![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
In the wake of their blissful sojourn in the city of Lamentable Moll, the intrepid sorcerers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach – along with their newly hired manservant, Emancipor Reese – have set out on the wide open seas aboard the sturdy Suncurl.
Alas there’s more baggage in the hold than meets the beady eyes of Suncurl’s hapless crew, and once on the cursed sea-lane known as Laughter’s End – the Red Road in which flows the blood of an Elder God – unseemly terrors are prodded awake, to the understated dismay of all.
It is said that it is not the destination that counts, but the journey itself. Such a noble, worthy sentiment. Aye, it is the journey that counts, especially when what counts is horror, murder, mischance and mayhem. For Bauchelain, Korbal Broach and Emancipor Reese, it is of course just one more night on the high seas, on a journey without end – and that counts for a lot.
This is the second in a trilogy of novellas and while I could follow most of the story despite not having read BLOOD FOLLOWS, the story does seem to refer to preceding events and characters, which meant that I didn’t get everything out of it that I might otherwise have done.
The story is about a sea voyage that goes wrong. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (a sorcerer and a necromancer respectively) are on a ship navigating a cursed sea lane with their unlucky servant, Emancipor Reese. The ship comes under attack from a variety of supernatural means – including a lich - that decimate the crew and the crew fights back. That’s it.
The most sympathetic character is Emancipor although he’s mainly there as comic relief. Korbal is a creepy so-and-so who keeps a strange creature of his own making in a chest while Bauchelain is there as an exposition device. There are female characters including the sea captain, Captain Sater and Bena Younger who works the crow’s nest with the shrunken head of her mother. However there are also a lot of supporting characters who I lost track of.
There are some interesting set pieces and the lich is suitably scary but there’s a lot going on in a small volume and it would have been good if some scenes – notably the scenes with Bena the Younger – had benefitted from being longer. Mention should also be made of a distasteful rape scene that takes place under chemically/magically induced circumstances and where the rapist has a line of dialogue that the circumstances were such that the victim enjoyed it.
All in all it’s an okay read, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to find either of the other two volumes.
The Verdict:
Apart from a particularly offensive rape scene, it’s an okay novella with a slim story but plenty of action.
In the wake of their blissful sojourn in the city of Lamentable Moll, the intrepid sorcerers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach – along with their newly hired manservant, Emancipor Reese – have set out on the wide open seas aboard the sturdy Suncurl.
Alas there’s more baggage in the hold than meets the beady eyes of Suncurl’s hapless crew, and once on the cursed sea-lane known as Laughter’s End – the Red Road in which flows the blood of an Elder God – unseemly terrors are prodded awake, to the understated dismay of all.
It is said that it is not the destination that counts, but the journey itself. Such a noble, worthy sentiment. Aye, it is the journey that counts, especially when what counts is horror, murder, mischance and mayhem. For Bauchelain, Korbal Broach and Emancipor Reese, it is of course just one more night on the high seas, on a journey without end – and that counts for a lot.
This is the second in a trilogy of novellas and while I could follow most of the story despite not having read BLOOD FOLLOWS, the story does seem to refer to preceding events and characters, which meant that I didn’t get everything out of it that I might otherwise have done.
The story is about a sea voyage that goes wrong. Bauchelain and Korbal Broach (a sorcerer and a necromancer respectively) are on a ship navigating a cursed sea lane with their unlucky servant, Emancipor Reese. The ship comes under attack from a variety of supernatural means – including a lich - that decimate the crew and the crew fights back. That’s it.
The most sympathetic character is Emancipor although he’s mainly there as comic relief. Korbal is a creepy so-and-so who keeps a strange creature of his own making in a chest while Bauchelain is there as an exposition device. There are female characters including the sea captain, Captain Sater and Bena Younger who works the crow’s nest with the shrunken head of her mother. However there are also a lot of supporting characters who I lost track of.
There are some interesting set pieces and the lich is suitably scary but there’s a lot going on in a small volume and it would have been good if some scenes – notably the scenes with Bena the Younger – had benefitted from being longer. Mention should also be made of a distasteful rape scene that takes place under chemically/magically induced circumstances and where the rapist has a line of dialogue that the circumstances were such that the victim enjoyed it.
All in all it’s an okay read, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to find either of the other two volumes.
The Verdict:
Apart from a particularly offensive rape scene, it’s an okay novella with a slim story but plenty of action.
