Not a fan of the writing style.
Somewhat jarring. ( )

“Spirit’s Oath” is a prequel novella to Rachel Aaaron’s Eli Monpress series and takes place four years before events in the first novel. Eli himself does not figure in it at all, except for one oblique reference (that I’ve noticed) that you’ll miss if you have not read at least as far as The Spirit Rebellion. Instead, it is all about Miranda Lyonette and how she first meets her ghosthound Gin, during an attempt of her family to salvage their finances by marrying her off to a nouveau-riche. As everyone who has read the series will easily be able to imagine, those plans do not sit well with Miranda at all who would much rather follow her vocation as a Spiritualist, and as a result quite a bit of hijinks ensue.

The novella is very much in the spirit of The Spirit Thief, the first novel in The Legend of Eli Monpress, i.e. it is lighthearted fun and not yet tinged with the darkness that creeps into later novels in the series, and for all its shortness it has the full measure of the wonderful charm that seems to inform all of Rachel Aaron’s writing. The pages just fly by under a constant soundtrack of chuckles, chortles and delighted squees on part of the reader, and my only niggles are that the novella wasn’t a novel and that Spirit’s End is not out yet.

The novella also showcases how moralistic a writer Rachel Aaron is – and I do not mean that she is preachy (which she is very much not) but that there is a very strong ethical stance in all of her writing – there always is an emphatical insistence on respect towards others, no matter how alien they are, how strange their customs or how foreign their way of life. And this is what in the end unites Miranda and Eli, too, no matter how far apart they are in other things – they would never use their power (and both possess a considerable amount of it) to forcefully impose their will on those weaker than themselves. In fact, the whole magic system of the series is based around this concept, opposing those mage users that persuade and reason with Spirits to those that would force and enslave them. That aspect might not be obvious among all the immense fun reading The Legend of Eli Monpress is, but it is always there and plays a large role.

“Spirit’s Oath”, then, is a very nice addition to The Legend of Eli Monpress that fully lives up to the rest of the series; and while not necessary for following the main story line, I can’t really imagine anyone who likes the series not wanting to read it (unless they hate Miranda and / or Gin, but surely such people do not exist?). It also stands very well on its own and would make an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to dip their toe into the series’s waters without wanting to immerse themselves into a whole novel (or even three of them, with the omnibus). In short, there is absolutely no reason not to get this delightful novella.