Beta/CP for Adult Fantasy 113k

[Robert Brown]

I'm looking for CPs or a beta-reader to help with my NA/adult fantasy novel, Cordoban Note (113k words). I would be glad for several more pairs of eyes on the manuscript as a whole: pacing, character development, and general interest.

A crate of discovered documents, almost older than most of known history, is sent to a colegio professor in Balentia. Asbella’s an orphan working her way up the local crime hierarchy, and on the hunt for anything to stay in the good graces of her crime boss, who also heads the local temple to Bast. When Bella meets one of the professor’s students and learns the documents point to an ancient treasure, she’s got to have them. Too bad she stabs and kills him while trying to steal the documents away. Moyik is the dragonian detective (probationary) investigating the murder and is soon trying to track down the one person seen at the scene of the murder, a raven-haired young woman who only is only distinguished from half the city's women by her golden eyes. Moyik is on the chase and just as he appears to be closing in on her, Bella's boss sends her to Zaoyun -she’s never left the city much less sailed halfway around the world to another duchy!– for help with the documents. Will he catch her before her boat leaves port? 

The most recent reads are:  Hole in the Sky (Daniel H. Wilson), Antimatter Blues (Edward Ashton), Burning Roses (S.L. Huang), Broken Angels (Richard K. Morgan),  Mr. Mercedes (Stephen King), The alchemy of secrets (Stephanie Garber), and Dragonfall (L.R. Lam). I am unagented and my fiction is all unpublished, but I aspire to traditional publishing in fantasy and science fiction (I’ve also written some near-future and post-apoc cli-fi). 

My process: I will read your materials fairly quickly, offering not only line edits and marginalia comments of things that excite/confuse/annoy me but also a separate document with chapter-by-chapter summaries (so you know what I got out of it) and thoughts. I probably work best by email or messaging but could be convinced to talk/VC/zoom/facetime/etc. I’m happy to discuss any aspects of the project but will balk if it turns into defensive arguments: I am one reader, giving you my impressions, and hope you’ll accept them as valid if a single perspective, taking what is helpful and discarding what isn’t.

Please let me know if you’re interested in swapping a bit to see if we’re good fits!

Best,

Rob Brown