On a journey across the sea, numerous passengers petition a champion chess player for a game. But from the initial competition comes a surprise contender who has not played chess for decades, yet is seemingly an equal partner in play.

While the premise is simple, the execution is absolutely masterful and riveting. Both players are given context in the form of pivotal life events which inform their play so much so that when they play, the reader sees the communication taking place so much so that the game becomes a medium for every fundamental component of the players to clash.

Perhaps it’s the most character driven story I’ve read, with a simple plot. Yet in another way, when you consider how integral the story of each character makes, and how much that aspect of the plotting shapes the outcomes, it seems more like a perfectly balanced equation.

If I were to nitpick, I could say that stylistically it does have very weird paragraph structuring that took me a bit to get into. There are walls of text, though mind you, this is a small digest size novella, that reoccur throughout. And I can’t really figure out how they’re formulated. Lots of times it’s a specific thought or interaction or scene. But even the dialogue will go on like that, and it’s formulated such that there’s no interruption to the flow. It’s a monologue is what it is. But when where natural pauses and break points aren’t represented in paragraph formatting. Very strange.

Everything else though, and especially the specificity and diction during the monologue, are all so rich you just sink right into it. Fantastic voice once it all clicks.

It made me think a lot about the nature of lived experience and role-play, trauma, how each persons’ mind is truly unique and beautiful in its own way, and our relationship to the media and stories and books we consume.