A young mage on the cusp of realizing her full powers, a wizened mentor trying to train her, and an empire led by a black-clad powerful knight all vying for an elusive magical item. Seems quite standard fare for a Fantasy adventure, but Joseph Brassey’s Skyfarer is that and so much more. Brassey has written extensively in Neal Stephenson and Greg Bear’s Mongoliad, but here he forges his own world and it is a delightful, fun, and smart novel with Skyfarer, the first novel in The Drifting Lands series.
The Axiom Diamond is a mythical relic, with the power to show its bearer any truth they desire. Men have sought for it across many continents for centuries, but in vain. When trainee sorceress Aimee de Laurent’s first ever portal-casting goes awry, she and her mentor are thrown into the race to find the gem, on the skyship Elysium. Opposing them are the infamous magic-wielding knights of the Eternal Order and their ruthless commander, Lord Azrael, who will destroy everything in their path…
File Under: Fantasy [Diamond in the Sky | Quest for Truth | Knights Magical | Eternity & Beyond]
Brassey introduces his characters in the middle of chaos, allowing readers to view these characters fluctuating between their best and worst, with some of them acting their best in a worst-case situation. He centers the story on two primary characters: Aimee, a portalmage who is part the crew of the airship the Elysium along with the renowned mage Harkon Bright (what a name!). At the other end is the aforementioned black knight, who goes by the name of Lord Azrael. Aimee bungles a portal spell, putting the Elysium square in Azrael, and the Eternal Order’s cross-hairs as they are pillaging and destroying a nation. The Elysium harbors the survivors of that conflict and find themselves hunting for the Axiom Diamond. The race is on between Aimee’s people and the Eternal Order to find the powerful talisman.
Brassey packs a lot into this novel, at under 300 pages in mass market he wastes no space, but nothing feels rushed despite the brisk pace of the plot and multiple character revelations. Aimee is the likeable protagonist; young, headstrong, looking to impress her mentor and do good by her new crew. Brassey adds enough balance to her character that her faults make her that much more endearing. Lord Azrael, her immediate foil, clad in black armor, looks to subjugate his enemies in his search for the Axiom Diamond. If a certain dark clad warrior mage with initials KR or whose name rhymes with Varth Dader, then I suspect Brassey’s point was missed because the allusion certainly isn’t subtle and most likely intentional. Azrael is more than just a stand in for those familiar villains. As Brassey unfolds Azrael’s story, a great deal of complexity is revealed about this young, powerful knight.
Where the novel takes a nice thoughtful turn is a little over 2/3 through the novel. Brassey peels back the layers and reveals a story and characters with more depth than the surface would lead one to believe. As this is just the first of a series, that turn coupled with just how much fun this novel is, has me excited for me.
There was such a fun, energetic vibe to the novel. The world Brassey introduced reminded me a lot of the genre-blending 1980s fantasy entertainments like the movie Krull, the DC Comic book Warlord, or the cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe where air-vessels and lasers coexist with wizards and prophecy. I was also reminded great deal, for all the right reasons, of Chris Wooding’s Tales of the Ketty Jay, which begins with the novel Retribution Falls. This is a story that is less concerned with genre boundaries, but more concerned on the fun cool elements in the sibling genres of fantasy and science fiction working together to tell a completely engrossing story. Brassey is clearly having fun with this story, these characters, and the world. That emanates from the pages quite powerfully and infected me as the reader.
Skyfarer is a novel packed with equal parts entertainment, emotion, energy, homage, and originality. Top it all off, or rather, cover it all up, with a gorgeous piece of art by Ignacio Lazcano which is complemented by some smart font treatment. My only real problem is that it was as short as it was, it felt like the introduction of something larger and I most definitely want more.
Highly Recommended
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
The First Book in the Drifting Lands Series
https://josephbrassey.wordpress.com/ | Twitter: @JosephBrassey
Mass Market Paperback | September 2017
Angry Robot Books | 288 Pages
Sample: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/skyfarer-joseph-brassey-cover-reveal/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Angry Robot Books
