Runes of War [Paperback]

I'll keep the plot summary short- like so many fantasy trilogies, it's a quest, as the young heir of a beseiged fortress meets up with an old crone and a druid-priestess-in-training on a quest to restore contact with the Mother, a forgotten Goddess with the power to repel the barbarian invaders from the North. Along for the ride is the heir's only-slightly-older uncle, and they ride north to where they think the Mother is buried.

I'll get the bad out of the way first. Early on, the book sets up a conflict between the old druid/pagan religion and the New Faith, a thinly veiled Christianity. However the conflict is rendered in extremely simplistic terms, often seeming like little more than "paganism good, Christianity bad", as the crone character takes continual digs at the New Faith with none of its adherents offering any sort of defense. The simplistic ideology picks on aspects of the New Faith (referring to God as He instead of She, persecution by its practictioners) that really aren't inherent to the belief system, and one line about the "insipid god of peace" just seems downright silly (historical evidence would show that people who worship "gods of peace" don't seem to be particularly handicapped in times of war- and in the setting itself, surely the persecution wouldn't have been so successful if the god of peace was that weak). In short it overlooks any kind of nuanced debate, though in Welch's defense it's not like she had room for such a thing in the traditional quest format. The book steps into an issue that it doesn't have the time to deal with intelligently or thoroughly. Maybe in subsequent installments the issue becomes more complex, but as a work in itself RUNES OF WAR has clearly bitten off more than it can chew.

But it's not a bad book, and if you're not turned off by the badly-rendered debate the actual action itself is fun. Make no mistake, Welch is a talented writer and the quest gets off to an interesting start, and the world- harsh, icy, and savage- does stand out in the mind. The setting description may well be the best part of the book, bringing the environment to life while avoiding mimickry of Tolkien's familiar geographical prose. The characters are broad but memorable for the most part, and the actual villains, the Valaakan barbarians (and their troll-mounts) are effective- threatening most of the time, occasionally amusing but never in a forced, comic-relief manner. There's also a dragon who manages to complicate matters well enough.

So, overall, THE RUNES OF WAR is an entertaining read, but the restraints of the trilogy format make it only a taste of what may follow. I hope next time Welch chooses an issue she has the space to deal with.

From the moment I first picked up The Runes Of War, I couldn't put it down. The colour and descriptiveness of the writing is extremely impressive - the opening scenes of a horse and cart struggling up a steep mountain path are so wonderfully written as to be indelibly imprinted on my memory.

Here we meet for the first time brash Hal - his arrogance refreshing from the normal 'all too humble' fantasy hero, and shy Casper, struggling to make an impact from the shadows of the stronger people around him. And Brid - a wonderfully modern, heroic woman that Mary Wolstencraft would have been proud of.

The story moves along at a good pace, all the while enjoyable and refreshing - the lines between good and evil become blurred as the 'heroes' are confronted by a people dying of starvation, acting purely on the will-to-live.

An impressive first effort from a truly gifted author.