The Siege of Arrandin (The Arrandin Trilogy) (Paperback)

There's a review for the second book in this series which sums my feelings up nicely, saying something to the effect that in order to create a credible fantasy world, the author must know ten times more information than he ever discloses to his or her readers.

I agree entirely with that statement. To create a genuinely engaging fantasy world, the author must enable us to believe in it. This can be a monumental task, since the author has to build a whole tapestry of history, religion, magic and politics from the bottom up. An author writing in a contemporary setting already has this backdrop provided, in the form of a world with which his or her readers are already familiar. Such a luxury is not afforded to a fantasy author.

Now, many authors neglect this task, leaving us with the feeling of a shallow and empty world. The impression is given that the characters exist in a bubble, with the author only pausing to flesh out the world when the immediate environment demands it. Other authors, such as Marcus Herniman, make the effort to flesh out their world before they sit down to compose the story. This effort really pays of, helping to create an absorbing novel in which you feel as though you are truly stepping into an alternate reality, and witnessing events that could have actually taken place.

One reviewer criticised the author for the deluge of names early in the book. While I agree that this can be daunting for the reader, it also serves to focus our attention, and to add plausibility and depth to the novel. As I remember, Tolkien included a glossary of names in Lord of the Rings to help the reader keep track of all the characters, so I don't feel that this automatically qualifies as a shortcoming on the author's part!

Another reviewer criticised the characters for being shallow and humourless. Well, I don't know if he was reading the same book as me, but this is honestly not the case! The building blocks of a good fantasy novel, in my opinion, include the things I mentioned earlier.... the world building if you like. But all of that is futile if the author is unable to create engaging characters to which we can relate. Marcus certainly achieves this to my mind. All his characters are distinct, and lack the exaggerated personality traits of the typical fantasy character... flawed hero, evil tyrant etc. He peoples his novel with characters to whom you can relate.... they remind me of people I know, or people I might pass on the street. The humour, when present, is realistic. Sure, we don't have any comic relief characters. We don't get the typical goon that appears to be a requisite of every fantasy or sci-fi TV show these days (watch Star Trek or Xena.... you'll know what I mean). Instead, the humour of these characters is true to life.... often dark humour, trying to make light in a time of crisis.

Magic is another are in which the author scores. If world builing is hard, making the use of magic credible is harder still. Many authors struggle with magic. Raymond Feist springs to mind..... that author is a great storyteller, but when he introduces high magic to his books, they rapidly loose focus. It often seems as though he hasn't really any idea how magic works in his world, and so he tries to compensate for this with the introduction of progressively grander pyrotechnics and surrealism. Marcus Herniman keeps magic grounded, and makes us believe in it. I felt when reading this novel that there was a structure to the use of magic that the author understood. I felt like a spectator watching something that I didn't understand, but which I was confident had it's own internal consistency.

All in all, a great novel.

The author has created a plausible and engaging world, with a true sense of depth and history. It is filled with a plethora of characters, many of whom are merely extras, but serve to flesh out the world around the core players. The central characters are engaging, and endowed with a sense of humanity to which it is easy to relate.

The plot is strong, moving at a good pace without being rushed. I found racing through this book far too quickly, curious at every turn to see where the latest intrigue would lead.

I can't recommend this novel highly enough. In a genre filled with cliched rubbish, there are few authors who take the time and effort to produce a novel of quality and originality. I'm pleased to add Marcus Herniman to that list.