Every so often I come across a thin book, only a couple of hundred pages long, that seems to pack just as much imagination and flavor between its front and back covers as one of those 500 – 600 page tomes do. These are often hard to come by but I recently had the pleasure of reading one such gem.

THE TWISTED ROOT OF JAARFINDOR, by the celebrated British Author Sean Wright, follows the weird and twisted journey of Princess Lia-Va, a root addicted, Glathni Warrior who won rule over her father's kingdom by killing him herself on the battlefield, as she makes her way to The Church of Our Lady of Brafindor and the Tree of Life and Death.

This is not your normal princess, folks, no, no, no. There's no long blonde hair, frilly skirts or daintiness in this one. Instead, Lia-Va is a seven-foot tall, ebony skinned, manipulative and self-centered woman who takes what she wants, often by force, and doesn't care who she hurts in the process. As she begins her journey to unravel the runeroot puzzle, an obsession which began for Lia-Va ten years earlier when the Ancient Holy Parchment of Brafindor came into her possession, she takes on the pale-skinned, red-haired and mysterious Islan as her "Back Eyes", or body guard of sorts...someone to watch her back when things get rough.

Together, Lia-Va and Islan board the skyship, Voyeur, captained by the Insectiant Tullock-Cha, and manned by a horde of cutthroat sailors. Wright fills his amazing world of Jaarfindor with all kinds of miscreants and filth, all manners of species, big and small, humanoid and...other. An entire host of Pardoners, Dymapeds, Beastbots and Insectiants fill the streets and ships, each location is described in full color and with great detail.

All of this helps the reader greatly to believe in the events as they transpire throughout the novel. As Lia-Va makes her way through the catacombs of The Church of Our Lady of Brafindor, to the final resting place of St. Urbania and the ultimate confrontation that threatens to destroy the very fabric of Jaarfindor's existence, the reader is drawn in, fully engulfed in the story and turning those pages with great rapidity.

Several sub-plots, such as the root addiction that afflicts so many and the peculiar manner in which this addiction affects those who are afflicted, the surgically removed and red-eyed floating black soul of the Voyeur's Captain attached to the insectiant by a cord of ectoplasm, and the many voices that fill Lia-Va's head—vying for control of her thoughts and actions—do more than just supply the reader with more fantastical elements to ponder, they plunge the reader deeper into the story, wanting us to get to the end to see how it all turns out that much more quickly.

THE TWISTED ROOT OF JAARFINDOR goes by fast and furiously and the reader approaches the last few pages all too quickly. Perhaps this was Wright's purpose all along, leaving the doorway open for a multitude of additional novels taking place in the Jaarfindor "universe". Well, if it was, I for one believe that his strategy worked—this reader was left wanting for more and I suspect that many other readers of this book were left feeling the same exact way.

Get back to writing, Mr. Wright. Your fans will be demanding more and you'll most likely be hard-pressed to fulfill that bursting need.