ar is abroad in the unnamed lands of Finlay's excellent debut novel. Castle Gruethirst is falling, and from its burning timbers flee two adults and an infant. Xaragitte is wet nurse to the royal heir, Claye; Yvon is their soldierly protector. They hope to find refuge in the neighboring castle of a relative. But to do so, they must traverse a land in chaos. Invading Baron Culufre and his troops—including awesome "war mammuts"—range up and down, seeking to destroy remnants of Lord Gruethirst's forces. Also, magical dangers threaten, such as river demons. And purely natural menaces abound—like trolls.
After many close calls, Yvon and Xaragitte finally lose possession of Claye to a mother troll who is mourning the recent death of her own baby. This troll, Windy, adopts Claye against the wishes of her tribe. Now begins Claye's upbringing in the ways of the trolls. Undersized and underpowered by troll standards, Claye will come to rely on his wits and human agility to maintain his place in the pack. He grows up firmly believing in his own trollhood, while at the same time recognizing his differences. He eventually becomes a valued asset to his dwindling people, although still abhorred by some ignorant members. When he reaches his adulthood, he attempts to become leader of the tribe. Failing this, he departs to seek a birthright he only dimly apprehends.
Among mankind, Claye—or Maggot, to use his troll name—has much to learn. He first casts his lot with the aboriginal inhabitants of the land, the Wyndans, who are attempting to drive out Culufre's people, who have brutally colonized the region for 20 years now. But when the Wyndan revolt fails, Claye journeys to Culufre's main city, where he will finally confront the man who initially launched him on his strange destiny.
More than Tarzan of the trolls
Charles Coleman Finlay has been publishing excellent stories in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction for the past several years. But even those gems provided scant hints of the casket of treasures that await the reader in this sophisticated and deftly crafted debut novel. Finlay has plainly made a spectacular jump into a new stage of his career, which will hopefully be a long and productive one.
Finlay's tale places him strongly in the Gene Wolfe camp of fantasy: a school of fiction where tawdry, tired talismans are junked in favor of simpler, deeper, more emotionally and spiritually resonant tropes. Iconic, archetypical, this kind of fantasy reads almost like a medieval morality play, or a primeval fairy tale. Yet it does not sacrifice the virtues of modern imaginary subcreations, secondary universes: Rather, it restores them to their original luster.
Finlay's world is quite simple in its construction. There's just enough inventive mythology and religion provided to give an air of estrangement. The politics and cultural data are kept lean and presented in a clear manner. Where the real strength of this book lies is in the hero's life journey and the characters he meets on the way. Finlay's trolls have a culture and mindset all their own, and it's portrayed brilliantly. Claye's blend of humanity and trollishness is likewise spotlighted well. His personal conquests and failures, and the mythopoeic shape of his life, cohere to make a gripping tale.
I must confess that I found the first half of the book more fascinating than the second. The broken hegira of Claye and his guardians is very suspenseful, even though the reader can fairly assume that Yvon and Xaragitte are fated to die. This portion of the book reads like Jerzy Kosinksi's famous classic of wartime survival, The Painted Bird (1965). Additionally, the work of genre writer Adam Roberts, who is often concerned with the brutalities of war, comes favorably to mind. Then we get the centerpiece of the book, Claye's Tarzan-like childhood. There's just so much funny, witty, melancholy material here that the later sections involving human squabbling and Claye's part in these affairs come across as more mundane. But even here, there's a kind of Michael Valentine Smith riff to sustain us as Claye strives to adapt to the confusing human culture.
Like Philip Jose Farmer, Finlay seems intent on investing pulp structures and heroes (Claye is rather like Conan when he's among the Wyndans) with new vigor and intellectual heft. It's a winning tactic.
