Corvis Rebaine — (2010-2011) Publisher: With The Conqueror's Shadow, Ari Marmell brings a welcome seasoning of wit to the genre, proving that dark fantasy can address the enduring questions of good and evil and still retain a sense of humor. Playful yet intense, sharply sarcastic yet deeply sincere, The Conqueror's Shadow announces the appearance of a unique talent — and an antihero like no other. They called him the Terror of the East. His past shrouded in mystery, his identity hidden beneath a suit of enchanted black armor and a skull-like helm, Corvis Rebaine carved a bloody path through Imphallion, aided by Davro, a savage ogre, and Seilloah, a witch with a taste for human flesh. No shield or weapon could stop his demon-forged axe. And no magic could match the spells of his demon slave, Khanda.
Yet just when ultimate victory was in his grasp, Rebaine faltered. His plans of conquest, born from a desire to see Imphallion governed with firmness and honesty, shattered. Amid the chaos of a collapsing army, Rebaine vanished, taking only a single hostage — the young noblewoman Tyannon — to guarantee his escape.
Seventeen years later, Rebaine and Tyannon are married, living in obscurity and raising their children, a daughter and a son. Rebaine has put his past behind him, given up his dreams of conquest. Not even news of Audriss — an upstart warlord following Rebaine's old path of conquest — can stir the retired warrior to action.
Until his daughter is assaulted by Audriss's goons.
Now, to rescue the country he once tried to conquer, Rebaine once more dons the armor of the Terror of the East and seeks out his former allies. But Davro has become a peaceful farmer. Seilloah has no wish to leave her haunted forest home. And Khanda... well, to describe his feelings for his former master as undying hatred would be an understatement.
But even if Rebaine can convince his onetime comrades to join him, he faces a greater challenge: Does he dare to reawaken the part of him that gloried in cruelty, blood, and destruction? With the safety of his family at stake, can he dare not to?
 
 The Conqueror's Shadow
CLASSIFICATION: Combining lighthearted humor and graphic violence with both traditional fantasy tropes and trope-breaking twists, The Conqueror’s Shadow is what would happen if you took Dungeons & Dragons and crossed it with the writing styles of David Eddings and Joe Abercrombie.
FORMAT/INFO: The Conqueror’s Shadow is 448 pages long divided over 28 numbered chapters, a Prologue, and an Epilogue. Narration is in the third-person via several major and supporting characters, but the book mostly focuses on Corvis Rebaine. The Conqueror’s Shadow is self-contained, but a sequel is expected to be released next year.
February 23, 2010 marks the North American Hardcover publication of The Conqueror’s Shadow via Bantam Spectra. Cover art provided by Larry Rostant.
ANALYSIS: In addition to his experience with shared worlds, Ari Marmell also has an extensive history writing for role-playing games, and it shows in his Bantam Spectra debut, The Conqueror’s Shadow, which is rife with such common fantasy conventions as demons, ogres, gnomes, conquering warlords, sorcerers, mercenaries, spellbooks, magic weapons and armor, haunted forests, vampires, et cetera. Normally this kind of a fantasy novel wouldn’t hold my interest for long, but The Conqueror’s Shadow has several things going for it which made reading the book a pleasurable experience.
For one, The Conqueror’s Shadow never takes itself too seriously. Instead, Ari Marmell understands that his book is teeming with fantasy tropes and uses every opportunity to poke fun at them or turn them on their head, like Corvis Rebaine who is depicted as a villain in the prologue, only to be revealed as the novel’s hero. On top of that, The Conqueror’s Shadow is one of the more humorous fantasy novels you’ll find, thanks to the incessant banter of the characters:
“You tell him, you raging font of fury, you!”
“How many times do I have to order you to shut up, Khanda?”
“At least one more, obviously.”
The only problem I had with the humor is that it can be overly lighthearted, especially when compared to how graphic some of the book’s violence can get. After all, I find it a bit disorienting when the author doesn’t use words like ‘shit’ or ‘bastard’, but has no problem with exploding bodies.
Secondly, The Conqueror’s Shadow is a well-written novel. Characters may lack depth, but are extremely likable; prose is crisp; the pacing is terrific; the story is well-executed apart from a couple of missteps; and the author strikes a nice balance of humor, action and epic fantasy. Of course, this isn’t too surprising since Ari Marmell already has extensive experience as a writer, but for his first completely original novel, I thought Ari nailed it on the head writing-wise.
Thirdly, I loved the interludes that precede every chapter except for the first one. Primarily flashbacks, these short interludes — usually one to three pages long — not only provide insight into the book’s many different characters (Corvis, Tyannon, Davro, Seilloah, Valescienn, Audriss, Jassion, Duke Lorum, Nathaniel Espa, Rheah Vhoune), their relationships with one another, and the motivations behind their actions, but they also offer a refreshing break from the main narrative, and I eagerly looked forward to reading the next one.
Finally, The Conqueror’s Shadow is just a lot of fun to read. Part of it’s because of the lighthearted humor, the likable characters, and the engrossing action, but it also has to do with the novel’s accessibility. The Conqueror’s Shadow, basically, is the kind of novel that is easy to pick up and get started, and even easier to get lost in. Plus, the book has the potential to appeal to a wide range of different readers, including fans of Dungeons & Dragons-type fantasy, humorous fantasy, and fantasy with a twist. Best of all, The Conqueror’s Shadow is self-contained. Sure, there’s supposed to be a sequel next year, but The Conqueror’s Shadow possesses a definite beginning, middle, and end, and leaves the reader completely satisfied, which is refreshing in this day and age when the fantasy book market is dominated by multi-volume epics and cliffhanger endings.
Negatively, I already mentioned the characters lacking depth and the couple of missteps with the story’s execution, but there are also issues with a plot that requires little brainpower to follow, world-building that is practically nonexistent, and undeveloped themes. Fortunately, The Conqueror’s Shadow gets away with such shortcomings because of the type of book it is. Too much world-building, characterization or in-depth thematic discussions, and the novel's level of enjoyment would probably have lessened.
CONCLUSION: In the end, Ari Marmell’s The Conqueror’s Shadow was a major surprise. After all, I wasn’t sure I would enjoy reading The Conqueror’s Shadow, based on the comparison to David Eddings (an author I’ve outgrown), the talk of humor (which I only like in moderation, especially in fantasy), and the author’s background in shared worlds (a genre that I admit holds little appeal to me). But I did enjoy it. Very much. In fact, The Conqueror’s Shadow is one of the most enjoyable fantasy books that I’ve read in a long time, and I sincerely hope Ari Marmell serves up more of the same in his next novel.
—Robert Thompson
 The Warlord’s Legacy
PLOT SUMMARY: Corvis Rebaine, the Terror of the East, is no hero. In his trademark suit of black armor and skull-like helm, armed with a demon-forged axe, in command of a demonic slave, and with allies that include a bloodthirsty ogre, Rebaine has twice brought death and destruction to Imphallion in pursuit of a better, more equitable and just society. If he had to kill countless innocents in order to achieve that dream, so be it.
At least that was the old Rebaine. Before he slew the mad warlord Audriss. Before he banished the demon Khanda. Before he lost his wife and children, who could not forgive or forget his violent crimes. Now, years later, Rebaine lives in a distant city, under a false name, a member of one of the Guilds he despises, trying to achieve change nonviolently, from within the power structure.
Not even when the neighboring nation of Cephira invades Imphallion and the bickering Guilds prove unable to respond does Rebaine return to his old habits of slaughter. But someone else does. Someone wearing Rebaine’s black armor and bearing what appears to be his axe. Someone who is, if anything, even less careful of human life than Rebaine was.
Now Baron Jassion, Rebaine’s old nemesis, is hunting him once more, aided by a mysterious sorcerer named Kaleb, whose powers and secrets make him a more dangerous enemy than Rebaine has ever known. Even worse, accompanying them is a young woman who hates Corvis Rebaine perhaps more than anyone else: his own daughter, Mellorin. Suddenly Rebaine seems to have no choice. To clear his name, to protect his country, and to reconcile with his family, must he once again become the Terror of the East?
CLASSIFICATION: Like The Conqueror’s Shadow, The Warlord’s Legacy combines traditional sword & sorcery with graphic violence and humor that is both sarcastic and lighthearted. Think Dungeons & Dragons meets David Eddings meets Joe Abercrombie...
FORMAT/INFO: The Warlord’s Legacy is 384 pages long divided over twenty-three numbered chapters and an Epilogue. Narration is in the third-person via several different point-of-views, including Corvis Rebaine, Kaleb, Baron Jassion of Braetlyn, Salia Mavere of the Blacksmiths’ Guild, Baroness Irrial of Rahariem, Mellorin, Seilloah, Ellowaine, etc. The Warlord’s Legacy takes place six years after the end of The Conqueror’s Shadow, but can be read on its own, although I would recommend finishing The Conqueror’s Shadow first in order to get the most out of The Warlord’s Legacy. January 25, 2011 marks the North American Hardcover publication of The Warlord’s Legacy via Bantam Spectra. Cover art is once again provided by Larry Rostant. The UK version will be published on March 10, 2011 via Gollancz.
ANALYSIS: For me, The Conqueror’s Shadow by Ari Marmell was one of the biggest and best surprises of 2010, and because I enjoyed the novel so much, I had very high expectations for the sequel. Sadly, The Warlord’s Legacy was a major disappointment...
There are many reasons why I enjoyed The Conqueror’s Shadow, including the humor and the characters and the sword & sorcery action, but above all else, The Conqueror’s Shadow was just a blast to read. The Warlord’s Legacy uses basically the same formula as its predecessor, but the overall tone of the book tries to be more serious than it was in The Conqueror’s Shadow. The problem with this is twofold. For starters, the humor — which was such an important part of The Conqueror’s Shadow — has been significantly toned down in The Warlord’s Legacy. Sure, there are still jokes and sarcasm present in the novel, but I really found myself missing the playfulness of The Conqueror’s Shadow, especially the banter between Corvis Rebaine and the demon Khanda. Of course, considering the more serious tone of The Warlord’s Legacy, the book might have worked better if the author had just done away with any humor altogether.
The bigger issue, though, is with the characters. To be blunt, characterization — specifically in-depth characterization — is not one of Ari Marmell’s strong points, which is a major problem considering the novel pretty much hinges on the difficult moral dilemmas (murdering the lives of thousands for the sake of millions, forsaking his friends and family in order to protect them, etc.) that Corvis Rebaine is constantly dealing with, and the driving motivations behind the people whose lives he has ruined including Jassion, Baroness Irrial, and his very own daughter, Mellorin. Basically, the author provides just enough characterization for readers to understand why Rebaine did what he did, or why Jassion wants revenge, or why Mellorin seeks answers from her father, but not enough to actually care. It’s a real shame, too, considering all of the tragic drama that never lives up to its full potential, from the lives sacrificed by major characters to the transformation of people whose innocence is lost.
Unfortunately, there are other issues with The Warlord’s Legacy, too, starting with a weak plot that rehashes material from The Conqueror’s Shadow, and seems more like an excuse to get Rebaine and former allies and enemies together again than an attempt at an actual story. World-building, meanwhile, is once again non-existent, while the magic (demon-forged weapons, teleportation, mind control, etc.) in the book, though entertaining, is uninventive. Even the interludes — one of the things I loved most about The Conqueror’s Shadow — are disappointing. Instead of providing additional insight or depth to the characters like they did in The Conqueror’s Shadow, the brief flashbacks in The Warlord’s Legacy offer no real value to the novel apart from the occasional plot revelation or advancement.
On the positive side, Ari Marmell is a talented writer with a lot of potential. True, his characterization needs work as does his world-building, and I still can’t believe how feeble the plot was in The Warlord’s Legacy, but in the two books that I’ve read by the author, he’s demonstrated skillful pacing, vivid action sequences, and an ability to entertain the reader. And on top of all that, he’s also shown improvement as a writer, as evidenced by some impressive prose in the sequel. Plus, even though The Warlord’s Legacy was a disappointment, I really liked the way Marmell ended the novel, leaving open the possibility for another sequel featuring a different character.
CONCLUSION: Ari Marmell’s The Conqueror’s Shadow was an almost perfect mix of exciting sword & sorcery action, sarcastic yet lighthearted humor, and nonstop fun. Compared to that, The Warlord’s Legacy is a major letdown, due mainly to a flimsy plot that retreads over familiar territory, characterization that couldn’t live up to the novel’s more somber attitude, and a noticeable lack of playfulness and fun. Despite all of this, I came away impressed with Ari Marmell’s abilities as a writer and hope that his next book, The Goblin Corps, can recapture the magic found in The Conqueror’s Shadow.
—Robert Thompson
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