De Castell levels up with a ‘laughdark’ surpassquel!
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| De Castell, Sebastien. Knight's Shadow. Jo Fletcher Books, 2015. |
Who’d have believed it—that’s two surpassquels in a row for
this humble reviewer! I quite liked the mixture of witty banter and deathly
serious plotting (and fighting) in Traitor’s Blade, and was trying to dial down
my expectations for Knight’s Shadow, the second book in the Greatcoats series,
figuring it was unlikely de Castell would quite manage to strike the right
balance between humor and blood. Knight’s Shadow turned out to be a delightful
surprise (until one too-visceral scene near the end, but then, that too was a surprise,
albeit a less welcome one).
We’re back in the saddle with everyone’s favorite intrepid
idealist, Falcio, and his stubborn devotion to principle in a world torn apart
by Machiavellian/Game of Thrones-esque political intrigue is even more enticing
a spectacle than it was in book one. A mystery disguised as a genre fantasy, it
surpasses the first book—which was no slouch either!—in nearly every way, and certainly
holds the reader’s attention, spurring one to wonder, with Falcio et al, what
on earth could be happening, and what will result from all of it.
The only ‘falsio’ note (+5 for bad pun!) in all this is the
grimmest of grim torture scenes near the end. (And in fact, it’s not a false
note at all so much as a distressing if, I must reluctantly admit, logical
turn.) Until this point, despite the worsening prognosis, I, like most readers
presumably, remained confident there would be some sort of nick-of-time escape
or clever stratagem to spare one of the protagonists such agony; but de Castell
takes us right over that waterfall into pain-land. To his credit, he handles
the scene with finesse, but as a reader not totally sold on the whole grimdark
thing, I still felt this single scene threatened to leech the laughs out and
leave us slumped over sniveling in the dark, rocking back and forth. That’s why
I’ve dubbed this book a “laughdark”, as it starts out fairly
light-hearted/optimistic in tone despite the enormous challenges facing our
merry band of heroes, then dips down into pitch-black pessimism. I understand
the reasons for this swan dive into the pit of torture-porn despair, but still
suffered almost viscerally as I read it.
So the question before us is two-fold: a) does this bleak
turn near the end of the book detract from the good times to be had in the
rest? And b) can laughs be productively combined with grimdark? My answer to
both questions, paradoxically, is yes. At least for this reader, the queasiness
from reading said scene took a long time to abate, but upon reflection, I think
the combination of humor and the willingness to go (grim)dark does indeed work
well, overall.
This is all by way of saying that if you liked book one, you’ll
surely like this book even more, the torture stuff notwithstanding; and if you
haven’t read either one yet, why not? They’re great, and laughdark might just
be a new mini-genre in its infancy!
The Math:
Objective assessment: 7/10
Bonuses: +1 for creating a new mini-genre, ‘laughdark’; +1
for really working the mystery angle
Penalties: -1 for dip into dark as dark can be grimdark
torture scene
Nerd coefficient: 8/10 “Totally worth your time and attention.”
[Just in case you think an 8 is too low given how much I
obviously liked the book, check out our anti-grade inflation policy here.]
Zhaoyun, more of a laugher than a grimdarker, has been
enjoying (yet getting a little queasy at) all manner of sci fi and fantasy
books, light and dark, and reviewing them at Nerds of a Feather since 2013.
