Review: The Balance, by Kev Harrison

The Balance by Kev Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read a few of Kev Harrison's books now and this was one of his earlier stories, a novella. It's one of those books where you think you know where it's going, then it goes beyond.

The story is set in a village that is surrounded by forest in the middle of winter, and it tackles the division between pious religion and those that follow the rhythms of nature. It doesn't shy away from depicting church goers shunning herbalist or holistic living - seeing it as pagan and witch-like. If anything it shows how the witch hunts came about. (I live in Holland where I can visit the Witch-Weighing house that used to be considered the authority in the country - if you got a certificate from there saying you weren't a witch you were untouchable. But it only took your neighbour whispering it to someone to get you put on trial).

Anyway, Kev captures this kind of mindset in this dark tale, and then we get to see the consequences, which went further than I expected. An excellent bit of story telling and well worth it.

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