The Wardstone Chronicles review

The WardstoneChronicles   By Joseph Delaney

An earlier version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #139 (May, 2008).

Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover.

I’m always searching for my next fantasy ‘hit,’ that elusive series that grabs hold of my imagination and simply won’t let go. I long to be engulfed in the story and compelled to consume it as a man dying of thirst consumes water. Such fantasy works are few and far between, sadly, and lesser fare leaves the mental palate dry and unsatisfied. But in 2005 I found a series that fulfilled every bit of that over-heated metaphor and then some. At least, the first few books in the series filled that need.

The cover first caught my attention as I was following my kids through a chain bookstore’s children’s section. It was menacing and out of place, displaying a grizzled old man in hooded cloak carrying a staff and lantern through a graveyard. I had to pick it up, though I expected the book could never live up to that cover image. But inside The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch I found mature, evocative prose and elegant pacing. The book surpassed its cover.

I dwell on the cover because the series title and cover involve some minor controversy, reminiscent of the brouhaha over Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone vice Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Joseph Delany’s fine series originated in Britain, where the series is known as The Wardstone Chronicles, with titles like The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse, The Spook's Secret, and The Spook's Battle. In the United States the series is titled The Last Apprentice and the same four books are Revenge of the Witch, Curse of the Bane, Night of the Soul Stealer, and Attack of the Fiend. The British books have more minimalist covers, simply a stylized cloaked spook with staff, lacking background or detail.

Regardless of the title, the inside of each book is filled with the same powerful prose describing the world of the Spook, John Gregory, and his apprentice, Tom Ward. They live in ‘The County,’ which is heavily based on Lancashire in England during the 1700s. The Spook is trained to deal with the supernatural, the ‘Dark,’ preventing haunts and witches from disturbing the living. It is an often thankless job, as the Spook is shunned by the superstitious county folk he aids, and persecuted by the Church.

The Spook is a hard man in many ways, but extremely knowledgeable and kind when possible. He has been fighting a lonely, losing struggle against the Dark for many years and it shows; despite this he clearly comes to care for his apprentice. Spooks are always seventh sons of seventh sons and usually possess the Sight, a sort of supernatural sensitivity. They wield knowledge against the Dark, knowing the weaknesses of the various creatures and employing seemingly common items such as salt, iron, and earth to “sort out” supernatural dangers.

The creatures of the Dark are wonderful takes on traditional horrors: witches, boggarts, wraiths, ghosts, ghasts, necromancers, and even ancient gods. The evil of these creatures is real and often gruesome. Witches utilize blood or bone magic, eat children, and generally act in the best fairy tale tradition, for example. Yet Delaney manages to introduce a touch of grey into this black and white world, often in the person of Alice, a girl of questionable background who is Tom Ward’s friend.

For gamers the books are filled with wonderful details to fill any supernatural or gothic campaign; they are especially well suited to the old Ravenloft campaign setting in tone and effect. The American versions, at least, contain chapters after the conclusion called Tom Ward’s Secret’s for Survival,  facsimiles of the notebooks Tom fills with entries on the supernatural. These include sketch maps, drawings, and basic entries. An enterprising gamemaster could even copy these pages and give them to players as a game aid, representing a found tome on supernatural lore.

The series really should be read in order. Each volume stands alone well enough, but there is an over-arching plot to the series and read in order the books reveal this plot piece by piece. The books are marketed as children’s books though the prose is adult. That is not to say it is profane or obscene, rather it deals with serious subjects in a serious, dignified way. The early books are as good as the Harry Potter series but somewhat darker, lacking the Potter series’ signature comedic touches and whimsy.

Unfortunately, starting with the sixth book in the series, Clash of Demons, the plots began to go off the rails. The story lines became less believable, and the protagonists are placed in hopeless situations over and over, from which they escape due to decreasingly believable deus ex machina. The books also leave the County, heading to Greece, Ireland, the isle of Mona, Wales, et cetera.

Some of the later books are quite good, Grimalkin the Witch Assassin and I am Alice are particular standouts as they focus on two of the most fascinating characters of the series. But overall, the stories leave the wonderful atmosphere and sense of place that made Revenge of the Witch such a pleasure to read. The final book in the series, Fury of the Seventh Son, is simply a disappointment. There is an attempt to finally get back to the relationship between Tom and the Spook, and the early chapters seem to build towards a satisfying conclusion but then the weight of the plot just tears the characterization to threads, and the ending is just … dull. Alice and Tom’s relationship goes in an unexpected and extremely unbelievable direction for no discernible reason. And though this is supposed to be the conclusion of the series, it leaves far too many threads open.

It was rather heart-breaking to see a book series end so poorly after such a promising start.

The first book in the series was made into a film, Seventh Son, which came out in 2014. Aside from character names, the film had little resemblance to the series or its world and was simply a standard Hollywood take on a fantasy movie. It received poor reviews, but I never saw it. I had been intrigued when I heard Tim Burton might direct – Sleepy Hollow could work in the Spook’s world – but when the film finally appeared, the previews made it very clear that it was not going to be anything like the books, just as The Seeker in 2007 was nothing like The Dark is Rising.

The movie was a failure, but there are also a series of short story anthologies that are generally very enjoyable and worth the read. Less enjoyable is the successor series, The Starblade Chronicles. This series is the true conclusion of The Wardstone Chronicles and is thankfully only three volumes long. It introduces a new character, Jenny, who Tom takes on as the first female spook apprentice, a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter. But after another intriguing start, she is shoved aside and ignored in the later stories. In this series the antagonists are some sort of northern creature whose inspiration I cannot discern (the author has told me they are an original creation) and they draw the series from the sort of historical horror of the earliest novels into the nonsensical generic fantasy of the film. I can’t recommend these later books, unless one is simply looking for disjointed gaming examples. The potential of a better series is there, but the author seems to always choke with the endings.

I understand that some further books are coming out. I will probably try them, because an author with this much talent can always bounce back.

Either way, the Wardstone Chronicles does deserve to be explored, and gamemasters running horror games of any sort (Ravenloft or some sort of Victorian horror especially) will find all sorts of ideas and inspirations.



All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Thieves' World!

An earlier version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #115 (May, 2006).

"You're in the wrong place, sucker."
-Robert Asprin's caption for the cover,
according to Andrew Offut,
"Afterword", The Dead of Winter (1985)

"...whenever one set out to write heroic fantasy, it was first necessary to re -invent the universe from scratch regardless of what had gone before. Despite the carefully crafted Hyborean world of Howard or even the delightfully complex town of Lankhmar which Leiber created, every author was expected to beat his head against the writing table and devise a world of his own. Imagine, I proposed, if our favourite sword-and -sorcery characters shared the same settings and time -frames. Imagine the story potentials. Imagine the tie-ins. 

What if...

What if Fafhrd and Mouser had just finished a successful heist. With an angry crowd on their heels, they pull one of their notorious doubleback escapes and elude the pursuing throng. Now suppose this angry, torch-waving pack runs headlong into Conan, hot and tired from the trail, his dead horse a day's walk behind him. All he wants is a jug of wine and a wench. Instead, he's confronted with a lynch mob. What if his saddlebags are full of loot from one of his own ventures, yet undiscovered?

Or what if Kane and Elric took jobs marshalling opposite armies in the same war?"
(from "The Making of Thieves' World", Thieves' World (1979))

               Thieves’ World began in 1979 as an authorial experiment.  While Robert Asprin, Lynn Abbey, and Gordon Dickson were having dinner at Boskone ’78 they discussed one of the central difficulties of fantasy writing: world building.  Creating a world was a difficult and time-consuming task, and once finished the world only existed as a playground for its creator.  But if authors could share a world, if they could develop it together and set stories within it, the possibilities were staggering.  Robert Asprin and Lynn Abbey turned the idea into a reality, and the gritty, realistic town of Sanctuary was born.  
               In its first incarnation it would eventually include 12 short story anthologies, 5 'official' novels, 7 graphic novels, a classic role-playing boxed set produced by Chaosium, and 6 roleplaying books published by Chaosium and FASA. there was even a board game, Sanctuary: Thieves World (Mayfair Games, 1982)  Over two-dozen authors would send their characters scurrying through Sanctuary’s slum, including well-known writers such as Marion Zimmer Bradley, C.J. Cherryh, Phillip Jośe Farmer, and Andrew Offutt.

               With so much material, trying to describe all of Thieves’ World would be an impossible task.  The short story anthologies form the heart of the franchise, each with eight to ten stories by half a dozen or so authors.  Despite the diversity of talent, Thieves’ World remained remarkably consistent in tone and style.  It was gritty, robust, occasionally depressing, realistic fiction set within a fantastic world of magic, gods, and demons.   

The heroic motifs of traditional sword and sorcery were well represented, Sanctuary boasted powerful swordsmen, skilled thieves, and amoral witches and wizards.  Gods stalked the streets on occasion, and the dead rarely stayed put.  But what set Thieves’ World apart were the other characters, the mid-wives, physicians, fortune-tellers, blacksmiths, and limners who lived routine, day to day lives in the city, yet occasionally had odd, exhilarating adventures.  We saw how the Prince lived in his palace, but we also visited with the down trodden of the Downwind slum and the working class folk of the Maze.  It was a wonderful model of a living, breathing fantasy city.  

Thieves’ World was especially interesting in its handling of mature themes and subjects.  Various stories explored difficult topics such as prostitution, rape, sodomy, slavery, sado-masochism, and drug use in a thoughtful, careful manner.  The imagery was neither salacious nor overly graphic; it was enough to indicate an act had occurred with out romanticizing it with descriptive prose.  Stories like John Brunner’s “Sentences of Death” (TW#1), David Drake’s “Goddess” (TW#2), and Robin Wayne Bailey’s “The Promise of Heaven” (TW#11) delivered hefty emotional impact as a result.

               Some of those involved have described the Thieves’ World experience as ‘role-playing for writers’ because the nature of the shared universe forced them to negotiate plots and outcomes with each other and the editors.  This framework makes the series particularly useful for role-players looking for inspiration and source material: “Shadowspawn”(TW#1) by Andrew Offutt provides the best character study in modern fantasy fiction, and an excellent example for role-players seeking to construct a believable, memorable character.  Phillip Jośe Farmers’ “Spiders of the Purple Mage” (TW#2) and David Drake’s “Goddess” (TW#2) both feature intricate dungeon crawls.  Andrew Offutt’s “Rebels Aren’t Born in Palaces” (TW#6) is a textbook description of a difficult burglary, while Diane Duane’s “The Hand that Feeds You” (TW#6) illustrates the process and danger of ritual, priestly magic.

               A consistent strength of Thieves’ World was the town’s politics.  Sanctuary suffered under an excess of powers: god-pledged Sacred Band mercenaries struggled against wizard-ruled Nisibisi terrorists, native Ilsig revolutionaries, and the criminal Hawkmasks of Jubal the Slaver.  They were ineffectually policed in their rampages by the town guard, the Imperial ‘Hell-hounds’, and a young, idealistic prince.  The town suffered invasion from the sea, and an epidemic of undead while much of it was flooding.  Any single volume of Thieves’ World should provide enough inspiration for a year of city-based adventures.

               Any short story collection is bound to have the occasional story a reader doesn’t enjoy and Thieves’ World was not an exception, though such stories were remarkably few.  As the series progressed it began to bow beneath the weight of its own plotlines, requiring an extra volume, Soul of the City (TW#8), in 1986 in which three of the authors, Lynn Abbey, Janet Morris, and C.J. Cherryh, wrote all of the stories in order to bring the series back into balance.  That volume read like novel rather than an anthology, and pushed the series back to its anthology roots. 
               The Thieves' World Complete Sanctuary Adventure Pack (1981), the Chaosium boxed set was exceedingly well received, it won the Origins Award for "Best Roleplaying Adventure of 1981." Even 32 years later, John O'Neill of Blackgate Magazine was singing the boxed set's praises. 

               The original Thieves’ World series ended in 1989 with Stealer’s Sky, the twelfth anthology.  The end came somewhat abruptly, leaving fans with several unfinished storylines.  
               Lynn Abbey revived the series in 2002 with the publication of the novel Sanctuary by Tor; set decades after the first series it brought old storylines to a close and introduced new horrors and pathos into the city’s history. She followed that excellent novel with two new anthologies, Turning Points (2002) and Enemies of Fortune (2004) that easily live up to the standards of Thieves’ World.  The new series brought back favorite authors like Robin Wayne Bailey, Andrew Offut, and Diana Paxson, most of whom brought in new characters tied to their past protagonists in some way, but there were also new authors like Jeff Grubb and Dennis L. McKiernan who brought new ideas and characters to the setting. 
               Green Ronin also worked closely with Lynn Abbey to create a Thieves’ World d20 game, detailing both the Sanctuary of both the original series and the new.  They produced the Thieves' World Player's Manual (2005), Shadowspawn's Guide to Sanctuary (2005), Thieves' World Gazetteer (2005), and two excellent adventure modules, Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn (2005) and Black Snake Dawn (2007).
                Some of the Thieves' World  authors took the characters out of the town and into their own worlds, producing works that were not part of the 'official' Thieves' World universe but were still connected to it. Poul Anderson had actually first introduced Cappen Varra in "The Valor of Cappen Varra" in 1957 in Fantastic Universe Science Fiction, decades before the series was created.  Marion Zimmer Bradley only contributed to the first anthology, but she later released an anthology with Vonda McIntyre, Lythande (1986) combing their Thieves' World stories with other tales of the Blue Star sorceress. Aside from the 3 'official' Thieves World novels she wrote, Janet Morris and Chris Morris continued the saga of the immortal Tempus and his Stepsons in 8 additional novels (I review these in a later post). One of those novels, The Sacred Band (2010) is set in Sanctuary itself in the decades between the original and the revived anthology series.
                For over 40 years Thieves' World as been a vibrant, fascinating fantasy setting. I can't recommend it enough to new readers. It was a dark and gritty setting long before the current wave of 'dark' fantasy fare took over the media landscape - it paved the way for works like Babylon 5 and Game of Thrones. It was often inspired by actual history but never enslaved to it. So grab a seat at the Vulgar Unicorn, grab a pint, and toss Hakiem a silver to hear a tale...

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

The Dresden Files

An earlier version of this article appeared in Knights of the Dinner Table #137 (March, 2008).

“My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk. ”   

Imagine a young Merlin working as a private investigator in modern day Chicago. That, in a nutshell, is the Dresden Files. The series is ‘supernatural noir’ of the sort which became very popular in the 1990s, evoking comparison with television’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, comics' John Constantine, or Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake novels.  The genre melds the noir detective story with iconic fantasy or horror fiction concepts such as vampires, werewolves, and magic.  Butcher’s novels firmly fit the genre, but they have their own unique feel so that they add to the genre rather than simply drawing from it.

Much like its literary fore-father, detective fiction, supernatural noir is distinguished by the strength of its main characters.  The stories are episodic and work best if the ‘detective’ who links each tale to the next is someone the reader wishes to spend time with.  They may not be likeable, indeed Sherlock Holmes became the most successful literary character to date by being quite unlikable, but they must be fascinating.  Harry Dresden is both fascinating and likable.  He is a powerful, but young wizard, skilled enough that his unusual escapes and triumphs are quite believable yet vulnerable enough that each encounter feels like a true threat. He is especially attractive as someone the 'nerd' audience can identify with, he was bullied while young, is an outsider, and drops geek references constantly. 

What sets Dresden apart from similar heroes like John Constantine or Anita Blake is his inherent decency.  Dresden is at heart a good guy, with a refreshingly mid-west morality, so John Constantine’s amorality and the sexual politics of Anita Blake are absent.  He feels protective about the weak, doesn’t jump in the sack every few pages, and is essentially honest.  Paired with that decency is a far less cynical view of the Catholic Church than one usually finds in this genre.  One of the later characters, Michael Carpenter, is one of the best examples of a ‘holy knight’ or paladin that one will find anywhere in literature.

The series is currently up to fifteen novels, a pair of short story collections, ten graphic novels, a roleplaying game, and a single season television series (there are rumors of new television series in the works).  I have read all of the novels but the most recent, Skin Game.  The early books follow a basic formula where Harry is investigating some sort of supernatural crime, or several such crimes (which turn out later to be connected).  As he more closely investigates the crime he runs into complications from Chicago’s other supernatural inhabitants and faces greater danger to himself and those he cares about.  This leads ultimately to a climax involving magical conflict.  Things are then set generally right, but complications and loose ends leave room for future plot developments. Formulaic, but like detective fiction, Supernatural Noir thrives on formula and the Dresden Files are no exception. 

Later books break from this formula as the 'through plot' becomes more prominent. There are several of these, the surface plot involves a supernatural war between wizards and vampires, which is eventually resolved in Changes, but revealing itself through the novels is a deeper plot that seems to tie the series into most of fantasy, horror, and mythology.  

The spice of the story is usually provided by the crime and the villain, Butcher’s villains are usually quite powerful, but do seem to lack the sheer verve of a grand villain such as Doyle’s Moriarty.  But they serve to highlight Dresden’s personal strengths and weaknesses. Though several are recurring, for myself none are particularly memorable.

The recurring supporting cast is far more memorable, ranging from Detective Karin Murphy, charged with investigating Chicago’s more unusual crimes to ‘Bob’, a bodiless elemental spirit that serves Dresden as advisor, friend, and confessor.  Unlike some authors, Butcher treats the secondary characters with respect and generally so does Dresden.  Recurring in novel after novel, they add to the sense of completeness that pervades Dresden’s world.   

I mentioned the short story collections above. I think Harry Dresden really lends himself to the short story format: light and quick, and usually somewhat humerous. The short stories are in some ways even more enjoyable then the novels, especially the latter novels which grow increasing grim.

I want to mention the audiobooks. The series is read by James Marsters, who played 'Spike' on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. He does a truly masterful job, a nigh perfect match of reader and material, the only comparable voice acting I can think of is Jim Dale for the Harry Potter series (who is just ever so slightly better then Marsters). In fact, I believe the novels owe a great deal of their popularity to his masterful reading of the series, which should take nothing away from Butcher's excellent prose. 

Butcher’s magic system is obviously influenced by the ‘mana’ system of GURPS and the various magical forms found in White Wolf’s 1^st edition Storyteller system.  Though it differs from the Vancian ‘fire and forget’ system of AD&D, there is still much for AD&D game masters to glean, since Butcher pays close attention to legendary and mythical magical ideas (the description of potion brewing in the first novel is particular interesting).  Adding a further twist, technology tends to fail in random and unpredictable ways when wizards and magic are about.  This clever technique acts to limit Dresden’s power and provides amusing annoyances and obstructions.  Game master’s running a modern campaign might consider adding such a weakness to preserve game balance and introduce humor to their campaigns.     

I felt an almost instant connection with this series when I first picked it up,  so it didn't surprise me to see that Butcher lists Tolkien and Brian Daley's Han Solo trilogy as major influences, two of my favorite series as a teenager and today.  When he quotes Tolkien, he gets the quotation correct from the books!

Indeed, Jim Butcher looks and talks like just about any other gamer you might see at a con or at your friendly local game shop (check out his website, http://www.jim-butcher.com/).  He peppers his books with appropriate geek culture references and some of his characters even play role-playing games themselves (which Butcher handles more realistically than I’ve yet seen in fiction).  This only adds to the reader's enjoyment of the books. 

I love the Dresden universe, it has characters that are like old friends, foes worth fighting, and I very seldom come up against logic lapses in the writing.

The Dresden Files novels:

1. Storm Front (2000)
2. Fool Moon (2001)
3. Grave Peril (2001)
4. Summer Knight (2002)
5. Death Masks (2003)
6. Blood Rites (2004)
7. Dead Beat (2005)
8. Proven Guilty (2006)
9. White Night (2007)
10. Small Favor (2008)
11. Turn Coat (2009)
12. Changes (2010)
13. Ghost Story (2011)
14. Cold Days (2012)
15. Skin Game (2014)

Dresden Files short story anthologies

1. Side Jobs (2010)
2. Brief Cases (2018)

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

Tougher then it looks!

Well, this has been a bust so far! The point of the exercise is to clear my writer's block, but so far it just seems to add another writing obligation on my plate that sits there, taunting me with blank space. "Where are your insightful views, Westermeyer? I thought you would post once a week?"

The problem is, I keep imagining this as a public post visible to thousands... and of course, it's only been viewed 52 times.  I need to get back to thinking small, and post just something, even if it is just a few paragraphs like this.

My biggest problem as a both a historian and as a writer is I accumulate unfinished projects. It's a fatal flaw, I have many good ideas, but life keeps getting in the way before I can finish them. It's rather maddening.  I have one RPG writing projecting, The Stellar Main: A Sphere Guide to Bralspace, that I started over 20 years ago. Currently, it is 125,000 words and 322 pages (I've cut 100 pages from it so far) but I can't just get it done and 'publish' it.

Sure, it's a private vanity project that I won't publish for money, something I doodle with to entertain myself.  It always has taken a last row seat to my other writing projects, those for my profession and those that pay money.  But you'd think after 20 years of doddling I could have polished the thing up, cut the cord, and let it out... but no.  I haven't worked on it in months and I have no plans to start soon; again, paid projects and books for my profession have the highest claim on my energy and time - they pay the bills.

But I do need to beat this issue.  I'm fifty now, I'd prefer not to die with all my good book ideas, whether for history or for gaming, still in my head.  If you don't stick your ideas in the marketplace, they have no value. (and I am not talking about monetary value).




All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.

History, true or feigned

"But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.  I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of the reader.  I think that many confuse 'applicability'  with 'allegory'; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader and the other in the purposed domination of the author."

J.R.R. Tolkien, 'Foreword to the Second Edition', 

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, p7.  1965

I'm a historian by trade, a profession I dearly love and a calling I find myself constrained to follow no matter how I earn my daily bread.  Historians have to write, constantly, otherwise they are merely antiquatarians indulging their love of old things.  But I find myself prone to writer's block, and I thought posting a weekly blog might be an excellent way to help myself though periods of writer's block. 

My specialties include military history, ancient history, and medieval history. My more specific specialty is the history of the United States Marine Corps, especially during the Gulf War, and I have published a few books on that topic (my Amazon author's page). As a military historian, I consider the works of John Guilmartin, Alan Millett, Williamson Murray, Gerhard Weinberg, and Charles R. Smith those I most strive to emulate in my writing (along with numerous others I cannot list here).  The books of Cornelius Ryan and Willis John Abbot were my entry point to the profession as a child. 

In addition to being a historian, I am a gamer, in the semi-old sense of the word. I don't play video games nor do I gamble, I play with toy soldiers and my imagination, playing miniature war games and table top role-playing games like Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I've been a gamer since at least 1979.

And, perhaps most fundamentally, I am an avid and voracious reader. I read constantly and compulsively, if I cannot read, while driving for instance, I prefer to listen to audiobooks over listening to music. My tastes in reading material are predictable, I like histories, historical fiction, fantasy fiction, and classic 19th century works.  My favorite authors include J.R.R. Tolkien, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander, Mary Stewart, Alexandre Dumas, Jules Verne, George MacDonald Fraser, and Alistair MacLean. There are many others, of course. 

The title of the blog, drawn from a quote of Tolkien's, illustrates the scope of the blog. I intend to write about history as well as about fantasy and literature. 'feigned' history is simply the history of a fantastical world like Middle Earth, it is not 'fake' or fradulent. 

I once wrote a book review column for Knights of the Dinner Table magazine and I hope to revise and expand those reviews and post them here occassionally, along with new book reviews and my thoughts on my historical work as I am conducting it. 

My friends and family know I have passionately held political beliefs. I reserve the right to post on politics if I decide to, but for now my intent is to keep this blog apolitical in the contemporary sense. 

All views in this blog are my own and represent the views of no other person, organization, or institution.