Even the most obsessive readers of fantasy novels may need a little
hand-holding when they dive into a new book. The best fantasies
carefully explain and elaborate as they go, taking care to reward the
reader’s suspension of reality with patient storytelling.
With the first two books of her “War of the Rose” trilogy, The
Serpent and the Rose and The Golden Rose, Vail-based author
Kathleen Bryan concocted a vaguely medieval tale of Averil, duchess of
Quitaine, and her beloved Gereint, a squire. The two books were
intriguing and interesting, but always a bit confusing. It was worth
hoping, then, that in the third installment, The Last Paladin,
Bryan would explain withheld secrets and tie up loose ends. However,
every time you’re ready to fully immerse yourself in her richly wrought
world of knights, nobility, serpents and sorcery, she leaps ahead to
the next confrontation, making for a head-spinning tale that trips over
its own complexity.
In The Last Paladin, Gereint has morphed from a gangly,
awkward farm boy with little control over his “wild magic” into a
talented squire, well on his way to being a full-fledged Knight of the
Rose.
He’s still unsure of his own abilities, but he’s sure of his love
for the copper-haired Averil, even though the land’s laws dictate that
the two can never be married. As for Averil, she’s no longer a demure
teenager, either: Since she must be crowned queen of Lys before she can
use her magic to help heal the battle-scarred land, she relentlessly
battles her way toward coronation.
The evil king Clodovec, Averil’s uncle, has been slain, but the
long-imprisoned serpent he so desired to release still lurks in the
land. And Clodovec’s army—a grim assembly of men who have had
their souls stolen—is now under the influence of a group of
sorcerers, desperate to free the serpent and see chaos reign. Averil
knows that she must confront the sorcerers, but even her most trusted
companions, concerned for her safety, try to keep her from bringing the
battle to the enemy’s doorstep. But Gereint supports her: The two have
grown so close that they’re essentially one being, sharing not only one
another’s emotions but their magical abilities as well.
Still, the two must part—Gereint so he can take on the
soulless army with the rest of the knights, and Averil so she can
confront the evil sorcerer Gamelin. The book builds to a confrontation
between order and chaos, a conflict that proves satisfying when the
scaly villain turns out to be far more complex than a snake.
A colorful cast of characters enhances the saga: There’s the
tortured Prince Goronwy, who skulks around at the sorcerers’ bidding,
desperate for power and jealous of Gereint. There’s Prince Esteban, the
dashing, courtly gentleman who longs to be joined with Averil and her
power, which would increase his own. Finally, there’s the mysterious
Peredur, a mage of the wild magic, who holds the greatest secret of
all—one that just might allow Gereint and Averil to be
together.
Bryan’s world is elaborately wrought and is filled with gorgeous
imagery: Magic is wielded through colorful bits of glass; mythical
creatures roam all over; and the people of Lys are all dashing,
beautiful and romantic. But the sheer volume of places and people and
fantasy terms (which Bryan doesn’t take the time to define) makes for a
confusing read, even for those who’ve read the first two books. It
would have served Bryan to pace herself and spend more time revealing
the intricacies of her world, but it seems she was desperate to get to
the action. The result is that intriguing characters, even those
theoretically essential to the plot, only appear for a few pages before
vanishing.
Every chapter hightails it to some grandiose confrontation or
realization, so there’s little along the lines of suspense. Even an
attentive reader will find himself flipping back to try to remember who
fought whom or who cast what spell before.
It’s rare to think that by being a bit longer, a book would be
better, but that’s the case with The Last Paladin. Bryan has a
gift for imagination and dramatic effect, and it’s worth hoping that in
her next book, or series of books, she’ll invite readers into yet
another new realm. But here’s also hoping that she’ll allow her readers
to sit back and relax, at least for a little while, while they spend
more time getting to know her gifted cast of spell-makers.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2009.