The Legend of Sarah

By Leslie Gadallah

At fourteen, Sarah is an accomplished pickpocket and knows all the backstreets and boltholes of Monn. She steers clear of Brother Parker and his Church of True Faith, knows better than to enter the Inn of The Honest Keeper, and avoids the attentions of Butch, the Miller's son, as best she can.

For Sarah, the one bright spot in her day is the storyteller's tales of the Old People, of their magically easy lives. And as darkness falls, if one of the wealthier listeners should happen to be so intent on the storyteller's voice as to become careless of his own purse, well so much the better. Inspired by the storyteller's narratives, Sarah often conceives of her own life as the stuff of legend for some future troubadour.

Only, such daydreams could never have prepared her for becoming embroiled with a witchy Phile, an agent of the devil come seeking the Old People's places. How could Sarah have known picking the wrong pocket could strand her in the middle of a power-struggle between Brother Parker, the Governor, and the encroaching Phile spies?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Five Rivers Publishing
• Release date: Mar 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781927400524

Leslie Gadallah

LESLIE GADALLAH grew up in Alberta and is currently living in Lethbridge with her geriatric black cat, Spook. Educated as a chemist, she has worked in analytical, agricultural, biological, and clinical chemistry. She has written popular science for newspapers and radio, has served as a technical editor, and is the author of four SF novels and a number of short stories.

Reviews for The Legend of Sarah

[inishowen_cailin · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an enjoyable read. There wasn't much action but I liked it more towards the second half of the book when there is a bit more suspense. Being a new genre for me I found some of the names of places and people a little confusing especially when it later emerges that it was within the lifetime of one of the characters that the world has changed so dramatically. I couldn't quite marry that concept with the notion that civilisation has splintered- one group modern with a working knowledge of the past and are technologically advanced and the other completely ignorant with the mentality to go with it. The latter would have fitted in nicely if they'd been dropped into the 17th century. If it was a time travel book I would have understood the differences better.The book also needs to be proof read again to correct some spelling and missing words.

[hollypain-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Legend of Sarah was an interesting book that held my attention the entire time. It was very interesting, and I think the only reason that I didn't give this book 4 or 5 stars was that I had issues connecting with the main character. It is a quick read, and I would definitely recommend this book to YA or Middle School Readers (and any Adults who are interested in YA or Middle School Books).

[zeborah · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Not so simplistic as it looks on the surface but still not as nuanced as I was looking for. I found it hard to care much about any of the characters: I don't identify with the kind of crush that largely defines Sarah's motivation for most of the story; the portrayal of Cleo as the shrew who wants to stop her beleagured husband from doing anything important because it might be dangerous is not a favourite trope of mine, let alone with bigotry thrown in; and Reese as said beleagured husband and Nice Guy who is further beleagured by the unwanted attentions of a teenager is another trope that can go die in a fire any minute now. To the book's credit, the story does not delve the depths of infidelity and ephebophilia that it might if written by a male lit professor with a mid-life crisis, but even as unfulfilled potential this was a constant looming distraction. On top of this the role of religion and Threats From the Expansionist Empire felt... maybe 'heavy-handed' is a better word than simplistic: there was a variety of points of view but it still always felt like I was being hammered over the head with "Religious influence in government bad, military influence in government bad, monarchy influenced primarily by the monarch's body-servant totally awesome."I see elsewhere this being praised as awesome Canadian sf that doesn't hew to the heroic tropes of USan sf, and I can see this. Perhaps the problem is that it falls into a kind of uncanny valley for me: halfway to the "life is complicated, guys" thing I quite like, but still painting this complexity in broad strokes.

[ruby.ridge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was given this book complimentary from LibraryThing.com in e-book form in return for my honest review. Everything stated in this review is of my own opinion and I was not compensated monetarily for providing this review. I am not normally a fan of SF but this was an enjoyable book, not one of those you are going to beg a sequel but enjoyable. I read it quickly during lunchtime at work and in the evening. If I come across anything else by the author I will pick it up, probably for a long flight and would recommend this book for similar. A good book but lacks that bit extra that would give it five stars

[reading_fox · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting little dystopian SF. ABout a lifetime in the future after a great collapse society has fragmented in to the (techno)Phobes who are the majority of the humans living in rough rurual communities, but amoungst them are enclaves of (techno)Philes, seen as witches and magicians who live lives of high technology - but they are desperately short of nuclear fuel to power their devices.And so the story opens with Reece one of the Phile Hunters (for sites of old stored nuclear material) creeping into a Phobe village to see if it has any physical traces of the historical remains. 'Old People's places' although from clues later in the text that only seems to be one lifetime ago at most. Here he meets a brash beggar girl Sarah the heroine of the novel. This is not an action based SF though, there 's a lot of talking and just a couple of petty hand to hand fights. Reece to a lesser extent, but all the Phile are dismissive of the squalor and superstition of the Phobes, whilsy the Phobes are content living their ordinary lives and scared of things they don't understand. The Philes' biggest concern is that once they run out of power - or if they needlessly upset the Phobes - they will be massively outnumbered. Hence to avoid bloodshed (they do recognise they are all human something that the Phobes do not) they prefer and underhand approach when possible. But I wasn't really convinvced by any of it. The set-up seemed to artifical and unlikely. The Phile and Phobe names too pointed, and again unliekly to be the names communities actaully adopt for each other. It wasn't quite clear whether the author thought technology a good thing or not, but running out of nuclear fuel isn't likely to be high on the list of issues facing our future. It's also technically quite difficult ot re-use military supplies as fuel, and there isn't that much material around anyway. I also found the attitudes of the characters too convenient, Sarah in particular was unbelivably adaptable. Entertaining though, and more or less well written. There's an annoying afterward by some pillock who tries to deconstruct the story - badly - and makes some classical logical blunders. Ignore it.

[eurekahills · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This story of a distopian world where a technological society clashes with a feudal superstitious society is quite interesting without being outstanding. The plot is believable and the characters somewhat developed. One female was not all that likeable and the other was too young for what she wanted. However it did have a satisfying ending.