Traitor's Blade

Sebastien de Castell

I'm gonna start off with a minor rant. I'll get to the book soon enough, don't worry.

There's a trend in fantasy that I hate. It's become very popular over the past five or so years, especially with the rise in popularity of Game of Thrones. More and more books have been released which are described, and often self-described as "grimdark". Basically, in a grimdark novel, everything sucks, the world sucks, the main character is usually an asshole because everyone's an asshole, the world is a shitty grim, dark place.

It might seem like I have a certain degree of vitriol towards grimdark books. That's... not exactly true. I have read and enjoyed a number of them, and I'll be writing about my experience a number of books by Joe Abercrombie, the self-described LordGrimdark, which has been by and large positive. I do profoundly dislike the trend that most popular new fantasy fiction that I have run into is grimdark.

Mostly, my problem lies in the fact that everyone is bad, including the main character. The most common reason I see justifying this is that people are generally assholes, why should fictional characters be any different? Now, I'm as cynical as the next man (probably moreso), but damnit, if I'm committing to a five hundred page novel, much less a series, I need some people to root for. I need someone who, even if they aren't the nicest individual, is generally likeable by at least me if not the people around him, and pursues good goals that I feel okay about cheering for. Maybe I'm weird that way. Who knows.

Finally, we get to the book. Sebastien De Castell gave me everything I wanted. In Traitor's Blade, the world is definitely shit. The King is dead, the Greatcoats are disbanded and treated as scum, people are getting killed and tortured all over the place, and the main character has had some serious tragic shit happen to him, as revealed in a number of short flashbacks.

But damn if Falcio val Mond isn't the most goddamn righteous character I've ever read. Not self-righteous, mind you. This is a man who despite all of the horrible things in the world and in his life never stops fighting for justice. Does he have flaws? Absolutely. Of course. But his flaws don't turn him from a hero to an asshole. They just add dimension.

Also, the Greatcoats are a band of traveling warrior judges who sing their verdicts. And there's some fantastic speeches, which I will quote a blurb on the back jacket of the book as being "Aaron Sorkin-esque". It's great. It's a great book. After I finished it I was sad because things were sad, but I enjoyed every minute of reading it.

If you enjoy "gritty" books but wish that you had some people to root for instead of Asshole v Asshole, this is your book. Read it. There's a sequel too. I'm waiting on a library hold, but I'll write about that one too once I'm down.

Disagree with me about grimdark shit? Have any more recommendations of new fantasy that buck the trend? Lemme know in the comments or something. 

We back boyz