As I try desperately to catch up with the back catalog of Alan Baxter, I was really excited to get my hands on this release. Golden Fortune, Dragon Jade is a bit of a departure from what I’ve come to expect from this author, but still retains some of what makes his work unique.
For one, many of Baxter’s books and stories contain a sense of magic and his horror tends to embrace the fantastic. In the forward, Baxter presents this story as his version of a kung fu epic, showcasing a lifelong love of martial arts with both care and enthusiasm.
It’s a family friendly affair, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it pulls any punches. Action scenes, and particularly fight scenes, are a speciality for this author. Alan exhibits an unparalleled sense of control over any scene in question, and the end result is written clearly but worth a consistently exciting pace.
The two main characters, cousins Li Yong Fa and Li Zi Yi are instantly likable and have special talents that necessitate they work together to retrieve the item stolen from their home village. They encounter an awful lot of obstacles for such a short novella along the way. Without going into spoiler territory, there were elements that could have come off as silly, but were handled well, bookended by scenes of drama and tension, and integral to the journey forward, without necessarily acting as a deus ex machina.
Should Alan Baxter decide to set more stories in this world he’s created, expanding the mythology and paying a visit to some well-loved characters, I’ll be there for the ride.