The Pathfinder RPG is one of the best selling role-playing game campaigns on the market (having outsold the Dungeons and Dragons campaign on multiple occasions) and for nearly a decade, the fine folks at Paizo (their publisher) have been publishing novel-length fiction in the world. More recently Pazio struck up a partnership with SF Publishing giant Tor to help market and distribute the books, and to help make the books made available as audio and eBooks. At the head of Pathfinder’s fiction line, and one of the architects of Golarion, the world in which the game and stories take place, is James L. Sutter. All of which brings this review to Death’s Heretic, Sutter’s debut novel published in 2011. It was very well-received, ranking #3 on Barnes & Noble’s list of Best Fantasy releases of 2011 and was a finalist for the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. Is the novel worthy of these accolades? In short, yes. In long, read on for the review.
Salim Ghadafar is a priest hunter, a fixer, a man who solves problems. Basically, he does the bidding of the Goddess of Death, Pharasma also known as The Lady of Graves who looks down upon the ties religious belief can hold to a person. Pharasma is a tripartite goddess of birth, death, and prophecy and calls upon Salim to look into the missing soul of a wealthy merchant who died shortly after obtaining a very powerful magical object – the Sun Orchid Elixer. As Salim reluctantly begins this mission, the reader is pulled along learning very little about Salim at first, but more about those people whom he encounters. In that way, Sutter does a great job of providing the picture of the man as he is.
When he gets to the expansive residence of the man who was killed, Salim meets up with the merchant’s daughter Neila Anvanory. Niela imposes herself on Salim and the two form an unlikely partnership in the search for the soul of Niela’s father. Although Niela acts in many ways as a sidekick to Salim, her skills and abilities more than raise her above damsel in distress. She’s capable from a physical standpoint and a mental/intellectual standpoint. With the duo set, Sutter continues what he started; weaving an adventurous, entertaining, smart, witty, and engaging sword and sorcery tale with very strong noir/mystery elements.
To say their adventure is ‘a travelogue’ is selling the term travelogue short, as well as the vast range of environs through which Niela and Salim travel. Of course, since Sutter is one of the primary architects of the setting, Death’s Heretic provides a great opportunity to showcase the world of Golarion as well as the many planes connected to the world. The world comes alive through the eyes and mouths of the characters in a wonderful, organic fashion. This isn’t world-building through infodumping, this is revealing the world as a wholly alive character with depth, history, and intrigue.
I’ve had the mass market paperback for a couple of years now, but for reasons I can’t quite explain, it never quite climbed higher on Mount Toberead. I was very pleased to see an audio version of the book released, even more pleased to learn that the wonderful narrator Ray Porter was reading the book, and ecstatic that Audible.com was offering the book for free for a limited time. I immediately downloaded the book and was instantly ensorcelled by the tale and how it was told. Sutter spins a wonderful story and Porter’s superb narration skills (he does many different/distinct voices for all the characters, regardless of gender) enhance the already excellent product.
Death’s Heretic is a splendid debut novel and opens up a door into the world of Golarion that has me very eager to read both more about Salim as well as the growing list of novels set in this fascinating milieu.
Highly recommended, either as an audio book or physical/electronic copy.
© 2016 Rob H. Bedford
http://jameslsutter.com/ | http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/PZO8506-Preview.zip
November 2011, Mass Market Paperback
ISBN 9780553419719, 400 pages
Review copy (paperback) courtesy of the publisher, Paizo audio was free via audible promotion
