A review by nghia
Deathknight by Andrew J. Offutt
2.0
Deathknight is a relatively old (1990) fantasy in the "sword & planet" genre, a genre which seems mostly dead at this point. Deathknight does a lot of things that are....I guess I'd call it "interesting". Things that are bold choices that mostly work. For instance, the main character actually comes across as devout (making you realise how absent that kind of character is in most books, where everything is a kind of bland 21st century agnosticism). The book features what today would be called diversity -- the main character is black and the secondary character is completely a-sexual -- which is a bit refreshing in a book published in 1990. There are flashes of what we now call "grimdark".
The author also does something few fantasy authors do (but was relatively common in the sword & planet genre) -- the flora & fauna of his world is actually weird but he doesn't info-dump or explain it. What I mean is: most fantasy will have people riding around on horses, drinking beer, and eating chicken for dinner. Offut gives us something that isn't just a carbon-copy of our own world. But he also explains virtually nothing, instead the details emerge organically and without beating you over the head. Here's an example from an early passage:
Wait a second. 33 & 99 is a multiple of a man's fingers (without the thumb)? That means a man has either 3 or 11 fingers? What the....?!?
We're never told what a darg is or derrberries or a ferg or a crawk or hax or any number of other things. It is casually dropped that human females only have estrus twice a year. Personally, I found it refreshing, though other reviewers found it disorienting & didn't take to it.
It was also refreshing that The Plot isn't something big & grandiose. There's no saving the world or a fight against evil. But this is also where the book falls down because the plot is so thin & meager that it isn't even really introduced until about 60% of the way into the book. And then wrapping up the plot is handled in what is just a few pages -- basically, capture a guy, torture him, okay now we know everything & win. The end.
Side note: This is the second or third fantasy book I've read recently where everyone -- the characters, the author, and (by implication) the readers -- all just assume that torture works perfectly & efficiently. In just a few minutes people will tell you what's going on. They wouldn't possibly lie (how long would it take to verify their claims?). They wouldn't possibly confess to things they didn't do. You couldn't possibly have got the wrong guy. It is just kinda weird how...thoughtlessly it seems to be accepted.
And a side note to that side note: each chapter has a quote from the founder of Falc's religious order. And they are....weirdly like things a 20th century American hyper-individualist conservative person would say.
(Keep in mind this talk about "freedom" occurs in a society with actual slaves all over the place and un-elected feudal lords that have no courts or proper judicial system.)
He has a weird anti-statist anti-socialist rant
And another anti-statist rant
It all just felt...fake? And tone deaf. People in medieval societies don't talk like that about those kind of issues. Anyway, it didn't affect my review, I just found it weird.
What did affect my review is just that...nothing happens in the entire book. As mentioned, there's not much of a plot. What there is, begins glacially slow and wraps up instantly and -- honestly -- without much drama or tension. So what we're left with a kind of character drama between the two main characters -- Falc & Jinnery. Except Jinnery doesn't appear until 1/3rd of the way of the book and then she disappears from the narrative for another 15%. They don't form a duo and start their respective character arcs until the book is half way done. And, honestly, the characters aren't that well drawn. Neither one is really deep or interesting enough to carry the weight of a character drama.
I read this in the middle of reading a bunch of shorter books (almost all under 200 pages) and it struck me that this book suffers from doing two things in a mediocre way, blowing out the page count, making it drag. The character drama is weighed down by the political intrigue. I think if the book has dropped the political intrigue and cut 150 pages out, focusing more on the Jinnery & Falc's oil & water relationship it would have been much stronger.
The author also does something few fantasy authors do (but was relatively common in the sword & planet genre) -- the flora & fauna of his world is actually weird but he doesn't info-dump or explain it. What I mean is: most fantasy will have people riding around on horses, drinking beer, and eating chicken for dinner. Offut gives us something that isn't just a carbon-copy of our own world. But he also explains virtually nothing, instead the details emerge organically and without beating you over the head. Here's an example from an early passage:
With his arms folded over his chest he performed thirty-three slow squat-to-heels and rise-on-toes. The last ended with his seeming to strain toward the sky, his lips moving, his body a taut line from the toes on which he balanced to the upward straining fingertips. His lips were moving. He relaxed and breathed deeply, diaphragmatically, for ninety-nine beats. The number of a man’s fingers and its multiples, without the thumb, formed the mystic number sacred to Ashah.
Wait a second. 33 & 99 is a multiple of a man's fingers (without the thumb)? That means a man has either 3 or 11 fingers? What the....?!?
We're never told what a darg is or derrberries or a ferg or a crawk or hax or any number of other things. It is casually dropped that human females only have estrus twice a year. Personally, I found it refreshing, though other reviewers found it disorienting & didn't take to it.
It was also refreshing that The Plot isn't something big & grandiose. There's no saving the world or a fight against evil. But this is also where the book falls down because the plot is so thin & meager that it isn't even really introduced until about 60% of the way into the book. And then wrapping up the plot is handled in what is just a few pages -- basically, capture a guy, torture him, okay now we know everything & win. The end.
Side note: This is the second or third fantasy book I've read recently where everyone -- the characters, the author, and (by implication) the readers -- all just assume that torture works perfectly & efficiently. In just a few minutes people will tell you what's going on. They wouldn't possibly lie (how long would it take to verify their claims?). They wouldn't possibly confess to things they didn't do. You couldn't possibly have got the wrong guy. It is just kinda weird how...thoughtlessly it seems to be accepted.
And a side note to that side note: each chapter has a quote from the founder of Falc's religious order. And they are....weirdly like things a 20th century American hyper-individualist conservative person would say.
That would be ridiculous and lead to great frustrations and crippling guilt as well as encourage a society based on the impossible — egalitarianism — and pauper the people to make them “equal” while less free
(Keep in mind this talk about "freedom" occurs in a society with actual slaves all over the place and un-elected feudal lords that have no courts or proper judicial system.)
He has a weird anti-statist anti-socialist rant
Enforced sharing is both evil and a redundancy. Sharing is a voluntary act. Involuntary sharing is theft, whether it is accomplished by individuals or a group or large group called government; the State or citystate.
And another anti-statist rant
The previous societies of this world were destroyed by governments [...] Never again must this beast called government be allowed to grow so powerful. The social order is individuals, who must be cherished
It all just felt...fake? And tone deaf. People in medieval societies don't talk like that about those kind of issues. Anyway, it didn't affect my review, I just found it weird.
What did affect my review is just that...nothing happens in the entire book. As mentioned, there's not much of a plot. What there is, begins glacially slow and wraps up instantly and -- honestly -- without much drama or tension. So what we're left with a kind of character drama between the two main characters -- Falc & Jinnery. Except Jinnery doesn't appear until 1/3rd of the way of the book and then she disappears from the narrative for another 15%. They don't form a duo and start their respective character arcs until the book is half way done. And, honestly, the characters aren't that well drawn. Neither one is really deep or interesting enough to carry the weight of a character drama.
I read this in the middle of reading a bunch of shorter books (almost all under 200 pages) and it struck me that this book suffers from doing two things in a mediocre way, blowing out the page count, making it drag. The character drama is weighed down by the political intrigue. I think if the book has dropped the political intrigue and cut 150 pages out, focusing more on the Jinnery & Falc's oil & water relationship it would have been much stronger.