Pilgrims by Will Elliott
Pilgrims is the first book in a planned fantasy trilogy by Australian author Will Elliott. I utterly adored his first book, the horror fantasy The Pilo Family Circus.
I had high hopes for Pilgrims.
We have two protagonists. An everyman loser, Eric, and his alcoholic homeless best friend, Case. And here's my first problem; I kept getting their names mixed up. When they were in separate places it wasn't so bad, but once they met up I had to stop and check to see in whose point of view the chapter was written, they sounded so similar. The other characters aren't much better, but at least I managed to keep their names straight.
Case and Eric hurl themselves through a mysterious doorway and end up in another world, called Levaal. Like the circus in Circus, Levaal is meant to be and feel unreal. It certainly does feel unreal. Unlike the circus, however, it also feels boring. Yes, horrible things are happening but the world was sketched in so vaguely I didn't really care. I'd describe it to you, but I can't. Oh, I could tell you about forests and fields, and a castle shaped like a dragon, but the culture, art, slang, financial systems, family structures and methods of sewage disposal remain a mystery.
At this point, I would like to put forward the motion that prologues and starting chapters that detail an evil overlord doing evil things should be banned. Pilgrims had not just one of these horrible, useless, boring slabs of writing, but two. Actually, lets ban prologues in fantasy novels altogether. I've yet to read one that served any purpose whatsoever but to reduce tension. How about the reader finds out the bad guy is bad when the protagonist does, hm? I promise I'll wait.
So what happens in this book? Well, not a lot. An awful lot of characters get introduced, and no one gets killed off. Our protagonists fire their gun occasionally, and at one point it even looks like there will be bad consequences for Eric after he offs something he shouldn't. But lo and behold, a great spirit sees that if Eric dies too early all the futures are bleak, so he sorts it all out for him. Oh, and thanks to a dream-vision Eric gains the ability to see magic (presumably the ability to do magic will come in later books).
I take that back, stuff does happen. In the last quarter of the book. And Case and Eric aren't there to see it. And the bad guys are the ones to do it. And then the book ends.
Just one more thing. Of all the characters that ring false, the Designated Love Interest is the worst, and she's one of only two named female characters. She sleeps with Eric with the sole purpose of reading his mind, and claims that she finds, well, not a lot *snerk*, which is fine, but she still cuddles up with him chastely so he can angst about it. I honestly cannot fathom her motivations. She pulls her bow on her commanding officer when he decides to disobey their superiors (the bow gets knocked out of the way and she cries, great warrior there), but as soon as Eric shows up she's completely fine with saddling up and following said superior officer. No explanation given, other than the obvious; she did it because the author required her to.
Look, it's not all bad. I recognise things that I liked in Circus; dark humour and a sense of the horrible, but they're too few and far between, and they're lost in a blancmange of bland setting, irritating characters and a slow plot. If Elliott decides to write another horror novel I will be at the head of the queue, but I won't be buying the sequel to Pilgrims.
I had high hopes for Pilgrims.
We have two protagonists. An everyman loser, Eric, and his alcoholic homeless best friend, Case. And here's my first problem; I kept getting their names mixed up. When they were in separate places it wasn't so bad, but once they met up I had to stop and check to see in whose point of view the chapter was written, they sounded so similar. The other characters aren't much better, but at least I managed to keep their names straight.
Case and Eric hurl themselves through a mysterious doorway and end up in another world, called Levaal. Like the circus in Circus, Levaal is meant to be and feel unreal. It certainly does feel unreal. Unlike the circus, however, it also feels boring. Yes, horrible things are happening but the world was sketched in so vaguely I didn't really care. I'd describe it to you, but I can't. Oh, I could tell you about forests and fields, and a castle shaped like a dragon, but the culture, art, slang, financial systems, family structures and methods of sewage disposal remain a mystery.
At this point, I would like to put forward the motion that prologues and starting chapters that detail an evil overlord doing evil things should be banned. Pilgrims had not just one of these horrible, useless, boring slabs of writing, but two. Actually, lets ban prologues in fantasy novels altogether. I've yet to read one that served any purpose whatsoever but to reduce tension. How about the reader finds out the bad guy is bad when the protagonist does, hm? I promise I'll wait.
So what happens in this book? Well, not a lot. An awful lot of characters get introduced, and no one gets killed off. Our protagonists fire their gun occasionally, and at one point it even looks like there will be bad consequences for Eric after he offs something he shouldn't. But lo and behold, a great spirit sees that if Eric dies too early all the futures are bleak, so he sorts it all out for him. Oh, and thanks to a dream-vision Eric gains the ability to see magic (presumably the ability to do magic will come in later books).
I take that back, stuff does happen. In the last quarter of the book. And Case and Eric aren't there to see it. And the bad guys are the ones to do it. And then the book ends.
Just one more thing. Of all the characters that ring false, the Designated Love Interest is the worst, and she's one of only two named female characters. She sleeps with Eric with the sole purpose of reading his mind, and claims that she finds, well, not a lot *snerk*, which is fine, but she still cuddles up with him chastely so he can angst about it. I honestly cannot fathom her motivations. She pulls her bow on her commanding officer when he decides to disobey their superiors (the bow gets knocked out of the way and she cries, great warrior there), but as soon as Eric shows up she's completely fine with saddling up and following said superior officer. No explanation given, other than the obvious; she did it because the author required her to.
Look, it's not all bad. I recognise things that I liked in Circus; dark humour and a sense of the horrible, but they're too few and far between, and they're lost in a blancmange of bland setting, irritating characters and a slow plot. If Elliott decides to write another horror novel I will be at the head of the queue, but I won't be buying the sequel to Pilgrims.