Blood and Iron

January 13, 2014
Sprunk (the Shadow Saga) opens an epic fantasy series with this awkward cross between Harry Potter and Spartacus. Horace is a ship’s carpenter in the Arnossi navy, captured in the enemy land of Akeshia after a shipwreck. He’s as surprised as his captors when he manifests magical powers. After that, everything becomes far too easy for Horace. His power is formidable, despite his relative lack of training, and women fight over him. Queen Byleth and Lord Mulcibar are so darn nice that Horace readily forgives them for capturing and enslaving him (“Despite the chains, he liked this man, who didn’t treat him like an animal”). He even throws away his chance at freedom to save the queen’s life. Sprunk’s world is fascinating and original, reminiscent of ancient Sumeria and Babylon, but the story doesn’t begin to do it justice.

January 1, 2014
A tradesman fleeing a personal tragedy is thrust into more elevated and considerably more perilous circumstances in the first of a political sword-and-sorcery epic by the author of Shadow's Master (2012). Ship's carpenter Horace is bound for the crusade to fight the Akeshian Empire when a strange storm wrecks the Bantu Ray and Horace finds himself marooned in Erugash, a city-state in Akeshia. He's immediately captured and enslaved; his fortunes and his danger rise during another storm, which reveals that Horace possesses zoana, or elemental magic. Unchained and whisked to Queen Byleth's court, Horace must quickly learn to master his previously unknown magic, which makes him both a power to be reckoned with and a target for rival nobles, the priests of the Sun Cult and other more covert forces who seek the queen's downfall. Akeshia is somewhat based on ancient Egypt, and Horace clearly comes from a more European milieu; the assimilation of a white man into a dark-skinned alien culture and his superior mastery of an ability intrinsic to that culture whiffs faintly (and vaguely unpleasantly) of Dances With Wolves or The Last Samurai. And perhaps a bit too much is made of Horace's nobility of character, used to explain why queen's handmaiden (and foreign spy) Alyra and closeted-gay, enslaved soldier Jirom are both so drawn to him. But it's undeniable that this novel is also sheer fun, with engaging, pulse-quickening action, sympathetic characters and intricate intrigue. Despite some flaws, definitely a series to follow.

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February 15, 2014

Shipwrecked in an enemy land, crusader soldier Horace is captured and enslaved by the people he was sent to conquer. While marching in chains across the harsh deserts of Akeshia, he and the rest of the company are threatened by a magical storm, and only Horace has the power to turn it back. His newfound magical abilities not only mean that he is freed from slavery, they also gain him a place at court. But the corridors of power might be even more dangerous than slavery, and Horace needs the allies he has made. VERDICT An interesting magic system, complicated political scene, and loads of action make this Spartacus-with-magic a fun first volume in a new epic fantasy series.

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