Strange New Kindle Worlds – Harbinger: Salvation Sally

It’s time for a peek at another Valiant Kindle story. In this installment we have our first offering from Tom King. King is most familiar to comic book audiences for his work on the outstanding Grayson from DC Comics. He’s also the author of the novel A Once Crowded Sky that has illustrations by Tom Fowler. Let’s see what he can do with the Valiant Universe.

• Harbinger: Salvation Sally
• Published: June 26, 2013
• Author: Tom King
• Price: $0.99
• Page Count: 39 Pages

Synopsis:

Norman Franklin is a man on the edge. After a good long life and many years together, his wife, Hildy, is dying and his only hope of holding on to her in some form is for a young girl to absorb all of Hildy’s memories, killing her painlessly in the process. After Norm hunts down Sally and convinces her to use her power despite her desire to lay low the two form an unlikely friendship. This friendship is soon tested when Project Rising Spirit soldiers show up to capture Sally and it’s Norm’s turn to help her. But how can one old retired vet and a twelve-year-old girl stay out of the clutches of Mr. Tull for long?

Review:

This story is fantastic! When diving into the Valiant Kindle Worlds program I was hoping to find more stories like this, and fewer stories that felt like they almost belonged in the Valiant Universe. This story definitely feels like it’s a part of the universe and I would love to see adapted into a comic. I would also love to see a part two to this story. It definitely had an ending, but there is room for further stories.

From the moment that Sally’s psiot power is revealed, I was hooked. Sally’s memory absorption power has its roots in mysticism that has been around for centuries, and that’s what made this a believable story in spite of the “super power”. The characters were interesting, the incentive to read on was phenomenal and the action was believable, but above all of this was the sheer beauty of the writing. King masterfully wove the rhetoric so that key lines came back at poignant times, emotions were brought to the fore and it leaves you begging for more. I actually swiped a few extra times hoping I’d somehow accidentally skipped to the end, then realized that I’d reached the terminus of the tale and it left me longing—but in a good way.

Bottom line: This story has depth, terrific pacing and fully realized characters.

Cover:

This cover is was drawn by artist Ron Salas. The cover has a nice gritty feel and with the exception of Sally’s hand the pencil work is detailed and dynamic. It’s the first cover in the Valiant Kindle Worlds program that directly refers to the source material, so for that alone I like it.

Continuity:

This story relies very little on established continuity. The only character that we see from the comics is Tull. Placing the story just for the sake of placing the story, I’ll put it as occurring before Harbinger #1.

Submit Your Own:

The Kindle Worlds program is really neat and you can even submit your own stories.  For Valiant you can submit stories for Archer & Armstrong, Bloodshot, Eternal Warrior, Harbinger, Quantum and Woody, Shadowman, Unity and X-O Manowar.  Click here to see how you can submit your own short stories.  Be sure to follow the guidelines and have fun creating!

Salvation Sally is available here!

Originally from ValiantCentral.com