Escala’s Wish is a sweeping, bighearted fantasy adventure built around a wonderfully clever premise: a banished pixie must remove the “boulders” obstructing the True Cycle before she can return home. Escala begins her journey believing the task involves literal stones, but every encounter draws her toward a deeper understanding of responsibility, sacrifice, and love. The result feels like a spirited tabletop campaign shared beside a tavern fire, complete with dangerous creatures, ancient magic, lively banter, and a party of companions you’ll quickly enjoy traveling alongside.

Escala herself gives the story its spark. She’s curious, impulsive, funny, wounded, and often gloriously unaware of how strange she sounds to everyone around her. Her repeated declaration, “No one touches the faerie,” begins as a defensive reflex and gradually becomes a moving measure of trust. Roedyn’s steady devotion, Harper’s sharp-edged affection, Sticky’s oddball wisdom, Rihanna’s enduring friendship, and Wigfrith’s irrepressible storytelling each reveal a different kind of love. Together, they turn Escala’s quest into an emotional education that feels earned through shared danger and small acts of care.

David James tells the story through Wigfrith, a gnome bard performing for a crowded tavern, and that framing gives the novel its distinctive personality. Wigfrith interrupts, jokes with his listeners, explains the lore, and reminds us that stories are communal experiences. The adventure itself is generous and exuberant, moving through fey courts, haunted ruins, traveling circuses, monster-filled forests, a dragon’s hoard, and a tower opening onto the Void. Its humor and graphic action sit comfortably beside sincere conversations about grief, belonging, family, and the choices that give love its meaning.

By the final battles, the many threads have tightened around the question Escala has carried from the beginning: What does love actually ask of us? The answer arrives through action, loss, forgiveness, and choices made when everything is at stake. Even amid spectacular magic, the novel’s most memorable moments are deeply personal, from a hand finally accepted to a sacrifice freely offered. Escala’s Wish is a warm, wild, and emotionally generous fantasy that shows the greatest magic begins when love becomes a choice.

Pages: 536 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0G1XRP6DW