THE TERRARCH CHRONICLES, by William King
One of the more interesting series of self-published novels I’ve read in 2013 was THE TERRARCH CHRONICLES, by William King. The series has four books – DEATH’S ANGELS, THE SERPENT TOWER, THE QUEEN’S ASSASSIN, and SHADOWBLOOD.
To sum up, the books are basically a cross between Glen Cook’s THE BLACK COMPANY and H.P. Lovecraft, set in an 18th century Europe if 18th century Europe were ruled by racist magic-using elves.
In the setting, the elves call themselves Terrarchs, and invaded the human world after their homeland fell victim to some mysterious catastrophe. A thousand years later, the Terrarchs still rule over the humans, but their empire has fractured into several competing states, all which regard humans differently – some treat humans as free albeit second-class citizens, while others regard humans as enslaved cattle. However, all the Terrarchs are starting to lose their grip, as the humans are simply outbreeding them, and developing technology is beginning to erode the edge the Terrarchs’ magic and longevity give them. Magic beats sword, but a cannon loaded with grapeshot beats both magic and sword.
The chief protagonist of the story is Rik, a half-human, half-Terrarch soldier. Since halfbreeds are despised everywhere, Rik started out as a thief, and then joined the army to escape his vengeful former associates. When sent to fight a gang of demon-worshiping rebels, Rik kills a renegade Terrarch sorcerer who had been aiding the rebels. Rik takes possession of the sorcerer’s spellbooks and tries to teach himself magic from them, failing to realize that a lot of very dangerous people, human and Terrarchs both, want the contents of those spellbooks.
Mayhem ensues.
The the books have a compelling plot, and does a good job of capturing the feel of Europe at the start of the industrial era, the poverty and despair alongside the wealth and the massive possibilities. When discussing fantasy, it’s useless to talk about historical realism, because if you have a setting where people can summon up giant spider-demons, you have taken realism out back to be shot. But you can talk about verisimilitude, and THE TERRARCH CHRONICLES does a good job with the verisimilitude of the setting. Naturally, the additional of sorcerous elves and otherworldly horrors to early industrial Europe simply adds spice.
It’s the rare writer who can create “morally ambiguous” characters without having them turn into, to put it simply, “unlikable jerks”, but Mr. King pulls it off. Rik, Sardec, and Lady Asea all have fascinating character arcs – Rik starts out as a soldier and a petty thief and becomes something much stronger and darker, while Sardec begins as an arrogant elitist and becomes something almost like a hero.
Definitely recommended, and I hope there are more books in the series one day.
-JM