Fantasy Review: Blood Stew

Blood Stew
The Windshine Chronicles Book 3

By Todd Sullivan
ISBN 978-1737132028, 323pp, pb, Mocha Memoirs Press
Available from Amazon in paperback and on the Kindle

Nam-Gi raised the scroll before him, his dreams inscribed in flowing black letters on the rolled parchment.

Okay, it’s not as dynamic an opening as those of Hollow Men and There Will Be One, but the words have a potency all their own and let us know that this is very much its own volume, one that the reader has before them because they have enjoyed those first two volumes and is willing to trust the author to entertain them a third time. After all, if you haven’t read and enjoyed those two volumes, why pick this up? (Although, to a large extent, I think a reader new to the series could fully understand events without the necessity of reading them.)

Indeed, not only is the pace of the book different – in a good way! – but, the volume is different because it is longer than the first two volumes combined. Where they were sword and sorcery romps, this is more like a standard fantasy novel, offering more background and development with multiple threads that, eventually, come together in an exciting climax.

The main plot follows the misadventures of a disabled youth, Nam-Gi, who is studying magic under a dark elf, but is made to feel a burden for his family, the meagre income from their failing restaurant being used up in buying the medicine that eases his pain. He attempts to use his nascent skills to assist his family’s fortunes, but things go awry and, not unexpectedly, he finds himself caught up in an adventure – but, not the sort he imagined he might experience…

I must say that, as much as I enjoyed the adventure in the previous two volumes and that which filled the second half of this, Todd Sullivan’s evocative descriptions of the restaurant and Nam-Gi’s family life seized me in a way that fantasy fiction seldom does. I would happily have read more! Adventure is fun, but this added real depth to the world and made me much more invested in Nam-Gi’s story.

Of course, some readers, drawn in by the action in the first two volumes, might feel that life in a failing restaurant doesn’t sound that entertaining and, whilst I would say, give it a try, there’s no need to worry as Nam-Gi’s trials are interspersed with the discovery of a mysterious body in the ocean that leads to unforeseen tragedy and the arrival of a Cloud Elf with a powerful enmity towards the Dark Elves that have settled in South Hanguk.

Now, I will admit that I initially didn’t care much for the Cloud Elf, probably because I was more invested in Nam-Gi, but I think it’s a testament to Sullivan’s writing that such an obnoxious character managed to be repellent without actually damaging my enjoyment of the story. (Like those who might find the restaurant tale tedious, I think I benefited form the fact that events kept switching between the different strand means you don’t have to wait too long before the story moves onto something else.)

Surprisingly, Windshine the Dark Elf only appears in the second half of the volume, when she once more accompanies the young heroes she observes on a quest, this time in a race against those from other districts, including a group observed by Nam-Gi’s mentor, to destroy a monster unleashed in the first half of the volume. Of course, the Cloud Elf intrudes into their affairs, intent on slaying the Dark Elves for the crime of leaving their homeland and infecting the humans of South Hanguk with their ‘evil’, complicating things and leading an epic showdown, as well as revealing a little more about the mysterious Dark Elves.

Blood Stew isn’t quite the same as the earlier volumes, so might not be to everyone’s taste, although I think that everyone who enjoyed Hollow Men and There Will Be One will appreciate the second half, making it well worth reading, even if the first half isn’t quite what they want. However, I do think that the first half will prove to be what most of them want, even if they don’t know it going in!

In many ways, I would say this is a more mature book, the series having come of age, so if you enjoyed the first two volumes but wanted more depth, this will be just right for you. It certainly leaves me thinking that Todd Sullivan has a lot of potential. Personally, I would him explore South Hanguk – or, some other fantasy realm – in the style of his depiction of Nam-Gi’s family’s restaurant.

Like There Will Be One, Blood Stew manages to be both a good sequel and a good stand-alone story. It is an excellent fantasy tale that builds upon being different and, regardless of your view of its individual strands, I am certain you will find that, together, they form a compelling whole. Highly recommended.

Fantasy Review: There Will Be One

There Will Be One
The Windshine Chronicles
Book 2

By Todd Sullivan
ISBN 9780999852293, 135pp, pb, Mocha Memoir Press
Available from Amazon in paperback and on the Kindle

Woo Jin had been trained to kill opponents in honorable combat, so the government official’s assignment made his stomach clench.

Assassination.

So begins the excellent sequel to Hollow Men. Indeed, I could probably end the review right there – if you enjoyed the first book, you’ll want to read this, and if you haven’t read it yet, whilst you don’t need to in order to follow the plot of There Will Be One, I’d recommend starting at the beginning regardless. But, for those who would like to know a little more before buying a copy, here we go…

Although one mustn’t judge a book by its cover, There Will Be One has an advantage over the first volume of The Windshine Chronicles, in that its cover hints that this is no run-of-the-mill, quasi-European fantasy, but one set in a fantastic version of Korea. The characters of Windshine the Dark Elf and elven-sword-wielding hero Ha Jun return, but the focus is upon the youthful archer Woo Jin, facing the dilemma of whether to follow his orders and carry out an act of murderous betrayal.

Woo Jin joins a special quest, observed by the Dark Elf, to rescue the women and children of a village on the border between North and South Hanguk before the soldiers of the God-Child, ruler of North Hanguk, can seize them as breeding stock for a new generation of warriors.

It’s an interesting and unusual quest and one complicated from the outset by the honourable youth’s dilemma of whether or not to follow orders and assassinate the Dark Elf, removing her taint of foreignness from the land. The question of if and when he will make the attempt – and whether he can pull it off – adds an additional layer of tension to the story and things are further complicated when the villagers they are supposed to be rescuing turn out to have converted to  a strange, foreign faith – one that has kept them safe from the God-Child’s forces, but which threatens to strip away the heroes’ magical ace in the hole, necessary to rescue them… as well as threatening further foreign contamination, forcing Woo Jin and his companions to decide just how far they will go to protect the purity of their homeland.

I found the unusual quest and the dilemmas and jealousies facing Woo Jin made for a good story that avoided cleaving too closely to the plot of the first book. Windshine’s magic towards the end also had a somewhat different feel to a lot of fantasy.

I did find a reference to speaking Korean, at one point, odd (Hanguk is a real Korean term for Korea and the placenames are real places, but actually putting ‘Korean’ seems too real-world, pulling me out of the fantasy ever so slightly. It would be like saying Tolkien’s Hobbits, in book, were speaking English rather than Common.) This combined with the way North and South Hanguk parallel the present division of Korea and the fact that the foreign religion is a form of Christianity did make me wonder for a while if there was going to be a twist that this was a futuristic fantasy, but nothing came of this (and, Christianity is well-entrenched in South Korea, making the introduction from the West here unlikely in such a scenario). Instead, it seems the setting is a much-closer, magical alternative reality than I first imagined – although how the Dark Elves fit into this remains to be seen!

Those niggling thoughts are about as close to a flaw as I can find with the tale, quite minor and a sign that I was engaged with the story and setting and wanted to learn more. I hope that more will be revealed in future instalments in The Windshine Chronicles!

There Will Be One manages that rare feat of being a good sequel and a good standalone story at the same time. Another solid fantasy story for those seeking something a little bit different. Recommended.

Fantasy Review: Hollow Men

Hollow Men

By Todd Sullivan
ISBN 9780999852279, 129pp, pb, Mocha Memoirs Press
Available from Amazon in paperback and on the Kindle

Every year, the heroes got younger.

Hollow Men opens with a tantalising first line that certainly had my attention, wondering at its meaning and provided a story that deservedly kept it throughout.

Todd Sullivan has managed to write a fantasy book that fits exactly with my tastes. It explores a different sort of setting and isn’t as thick as a brick (literally or metaphorically). Lengthy fantasy novels are frequently a turn-off for me and it’s great to read a novel that doesn’t outstay its welcome, but gets on with telling its tale.

If this book has a weakness, it’s the title and cover, which are rather generic fantasy fare and don’t really do justice to the words within. Yes, the plot is a fairly standard fantasy quest and, had Todd Sullivan set his story in a standard fantasy setting, it wouldn’t be anything special. But, the setting is far from the sub-Tolkien worlds of much quest fantasy.

Hollow Men (the title refers to the undead-like foes the heroes face near the climax) is set in a fantasy version of Korea in which going on a quest is a rite of passage for the youth of the kingdom used to establish social status (hence the meaning of that enchantingly-enigmatic first line). We meet a band of such young people, including Ha Jun, the only person who can wield his mighty and exceptionally-heavy glyph sword, who are about to set off on an adventure, namely to face and defeat the titular monsters and the Ak-ma, or demon, that commands them. They are accompanied, as all such adventurers are, by a Dark Elf, named Windshine, whose duty, being so much longer lived than a human, is to record their deeds.

The Dark Elves, foreigners who arrived in a ship generations before and have been split up amongst the provinces of South Hanguk to prevent them from wielding their great sorcerous power against the human realm, are initially an enigma. Indeed, although a meaning might be inferred from their warlike past, the descriptor of ‘Dark’ remains enigmatic given no other Elves, or other non-human races, seem to exist in the setting, but that is a minor quibble and it does fit with the distrust of certain humans as to their intentions. Are the Dark Elves all they appear or are they truly subverting the human rulers of the kingdom (whose positions of authority stem from their success on the quests the Dark Elves oversee)? Certainly, their initially superfluous-seeming presence is soon revealed to be a major part of the setting and adds a further layer to the adventure as we wonder about Windshine’s motivations and the efficacy of the human plots against her.

There really isn’t much to criticise here. It is a little slow to get started, but the world and characters are interesting enough that it isn’t an issue and once events get moving, it’s fun and fast paced. Some people might find the Korean-based setting a little off-putting, but although different, it isn’t so exotic as to be difficult to understand and the character names are no more difficult than those found in many fantasy settings.

No, this is a solid fantasy story for those who want something a little bit different. Recommended.