Review: Blackwing by Ed McDonald
Blurb:
Set on a postapocalyptic frontier, Blackwing is a gritty fantasy debut about a man’s desperate battle to survive his own dark destiny...
Hope, reason, humanity: the Misery breaks them all.
Under its cracked and wailing sky, the Misery is a vast and blighted expanse, the arcane remnant of a devastating war with the immortals known as the Deep Kings. The war ended nearly a century ago, and the enemy is kept at bay only by the existence of the Engine, a terrible weapon that protects the Misery’s border. Across the corrupted no-man’s-land teeming with twisted magic and malevolent wraiths, the Deep Kings and their armies bide their time. Watching. Waiting.
Bounty hunter Ryhalt Galharrow has breathed Misery dust for twenty bitter years. When he’s ordered to locate a masked noblewoman at a frontier outpost, he finds himself caught in the middle of an attack by the Deep Kings, one that signifies they may no longer fear the Engine. Only a formidable show of power from the very woman he is seeking, Lady Ezabeth Tanza, repels the assault.
Ezabeth is a shadow from Galharrow’s grim past, and together they stumble onto a web of conspiracy that threatens to end the fragile peace the Engine has provided. Galharrow is not ready for the truth about the blood he’s spilled or the gods he’s supposed to serve…
Review:
A brilliant dark fantasy story about finding hope in a world of misery.
In a recent post on the Grimdark Fiction Readers and Writers FB page, Ed McDonald revealed that his ongoing series, The Redwinter Chronicles, is set in the same world as his debut series, the Raven’s Mark. I read the Raven’s Mark trilogy a few years back and still rank it as one of the best series in the fantasy genre. So, with this recent revelation, I decided to give The Redwinter Chronicles a go, but not before revisiting the story of Ryhalt Galharrow one more time. Does it still live up to how I remembered it? Absolutely.
Blackwing begins with a trip to the Misery, the desolate wasteland that lies between the City States of Dortmark under the protection of the callous Nameless and the vast enslaved empire of the Deep Kings. These two demigod groups have waged a brutal war on each other for longer than recorded history, with the fate of humanity on the table. From the get go, McDonald introduces readers to a gritty and violent world where life is fleeting and cruel, and there are fates far worse than death. The landscape and denizens of the Misery attest to that. From glass grass that will bleed you to death before you realise you stepped on it and the stalking manifestations of dead loved ones, to mutated monstrosities that as much victims as they are predators and bruised mystifying moons that will be perplexed even the savviest of navigators, the Misery is a harsh and twisted place, the equivalent of a nuclear wasteland mixed with hell. McDonald does an excellent job of bringing it to life in all its miserable glory. Everyone hates it but readers will most definitely love it. It is as much a character itself as the ones that dare enter it.
Enter Ryhalt Galharrow, an ex-soldier who now works as an agent of the Nameless known as Crowfoot, whose preferred method of communication is to have a messenger bird burst from Galharrow’s tattooed arm. When not cleaning up the bloody mess, Galharrow’s main job involves hunting down sympathisers to the Cult of the Deep Kings and doing whatever Crowfoot tells him. He can be quite ruthless, which is easily understandable considering his obligations and the pain of working for such a merciless boss. With that said, there is so much more to him which readers will discover as McDonald gradually peels back the hardened layers of Misery dust to reveal a good but deeply traumatised man haunted by the ghosts of his past. Galharrow’s characterisation is wonderfully executed.
The same can also be said for the secondary characters. Like Crowfoot, Galharrow has his agents of his own, with the hard-edged Nenn and the laid-back navigator Tnota foremost among them. Nenn is the muscle, Tnota is the conscience, and both play significant roles in keeping Galharrow going even when everything goes to hell. I really enjoyed the friendship dynamic here, especially when all three were on the page at the same time. Speaking of relationships, perhaps the most vital one and driving force behind everything Galharrow does is that of Ezabeth Tanza, who steps right out of Galharrow’s distant past and turns his world upside down. Blackwing is a lot of things but at its core, it is very much a love story, one that pulls at the reader’s heart strings time and time again.
Speaking of cores, another aspect of Blackwing that makes it such a great read is the mystery lying at its centre – Nall’s Engine. The magical WMD acts as the only deterrent to the encroaching Deep Kings but when it malfunctions, it is up to Galharrow and Tanza to find out why. What follows is an entertaining mystery case filled with plenty of intrigue and shocking revelations. The entire last 100 pages are just excellent as McDonald ups the stakes and hits readers with so many jaw-dropping moments. Woven into these is a culmination of different types of magics that are both menacing and terrifying which will leave a lasting impression on readers. I much prefer soft magic systems as they create another layer of mystery to fantasy which McDonald does with expert precision.
In conclusion, Blackwing is a brilliant dark fantasy story about finding hope in a world of misery. This is my second time to read it, this time choosing to listen to Colin Mace’s excellent narration, and I enjoyed every moment of it. From the wonderfully-realised Misery to the expert execution of Galharrow and his companions’ characterisation, there is so much here that readers will enjoy and I strongly recommend you do so.
