Michael-Israel Jarvis is
an author whose career I have been following (and in some cases, possibly
stalking) for some time now. His first novel, Gravedigger, I reviewed at the beginning of the year, and so in
true cyclical fashion I’m now ending the year with his next book, the recently
released and critically acclaimed* novel The
Maker’s Bloodline: Land Rising. Young adult fantasy seems to be the genre
of choice, and like his previous work it features distinct characters and a
side-helping of horror and violence.
The story opens with a young prince by the name of Fox, the
lone survivor of a disastrous medieval-style battle. Running into a peasant
girl called Kesta, who’s lost her entire family as a result of war, the two of
them make their way back to Fox’s homeland, pursued by some dark and terrifying
entity, while the back-story unfolds. The land is divided between a number of
noble families, all with the names of animals; Fox belongs to the Fox family,
and the war they’re involved in is against the Ox dynasty of the plains, whose
ruler is out to make himself supreme master of all the lands. There are also a
Tiger family and a Heron family who come into it later. Fox, however, seems to
have been taken with a case of the ‘generic fantasy hero disease’, which gives
him a mysterious origin, supernatural abilities, recurring nightmares, and a
fate that makes him the last hope of defeating some random diabolical evil.
There are two simultaneous plot threads that run throughout
the course of the book – the war against the Ox family, and the reawakening of
some sort of evil god-like devil thing, whose minions are around causing havoc.
The war with Ox takes secondary importance in the first section of the book,
with the pursuit by the sinister Shadow giving the first few chapters a good
level of tension. Even when Fox and Kesta reach safety, there’s always a sense
that the evil has only been slowed down, not actually defeated, and this works
quite well. As we get deeper into the story we learn more about the Ox
situation, and the role of the battle that Fox took part in; the story subtly
changes focus, bringing Ox into the foreground while the Shadow business takes
a back-seat. Ox is far more interesting than the Shadow, for even though he
only appears one time in the story, he’s an ever present part of the tale; a
cruel warlord who seeks nothing except to expand his own power, and will use
any means at his disposal to achieve that. There are a couple of scenes of
war-planning and intrigue in the first half of the book that paint a vivid
image of just what is happening in the wider world, and its effects on all the
characters involved, all adding up to create a neat and accessible story.
The characters are possibly the greatest strength of the
book, whilst also proving to be a critical weakness of the work as a whole. The
two protagonists are undoubtedly Fox and Kesta, our young heroes who have to
save the world and defeat the baddies Etc. Etc.
Fox is not difficult to describe; you’ve seen him hundreds of times
before, the emotional teen hero who has a destiny, vulnerable and human but somehow
managing to be completely on top of the situation. His magical abilities tend
to make all scenarios less threatening, and he so neatly fills the ‘good guy
fantasy hero’ side of the spectrum that he might as well be made of porcelain.
There’s just no real originality to him – we’ve all seen this character, the
young champion with the weight of the world on his shoulders, and due to his
aloofness he doesn’t even attempt to grab for our sympathies; he just demands
them as a matter of course. If he were on his own it would only end up with a
dull, lifeless novel, but the more adequately fleshed-out supporting
characters, aside from being more interesting, end up highlighting just how
uninteresting the Fox character is.
The
other main character, Kesta, who we meet not long after Fox staggers into our
vision, is in my mind the real protagonist. She doesn’t have all the waffly
back-story or the ‘destiny’, but is just a poor girl who ends up way out of her
depth. Unlike with Fox, we’re planted straight into Kesta’s head and see most
of the action from her eyes. She doesn’t really ask for our sympathy, but she’s
far more deserving of it. They eventually pick up a couple of other characters,
far more interesting than Fox, such as the Tigress Taneshka, a very forward,
independent young lady with a grasp of interesting weaponry – there’s an
additional supporting character who appears rather late in the story, of whom I
won’t give too much away here other than to say that they do make an
interesting and energetic new addition to the cast.
So perhaps we should talk about the emotional content of
the book. Of course Fox and Kesta are bound to fall in love. Two characters in
a novel who are young, opposite genders and in no way related can’t really get
away with not falling foul of the ‘star-crossed lovers’ shtick, can they? The
romance in the novel is a subtle plot device, tender and not overstated very
often, but all throughout the plot are sickening overtones of modesty. Needless to say it’s all a case
of ‘he loves her, and she loves him; it’s bound to happen sooner or later’, and
it’s impossible to not see the vague outline of a cliché dancing off into the
distance. The narrator follows just about everybody’s thoughts and feelings,
Kesta’s, Taneshka’s, Fox’s, and whoever else happens to be in the same room at
the time. I can’t help but feel that the narrator is a little too omnipresent
throughout the book; being able to hone in on all the major character’s
feelings and moods makes the whole thing generally less engaging. A plot is
better when the focus is narrower; when we have to understand characters by
what they say and do rather than just being told on every page precisely what
they’re feeling.
I like the fact that, despite the animal labels of the
various factions, that the Ox was chosen as the villain, rather than the Tiger,
or the Bat or the Wolf or the Siamese Cat – you don’t tend to associate Oxen
with villainy because it hasn’t been done to death, and it does create an
interesting personality for the villain of this story. The only trouble with
this is that the names of the two major players sound very similar: Fox and Ox.
Ox and Fox. Fox, Ox, Ox, Fox, Ox, Fox, Ox, Ox. Do you see my point? Well, as I
was saying, the Ox/Fox dynamic is rather interesting. Unfortunately there are a
couple of mentionings of a Wolf family, including right at the beginning, and
me suspects that someone called Wolf is going to become much more apparent
villain should this book spawn a sequel. The presence of a long title with a
colon in the middle does rather suggest that this is going to be the case, to
say nothing of a teaser at the end of the book. Don’t you miss the days when
every book was a self-contained story, that didn’t build itself on the appeal
of promising future adventures? Oh well.
Last thoughts on the matter; whereas Gravedigger was a fairly original and engaging piece of Fantasy
literature, The Maker’s Bloodline: Land
Rising falls down in several major areas: a generic moody hero protagonist,
overly liberal use of narrator for explaining character motives, and a deferred
story. Good points include decent supporting characters, a nice overall pace,
and a good setting. Michael-Israel Jarvis has already proven in Gravedigger that he’s a competent and
talented writer, and it’s a little disconcerting that he should produce The Maker’s Bloodline: Land Rising as
his next piece of work. We can hope for better things from him in the future.
* As a sort of a critic, I
can acclaim this if I want to. Just by writing a review I’m acclaiming it,
aren’t I?
Bibliostan
Jarvis, Michael Israel. The Maker’s Bloodline: Land Rising. Taravatara
Publishing. (2013)
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