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I bought this book on word of mouth ravings. My friends said it was fantastic, so I bought it. Sure enough, this book was amazing. Technically it’s the 7th book in the Brutal Saga by James Alderdice, but it’s fairly standalone.
The introduction is solid and grabs you right away. It starts with a building that was just attacked by a dragon, and among the ruins is a girl mourning the loss of her mother. She goes to her gods and begs for a warrior to come and kill the dragon.
The story follows Gathelaus the Sellsword, a warrior travelling with his friend and comrade in arms Niels. While travelling, they come across a region ravaged by a dragon that’s essentially been ignored by the current king. In the past, Gathelaus has had an issue with the king in the past, whether a rebellion or quelling a faction. As such, he’s motivated to tackle this problem head-first, declaring that he’ll handle the dragon.
The action is intense, but always leads to furthering the story. There aren’t fights for no reason, they’re all guided by the plot. There’s pursuit, attacks, hunts, and danger all around. That’s not even mentioning the dragon, which is a star in the book.
Minor spoilers (highlight to read): The dragon in this book is an obvious Tyrannosaurus Rex. I heard that going in, and bought it on that principle alone and was not disappointed. Viking warriors considered it a kind of dragon, despite “walking like a man on two legs”. The dragon doesn’t breath fire, it doesn’t get cold like a snake. It’s something alien to them, and that makes it dangerous. The descriptions of the dragon attacking a farmer and his family is particularly harrowing.
If I had one complaint it’s that this story leans on elements brought in possibly randomly. There’s a fierce monster that’s mentioned as knowing someone’s ancestors but then it just sort of sulks away only to return later. It’s a stand alone story, sure, but there’s also references and characters that are brought in because they were presumably in other stories (I assume, given the way they’re mentioned).
Another minor issue I had is that Gathelaus is called the Usurper, but it isn’t clear in the text whether he was the king and then was overthrown or overthrew the king previously to be a new king and then got deposed. He also had a time as a mercenary captain, apparently. It seems like it was all this at one time, somehow, but isn’t clear how he stands in the political landscape. Is he the rightful king? I have no idea.
(MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW, SKIP AHEAD TO SKIP)
There’s quite a few things I really disliked towards the end. First is the actual kill of the dragon Fiendal. It honestly felt underwhelming at that point, since the dragon got an arm ripped off then basically bled a bunch and scampered away. Later, Gathelaus just walks up and stabs it in the eye.
Second is a pivot shortly after the dragon is killed. The story switches to the dragon’s mother attacking the hall in retaliation, which should have been intense and fully expected. I understand it’s a Beowulf motif, but it doesn’t feel fleshed out or setup ahead of time. Oh there were mentions of the mother previously existing, but not that it was confirmed she was alive.
Also, I really don’t like how the mother was introduced. During the scene, a bard sings the tale of what happened that night, singing the attack in poetic detail. Once again, it screams of Beowulf. It was a nice experiment, but I feel like it fell flat. It would have been better to just tell the attack in narrative detail with full emotion involved. Likewise, Gathelaus finds baby dragons in the mother’s den and kills them. It just feels un-heroic to kill babies, I don’t know. It sounded like they were dangerous, but it’s hard to get past that fact.
If this sounds nit picky it’s because it is. The story was great and overall I love the idea of using a Beowulf motif, but relying on it completely strips the story of any impact. Still, it doesn’t damage the book in a major way, but does slightly hurt my general enjoyment of it.
(END OF SPOILERS)
Ultimately, this book is a recommend. James Alderdice writes like Robert E. Howard or Michael Moorcock at times, and it’s fantastic storytelling. Lots of action, interesting setting, world building, and a great premise. If you like heroic fantasy, you should love this story.
Paperback is $15.99, Kindle is $4.99. Definitely worth the price.
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Frank Ormond 