| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| jcdf |
Posted - 09 Dec 2009 : 12:53:52
Book review of: Neversfall Warning: SPOILER!
Author: Ed Gentry
Plot:
This story is about a mixed group of soldiers from the two shining south kingdoms of Durpar and Estagund.
Prior to the start of this novel these two kingdoms jointly built a large fortress called Neversfall on their frontier with the monster infested kingdom of Veldorn. It was built to protect the two kingdoms from the monsters of Veldorn and eventually serve as a bridgehead for them to reclaim their lands.
Most of the events of this novel revolve around this fortress of Neversfall hence the name of the book.
The story begins; contact has been lost with Neversfall. This group of troops commanded by Urir Jhoqo Valshu and Orir Adeenya Jamaluddat march towards the citadel.
On their way they encounter an enemy force and engage in battle. Victorious they take prisoners. Amongst these are very strange creatures called formians, who look like giant ants.
These formians exist as part of a collectivised awareness where the individual submits completely to the interests of the collective. They are psychic and capable of annexing others individuality into their collective group, like the Borg in star trek or psychic communists.
The soldiers and their new prisoners march on to Neversfall.
Upon arriving at the fortress they search and secure the place, discovering it to be empty. No clues exist as to what happened to the previous garrison.
The fortress comes under attack from an unidentified force. The attackers are repelled. The group’s only wizard mysteriously dies during this attack.
Many unanswered questions hang in the air, what happened to previous garrison, who are mystery attackers, where did they come from and how are they related to the previously captured formians?
The Estagund commander Jhoqo starts making increasingly reckless decisions that lead to the death of his soldiers. Durpar commander Adeenya believes there is a traitor amongst them and sets a plan in motion to capture this person. The commanding officers keep secrets from each other, which helps creates tension.
Reinforcements arrive at the fortress, Chondathan Mercenaries.
There are some more fights and Jhoqo sacrifices more of his troops in futile missions.
Adeenya springs her trap and discovers the two traitors to be Jhoqo and her own second in command Marlke Stoutgut. She is captured and Jhoqo explains to Adeenya the rational for what he is doing that, he is a patriot and the greater good and all that. Then she escapes.
Taennen releases the formians and discovers a network of secrete underground tunnels beneath Neversfall that lead to the mystery attackers underground camp. There he discovers large quantities of weapons in transit.
Adeenya escapes the fortress with many of the Durpar, Estagund soldiers and former prisoners.
Taennen, Adeenya and the formians meet up outside the citadel in the Aerilpar Forest. Truths are revealed that Jhoqo, the Chondathan Mercenaries and others are involved in the illegal trade of weapons to the Mulhorandi.
The group decides to uphold the law, take down Jhoqo and recapture Neversfall citadel from the bad guys.
There is one final large battle that climaxes with a fight between Taennen and his adoptee farther and former commanding officer Jhoqo. Swords and words are violently exchanged and Taennen slays Jhoqo winning the battle.
Many questions still hang in the air, who else was involved in the conspiracy besides Adeenyas farther, about the formians, and what the survivors should do next? These are left unanswered possibly for a sequel.
Characters:
There are three significant characters in this novel, Orir Adeenya Jamaluddat, Urir Jhoqo Valshu and Durir Taennen Tamoar. The first part of their name Orir, Urir and Durir refer to their respective ranks in the Durpar or Estagund army. The entire story is seen from these three peoples perspectives. There are many other characters but they just serve to move the plot along. Durir Taennen Tamoar is the single most important character since he is the only one to under go any character development, even if small, throughout the whole story.
Orir Adeenya Jamaluddat is the commander of a Durpari regiment. She is an independent strong capable quite intelligent though not thoughtful person who fell in love at an early age with the idea of becoming a warrior and joining the legendary Maquar. She was never able to entirely realise her dreams because of her heritage and settled for the next best thing by joining the Durpari mercenaries.
Most of what we learn about her is in the first chapter. Her character never really under goes any changes throughout the novel. This is unfortunate since the revelation of her father’s involvement in the main conspiracy left open the possibility for investigation and development of her relationship with him. This is never embellished and reduces her character to a clichéd virtuous warrior going through the motions. A let down of this book since her familial relationship could have contrasted or complimented with Taennens.
A side note, I find what she says about Jhoqo a bit strange:
quote:
She wondered at the life of conflict the man must have led to assume her second had died. In that moment, the glorious shine of the Maquar seemed a little scuffed to her.
Remember she is not young and naive like Taennen but the commander of her own regiment. A life of conflict means losing people.
Urirss Jhoqo Valshu is the most interesting character in the novel and incidentally the principle villain, a very well drawn character. He is commander of the Maquar regiment and the overall commander of their force. That he is the villain is not revealed until chapter 14 two thirds of the way through the book. His betrayal came as quite a surprise and upset to me since he is rather likable until the end.
What is not shown is why he feels it necessary to kill so many of his troops and fellow Maquar. Or about what happened to the previous garrison of Neversfall. Their fate is never specifically revealed; I assume from the context though that the Chondathan mercenaries probably killed them all. Jhoqo must have known this. His justifications for the murder of his men are as follows:
quote:
“A few deaths, to bring the rest together. Unity has always been my goal,”
quote:
It became clear to me that I could not sway as many of you as I had hoped. When Bascou’s men came, I saw in the faces of our own soldiers that they would never see the light and truth. I knew then that more had to be done,
I feel that the relationship between Jhoqo and the other conspirators and Adeenyas father should have been embellished further to help understand his reasoning for the killing of his troops.
Durir Taennen tamoar is Jhoqo’s second in command of the Maquar troops of Estagund. He is young, naive and lacking confidence but is a skilled warrior. We learn about the shaping influences in his life in chapter 4.
During Taennens youth his dad was a mage who created enchanted items for his customers. His father refused to create weapons on moral grounds, and instead made lesser objects such as enchanted earrings for small money. During the course of his work he unwittingly helped a woman break the law by giving her an unfair edge in a trade negotiations. Taennen farther felt guilty for helping this woman but for practical reasons did not turn her in to the authorities. Instead Taennen turned his dad in to the authorities, by not reporting a crime, his farther had committed one in his mind.
The following pretty much sums up how Taennen feels on issues of family
quote:
“I’ve just always dreamed of having an honest man as my farther. Someone who held the Adama close to his heart and lived his life with it every day”
His devotion to the Adama (the shining south’s religion, philosophical belief, way of living) matches Jhoqos, though his interpretation is slightly different. By the end of chapter 4 I disliked this character. Adeenya is rightly cautious of him to
quote:
‘She wondered how such a simple incident had left him so single-minded in his dedication to truth. What had that cost him throughout his life? Certainly he had missed out on having his real farther around, but it also must have made the rest of his life difficult. Life was full of situations that were best handled with restraint, flexibility, and openness. Had he developed those traits since youth? Zealotry was dangerous.’
Taennen initially worries Adeenya
quote:
She’d had disputes with her farther frequently, but betraying him, even if he had done something wrong… such extreme adherence to the law, such pragmatism, was unnatural.
Perhaps Taennen had developed those traits or was about to. He is a young character I was not about to write him off entirely. Unfortunately my faith was missed placed. In the end Taennen fights his surrogate father and comes out with the following nauseous stuff:
quote:
“I do not wish your death, but I understand it’s necessity now” Taennen says to Jhoqo.
quote:
“I don’t care about the law anymore. I care about what is right.” Taennen says to Jhoqo.
And then Taennen kills Jhoqo and then spouts some platitudes to Adeenya. By the end I had come to reviled Taennen.
Taennens interaction with the strange creature the formians is revealing of his character. Of all the people that occupy this book he shares the most in common with them. They seem more capable of controlling him than the others and formians only ask him for release from the cells. They offer to reveal the identity of the traitor to Taennen, not any of the others. The formians trust him because they can relate to him and his total obedience to the law. This contrasts with the formians treatment of Chondathan prisoner who according to them:
quote:
“He does not respect order and should die”
And they killed him as opposed to making him one of their slaves.
quote:
“The formians have one goal and one goal only” “To bring order to the world.”
A bit like Taennen himself!
Conclusion:
This book was well written with involving and well-described combat scenes. The plot was aptly simple pulling a complex series of interrelated threads and weaving them finely together. Her relationship to her father should have been explored further. A juxtaposition of her and Taennen and their fathers should have been more central to story.
A recurring theme of this novel is betrayal and disillusionment of the farther and patricide. Adyeena learns her farther is one of the lead conspirators by the end. Taennen turned his biological farther into the authorities for a minor breach of the law and at the end of the novel slays his adoptee farther Jhoqo when he could have taken him prisoner. One of the lesser characters a dwarf named Markle payment for his treason is the assassination of his uncle.
My overall score for this book is two out of five. With one out of five being worst and five out of five being best. |
| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Icelander |
Posted - 07 Oct 2012 : 07:52:14
I just read the book.
I was looking for information on the area, which has received limited coverage, and I did find some military ranks, which pleased me.
The ones I found were:
Anhal
Muzahar
Terir
Dorir/Durir
Orir/Urir
I'm assuming that Anhal and Muzahar are NCO ranks, from the tasks that are assigned to holders of them by more senior officers. Neither is stated to outrank the other, but if I had to guess, I'd place Muzahar higher.
The 'one-two-three' ranks seem problematic in any detachment involving more than one company. Orir/Urir is said, multiple times, to mean 'commander of a regiment', but the two characters with the rank, as well as the unnamed deceased one mentioned, command less than a hundred soldiers.
It is never explained in any way why the fantastically expensive stronghold with prepared quarters for 400 men and space for many times that is held by 40 men. That's like building a couple of B-2 Spirit bombers and then leaving them on an airfield in Somalia for a few months, watched over by a reinforced platoon. Because, you know, cutting-edge secret weapons are much more expendable than, say, an actual regiment of men. Something like 500-1000 men, at least. So that they could actually make the surrounding area safe for travel, you know?
I understand that senior military men may have been implicated in the conspiracy, sure. But that doesn't explain how every single military officer who knew of the existence of the fortress was suddenly struck dumb when it came to pointing out that a 40 men detachment would be hard pressed to maintain a ten man guard detail per shift. And that it can't effectively patrol the wilderness outside the fortress at all, making it more or less useless that mages can see threats from far off, since they can't act on the information.
Whether in on a conspiracy or not, everyone in power wanted to keep control of Neversfell, not simply give it to some band of monsters with the arcane understanding necessary to realise what a terrific prize it was.
And, also, why would there need to be a conspiracy? The very idea of commercial and economic sanctions is a modern real-world Earth one. And even in our world, the success rate at preventing the forbidden trade is abysmal. At any period of history prior to the 20th century, a national ruler might, if he were sufficiently crazed with power, dream about dictating what and to whom his people sold. But he could never enforce it.
Throughout some of history's most vicious wars, where civilians were slaughtered by all the sides, those same civilians kept selling anything they could to anyone they could. Even the concept that selling weapons to whoever happened to be the enemy could be somehow wrong was entirely alien. And understandably so.
Whether or not sold weapons, an enemy could massacre civilians, because the vast majority of tools, wielded with a genuine desire to harm, will kill a defenceless and untrained person. A weapon is anything used to harm others. At pre-modern technology levels, there aren't munition factories and civilian ones. Everything, weapons as well as the tools needed by farmers, is made from more or less the same materials and with more or less the same skills.
And it wasn't as if armies were ever forced to stay home for lack of their prefered weapons, either. The fuel of warfare wasn't weapons and everyone knew it wasn't weapons. It was food. You had it, you could feed a large army and spare the men from acricultural work long enough to fight. You could feed beasts of burden and move your army around. Without enough food, you had to stay home.
I'm not making a statement about the modern era or modern politics. But before the Industrial Revolution, the argument that if you sell weapons to people, they'll be able to invade you, was simply not true. And every peasant who had to stockpile food for winter and knew precisely how much a mule or packhorse would eat, would know it for a false and ridiculous statement.
I'm not saying that people or nations in the Forgotten Realms have to have medieval attitudes or that they can't have ahistorical ones. But it's not just a matter of attitude. Pre-modern states quite literally didn't have the infrastructure, wealth or accepted authority to enforce something like a ban on trading on weapons. It would require fundamental societal changes, as well as technology in the early 20th century range, to enable such powerful government.
Quite simply, anyone in Durpar or Estagund who really wanted to sell weapons to Mulhorand could do so. Seizing control of a super-powerful defensive stronghold in Veldorn seemed an entirely superfluous step toward that end.
Just require the Mulhorandi to send armed caravans into the Shaar, close enough so that you feel confident about meeting them. And then sell them weapons. The border is big enough so that even if the Military Participation Rate in the Shining South is two or three times the historical average*, there still wouldn't be enough Durpari mercenary forces and Maquar to patrol in any force even 1% of it.
Without really cheap printing and paper, not to mention a completely literate populace and several times the tax rate of any reasonable pre-modern nation (to pay for the army of bureaucrats who don't produce anything), it's impossible to even try to track sales of weapons. We do it today, badly, using computers.
In the Realms? Preposterous.
The entire premise of the book made no sense. Two governments with a fairly good track record of successful governance so far jointly made a pointless decision to enact unenforcable legislation. And then they decided that it was worth the bother to engage in joint field maneuvers far inside hostile territory, but they'd rather not send a force of soldiers. Just a couple of squads, you know, just enough to cause the locals to attack, but not enough to be able to defend the fortress.
And straw-man political 'villains' from the modern world somehow responded to this with an elaborate plan that was even more unnecessary than the legislation. Because secret tunnels under magical towers that represent a major investment for the government are clearly easier to dig and use without anyone being the wider than it is to just organise mule trains over some part of the border that no patrols come near.
And the attempt at 'philosphical' give-and-take between the villain and the 'hero' at the end merely succeeded in making Jhoqo ridiculous and the 'hero', Taennen, even more smarmy and repulsive. His favourite past-time is judging people from his high-horse, paying particular attention to 'crimes' no sane man would recognise as such, but when it really comes down to a moral quandary, he's got it all covered.
You see, he figures out that murder, kidnapping, torture and slaving are all to be greatly prefered, in a moral sense, to the terrible crime of selling weapons to another country. Even if he has to break all the laws of his own country and violate all of his principles, by the Adama, he will prevent that!
Why, if he hadn't been willing to sell people into slavery to buy the services of his formian mercenaries, he'd have been forced to go back to Estagund instead of attacking Neversfall immediately. And then, it's possible that some weapons might have been sold, by Chondathans, to Mulhorand, before he got back with a real detachment of soldiers to take Neversfall.
And... that would be bad. Because, obviously, Mulhorand does not have the industrial capacity to make weapons on their own and clearly no one else is selling them weapons. No, these weapons cannot be allowed to be sold to them!
Never mind that they are in Veldorn, which is not subject to the laws of Durpari or Estagund, and that the Chondathans are not bound by these laws either. Nope. It's just wrong. Somehow. More wrong than the hundreds of other transactions that Mulhorandi quartermasters are involved in while the novel takes place.
No. It's better to get dozens of your own soldiers killed in a foolish attack, instead of arriving at the head of a detachment large enough to be able to accept a blood less surrender. It's better to sell into slavery people who have broken no law and who currently pose no threat to you.
Because that's what Right and Just means. It means: "Whatever the hell I do, because I'm the Hero 'round here."
Remember kids, the end does not justify the means, if the end is prosperity and the mutual understanding between nations that increased trade brings. The law is the law and if selling weapons is illegal, it's Always Wrong. Even if it is not illegal, it's still Wrong.
If the end you want is punishing people for breaking a law that never applied to most of them in the first place, however, any means are justified. Because the laws against slaving are just, you know, laws. And don't matter much. Because, clearly, slaving is not wrong. It's just illegal. It's not a matter of Right and Wrong.
Because of you sell weapons to Mulhorand, they will somehow threathen your home and everyone you care about. The hundreds of miles of impassable wasteland between you and them... a sufficient quanity of weapons will allow them to pass those freely. No, it's not wrong to sell them horses, mules, wagons or food! Of course not. Those are not weapons. Just, you know, the things that actually make the difference whether an army can invade or not.
If you sell slaves to the formians, who plan to enslave everyone and who happen to be living on your side of the impassable wasteland, however, there is no risk. This is not the same as selling weapons, because obviously there is no way that having more slaves could increase the industrial capability of the hive and allow it to produce more food, eventually leading to bigger armies and, yes, weapons.
No, you see, that's different. Somehow.
Every character in the book was monumentally stupid, but generally, only the 'heroes' were wilfully ignorant and bigoted excuses for human beings. At least the 'villains' tried non-violent solutions several times, albeit really badly and confusingly, due to their sub-zero IQs. The heroes? All that they needed to do to stop the violence was to not kill people for a minor violation of the laws of a jurisdiction that they weren't even in.
Maybe fetch a regiment of soldiers. Since that's kind of what they were supposed to be doing. Scouting and then calling in real forces. Which, really, should have been already en route, just behind the faster moving scouts. Neverfalls was too expensive to throw away to a random group of monsters, who might have attacked at any moment, regardless of the petty squabbles of the useless scouts sent there.
*Which it isn't. These are not militarised societies, they are fairly peaceful and prefer trade to warfare. |
| jcdf |
Posted - 04 Jan 2010 : 20:32:21
Thanks for your response Ed.
Does nobody have any opinions on this novel?
Anybody agree or disagree with the points I made?
 |
| EdGentry |
Posted - 11 Dec 2009 : 20:28:25
jcdf,
Thank you for your in-depth comments. I think well-reasoned and eloquent comments like this do an author much good. I appreciate you taking the time to post this and will do my best to learn from it in my future writings as I attempt to do with all reviews.
Thanks,
Ed Gentry |
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