markyon's review
4.0
Ed’s previous trilogy of novels (collectively known as The Guild Trilogy) have built up a reputation for stylistic grimness, a Grimdark sensibility but one based more on urban noir than typical Fantasy tropes.
The Song of the Sycamore dips into a similar vein, but is a more complex tale.
From the publisher: On the broken world of Urdezha, Wendal Finn died on the hostile plains of the wasteland, one more casualty in the endless war between the city-dwellers and the clansfolk. But now Wendal has returned to his home city of Old Castle, possessed by something he brought back from the wasteland, something old and best left forgotten. The spirits are calling it Sycamore, an ancient entity out to avenge all victims of murder. And in a city like Old Castle, no one is innocent.
With his mind trapped inside a dead body, Wendal can do nothing but watch as Sycamore turns him into a serial killer. Until the magicians take an interest in him. Preserving Wendal's body and trapping Sycamore inside it, the magicians now have the perfect assassin at their disposal. Whenever they need an enemy removed, they can set the killer loose on Old Castle. Between these moments of horror, Wendal struggles to piece together the remnants of his former life. He wants to know why his wife died while he was fighting in the war, but no one will tell him, no one wants him to know. Left to his own devices, Wendal picks at the scabs that cover the dark secrets of the magicians and reveals a threat to every city on Urdezha.
The clans are massing. A supernatural storm is raging across the wasteland. It has already destroyed one city, and now it is heading for Old Castle. And the only one who might prevent oblivion is the murderous entity who the spirits are calling Sycamore.
As you can see from the publisher’s summary, it is all pretty grim from the start. Our lead character, Wendal Finn, is a dead person possessed by a demonic creature known as Sycamore. Living in a city called Old Castle, Sycamore, using the body of Wendal, is a Shepherd, whose job is to avenge those who have been murdered by hearing their Song and killing their murderer.
Whilst you could see Sycamore/ Wendal as a force for good – a means of vengeance & retribution – their motivation serves a wider purpose. Sycamore/ Wendal is captured by Dyonne Obor, a Magician who hopes to use Sycamore to gain an upper hand in a war between the Scientists and the Magicians. Generally, the Scientists are seen as ‘the good guys’, preserving order and stability whilst the Magicians the ones determined to bring back the power of the old ways. However, there is a covert battle going on that has been going on for a long time and this creates a complicated backstory in this squalid world.
So, at first this seems like a pretty grimdark, steampunk kind of story. With a combination of wild inventions and arcane magic, dark decrepitude and nasty political shenanigans, fans of Grimdark and steampunk will get a lot of what they like here. I recognised elements of Iain Banks’ Feersum Enjinn and even a touch of Vance’s Dying Earth to this one. Everywhere is grimy, decayed and decrepit. There’s a feeling of ickyness that fans of China Mieville and Ed McDonald (Blackwing) will recognise.
And… I must admit that it was this that nearly killed the book for me. It is unpleasant. Whilst dealing with the darker nature of human depravity it felt like it was going to be one long wallow in a cesspool – difficult to maintain over a whole novel and ultimately dispiritingly and unrelentlessly bleak.
It also didn’t help that the characters seemed horrible as well. Whilst I could see that the characters are complex and multi-faceted, I was finding that I disliked the characters, their motives and their actions, which all seemed to want to outdo each other in their levels of nastiness.
Had the book continued in this manner I would have given it up as another attempt to tap into a mystery set in a steam-punky, Grimdark world – which I would have quickly got bored with. The first two parts of the book made me suspect that the purpose of the novel was nothing more than to make the reader feel better by showing them just how low things can go.
However, just as I was about to give up, about halfway through the novel took an abrupt left-turn. In the third part of the story, we suddenly get detailed memories – to Wendal’s life with his wife, Eden, who appears to have committed suicide, and to Wendal’s life as a soldier, as the operator of an ether-run battle suit fighting the clansmen of the wilderness outside the city. The story suddenly gains momentum and a breath of fresh air as a sort of steampunk version of Starship Troopers. It's a nice mixture of fantasy (magic, ether) and science fiction (force-fields, battlemech suits).
And then there’s the bigger picture – when we return to the present there’s tension created by the arrival of a storm to Old Castle that literally and figuratively means something, whilst at the same time the ongoing covert War between the Scientists and the Magicians, which Wendal finds himself involved in, comes to a head.
It may not be a surprise that this is something that Sycamore, and therefore Wendal is connected to, as Wendal is the vessel of Sycamore’s embodiment in Old Castle. The last part of the novel sees this played out and Sycamore is seen for what he really is.
My initial concerns that the book would do nothing more than make me feel permanently grubby were soon realised to be a gross misunderstanding. By the end the complex nature of the narrative and the development of the characters had done their work and won me over. In its twisty, turny way, the ending was a genuine revelation and one which was not easily achieved, which is a tribute to the writer.
To sum up then, Song of the Sycamore is a book that takes time to build but once it engages with the reader it keeps you going and doesn’t let go. It plays with the reader’s perceptions to such an extent that it will keep many a reader guessing until the end. I really wasn’t sure I was going to like this one at first and yet by the end I totally did. File under “May not be for everyone, but some readers will love it.”
The Song of the Sycamore dips into a similar vein, but is a more complex tale.
From the publisher: On the broken world of Urdezha, Wendal Finn died on the hostile plains of the wasteland, one more casualty in the endless war between the city-dwellers and the clansfolk. But now Wendal has returned to his home city of Old Castle, possessed by something he brought back from the wasteland, something old and best left forgotten. The spirits are calling it Sycamore, an ancient entity out to avenge all victims of murder. And in a city like Old Castle, no one is innocent.
With his mind trapped inside a dead body, Wendal can do nothing but watch as Sycamore turns him into a serial killer. Until the magicians take an interest in him. Preserving Wendal's body and trapping Sycamore inside it, the magicians now have the perfect assassin at their disposal. Whenever they need an enemy removed, they can set the killer loose on Old Castle. Between these moments of horror, Wendal struggles to piece together the remnants of his former life. He wants to know why his wife died while he was fighting in the war, but no one will tell him, no one wants him to know. Left to his own devices, Wendal picks at the scabs that cover the dark secrets of the magicians and reveals a threat to every city on Urdezha.
The clans are massing. A supernatural storm is raging across the wasteland. It has already destroyed one city, and now it is heading for Old Castle. And the only one who might prevent oblivion is the murderous entity who the spirits are calling Sycamore.
As you can see from the publisher’s summary, it is all pretty grim from the start. Our lead character, Wendal Finn, is a dead person possessed by a demonic creature known as Sycamore. Living in a city called Old Castle, Sycamore, using the body of Wendal, is a Shepherd, whose job is to avenge those who have been murdered by hearing their Song and killing their murderer.
Whilst you could see Sycamore/ Wendal as a force for good – a means of vengeance & retribution – their motivation serves a wider purpose. Sycamore/ Wendal is captured by Dyonne Obor, a Magician who hopes to use Sycamore to gain an upper hand in a war between the Scientists and the Magicians. Generally, the Scientists are seen as ‘the good guys’, preserving order and stability whilst the Magicians the ones determined to bring back the power of the old ways. However, there is a covert battle going on that has been going on for a long time and this creates a complicated backstory in this squalid world.
So, at first this seems like a pretty grimdark, steampunk kind of story. With a combination of wild inventions and arcane magic, dark decrepitude and nasty political shenanigans, fans of Grimdark and steampunk will get a lot of what they like here. I recognised elements of Iain Banks’ Feersum Enjinn and even a touch of Vance’s Dying Earth to this one. Everywhere is grimy, decayed and decrepit. There’s a feeling of ickyness that fans of China Mieville and Ed McDonald (Blackwing) will recognise.
And… I must admit that it was this that nearly killed the book for me. It is unpleasant. Whilst dealing with the darker nature of human depravity it felt like it was going to be one long wallow in a cesspool – difficult to maintain over a whole novel and ultimately dispiritingly and unrelentlessly bleak.
It also didn’t help that the characters seemed horrible as well. Whilst I could see that the characters are complex and multi-faceted, I was finding that I disliked the characters, their motives and their actions, which all seemed to want to outdo each other in their levels of nastiness.
Had the book continued in this manner I would have given it up as another attempt to tap into a mystery set in a steam-punky, Grimdark world – which I would have quickly got bored with. The first two parts of the book made me suspect that the purpose of the novel was nothing more than to make the reader feel better by showing them just how low things can go.
However, just as I was about to give up, about halfway through the novel took an abrupt left-turn. In the third part of the story, we suddenly get detailed memories – to Wendal’s life with his wife, Eden, who appears to have committed suicide, and to Wendal’s life as a soldier, as the operator of an ether-run battle suit fighting the clansmen of the wilderness outside the city. The story suddenly gains momentum and a breath of fresh air as a sort of steampunk version of Starship Troopers. It's a nice mixture of fantasy (magic, ether) and science fiction (force-fields, battlemech suits).
And then there’s the bigger picture – when we return to the present there’s tension created by the arrival of a storm to Old Castle that literally and figuratively means something, whilst at the same time the ongoing covert War between the Scientists and the Magicians, which Wendal finds himself involved in, comes to a head.
It may not be a surprise that this is something that Sycamore, and therefore Wendal is connected to, as Wendal is the vessel of Sycamore’s embodiment in Old Castle. The last part of the novel sees this played out and Sycamore is seen for what he really is.
My initial concerns that the book would do nothing more than make me feel permanently grubby were soon realised to be a gross misunderstanding. By the end the complex nature of the narrative and the development of the characters had done their work and won me over. In its twisty, turny way, the ending was a genuine revelation and one which was not easily achieved, which is a tribute to the writer.
To sum up then, Song of the Sycamore is a book that takes time to build but once it engages with the reader it keeps you going and doesn’t let go. It plays with the reader’s perceptions to such an extent that it will keep many a reader guessing until the end. I really wasn’t sure I was going to like this one at first and yet by the end I totally did. File under “May not be for everyone, but some readers will love it.”
thefool's review
2.0
This is an interesting read in that at the very beginning, the main character is already dead. It might feel then, at first that there could be no stakes in going forward, but that's certainly not the case! The mystery seeped in the text is reason enough to continue.
Wendal died and was taken over by a mysterious entity known only as the Sycamore. This entity seems to investigate murders, fulfilling any lingering revenge they feel toward their killers. Although Wendal is no longer of the mortal realm in the way he should be, he's still aware of the ways in which his body is being used by the entity possessing him. He's forced to stand by and 'watch,' so to speak, unable to interfere with the actions.
Though one would think that it's not necessarily a bad thing for 'killers' to get their just desserts, it becomes increasingly clear that Sycamore isn't without fault itself. The vessels it chooses to carry out these goals are frequently used and abused until they can no longer be utilized, and then they are callously abandoned in favor of the next, better suited vessel that happens along. Sycamore seems to be a known entity in the magical world, and is feared - for good reason.
Wendal realizes that his broken existence and his empty life were what permitted the possession to happen in the first place, but what does knowing that do for him when there's nothing apparent that he can do about it? If there did arise an opportunity to shake his captor, would he take it, no matter the consequences?
'Hope - that was what drove me; that was all I had left. Hope for a stagnant existence on a broken world. I never envisioned my life turning out this way.'
All this sounds very interesting! And it may be for some! I never actually finished this book to completion outside of casually skimming it. The backgrounds of the characters, including the main character Wendal were simply too disjointed for me to have any real connection with them. There were supposed to be borne a feeling of desperation in the reader toward the main characters plight, but it was difficult to feel when exposed to some of the reasoning behind his predicament in the first place. But it very much felt impossible to grasp what was happening with the little tidbits of information that were scattered throughout. It always felt like I was one step too late behind.
Wendal died and was taken over by a mysterious entity known only as the Sycamore. This entity seems to investigate murders, fulfilling any lingering revenge they feel toward their killers. Although Wendal is no longer of the mortal realm in the way he should be, he's still aware of the ways in which his body is being used by the entity possessing him. He's forced to stand by and 'watch,' so to speak, unable to interfere with the actions.
Though one would think that it's not necessarily a bad thing for 'killers' to get their just desserts, it becomes increasingly clear that Sycamore isn't without fault itself. The vessels it chooses to carry out these goals are frequently used and abused until they can no longer be utilized, and then they are callously abandoned in favor of the next, better suited vessel that happens along. Sycamore seems to be a known entity in the magical world, and is feared - for good reason.
Wendal realizes that his broken existence and his empty life were what permitted the possession to happen in the first place, but what does knowing that do for him when there's nothing apparent that he can do about it? If there did arise an opportunity to shake his captor, would he take it, no matter the consequences?
'Hope - that was what drove me; that was all I had left. Hope for a stagnant existence on a broken world. I never envisioned my life turning out this way.'
All this sounds very interesting! And it may be for some! I never actually finished this book to completion outside of casually skimming it. The backgrounds of the characters, including the main character Wendal were simply too disjointed for me to have any real connection with them. There were supposed to be borne a feeling of desperation in the reader toward the main characters plight, but it was difficult to feel when exposed to some of the reasoning behind his predicament in the first place. But it very much felt impossible to grasp what was happening with the little tidbits of information that were scattered throughout. It always felt like I was one step too late behind.
hazel_reads's review
4.0
This is a good one!!
Wendal died in the war. Now, he is returning home. He is possessed by something named Sycamore.
Some call him an ageless demon. Sycamore may be a demon or not, but he has a purpose. Getting revenge for murder victims. The problem is, the hands enacting this revenge belong to Wendel.
I really enjoyed this one. I was confused at first, but then it all came together. Wendal is a great character, and I really liked the magic. I could just picture the city with its shield up!
If you enjoy fantasy, give this one a go!
I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Wendal died in the war. Now, he is returning home. He is possessed by something named Sycamore.
Some call him an ageless demon. Sycamore may be a demon or not, but he has a purpose. Getting revenge for murder victims. The problem is, the hands enacting this revenge belong to Wendel.
I really enjoyed this one. I was confused at first, but then it all came together. Wendal is a great character, and I really liked the magic. I could just picture the city with its shield up!
If you enjoy fantasy, give this one a go!
I received a copy from Net Galley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
annarella's review
5.0
I don't usually use terms like "full of emotions" when i review a fantasy book but these are words i'm sure I can use for this one.
It's a grim fantasy book but it's also full of emotion, with a fleshed out, realistic and "so human" main character.
It's not one of those book where the positive characters are nearly perfect and the villain are "so so bad".
Everyone is a mix, nobody is perfect and I found that I liked Sycamore as much as I liked Wendal.
The world building is amazing, bleak and with elements of steampunk.
I loved this book, once I started I couldn't put it down, and I appreciated it's originality.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
It's a grim fantasy book but it's also full of emotion, with a fleshed out, realistic and "so human" main character.
It's not one of those book where the positive characters are nearly perfect and the villain are "so so bad".
Everyone is a mix, nobody is perfect and I found that I liked Sycamore as much as I liked Wendal.
The world building is amazing, bleak and with elements of steampunk.
I loved this book, once I started I couldn't put it down, and I appreciated it's originality.
I look forward to reading other books by this author.
I strongly recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
thestainlesssteelrat's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
A strange tale of a returning soldier possessed by an entity that communes with the dead (ghouls) releasing those trapped by wreaking vengeance on their killers . The soldier's return to his city finds him caught between bickering factions of magicians and scientists each trying to use the entity possessing him for their own ends, whatever they might be. The soldier himself has found his wife is dead, at her own hand, his goal is to find her spirit and be reunited. The world building is good and intriguing but I felt the characters were hard to like and there seems to be a lot of repeated exposition rather than pushing the story along I felt as trapped by this slow style, as the ghouls seeking release in the city. Having had a very slow burn throughout, of course I found the ending abrupt and less than satisfying. Overall it is an interesting world with potential for much more to come from it, if that is what the author wishes. I was unfortunately left underwhelmed by this particular story.
scottish_kat's review
4.0
This is an interesting book. with a feeling of freshness about it.
The setting is wonderful with enough quirk that i'd happily read more books set in this world.
The opening 25% of the book is really, really good. It hooked me in early and established the characters and the story well.
Over the next 15% or so I completely lost interest and if this wasn't a NetGalley book I would probably have given up at the 40% mark. The primary reason for this is that the main character is just so passive. Wendel doesn't question anything, he doesn't make any decisions, he doesn't rail against his situation. For me, he's too accepting - he goes where he's told to go and does what he's told to do and that really irritated me. Wendel might be the main character but he's a far cry from being a protagonist and it's hard to tell who the protagonist is.
I'm really glad I kept going though because the final 40% is a return to the excellence of the first part.
I really enjoyed the resolution - it felt right,
I loved the sections where Wendel was doing his city service, the characters and the relationships between them were really strong, I felt Wendel had more agency and personality in these sections.
I have to give this book a rating of 4 stars (3 stars is "enjoyable but average" and this book is way better than average.) even if, in my opinion, it has flaws.
The setting is wonderful with enough quirk that i'd happily read more books set in this world.
The opening 25% of the book is really, really good. It hooked me in early and established the characters and the story well.
Over the next 15% or so I completely lost interest and if this wasn't a NetGalley book I would probably have given up at the 40% mark. The primary reason for this is that the main character is just so passive. Wendel doesn't question anything, he doesn't make any decisions, he doesn't rail against his situation. For me, he's too accepting - he goes where he's told to go and does what he's told to do and that really irritated me. Wendel might be the main character but he's a far cry from being a protagonist and it's hard to tell who the protagonist is.
I'm really glad I kept going though because the final 40% is a return to the excellence of the first part.
I really enjoyed the resolution - it felt right,
I loved the sections where Wendel was doing his city service, the characters and the relationships between them were really strong, I felt Wendel had more agency and personality in these sections.
I have to give this book a rating of 4 stars (3 stars is "enjoyable but average" and this book is way better than average.) even if, in my opinion, it has flaws.
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