Not only are there a lot of Fantasy books out there to choose from, Grimdark no less, but in the next three months I have a large stack of books coming out that are all competing for this genre’s attention. I’m not going to list those other books because Jeff Salyards’ book, Scourge of the Betrayer, deserves to be cracked open. You can even enjoy the fact that the sequel, Veil of Deserters, comes out mid-May and picks up right where Scourge left off.
Scourge of the Betrayer is told through the first person account of a chronicler, Arki, hired to follow a small group of the Emperor’s soldiers, led by a new favorite character of mine, Captain Braylar Killcoin. I wasn’t sure what I’d think about reading a story that could have ended up being through the POV of someone less interesting than the main character, but Salyards pulled it off. I read this decent sized book in one week and had very little time where I wasn’t really engaged.
Here are the ways that Scourge kept me engaged:
The introductory period to our main cast is easy enough to get into, and if the dialogue is not too indecent for your taste, will prove hilarious countless times. Salyards kept me hooked, in part, because I was looking forward to what his characters would say next. In this non-Earth setting, he excels at creating crisp phrases and insults that are not only unique, but hilarious and illuminatingly descriptive. While all the dialogue is crisp and character building, Killcoin’s truly stands out:
Braylar snapped his fingers to reclaim the boy’s attention. “Do you know horses, boy? Or were you hired solely for your sh-t-shovelling prowess?”
“None better.”
“With horses or sh-t?”
Elsewhere:
Gurdinn ignored him, still speaking to the baron. “I would sooner soak my cock in honey and ask a bear not to bite than trust a Black Noose, my lord.”
Braylar clapped and said, “I wouldn’t have suspected you of such colorful wit, Captain Honeycock. You’re a man of surprising gifts.”
Gurdinn wheeled on him, hand on his sword. “Shut your mouth, right quick.”
This is all a small sample, but I think it shows his quick wit and ability to move the story with active dialogue. In a more elegant moment, Killcoin says,
“I never supsected I was surrounded by such insipid sentimentalists. With honeyed tongues, no less. Truly, a revelation.”
I like this piece where Arki characterizes the main cast and the striking magic system that Salyards has unmasked in them:
I wasn’t sure which was the greater oddity—a Syldoon whose Deserter-inspired weapon allegedly stole memories from the dead, or a disfigured Grass Dog who resumably drew those memories out of him like poison. Or an archivist who believed either one.
The Bloodsounder, Killcoin’s magical flail, is one of the most interesting Fantasy weapons I’ve read about. Wizards are normally the kinds of characters who have costs to their powers, but in this flail that Killcoin can’t abandon, but which helps save his life, he is burdened with emotional memories of those he has killed. As I progress to praising Salyard’s gift for action, what I really enjoyed was how he mixes in aspects like this that make me care about his cast of characters surviving their battles. Killcoin comes off as ruthless at times, but is more of a softy than his hard dialogue and killing ability suggests. He is troubled, but truly has won my heart to want to read on.
To step back a little, I knew early on that I liked our narrator, Arki. Here’s how he describes himself:
I had no family, or none that had claimed me as such for years, and no friendships of any lasting duration. The promise of being part of something larger than my life—which admittedly, up to this point hadn’t exactly been consequential or noteworthy—was exciting, even if my involvement was restricted to observing and recording. At least it would presumably be something worth setting to parchment for once. And there was no denying the draw to that. If I had to scribble down another ledger report or the history of one more self-satisfied grain merchant, I might jab a quill in my eye.
Arki gets some action, learning how to wield a crossbow, but is still very much a novice fighter by the end of the book. What we see of him in Scourge is a young man developing friendships through more action and death than he’s ever seen. He learns to grieve. He learns to fight. I am very excited to see how he continues to develop in Veil of the Deserters. With all the books I have to read, I jumped right into the sequel and have already had a strong payoff in the first few pages.
This review has become a little long, so I’ll spare the quotes of sections of action and worldbuilding I enjoyed and let you discover them for yourself. Salyards matches his gift of dialogue with fight scenes that make you feel the arrows thunk inches from your face, and which are never easily won. The world he’s built has a god class called the Deserters, who have fled, but which left what’s called the Godveil, a place where people are drawn in by curiosity and killed. I can’t wait to find out more about this magical relic and see if the Deserters return.
If you are looking for an easily accessible, well-written Fantasy I think you’ll be very pleased with the story Salyards has to offer. His characters, dialogue and action scenes are now among my favorite.
*As part of our recent podcast with Fantasy author, Elizabeth Bear, we are running a giveaway of her Eternal Sky Trilogy for newsletter subscribers. Giveaway ends 5/5/14 at 11:59 PM CDT.
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Timothy C. Ward
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