That left me in a bit of a predicament this month. I could either let the segment lie, which I'm reluctant to do as it's one of my few staples and I have to be honest, ideas aren't exactly coming hard and fast lay around the hospital ward. Rewrite The Fountain Society blog, which I was also reluctant to do until I've at least tried to summon it from my old hard drive. Or move on to the next title. I've decided to go for that option, and this month I'm covering a book suggested to me by Alan. To try and note even the majority of Alan's prolific career as a writer and editor would probably take me more time than giving my impressions on the book itself, but he's most recently been involved as one of the architects of Revolutionary War, a comic re-introducing the Marvel UK heroes to a whole new era, and also a comic documenting the history of the first World War through the eyes of those in the trenches with artist Lalit Kumar Sharma. I urge you to go check them out, as he's a keen professional and more importantly, just one of the friendliest people you could hope to meet.
Waylander is a fantasy novel written by Daid Gemmell and first published in 1986. The King of the Drenai is dead and their Kingdom under siege by the ruthless and overly ambitious vagrians. With defeat looming on all sides, all hope seems to rest on Dardalion, a man of peace turned into an avatar of war, and the Waylander. A man haunted by his past, who hopes that one, last desperate good deed can not only save the Drenai people, but also allow himself to finally forgive himself the sins of a tainted past.
You know, Waylander is just a breath of fresh air. It really is. There are absolutely no quirks to this book, no complex lore, politics or heraldry to grasp and very little subtext lying below the surface. This is a world of two great armies pitched against each other, where the deeds of a few brave men can turn the tide of history and you always, always bet on the man with the least to live for and the quickest weapon. I'm being in no way disparaging when I say any of this, I think it's fantastic! It reminds me of Conan and the old Black Library Warhammer books, where great heroes rise and monsters are cleaved through and men live and die by their own follies.
That's not to say this isn't a world handled with care. The backdrop that David Gemmel builds isn't as meticulously crafted as perhaps Tolkien, George R. R. Martin or even our friend from last month Philip Pullman would bring together but it more than does the job. He creates a world that is easy to settle into with stakes that are easy to understand, and then invests you into those stakes through the characters he introduces. Be it through a matter of personal honour and forgiveness or some higher calling as one man, in one tiny regiment standing against insurmountable odds. At the end of the day Waylander presents a power struggle, and it would be easy to fall into the line of thought that we root for one side because one is good and one is evil. But as the story progresses we see that men are men, the most noble and heroic are just as capable of terrible things as those who have lived lives devoted to petty evil are of great deeds. We only care more for the one side because we see their story more clearly.
I think this attitude towards the nature of good and evil serves the book well. There are characters in the book who interpret the conflict as something of a battle between light and dark, and I think if the reader wants to take that away from the text they're perfectly welcome too, but for me there seemed to be a little more bubbling under the surface. It wasn't obvious, or pushed into the face of the reader, but the overarching theme of the book seemed to be that the spirit of man was capable of anything given the right catalyst, or perhaps it is simply destiny that drives a man who has been a wretch all his life to end it in the most honourable way possible.
This brings me onto one of the most intriguing concepts in the book, the Source. The Source is something of a mix of the Force and a conventional Christian God. It is supposedly all around us, guiding our movements, and even shows true, tangible power through Dardalion at points, but unlike the more physical presence of the Force it is more intangible. More like the Christian faith's God, much of the time the characters simply have to trust that it is there and will guide them. It's interesting because it adds a whole new dynamic to events, does Waylander pass his trials due to luck, coincidence and the unpredictable nature of mankind? Or does the Source make fools, heroes and martyrs of us all? Subtly moving the pieces and tweaking alignments and behaviour to serve it's grander purpose, in which Waylander and the Dranei war are only a small part. These are questions left to the reader, and indeed the characters themselves. Giving the Source just enough power to be mystical, but leaving it to be ambiguous enough to wonder if it's really all that they say it is.
If I were to pick up one flaw in the book, it's that some of the dialogue is very stilted, especially early on. The first interactions between Danyal and Waylander, and even carrying over to other conversations between Dardalion, Waylander and Danyal later on just seemed stiff and wooden. I'm not sure if I got used to it or if the flow between characters just got better the more familiar and conversational they became with each other, but I found it tough going at first. I was also left wanting more from the epilogue. Everything was wrapped up nicely enough, but it just felt like the entire thing was more of a 'By the way, this is what happened in the next thirty or so years after the conflict!' than an actual capstone on immediate events. Like those little text boxes at the end of films that tell you what happened to the characters after their crazy adventures - And you learn that most of them died in really zany ways you wouldn't have minded seeing on screen. It's a minor niggle, and perhaps the sequels do more to delve into what happened next, I'll find out when I get to them but either way it's irrelevant for this book.
Overall, Waylander is a top draw fantasy adventure about men hacking other men to pieces in the name of honour, and I loved it. It really cheered me up and pulled me through the last couple of days on the ward, and managed to settle me back into reading quite nicely. Minor niggles prevent me from slapping a full five Monkeys on it, but it is more than worth your time and if I gave half monkeys, I would certainly hand it one. As it is, I don't cut monkeys in half. That's just cruel and unusual.
Four out of five Monkeys in a Hat.
Next month... I'd like to tell you The Fountain Society, but if that falls through I think I might pull out The Stars My Destination instead. We'll see.
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