Alissa

Very good, very odd. The story hooked me in an instant, with the introduction of Black, his mysterious purpose and the way this mystifying being can read what lies in the human heart.

From this perspective, during the investigation that soon takes center stage in the story, I gained a privileged insight on the characters that Black encounters; but it was still a filtered knowledge, very gradual, which left me little the wiser while the puzzle slowly unraveled.
This narrative approach verged dangerously on telling rather than showing and astonishingly, it worked. Flawlessly. Taken together, the plot is simple, but the top-notch writing, the captivating characterization and the physiological aspects pulled me in without letup.

Be warned though that this gets pretty gruesome. I have not read Thomas Covenant so I cannot compare, but I enjoyed Mordant's Need and the author’s storytelling. There, too, are detachment, brutality and beauty at the same time.

This novella is worth any minute I spent in its company.

He finds that some purposes do not end. They are like roads without destinations, or roads where every step is a destination.