Sword and Sorcery tales are some of the oldest published tales in fantasy, going back to the pulp era of C.L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, and Robert E. Howard. Although not quite as many sword and sorcery tales fill the bookshelves of the genre today as say, Epic Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery is still a foundational subset of the genre. Enter Jen Williams’s debut, The Copper Promise, which takes many of the tropes/trappings of the subgenre, and enlivens them with a smart, modern sensibility. From the Publisher:
There are some tall stories about the caverns beneath the Citadel – about magic and mages and monsters and gods.
Wydrin of Crosshaven has heard them all, but she’s spent long enough trawling caverns and taverns with her companion Sir Sebastian to learn that there’s no money to be made in chasing rumours.
But then a crippled nobleman with a dead man’s name offers them a job: exploring the Citadel’s darkest depths. It sounds like just another quest with gold and adventure … if they’re lucky, they might even have a tale of their own to tell once it’s over.
These reckless adventurers will soon learn that sometimes there is truth in rumour. Sometimes a story can save your life.
Cover art by Gene Mollica
The title of the novel, The Copper Promise, refers to the deal our heroes, Wydrin (the Copper Cat) and her partner, Sir Sebastian (a fallen knight) make with Lord Frith (a damaged nobleman), to explore a large and ancient Citadel. Lord Frith seeks a means to of revenge against those who injured him and killed his family. Sounds like a simple enough adventure for Wydrin and Sebastian, but that of course changes once they enter the Citadel. Sebastian sees a friend he thought was dead and the trio of adventurers soon unleash a goddess in the form of an enormous dragon-god. This unleashing has far-ranging ramifications. Frith absorbs a great deal of wizardly knowledge and power; Sebastian almost dies, but survives because of a strange connection he makes at death’s door; and the spawn of the dragon-god, female human-dragon hybrids roam the streets pillaging and generally being monsters.
Where Williams injects that aforementioned modern sensibility is everywhere in the story, particularly the characters. In general, Sword and Sorcery focuses on more intimate and personal stakes with a smaller range of characters and “local” scope than its genre cousin Epic Fantasy. As such, what shines through in the novel are the characters. As the novel progresses, we learn the reason for Sebastian’s banishment from his order – a same sex romantic relationship. Perhaps the most modern is the barbarian/rogue of Wydrin herself. With few exceptions, Sword and Sorcery focuses on male protagonists. Here, not only is Wydrin one of the duo, but she is unquestionably the leader of the pair. Though not initially as much of a main character, Lord Frith evolves into that as events unfold and he and Wydrin become more attuned to each other and more trusting of each other.
Williams also gives readers portions of the story from the point of view of the dragonspawn, and Williams does a fairly convincing job of showing these monsters gain sentience. These creatures, which seem to be new to the world, enrich a world that already has a deep mythological and fantastical foundation.
It behooves me at this point to give the fine folks at Angry Robot Books credit in making these books available to US readers nearly two years after The Copper Promise initially published in the UK.
I’ve felt that Sword and Sorcery is much like a “buddy cop” film set in a fantasy milieu. Sort of like Lethal Weapon but with swords, magic, and dragons rather than guns, drugs, and criminals. In that sense, The Copper Promise is an absolute blast of a novel.
I found myself grinning throughout and wondered just how much Dungeons and Dragons Jen Williams played because this one has all the ingredients, and not just the off the shelf ingredients, but the premium, farm-raised ingredients, of your favorite Dungeons and Dragons adventure. I’d put the duo of Wydrin and Sebastian, along with Paul S. Kemp’s Egil and Nix, as natural successors to Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser the greatest Sword and Sorcery duo of all time.
Perhaps what pleases me most is that Williams clearly has more story to tell for these characters, the ending resolved much, but also served to promise more to come. Of course, with two additional titles on the way, that is an obvious conclusion to make. I’ll just round out my review with the following: “More, please.”
Highly Recommended
© 2016 Rob H. Bedford
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Angry Robot books
Trade Paperback | 448 Pages
Published by Angry Robot Books | July 2016
http://sennydreadful.co.uk/ | http://sennydreadful.co.uk/the-copper-promise/
