Review of Behind The Throne

I wasn't entirely sure I would review this work here for two reasons. First It's not strictly speaking game literature. (Although any player who's charecter has one of those honor charecter flaws ought to read it in my opinion so they know how to act the part.) And Second I'm not a literary critic and consequently I'm a bit over my head in attempting to write a review of a work of fiction. But I decided to review the book anyway.

First the disclaimer. Martin Dougherty (the author) is an aquaintance of mine. If he wasn't I probably wouldn't have bothered with tracking this book down.

The reason for that is simple. I just don't read fantasy books much anymore. Why? Because I've gotten bored with reading the same warmed over Tolkien plot again and again. Luckilly, "Behind the Throne," avoids that pitfall.

Spoiler space *

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

I still knew exactly how the book would end after the first 30 pages but that's because Mr. Dougherty tellegraphed every significant plot point and not because he was too lazy to craft a plot of his own.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the book. It's well written and I genuinely cared about the main charecters. Who are actuall three dimensional (well 2 1/2 dimensional in some cases) people and not just Campbellian archetypes. The fight sequences were quite well done and made me think of the showdown between Connery and Shaw in that Robin Hood TV movie thing from a while back (Was it called Robin and Marrian or am I hallucinating?)

The book is also a bit more aware of it's internal politics than the average fantasy yarn which is a good thing in my opinion. The world the book takes place in is a fictional version of mideval europe. At least I think it is. The book doesn't go into that much detail and I kind of had to imagine a backdrop for it. In fact the fictionality of the background is prety much the only thing that distinguishes this book from historical fiction. There is no magic, or elves, or any of the other trappings of the more conventional pseudo-mideval fantsy. Not a huge loss either in my opinion.

The first fifty or so pages, as well as giving away all of the salient plot points, also spend a good deal of time refering to events that take place prior to the opening of the action in this book. Indeed for a while I was thinking that I'd gotten ahold of the second book in a series (that happens to me a lot) and that in order to make any sense of it I was going to have to track down the first. A quick perusal of the, "also by this author," page however convinced me that I in fact had the first (indeed only) book set in this world. (Memo to MJD think prequel.)

Overall this is an enjoyable read and an impressive first effort. I look forward to seeing Mr. Dougherty's subsequent work and recomend this book to anybody looking for a good read. It should also be required reading for any player who's charecter has taken some form of honor charecter flaw in a point based game.

David Shayne