’s goals were so informed by Liam, when really, that should have been evident almost all of the time.

In the end, The Great Work was slightly difficult for me. Not in the sense that the writing style was bad or the story was poorly conceived, because I found the writing style and character voices to be good, and the story was interesting the whole time. Rather, there just was too much going on, which sometimes made character motivations muddier. And though there were some elements (Kitt and Gentle’s bond, the themes about friendship, the commentary on colonization and war) were great, overall, this book was just okay for me. However, it’s nice to see how the supernatural and western are being blended these days; hard to categorize books are very cool. Also, the audiobook narrated by Jonathan Sleep was a good production, and I enjoyed reading the book that way.

The Great Work is available now!