Sometimes mixing two popular flavors of a genre can work, other times it doesn’t mesh well. Sometimes; however, much like when H.B. Reese first mixed chocolate and peanut butter, the two flavors blend so well that what is most surprising is that it hasn’t been tried before. Such is the case with Michael R. Underwood’s Shield and Crocus, which blends superhero fiction with a sword and sorcery/heist story. If that elegant mix of story types weren’t enough, Underwood sets his story in a city which is the body of a fallen Titan. In other words, people live within the cavernous corpse of the Titan Audec; they travel through his arteries, live in the bowels of the Titan.
Audec-Hal is ruled with an iron first by what amounts to five tyrannical crime lords. Just when you think you’ve settled into a fantasy setting, it turns out one of the tyrants is a mechanical construct (COBALT-3). Furthermore, trains and other more modern than most fantasy trappings help to flavor Audec-Hal. But the setting is just one part of what makes the story unique. Along with something unique, genre readers also like to have something familiar-with-a-twist in their fiction. This is where Underwood’s characters come into play; the primary protagonist is First Sentinel, a Batman analogue who depends more on his wits, intelligence and craftiness to survive. There’s also Blurred Fists, a speedster who many will find akin to The Flash (also like the Flash, there have been multiple bearers of the name Blurred Fists); Sapphire is a large, powerful woman with; Sabreslate seems like Elastigirl or a female version of the pliable hero like Plastic Man or; the Aegis seems a combination of Captain America and Thor. The Shields, as a whole, is reminiscent of the many super-hero teams like The Avengers, Justice League, and Legion of Super Heroes. One smaller comic recently published; however, felt more of a spiritual cousin – Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning/Brad Walker’s Hypernaturals.*
Many of the characters get their powers from “spark storms” though not all survive and gain powers as these spark storms are often very devastating. Like the Green Lantern mythos, threads of color hued to the emotional spectrum provide manipulative powers to some. So yeah, Mike’s entrenched this story with a lot of very fun genre things and mashes them up quite well. Underwood also casts a wide racial net into the world, with races like Ikanollo, Pronai, Freithin, Qava, and Millrej. Through the narrative, he infers enough of their differences and what sets them apart to make the world feel even more richly detailed.
So what is the backbone of the plot? Well, that’s the most straightforward element of the novel. Essentially, the Shields of Audec-Hal seek to overthrow the tyrannical reign of the oligarchs. Through “present-day” narrative as well as flashback sequences, Underwood does a very nice job of acquainting the reader with these characters. We learn mostly of the First Sentinel, also known as mild mannered Wonlar Pasca who happens to be a tinkerer of sorts and an older man whose stories the children of Audec-Hal love to hear.
It should be clear by now that I had a lot of fun with this book. I’m a long-time comic book reader / fan and love the sword and sorcery genre so it was in my DNA to enjoy Shield and Crocus. That having been said, while I enjoyed the early portions of the novel and found myself really pulled into the story, the middle sections leading up to the resolution/finale felt a bit … overdone. Essentially, a long section of the novel feels like a protracted set of skirmishes/fights. While those scenes worked well in and of themselves, the chaos of them in succession felt a bit draining. On the other hand, that is very much the feeling of the characters, especially First Sentinel, had as these physical conflicts continued so in that sense, Underwood accomplished a nice parallel between what the characters were experiencing and the feeling reading those scenes evoked in this reader.
While I read the electronic advance reading copy, I still have to point out what a gorgeous cover adorned the book. Stephan Martinière has been churning out some of the most gorgeous, evocative, and eye-catching covers in SFF for many years. His cover here for Shield and Crocus is no exception save perhaps that it might be one of his best. It invites the reader to dive into the story so well.
So while I had a small pacing issue with Shield and Crocus, on the whole I enjoyed it a great deal. Underwood has created a wonderful milieu, some very fun characters and told an engaging story. There seems to be a great wealth of potential stories about the Shields of Audec-Hal, I hope Mike is given the opportunity to share them with readers.
* Once you finish Shield and Crocus, do yourself a favor and hunt down at least the first trade of Hypernaturals.
© 2014 Rob H. Bedford
Published by 47North
Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1-47782-390-3 eBook ASIN B00HWI5OOK
June 2014 / 416 Pages
http://michaelrunderwood.com/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher
I like super hero books but thought it was just ok. Its several hundred pages of virtually non-stop (and over the top) fighting that is about as realistic as the 1960s Batman TV show. Equally importantly, there is something off about the writing style that grates over time. For example, all the characters have super hero names, such as “The Shield Bearer”. If the Shield Bearer is involved in one of the countless long, drawn-out fights, there might be 100 sentences that start with “The Shield Bearer” did this, ducked, jumped, swung whatever. Because the sentence structure is not varied enough, coupled with the very long very frequent fights, this really starts to grate.
Having re-read my amazon review, my comment may be a bit harsh. I did enjoy the book enough to give 3 stars (under the name ArtNJ if you want to see my full comments). Its just that there are so many lengthy comic booky fights that there really isn’t any tension or excitement to them after a while. And the sentence structure does get old. The First Sentinel ducked. The First Sentinel dodged. The First Sentinel was crafty, and anticipated the attack. The First Sentinel took the blow on his armored coat.