You may not (at first) recognise the author’s name: but readers of Historical Fiction may know of Conn Iggulden, author of nearly 20 fiction books, including the Emperor series set in Ancient Rome, and more recently his War of the Roses series. As if this wasn’t enough, he has also published non-fiction such as The Dangerous Book for Boys (2006).
Darien: Empire of Salt uses his considerable writing skills and historical knowledge to venture into a genre he has always considered a personal favourite: Fantasy.
Darien is clearly meant to be the first in a series and not a stand-alone. What this means is that the book introduces the reader to people and places that are going to develop over more than one book. The plan at present is for a trilogy.
Whilst Conn’s homage to his hero David Gemmell is clear throughout, this is not a typical medieval-esque Fantasy. Admittedly Darien is a city in a world with a long and rich history, some of which we read of here, and many of the residents of the city live a harsh peasant-like existence, it is a world more akin to the global Empire building of the Mercantile Era, c16-18th century, than most traditional Fantasy novels. This is also shown by presence of guns in this world, something more akin to Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere worlds or even Gemmell’s Jon Shannow than, say, Game of Thrones. It is a violent and treacherous place filled with warriors, spies, magicians and mercenaries.
In terms of the characters, it is clear that the author is not lacking in ambition in the scale of this book, although the book mainly concerns itself with six main characters. Elias Post is a hunter with a secret who encounters and reluctantly allies with Vic Deeds, a young mercenary killer for hire. Tellius is an old swordsman and rather Fagin-like character who meets Arthur, a boy brought to Tellius’ notice that has an special skill that will be central to the story. Thirdly, Daw Threefold is a chancer and gambler rather down on his luck, who meets Nancy, a girl whose talent might be the undoing of them all.
Conn wisely sticks to the majority of the book centred around these three groups of characters, although there are others who weave in and out of the narrative, and will no doubt become more or less important at various points of the series. This creates the feeling that we’re in for a long and immersive plot here, of which Darien is merely the introduction to other events. The slight disadvantage of this is that much of the first part of the book is about meeting new characters and setting up their individual backstories and reasons for being in the plot, but it is worth persevering through the first half to the latter section.
It is in the second part of the book where the pace steps up a gear as these characters begin to connect together and affect each other. In the city of Darien, the perspective widens so that the politics of the Empire becomes paramount. The geopolitical situation is that there are twelve families ruling under a King, creating a complex political environment which though briefly glimpsed, seems reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth’s court or the Borgias. The King himself is a weak one, placed there by the leading Family for presentation purposes rather than actual leadership, which means that the lesser Families are manoeuvring for new positions of power. As a result, a plot is hatched which leads to an assassination attempt on King Johannes and events that usher in an impressively fast and rather violent last part of the book.
In short, Darien is a solidly old-school Fantasy novel, strong on character, in which readers can immerse themselves. As you might expect from an experienced author, it is well-done. It is not as broad and as complex, as say, Game of Thrones, but it brings enough new ideas to the table to ensure that the novel the maintains a reader’s interest, with enough characters to keep a genre fan happy and enough action to make the initial lengthy exposition bearable. Most readers will want to continue to read more in this series.
Darien: Empire of Salt by C F Iggulden
Published by Michael Joseph (Harper Collins), July 2017
356 pages
ISBN: 978-0718186463
