Reads of 2015 - The Jack of Souls
Earlier this year, there was a benefit for Duane Wilkins held at the house of J. A. Pitts featuring a chili cookoff and charity auction. Being a gathering of writers and science fiction fans, the auction had a lot of genre art and books. One of the books up for auction was a signed edition of Stephen Merlino's first novel, The Jack of Souls.
Stephen Merlino is a member of my writing group and so his book is what I blew my auction budget on. I had read the earlier draft, so it was interesting to read the fnal version (and also hold it in my hands all bound and published and everything).
The book (first installment of the Unseen Moon series) concerns young Harric, a bastard living in a frontier town and cursed by his own mother to die on his next birthday. He manages to put off his fate long enough to see his home being invaded by one of the last Old Ones and his fanatical followers. The Old Ones were an order of immortal knights, driven insane by the same semidivine blood that keeps them undying. Harric has a series of run ins with both the Old One and his fanatics, so escape becoes his only option.
With the help of his bestfriend Caris, a young woman who wants to become a female knight and has a psychc connection with horses, he escapes town. They soon join up with Sir Willard (former Old One and currently a drug-addicted old man) and Broli (apelike ambassador from a secluded northern nation) and become involved in a quest to not only save themselves, but their Queen as well.
I love the worldbuilding in this. It's a medieval fantasy world, but they have stand-ins for guns and despite the knights and armor, it has a bit of an old west feel. Magic exists, but it is outlawed in the kingdom where the story takes place (so of course Harric starts on the path to become a magician before the book ends). There are no elves nor goblins, but there are the apelike beings of Broli's nation and weird familars made of mud and twigs. The world is orbited by three moons which serve as the source of magic. Gods exist, but the worship of them is as frowned upon as magic itself. The only religion we really see is a brotherhood of priests who were told by their God not to worship Him because they were on their own.
The characters themselves are also engaging, not just the four min protagonists, but the antagonists and supporting cast as well.
It's a great adventure tale that won both the Pacific Northwest Writers Association award for fantasy and the Southwest Writers annual award for fantasy last year. I would have read it even if it wasn't written by a friend.
That being said, I love seeing others in my writing group doing well.
Way to go, Merlino. Can't wait for the next book.