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Review of The Vathiriel Blade
Blurb from the publisher: '"Within a temple blanketed by thorn, The torches on the walls are black and cold. The narrow steps are pitted, bleached, and worn, Descending to a labyrinth dark and old.
"Beneath the weathered hill, within the deeps, A hallway and a chamber silent wait. Upon a bed of gold, the Watcher sleeps Behind an ancient adamantine gate."
How old is the Watcher in the Hill? Not even the wisest amongst us can say. Is the Watcher real or an invention of the Vanya storytellers who come and go along the riverways of Vangyr? Either way, its legend hangs over us like a deep shadow.
Out of the western lands the drifter came. A soldier. A slayer. They say he fought for dread King Dwyer, and that blood is still on his hands. They say he lost his wife and child when Easthorn Castle fell. They say many things about the drifter from the west.
He brought with him the sword with runes that burn. Vathiriel. Does that blade belong to him or possess him? None dare to ask. But on the frontier, we have never chosen our heroes. We take them as they come, if they ever come at all.'
What you get: Your USD 14,99 buys you the print edition of The Vathiriel Blade, a 294-page softcover.
Electronic versions of the novel are also marketed. For the purposes of this review however, I have only perused the paper version.
Spoiler warning: As much as I am not going to describe, let alone detail the story, part of the plot will be revealed while discussing the novel's strong and less strong points.
The strong points: The Vathiriel Blade is not a typical fantasy novel. In feels like three books in one, tackling the fall of a king after the storming of his castle, life in a corrupt frontier town trying to break free from its leaders' yoke, and a small dungeon crawl that leads to the slaying of a dragon. The book's protagonist is a LN character turned CG turned lone-wolf, who cares about the people around him more than he feels comfortable to. The environment in which he initially moves is one of kings and their courts, of factions and armies, of ideals and rebellion. It then changes abruptly, in a deus-ex-machina sort of way, allowing the writer to expose the reader to the world in different levels.
From the inner workings of the former king's court, the reader is now transposed to a cross between Deadwood and A Fistful of Dollars with the premise of a drifter cleaning the town from its immoral oppressive masters. Were the mystery presented differently, it wouldn't have been that far from stories setting the Cthulhu Mythos in the west. In fact, were one to lift the fantasy trappings, the mystery aspect leading to the third part of the book can almost be read as Mythos in the West, even though the horror element comes down to evil men performing casual evil deeds like extortion and forgery.
The writing is of a high quality. It is engaging and believable, irrespective of the genre that it puts on the forefront. The king is kingly, the courtesans suck up, the frontier peasants mostly grovel. Numerous characters (if not the vast majority of them) are annoying by design, reflecting the education levels and morals of their world. I can't but applaud this approach, even though it makes the book more demanding to read since one can't sympathize with any of them. The world is gritty, full of violence, hard choices and grey morality. The protagonist is not a good man, he is however the best one can find around those parts. The fact that he massacres a tyrant following a cunning plan says more about the world than it says about him. I was very impressed by how vivid everything is, and very happy that I don't reside in that world.
The background work that has been laid in order for the setting to feel smooth deserves praise, even though not everybody will immediately get to notice it. The protagonist is called Sean Fitzpatrick. Now here's a name and surname that trace back to medieval times, if not earlier, thus it can be easily used within a fantasy context. On the other hand, the name does not sound alien in the western genre either, seeing how many Irish migrated to the US between the 17th and the 19th century. The average reader might not think of this immediately, yet it is obvious that quite some thought has been put into the building of the world.
The weak points: The book lacks focus in numerous instances. At the beginning it gives the impression that the reader is entering a world of conspiracy, power politics and intrigue, in a world not unlike that of Game of Thrones. Yet many pages after investing in this premise and a final glorious attack that can only lead to the demise of the king, the setting changes totally into what is a scarcely populated frontier west town transplanted in a fantasy world. From armoured soldiers, blatant violence and scores of dead bodies the reader goes into discussions about coffee and pie, and the workings of a miserable, corrupt little town. The setting becomes homey, with petty personal grievances and interaction between numerous secondary characters. Yet, for all these exchanges, things don't really lift off. The plot then takes another twist, into what one expects will be a memorable dungeon crawl. Yet, it never delivers on the premise, even though it turns the tables by turning a much advertised bad-ass and potential protagonist-killer into his ally. It is a foray into a not-that-hard-to-find ruin, which is effectively the secret lair of a dragon. The dragon gets unceremoniously killed through an Odysseus-like ruse after some drama and the mandatory loss of life, the protagonist ties some loose ends, and leaves town. Hmmm.
I am not convinced about the balance between the mixing of genres, or, more accurately, of transplanting a western trope in a fantasy setting. Many things about the way of thinking and behaviour of the setting's inhabitants don't feel right, even though this might be my impression.
The book's title doesn't have that much to do with what is going on. The eponymous blade itself, a magic sword of sorts that makes sporadic appearances, does not have much to do with what is going on. This is probably due to the fact that the overarching plot is to be revealed in future books. Yet, as things stand, with only this book in the market, a reader will be left wondering as to what the book is about. One thing is certain: it is not about the Vathiriel Blade.
The small pieces of poetry in the book relating to the tale behind the dragon and old mysteries than nobody dears look for are rather uninspired. They fall below the level of the prose in the book, something that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. After all, the mystery of the Watcher and its resolution is the final act in the book.
There are a couple of typos in the book. A pity, yet I really don't hold it against the publisher. The book is self-published after all. If anything, this is a lesson to professional publishers that if a self-published book can come out as clean, a couple of typos in their books, with all the TLC that they get, are outright unacceptable.
Conclusion: The Vathiriel Blade is engaging through both the quality of its writing as well as the innovation behind its setting, even though it is unfocused and loses its footing at times. Fans of gritty fantasy with violent outbursts that covertly experiments with paradigms from other times and places will enjoy exploring it. I personally wish it told the story it advertised in the first place, instead of the one it went on to tell.
For more info on The Vathiriel Blade and Mark David Brantingham, visit his website at https://www.facebook.com/MDBrantingham. The Vathiriel Blade can be purchased on Amazon as well as other reputable book vendors.
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