FantasyBøger

For de af jer, der følger lidt med herinde, er det nok ikke nogen hemmelighed, at jeg godt kan lide min fantasy dyster og gritty. Det kan dog indimellem være lidt vanskeligt at finde nye fantasy bøger af tilstrækkelig rå og brutal kaliber, uden at karaktertegningen og historiens og universets originalitet går tabt, men nu tror jeg rent faktisk, at det er lykkedes mig at finde en fantasyserie, hvor det lige præcis lykkes at kombinere disse elementer med en knaldhård storyline og et præcist og barberet sprog. Jeg faldt nemlig over en anmeldelse af Paul Kearneys Macht trilogi, hvor det bliver slået fast med modbydeligt rustne syvtommersøm, at her er der tale om fantasy, som formår at kombinere in-your-face-realistisk action med udfoldede karakterskildringer og en slutning, der ikke er ubetinget lykkelig. Det lyder i mine ører temmelig lovende, så lige så snart jeg får tid, skal jeg helt sikkert have fat i Paul Kearneys Macht-trilogi. Serien omfatter følgende titler:

The Ten Thousand (2008)
Corvus (2010)
Kings of Morning (2012)

Her er et uddrag af ovennævnte anmeldelse:

In this way it is very similar to Deadhouse Gates. A long journey filled with constant threat of attack and several battles leave the survivors at the end of the book well short of the number that entered. Life is cheap here, and Kearney writes his characters in and out of the story with little regard for their heroism or the reader’s attachment.

This does not mean that Kearney did not care himself for the characters, for why are they there if he did not? But he knows how to write a realistic venture by fourteen thousand mercenaries and the likelihood that all fourteen thousand, or even the handpicked dozen or so that get point of view time with the reader, will make it to the end unscathed and alive.

Right up until the end of the book Kearney is given opportunity time and time again to write a happy ending, but doggedly refuses all the way. By the end I was left heartbroken and angry, frustrated that the characters that I had grown so attached to in such a short amount of time were being left literally by the wayside. I understand why, it’s realistic and what would happen, but I didn’t want it to happen. I loved them too much.