seiberwing

So. Um. Apparently I owe Black Library a bit of an apology for any previous insults I might have directed at its chosen genre.

I just got done with Dan Abnett's Warhammer novel Fell Cargo. Its cover promises "Zombies, pirates and dark fantasy adventure on the high seas!" and delivers on all three, although the zombies take their goodly time in getting there. And to my surprise, and my chagrin when I picked it as a soothing read during a sleepless night, it's actually pretty good. Fell Cargo hits both my pirate buttons and my fantasy buttons.

The characters are interesting, and everyone's got their own little personality traits and at least some scrap of description or backstory even if they're only there to die in the next chapter. And there's a ship's worth of characters, too, to the point where I had trouble telling who was who--but admittedly that's a problem I have in the real world so you probably shouldn't take my word for it. The little details of the world-building are awesome, particularly in the area of the pirate traditions, superstitions, and culture.

While the scenes themselves are a lot of fun, the problem comes in addressing the book as a whole. The plot doesn't really flow all that well and it seems more like the characters move around from encounter to encounter rather than follow a linear story. It makes them resemble an overly large RPG party meandering about the high seas looking for their quest item while the DM throws random encounters of monsters or treachery at them. Things don't slow down a great deal between dramatic fights, and I think the story could have stood to be stretched out a bit with moments of stillness between the fight scenes and dramatic statements. ...then again, this is Warhammer and I may be missing the point by asking for less fighting. It's still a fun read, though, and I'll probably go through it again when my soft brain has had time to forget some of the details.

My one irritation was the tendency of the author to spell things unorthodoxly, either in some attempt to sound more authentic (cut-lass? Really?) or to sound more exotic (Arabya?). The novel obviously takes place in a fantastical alternate universe but when your stand-ins for Italy, Spain and wherever in Africa Tende is supposed to be from are this obvious it seems to be one might as well call them by their Earth names. However, this sounds more likely to be a trait of the Warhammer universe as a whole and not the author's choice in the matter.

...also, there is one particular part that just made me wince.

"What do you see in these dreams?"

Roque shook his head. "I have not the words, Sesto. No words to do it justice. [...] Is that what is to come, Sesto? A grim darkness of the far future where there is only war?"

Really, Mr. Abnett? Was this necessary? It's a dramatic scene and you throw me out of the story by the scruff of the neck by a shoutout to your employers. Bad form.

I'd be interested in seeing more of this setting, but I get the impression that Fell Cargo is the only novel of its breed and the rest take place on land rather than out in the open seas. Recommendations in this area would still be appreciated--ideally ones that are on the low end of the grimdark spectrum. Fell Cargo had its nasty parts and copious amounts of death but I felt it was on the whole an optimistic book that managed a decent balance between the power of the forces of nasty and the ability of strong people to actually do something against the nastiness.