One technique of good paranormal writing is to create a distinct magical setting with clearly defined rules. Then the author can set up an effective and believable conflict within that context. One disadvantage of the Internet is that authors have access to a great variety of magical environments, and there is a temptation to dabble in a whole lot of them.

“Avalon” is a very modern paranormal novel, with characters casually looking up summoning rites on the internet and taking cell phone pictures of ghosts and demons. There are also influences from traditional religion (Old Testament, Christianity, and Apocrypha). Eastern meditation techniques and an alien computer from before the Flood. There is even a recording device called a “Spirit Box” that “picks up radio and other frequencies,” which one character orders up on the Internet for a next-day delivery. A little too much of a good thing.

The story divides neatly into three novellas that are too closely tied to make three separate books.

The first half of the novel is where the problems lie. It simply takes the author too long to settle into his stride. The plotline and the motivation of the characters are hazy, and the expected atmosphere of mystery and fear does not show up.

Part of the problem is a matter-of-fact writing style that is emotionally flat. There is too much discussion about who is staying at the mansion and who is going back to town, creating fuss unrelated to the plot that the reader doesn’t need. It is only after the first hundred pages that the Book of Horus and the Avalon Splinter show up as points of conflict, and the suspense begins to rise.

In the second section the magic settles down, the antagonists become clear, and the conflict is more straightforward. We get a hundred pages of reasonable suspense with a clear partial ending.

Then something called the Spirit Anchor takes precedence, and off we go again. Another hundred-page episode with a slightly less focused plotline, but a good climax with better suspense.

The author tosses in a pinch of infidelity to spice it up, but the relationships are entered and broken with such a lack of intensity that no real conflict arises.

This writer uses a scattergun approach and gives us a book that is more interesting than emotional, which is not what that average paranormal reader wants.

Three stars

This review was originally published on Reedsy Discovery.