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The Grim Company, by Luke Scull. Just like Abercrombie, but with actual magic.

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Werthead Council Member

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The Grim Company

Davarus Cole has a destiny. Only he can wield the sorcerous blade Magebane, one of the few weapons in existence that can kill a Magelord. Five centuries ago the Magelords slew the gods themselves, becoming immortal in the process and seizing control of the world. Now they wage war amongst themselves. Cole knows it is fate itself which has decreed that he will kill Salazar, Magelord of Dorminia, and liberate the city from his tyrannical rule. His comrades in the rebel group known as the Shards are less sure.

Meanwhile, a new threat is rising in the far north. Demonic forces are spilling into the northern mountains and the Shaman, the Magelord who rules the region, must face this threat whilst also confronting a renegade lord who has turned against him. At the same time, he owes a favour to Salazar that must be repaid.

The Grim Company is the opening volume of the fantasy trilogy of the same name. It's the debut novel by Luke Scull, a computer game designer who has worked for BioWare and Ossian Studios. It's also one of the SFF launch titles for Head of Zeus, a new publisher which won the publication rights to the novel in a significant auction.

It's easy to see why. The Grim Company is a rollicking dark fantasy adventure novel. It moves with verve and pace, fitting more plot than some entire trilogies into its lean 450 pages, and is threaded through with a great sense of humour that pokes fun at some of the conventions of both epic fantasy and the recent eruption of 'grimdark' fantasies in particular. The book packs in an impressive number of subplots, locations and characters without feeling rushed or overburdened, and manages to ensure these storylines are not extraneous material (one side-plot taking place hundreds of miles to the north in the mountains feels like pure set-up for later novels, but is linked back into the main storyline quite impressively in the climax).

Character-wise, we are in familiar archetype territory. Davarus Cole is a fine 'pratagonist', the apparent hero who's actually a barely-sufferable pillock. Cole believes it is his destiny to be awesome and free the people from tyranny, but he suffers from a blinkered view of reality and a tendency to ignore what's going on right in the moment (occasionally even during moments of high danger) as he daydreams of gaining the adoration of screaming crowds. This is frequently hilarious, but also gets close to becoming overused by the time we get to the novel's climax. Thankfully, some well-handled moments of character revelation near the end of the book show Cole to be a more sympathetic character than might have been first expected.

Brodar Kayne is the former Sword of the North, the Shaman's champion who defied his master and is now on the run, assisted by his exceedingly temperamental and borderline psychotic best friend, 'the Wolf'. Kayne is old and past his best days, but still exceedingly lethal with a greatsword. His only weakness is a sentimental streak, which leads him into a doubtful alliance with the Shards. Kayne is the 'actual hero whom Cole is trying to be' and Scull finely contrasts the differences between the two characters. There's nothing particularly new or notable about Kayne, but Scull pulls off the 'grizzled veteran with a dark past who is now trying to be a better man' trope reasonably skillfully.

Elsewhere, we have Eremul the Halfmage, a sorcerer whom Salazar spared during a purge of potential rival magic-users but still left crippled. Then there's Isaac, Eremul's apparently bumbling aide who turns out to be unexpectedly good at, well, everything. Particularly well-done is Barandas, the head of Salazar's Augmentors (magically-enhanced super-warriors), a good man serving a ruthless and amoral ruler because of his strict code of honour. There's also Sasha, another young member of the Shards who is actually good at her job and not an insufferable prat, and Yllandris, a young sorcerer and lover of the King of the Fangs who likes to think of herself as a badass witch and master manipulator but has too much of a good heart to really pull it off.

Aspects of the novel do feel somewhat familiar. The post-apocalyptic fantasy setting and the notion of a band of rebels gathering to pull down a tyrant is reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, but The Grim Company is certainly a more striking and fun novel than The Final Empire. The Shards being a band of rogues rather than purely idealistic rebels also recalls some elements of Scott Lynch (particularly the brothers), though the story then goes off in a completely different direction. Much more notable - and probably will be mentioned in every review of the book ever - are the similarities to Joe Abercrombie. These include some of the basic archetypes (though Cole, Kayne and Eremul's similarities to Jezal, Logen and Glokta are thankfully only superficial), the similar black and self-aware humour and some the language, most notably their mutual enjoyment of the word 'fruits' as a euphemism. Indeed, if you enjoy the works of Abercrombie, I can unreservedly recommend The Grim Company with no hesitation.

For those who are less keen, Scull uses magic in a more interesting manner, and his worldbuilding craft is certainly stronger, but it's likely that if you are really not a fan of Abercrombie and the more recent similar eruption of similar fantasies, this will not do a lot to impress you. The author is certainly aware of the pool he's swimming in, and occasionally seems to lampoon it, but it's also not an outright satire of the genre and does play a lot of the tropes straight (though, refreshingly, his female characters are as well-portrayed as his male and that most overused of 'grimdark' plot devices, rape, is kept for the most part off-page, though not unmentioned).

The Grim Company (****) is an energetic and well-written dark fantasy debut. It doesn't steer far from familiar waters, but it combines standard tropes and ideas into a more than satisfying whole. The novel is available now in the UK and on import in the USA.

If you are in the UK, you can also download a massive free sample (approximating about two-thirds of the full novel) here.

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red snow Council Member

red snow

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Skyrim? Seems to be the closest fit.

Yeah, I was thinking that too but I heard skyrim is far more sprawling with less of a main story driving the game? Red dead redemption has one of the most satisfying arcs I've played in a game without it getting bogged down in detail. I should give skyrim a go someday (when unemployed) - if only to experience one of those epic glitches that constantly show up on "game fails"

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beniowa Council Member

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I know it's listed, but as of right now it says "notify me" and not "add to cart" or whatever.

Weird; mine says add to basket.

polishgenius, are you in the US? I've had this issue before, where the book was originally available on BD, but then all of sudden it wasn't. One time I was lucky enough to pre-order before they changed it, but it took quite a while for me to get the book. I think it's some issue of selling to the US because the other time the book later picked up a US publisher and it's like BD can't sell to US customers if it's available by other means or something. I could be wrong though.

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polishgenius Council Member

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I'm not, no. That would make sense.

I guess it's a case of holding back the North American release altogether, but it is a bit naff that a site built on shipping anywhere no longer does so. Bloody Amazon takeover.

Anyway, I've finished the book now and it's a very good finale. Like Wert says, there's elements of Mistborn to the plot, but it's better written than that. Some of the characters veer a touch too far into caricature for my tastes, but it pulls together in the end. And while there's a self-contained plot in here, it certainly sets up some hints of coming plots, some of which are very interesting indeed (I'm particularly looking forward to the fruits of Isaac's plot).

FAO the author; is this set as a trilogy, or is there potential for more after that's done? There's certainly a lot of material in this world.

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Zorral Council Member

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I kind of want a fantasy that isn't trying to be meta or winking at me.

So far that's one of the things about The Red Knight that I really don't like. It throws you out of immersion, and then, perhaps not the author's intent at all, makes you compare what he's doing with what he's referencing. There's just a bit of "Aren't I o sly aren't I cunning don't you just love it" that is deeply annoying.

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DaveSumm Council Member

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I'm only two chapters in, but so far I'm loving how swiftly it provides the backdrop to everything. A lot of fantasy seems to go for cheap mysteries early on so you have to guess exactly how and where and why everything's happening. Less then 20 pages and I know what's going on, the historical context, the lands relation to the rest of civilisation, the system under which they live, the role magic plays.

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peterbound Council Member

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I'm only two chapters in, but so far I'm loving how swiftly it provides the backdrop to everything. A lot of fantasy seems to go for cheap mysteries early on so you have to guess exactly how and where and why everything's happening. Less then 20 pages and I know what's going on, the historical context, the lands relation to the rest of civilisation, the system under which they live, the role magic plays.

Those are called infodumps. Usually not a good thing.

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polishgenius Council Member

polishgenius

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Those are called infodumps. Usually not a good thing.

Na, it's more elegant than that.

Dammit, you can only download the audiobook off of Audible if you live in the UK! Why are UK publishers so much better on release dates?

Various reasons; afaik one of the most common ones is that the UK is, obviously, much smaller, so a publisher can create enough books for the market faster. I'm fairly certain (it's possible that someone mentioned it in this topic, though I may be thinking of another book...) that in this case it'll be exacerbated by the fact that the UK release is by a new, small publisher who's apparently made it a flagship release, whereas elsewhere it's a big publishing house who'll likely have a publishing schedule that this will have to fit into.

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red snow Council Member

red snow

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Na, it's more elegant than that.

Various reasons; afaik one of the most common ones is that the UK is, obviously, much smaller, so a publisher can create enough books for the market faster. I'm fairly certain (it's possible that someone mentioned it in this topic, though I may be thinking of another book...) that in this case it'll be exacerbated by the fact that the UK release is by a new, small publisher who's apparently made it a flagship release, whereas elsewhere it's a big publishing house who'll likely have a publishing schedule that this will have to fit into.

Are physical sale still the largest slice of the pie? I can understand a publisher concentrating on a small and lucrative market first and build up to a US release, for the reasons you state, but in terms of digital with audio and ebooks the logistics don't seem that bad. Other than marketing which I'm sure does cost a lot.

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Werthead Council Member

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Yeah, I was thinking that too but I heard skyrim is far more sprawling with less of a main story driving the game? Red dead redemption has one of the most satisfying arcs I've played in a game without it getting bogged down in detail. I should give skyrim a go someday (when unemployed) - if only to experience one of those epic glitches that constantly show up on "game fails"

Skyrim has two 'main' plot threads - the civil war and the Dragonborn saving the world thing - and a then a substantial number of plot arcs related to the guilds, as well as several hundred stand-alone missions and quests. The main storyline does propel the story forwards fairly well, though it's also quite cliched. It does hold the other game elements together quite successfully. It's nowhere near as sophisticated as the main narrative in Fallout: New Vegas, though, which actually adapts to how you play with multiple different outcomes available (Skyrim basically allows you to save the world as a good guy or save the world as an arsehole, but the actual events fall out exactly the same).

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