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| jcdf |
Posted - 04 Jan 2010 : 20:23:56
Book review of: Master of Chains Warning: SPOILER!
Author: Jess Lebow
Plot Summery:
Prelude: An arrogant noble named Lord Purdun discovers a hidden tomb and enters; inside he unwittingly awakens a vampire called Shyressa and he then flees.
Story begins: Two brothers Ryder and Liam Duhluarim with a group of fellow revolutionaries called the Crimson Awl, ambush a carriage of Lord Purdun, but it is a trap! There is a fight and only Liam can escape, Ryder is seemingly killed. Liam returns home to parents and brothers’ wife, to break the news of Ryder’s demise. Later Purdun’s soldiers surround his family’s home. For the benefit of his family Liam gives himself up and is taken prisoner.
Baron of Impresk Lord Tammsel enters Shyressa’s tomb and is killed by her minions. Afterwards she discusses her evil machinations; to take over the Kingdom of Erlkazar by starting a civil war, the only obstacle remaining is the Baron of Ahlarkham Lord Purdun. It is decided he will be taken down by a peasant rebellion. Shyressa’s minions will annexe the leadership of the Crimson Awl to start the uprising.
Liam is brought to see Lord Purdun and is offered a job as one of the Baron’s elite guards. Liam refuses, attacks Lord Purdun and is then set free. Liam returns home and goes to work in the fields, where one of Purdun’s captains appears and repeats the Barons employment offer to him. Liam still refuses and then fights his father who disagrees with his decision. Afterwards other members of the Crimson Awl come and take Liam suspecting him of being a traitor.
It turns out Ryder survived the initial battle and was healed and then imprisoned in Prudun’s dungeon. Then he is tortured, made a slave and sent with a slave gang to Westgate to be sold. On the way to Westgate a group of bandits called ‘the broken spear’ attack the slave gang guards and free Ryder. He fights alongside fellow slaves and bandits against Purdun’s soldiers and wins. After the fight he decides to follow bandits to their base camp at Fairhaven and recover from his wounds before returning home.
The Crimson Awl put Liam on trial at a druid’s circle as Shyressa watches. Purdun’s soldiers attack the druid’s circle and release Liam and Shyressa flees. Purdun renews his offer of employment to Liam explaining the danger posed to all by Shyressa, Liam still refuses and is sent to the dungeon. In the dungeon Liam receives a visit from his parents and then Ryder’s wife Samira, who convinces him to join Purdun’s elite guard.
At the Fairhaven when Ryder tells the bandit leader Giselle that he intends to return home to continue the fight against Purdun, she imprisons him, fearing that others may learn the location of the broken spear camp from him. Afterwards Fairhaven comes under attack by undead giants. Giselle releases Ryder on condition that he fights the giants.
Liam is now one of Purdun’s soldier’s, Captain Phinneous and some men pick a fight with him that he survives. He then has to escort a communiqué to King Korox of Erlkazar with other soldiers. Liam and the escort come under attack from Vampires. Liam defeats the vampires and celebrates his victory at Purdun’s castle ‘Zerith Hold’. Purdun offers Liam a promotion to be his personal bodyguard, which he accepts. Liam and Samira make love.
One of Shyressa’s minions petitions King Korox to replace Baron Purdun.
With the giants defeated Ryder rests and baths at Fairhaven and makes love to Giselle. She decides to place the broken spear bandits at Ryder’s disposal.
King Korox’s magistrates come to Zenith Hold to arrest Baron Purdun. Purdun refuses to go peacefully and with Liam fights and defeats them. Magistrates are sent back to King Korox. Then King Korox decides to visit Ahlarkham himself with his army.
Ryder and the broken spear return to Ahlarkham with the intention of killing Lord Purdun. Ryder sneaks into Zerith Hold and runs into Liam defending Lord Purdun’s chambers, there is a bit of a fight and Captain Phinneous captures Ryder. Ryder is confined to the dungeon again and Samira tells him that she is Liam’s lover. Ryder flies into a rage and kills Phinneous and escapes.
Shyressa converts the Crimson Awl into Vampires and launches an attack on Zerith Hold. In his rage Ryder unwittingly opens the gate to Zerith Hold and allows Shyressa and her converted Crimson Awl army of vampires in. Ryder does not know that the Crimson Awl revolutionaries are now vampires. Large battle erupts in courtyard of Zerith Hold between Vampires and Lord Purdun’s guards. The Broken Spear also launches an attack on Zerith Hold. Ryder attacks his brother Liam and during the fight learns that the Crimson Awl have been turned into vampires. King Korox enters Zerith Hold. Ryder fights Shyressa. Shyressa is about to kill Ryder when Giselle attacks Shyressa saving him. Shyressa then attempts to kill both Ryder and Giselle when the vampire is attacked again by another character destroying her illusionary disguise and her plan. King Korox and his army enter the courtyard and Shyressa and her vampires flee.
Shyressa attacks villages across Ahlarkham including Furrowsrich with her army of the undead. Ryder rescues Samira and his parents. Shyressa attacks Lord Purdun and his guards including Liam in Furrowsrich. Ryder saves Liam and attacks Shyressa, and is killed by her. Shyressa flees.
Epilogue: Ryder’s funeral. Afterwards Ryder is released from his grave, he is now a vampire in the service of Shyressa.
Characters:
There are two principle protagonists in this novel, brothers Ryder and Liam Duhluarim. Most of the story is seen over their shoulders. They are separated through most of the events, and other than through their memories of events predating the story we gain little scope of their interdependence.
Ryder Duhluarim
Ryder is the elder and leader of the two brothers and the founding member of this revolutionary group called the Crimson Awl. Ryder it seems despises Lord Purdun despite having never met him. He whines and bitches about taxes and the unfairness of the current social order without suggesting any viable alternative.
We get a flashback in the beginning chapter of the two brothers early life, Ryder protects Liam from bullies, portraying Ryder as the stereotypical big protective brother. Ryder has a huge ego as clearly seen in the following quote from chapter four when he is being tortured:
quote:
Ryder let his head slide gently to the stone floor. “If you kill me now, I will be immortalized.” He coughed, a thick ball of phlegm dislodging itself. He spat the mucus and the accompanying blood out beside him, then continued. “The Crimson Awl shall chant my name as they knock down the portcullis and ransack Zerith Hold.” He smiled as the image of the resistance marching on this fortress, killing the guards and overthrowing Purdun, ran through his head. It was the most beautiful sight. “I’ll become a martyr.”
In chapter twenty-four Ryder is captured and imprisoned in the dungeons. He learns that his brother and wife have betrayed him and his cause and he becomes enraged. His psychological progression from learning of the betrayal, to his despair, then rage and finally his regret for the consequences of his actions follows like that of a child.
quote:
Suddenly the nothingness inside him was filled with sorrow. Samira was gone. In one beat of his heart, he lost both his wife and his brother. No, it was worse than that. He hadn’t lost them; they had chosen to leave him. They had chosen to betray him. They had purposely taken from him everything he had and left him with nothing.
The sorrow inside his chest slowly began to boil, changing from a slow sadness into a roiling fury. This wasn’t his fault. They had done this to him. The more he thought about it the more his anger grew. It filled him to capacity, threatening to burst.
This is quote from a scene in chapter 24 near the end of the book. According to the books blurb this scene should been near the beginning and the story. Ryder was a man who had it all and then for various reasons lost it all. The story should have carefully followed his character arch; his loss, despair and betrayal to whatever he ends up becoming. Intertwining his characters evolution with the events in the main plot.
Instead what we get was a series of relatively pointless events in which Ryder is emotionally unaffected has no influence. His extremely limited character arch is condensed down into the last few chapters.
The result is that Ryder comes across as incredibly infantile with no emotional depth at all. By the end of the book I knew less about him than I did at the beginning and certainly cared less. His relationship with any of the other characters is not explored in any significant detail. Ryder’s character never evolves at all. There was nothing to love or hate about him, so I ended up feeling indifferent to him, which is not a good thing for a protagonist in a story.
According to the novels blurb, the principle protagonist is Ryder. Yet if his scenes were entirely removed, the main story would be no different. He is at best peripheral to all the major events throughout. Even in the last chapters he does nothing that could not have been accomplished by any of the other characters. Remember Ryder is the Master of Chains i.e. the principle protagonist of this novel.
Liam Duhluarim
Liam Duhluarim is Ryder’s younger brother. Where Ryder is a leader of men, Liam is a follower. Liam’s character is better embellished than Ryder’s. Early on we get a sense of his loss and confusion, now that his brother is dead. His brother was his rudder directing him through difficult life choices, without him he is adrift. Ryder’s principles continue to guide him well into the middle of the novel and he finally breaks from them only to protect his brother’s wife. So Ryder is still a strong guiding influence in many aspects of Liam’s life throughout story.
In contrast to Ryder we learn quite a lot about Liam in the first half of the book. He is a devout follower, family man, honest, hardworking, partially educated but unread and not very smart.
Liam’s and his fathers past relationship is shown in chapter six. We also see a significant change occur in their relationship there:
quote:
They worked in silence, the hot afternoon sun beating down on them. This was how it had always been between the two of them, father and son. Liam had never really related to his father all that much. They didn’t talk, except when Douglas needed help with something. And Liam never felt the need to get more out of the old man. Liam didn’t like to think that he hated his father. He preferred to think that they just didn’t have anything in common. They had a duty to each other because they were family, and that was the extent of their relationship.
Liam is offered a position in Purun’s elite guard by one of Purdun’s captains and refuses. Liam’s father Douglas over hears and responds as follows:
quote:
“And you didn’t take it? What kind of fool are you?”
Liam’s anger rose at his father’s goading. It replaced his sorrow and gave him strength. He squared his shoulders and glared down at Douglas. “Not the kind of old fool who waits around, toiling his whole life just so that fat pig Purdun can get rich off my hard work.” He shoved his father.
Douglas lost his balance and had to take a step back. It wasn’t that the shove was so hard that it actually overpowered the old man, but the action surprised both father and son.
Liam’s heart pounded. He was tired of being muscled around, and now he’d done what he’d never before had the courage to do. The feeling thrilled him. But there would be consequences, and that also terrified him.
A change in circumstances has brought about a change within Liam. How he views the world and his father in particular has irrecoverably evolved.
Another profound metamorphosis within Liam occurs in chapter eleven, Liam is a prisoner in the dungeons and his parents come visit and try to convince him to join Purdun.
quote:
Liam hung there, his head resting back, his eyes closed, smiling to himself. He’d never been able to tell his folks off like that. There was no guilt, no fear of reprisal, none of the feelings he’d had when getting in a fight with his parents as a child. His captivity had changed him. The chains of the dungeon had set him free. Despite the aches in his bones, and the weakness from lack of sleep, Liam was stronger now, and it felt great.
“The chains of the dungeon had set him free” is quite an apt description given the title of the book. He draws strength from adversity. Samira convinces Liam to join Purdun. For her benefit he does.
After this, things start to go down hill. Any interest I had in Liam’s evaporates through the rest of the story. Liam never questions his brother’s ideals even though the current events of the story seem to contradict his brother’s teachings. Liam must surely realise that Purdun is a moral person albeit with shortcomings and idiosyncrasies, but his thoughts on this are never revealed. There is no attempt by Liam to reconcile these contradictory ideas. Liam learns about Purdun’s past life from the other soldiers but again this knowledge does not influence Liam or his actions through the rest of the story.
Despite the reduced interest in Liam I felt he was actually influencing important events in the story like his defence of Lord Purdun from the king’s Magistrates, unlike Ryder.
From chapter twenty onwards Liam just fades into the background as the story becomes a complicated and convoluted mess, with too many people doing too many different things, a lot of which have no baring on the story or significant characters.
Chapter twenty-four is the supposed climax of the story, I think! After some time supposedly dead Ryder has returned and Liam must deal with this. If a person, especially someone like Liam saw someone they thought to be dead, this is not what they would say:
quote:
Liam stared across the room at his dead brother. “I watched you die,” he said, not lowering his sword. “You’re dead. I saw it with my own eyes.”
Remember by this point Liam has discovered that Purdun is a decent honourable man, he has also learnt of the threat posed to all by the vampires and Purdun’s elite guard is all that stands between them and the general populace including his family and friends. Yet his response to his brothers accusations are as following:
quote:
Ryder’s eyes narrowed. “You sold out?” He shook his head. “How could you?”
“It’s not what you think,” pleaded Liam. But even as he said it, the words felt hollow on his tongue.
The main thing that Liam should be ashamed of is his tryst with his brother’s wife though he does have a legitimate argument for this. One additional point that Liam does not seem to think of; is that Purdun must have known that Ryder was sold into slavery, yet he mendaciously keeps this knowledge from Liam. Liam has also discovered that Ryder’s revolutionary ideas were unjustified and had no practical basis. These two points should have been brought up in the fight in chapter twenty-four, to create doubt and conflict within Liam and between the two brothers.
The battle between Ryder and Liam in Purdun’s chambers should have been the climax of the novel. Liam should have faced his brother down and attempted to discredit his impractical revolutionary ideas. Ryder response could have been to tarnish Purdun by his association with slavery; Liam could then retaliate with his brother’s long absence or something else.
Instead the Climax was a damp squib and a complete let down. There is a second fight later in chapter twenty-six between the two brothers but nothing significant really happens there.
Other Characters & Villains:
Shyressa
Shyressa is a one-dimensional clichéd villain that wants to take over the Kingdom of Erlkazar. Her reason for wanting to do so is never mentioned; perhaps it’s not important. We learn nothing about her character or history except that she is irredeemably evil. None of this would really matter except that she appears so often throughout the novel. She occupies the prelude and kill’s the protagonist in the end. In the last scene of the book Ryder becomes one of her vampires. Why was this included, perhaps to set the scene for a sequel, otherwise it adds nothing to the story.
Baron of Ahlarkham Lord Purdun
Lord Purdun is the third most significant person in the story. He starts out as one the villains then by chapter eleven there is no doubt he is one of the good guys. He is a well-educated mage that was arrogant and brash in his youth but has learnt temperance through life and death. He was resurrected. He trusts the judgement of his soldiers such as Captain Beetlestone who sums Liam up very well. He comes across as a moral person but tolerates slavery. This contradiction in his character is never explained.
Other Characters
One of major problems with this novel is that there are too many characters. This in of it’s self would not be a problem, if each of the characters added something significant to the story, to the development of the main characters, how the main characters influence the events of the story or vice versa. Many of them don’t though. I will give two examples Nazeem and Montauk.
Nazeem is a thief part of Ryder’s slave gang. After the two of them are freed they remain close for much of the story until the end when Nazeem decides to betray Ryder to the one of Purdun’s Captains and is then killed. Ryder never discovers this betrayal making it somewhat pointless. Nazeem adds nothing to the story except for showing that Ryder is a dreadful judge of character, which I would expect from someone with the maturity of an infant.
Montauk is a member of the Crimson Awl revolutionary group. He is in league with Shyressa. In order to gain control of the Crimson Awl he betrays Ryder and Liam’s ambush to Lord Purdun. When Liam is brought for judgement to the druids circle Montauk accuses him of treason in order to fulfil his plan of taking control of the organization. Montauk appears a few more times in the novel and eventually dies but does nothing that affects the main characters or the story. In chapter seventeen he petitions King Korox to make him the new Baron of Ahlarkham but again this adds nothing to the story.
Dialogue:
Most of the dialogue in this novel is truly bad. Here is the beginning of the first chapter:
quote:
Ryder ran his hand over Samira’s soft black hair. He felt her arms tighten around his middle.
“Don’t go,” she said.
He returned her squeeze. “I must.”
Samira looked up at him, her beautiful blue eyes filling with tears. “Then promise me you’ll return. Promise me that you’re not going to get yourself killed doing something foolish.”
Ryder smiled. She loved him. She loved him dearly, but knowing that only strengthened his resolve.
“I promise you, Samira, I will return to you.” Though it pained him to do so, he pushed her gently away. “I will be back before nightfall.” Then, grabbing his belt and sheath from the table, Ryder kissed his wife goodbye and stepped out the door into the afternoon sunshine.
I am sorry for all the vomit now on your keyboard reader, I should have told you to have a basin at the ready before reading this nauseating passage. Most of the novel is not as bad as this, but this is the introduction to the story and lead character and it stays with the reader throughout the novel.
The next few passages are from chapter nineteen, after Ryder and Giselle have made love but before Liam and Samira do so.
quote:
The moment they had finished, Ryder was struck right smack in the middle of his chest with a tremendous wave of guilt.
Samira.
How could he have done that to her? She would never forgive him, and he wouldn’t blame her. She would never do something like that to him. Had he been killed, she would have likely spent the rest of her life celibate, grieving over him.
So Ryder is unfaithful and he feels guilty after the act. What does he do to fix his personal betrayal of Samira; he makes love to Giselle again. So I have to wonder whether he really loved Samira at all. I think not, when he returns to Ahlarkham instead of informing his wife that he is still alive he goes straight for revenge to kill Lord Purdun.
All this tells us about him is that he is an atrociously poor judge of character because in the next part of the story Samira becomes intimate with Liam, in addition nearly everyone he has faith in betrays him including his brother and Nazeem.
Remember this is the guy that founded the Crimson Awl a revolutionary organization that did considerable harm to Purdun’s elite guard. Yet he seems incapable of assessing the trustworthiness of people. A necessary core attribute of a revolutionary leader I would have thought.
quote:
Giselle grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. She was frowning. “What’s wrong?”
Ryder shook his head.
Giselle shook hers as well. “No. I mean it. What’s wrong?”
Ryder took a deep breath and let it out. He was nervous about how she would react to the truth, but if he didn’t tell her… well, he didn’t know what would happen, but he was sure it wouldn’t be good.
“I… I don’t know what to say,” he said. He sat silently for a moment, trying to build up the courage to say what he needed to say. Finally he blurted, “Giselle, I’m a married man.”
“Well,” she said, leaning back a bit but not getting off his chest, “that doesn’t seem like you don’t know what to say.”
Ryder looked up at her. Instead of being angry, as he had expected she would be, she smiled and touched the edge of his face.
Here is some more really bad dialogue. It sounds like something from a bad soap opera; cheating husband banging his dumb blond secretary.
Why does Giselle love Ryder? This is never mentioned anywhere, not even a hint is dropped as to why she likes or loves him. After all, she places her entire bandit party at his personal disposal. She must see something in him. What this is; is never revealed.
The two significant women in this story come across as having the emotional depth of a puddle.
Conclusion:
I think a good way to summarize this book is to show how completely inaccurate each part of the blurb is. The Blurb written on the back of this book:
quote:
Once he led the revolutionaries against a tyrannical lord.
Once he had a beautiful wife.
Once he was a hero.
But that was before he got caught, beaten down, nearly killed, and sold into slavery.
Now he has nothing but hate and the chains of his bondage: the only weapons he has with which to escape.
So he led revolutionaries against a tyrannical lord, yet by a third of the way into the story we have learnt that this tyrannical lord is… well not tyrannical. It says that he ‘had’ a beautiful wife i.e. he does not have her any longer, but in the story he never loses her, she is still alive at the very end. He was ‘once’ a hero, this is another way of saying that he was a hero but is one no longer, yet his heroic status is never lost or diminished anywhere in the story. The second last line is more accurate than the rest but it never mentions that his captors heal him, a small point I know. Finally “he has nothing but and the chains of his bondage: the only weapons he has with which to escape”, I never for one instance in the entire story ever feel anything remotely resembling hate within him. He exhibits a selfish mildly inquisitive egocentric naivety, in other words the emotional spectrum of a baby, but no hate. The last line says he escapes. He does not escape he is freed by bandits.
This is supposed to be a book about a single man who has it all and then loses it and sets upon a road of vengeance against those that presumably took everything away from him. It is not though! The substance of the story revolves around his younger brother Liam who gets no mentioned in the blurb. In the end the man returns and a relatively pointless series of events occur in which he dies and that’s it. The end!
I suppose I should mention some of the good points. Some of the battles were quite good, none epic but some individual fights were well described. The Battle of Ryder vs. Taskmaster in chapter nine was good.
Another critique I have is the ending multiplication effect. This is where there is too much going on at the end and results in a diffuse unfocused climax and ending.
My overall score for this book is one out of five. With one being the worst and five being best. |
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