Across the Face of the World / Russell Kirkpatrick

I really want to like this book. In a lot of ways I do like this book. However, before I do like this book let’s go back to I hate fantasy! and check a few things. Length: 671 pages in the A.R.C. Series: Check! With an abrupt transition at the end of this book. Elitism: Not really. Not in book one at least. One plus for this book at least. Prophesy: In spades! Medieval: Oh yeah! Rural idyll: In a couple of places, but also a few places of hard work and open sewers. Ponderous: Not quite to the limit that Tolkien established, but this book is up there.

Looks like Russell Kirkpatrick hit a home run on five out of seven at bats. Gonna be pretty tough for me to like it. In fact, I highly doubt I will read the remaining books in the series The Fire of Heaven. This was just too much of a slog.

There are some strong points though. Kirkpatrick’s non-fantasy background is in map-making. He’s got a couple of atlases under his belt even. According to his web site, he spent a significant chunk of time working out the map of the Faltha (the name of the part of the world where this story takes place) before he really set in to writing the story. It shows. Most fantasy books have a map. Most of those maps are little more than napkin sketches from the author dressed up by a professional artist. Kirkpatrick’s maps look like National Geographic topographical maps. Unfortunately, the most detailed maps are of the North March of Firanes, the starting point for the quest of the Company. Within but a few chapters, they’ve left that behind. I have an Advance Readers Copy, so I hope that the final version covers the other area much better. I don’t hold out much hope though, because even Kirkpatrick’s web site doesn’t have a map of Withwestra, which is where these folks spend perhaps 1/3 of the book. It’s a testament to either Kirkpatrick’s map making skills or my desire for maps that I wish these were there.

Okay, time for the capsule synopsis for Across the Face of the World. Mahnum is a Trader. This means he has the skills to travel from town to town seeking profits in often unfamiliar and hostile places. Brought out of retirement by the king of Firanes (one of the sixteen kingdoms of Faltha), Mahnum travels to Bhrudwo, land of Faltha’s ancient but lately only legendary enemies. He’s to find out if something is up. There is! And so Mahnum returns to his home of Loulea with Bhrudwo soldiers in hot pursuit. There they recapture him (and his wife) and burn down Mahnum’s house, leaving his sons Hal and Leith to die in the fire. But they don’t! Assembling a motley small Company to challenge the soldiers, Hal the cripple and Leith the barely adolescent follow several days behind. Their quest: catch up to the soldiers, free their parents, capture a Bhrudwan (killing the others), and transport him to Instruere the de facto capital of Faltha to warn the kingdoms of the impending invasion. They will add members to the Company along the way, making it even more motley, and lose a few too.

I liked the five characters who started off in Loulea. Hal the older adopted son, a cripple, but wise beyond his years. Leith the confused adolescent. Kurr the farmer who is also a member of the Falthan version of the Freemasons. The Haufuth of Loulea, the fat village headman who actually has some leadership capability. And lastly, Stella, Leith’s unrequited love interest who stumbles on the other four as they prepare to leave and is taken with to protect the secrecy of their quest. I didn’t really like many of the other characters however. They never seemed to have much depth to them.

Much like Tolkien’s work seems like an excuse for Tolkien to force his readers to learn songs and poems in languages that Tolkien himself made up, a lot of Across the Face of the World seems merely an excuse to describe geography. The geography is impressive, but it leaves the story pretty flat and derivative of a billion other swords and sorcery fantasy novels.

Title: Across he face of the world
Author: Russell Kirkpatrick
Cover artist: Steve Stone
Series: The fire of heaven ; 1
Imprint / publisher: Orbit / Hachette
Format: Advance readers copy (Mass market paperback)
Length: 701 p. (includes glossary and maps)
Publication date: January 2008
ISBN-10: 0-316-00341-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-316-00341-4