Skallagrim – In the Vales of Pagarna by Stephen R Babb

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Ah, nothing like a bit of Sword & Sorcery to get your day started. To be honest, it’s probably been a while since I read some S&S, but it is a genre I like to read. I came across this in the Goodread’s Sword & Sorcery group (check it out) where the author offered me a copy (you will know this if you haven’t been skimming). I wasn’t familiar with Stephen Steve outside of the group but he seems like an interesting guy. He’s a long time professional musician, mostly with the band Glass Hammer, moved into recording and even wrote an epic poem called The Lay of Lirazel. Now he’s got a pretty good novel to his name.

I know I use the word pretty a lot as an adjective, which probably makes it seem inferior in some way, but this was an enjoyable read. I can honestly say my attention never flagged throughout. The story is the usual mix of elder gods, insane sorcerers, undead and more – but the story makes you overlook the tropes in a hurry (not that I’ve anything against tropes). The titular Skallagrim is a thief, although he’s not too sure of that as he has lost his memory. All he knows is he is in the fabled city of Archon, a girl he is attached to (but doesn’t know why) is being bundled into a wagon by one of the aforementioned mad sorcerers. He is attacked in force by a crowd of thugs, barely holding them off, thanks to the sudden arrival of a magic sword. When he is rescued by a couple of friendly men, he is sent on a mission to rescue the girl from a fortress that hosts a great evil. Sound like a video game or a Fighting Fantasy book? It does? Well, that’s the vibe I got reading the book.

This is not a criticism. Skallagrim is a good character, driven to rescue the girl, even in the face of great peril. He questions his lack of memory throughout, why he is involved at all and why is he a thief. Like all great epic quests, our hero blindly follows the path, facing everything that gets in the way and meeting some possible friends along the way. Despite possessing a magic sword (the excellently named Terminus), he is far from an able swordfighter and is as much a danger to himself as his opponents. The book is written in different styles with dream sequences and vague memories. The plot is good and advances steadily and most of the bad guys are entertaining, even some of the cannon fodder.

So, a fast-paced exciting read that doesn’t always go the way you would expect. Roll on book 2!