I found The Dragons of Deepwood Fen to be strong in the areas of plot, world building, action and the involvement of two of the main characters. It's an epic fantasy, make no mistake, and it has a considerable amount of complexity and switching points of view. It's a fairly good example of a modern epic. But I also found there were some "rough edges", and it could have done with some improvement in the areas of fantasy creature aesthetics (let's face it, that's one of the main things fans love the most!) and style/narrative elements.
The backdrop is a long history of conflict between an unscrupulous empire and its would-be vassal, the people of the Holt, the Kin. The story centers around a number of heroic main characters and also several horrid villains. Ryland is a spy/thief masquerading as a "dragon singer". I found that Ryland was the most interesting character, as he must navigate between two worlds, that of the Kin and the Holt (including their freedom fighters, the Red Knives) and the empire and the city of Ancris. Rhiannon is a teenage prodigy of the Holt folk, her skills with magic craft making her a pivotal character who must choose between support for her resurrected mother and her own conscience. Lorelei is a inquisitor of the empire, who must find her way through the political knots around her to uncover and fight for the truth.
These characters must struggle against a hypocritical Church of the empire, which has been compromised by an evil god, Faedryn, who has been imprisoned but is sending out his sinister will in order to escape. The history of the empire is bound up with the Church of Alra, full of war, many lies and oppression. I thought the Hissing Man was a detestably good cloak-and-dagger villain, who serves the Church in morally dubious ways. There is also the ruthless Llorn and his extremist followers of the Red Knives to face.
This novel definitely has its moments: particularly the magic and ideas behind the "vyrds", which are Stonehenge-like portals allowing faster travel. The magic system with its concept of duality and light/dark powers behind everything is well thought out. Some of the interior scenes and the characters interactions and the atmosphere established were effective too. I also enjoyed the action sequences like dragon battles, brawls and chases quite a lot.
But there was also room for improvement. I thought the plot and storytelling components were a mix of grimdark, traditional epic fantasy and oddly, cosy fantasy. Blending some of these together meant some of the story didn't quite gel for me. Likewise with some foul language and darkly explicit violence, which probably didn't suit the rest of the story. And treating dragons, the staple of fantasy creatures these days, like cute, unusually intelligent, adorable dogs was an unusual technique. It might work in middle-school novels like How to Train Your Dragon, but in a story for adults or older teenagers...? And I thought some of the details could be clearer, and as part of the long story readers could do with some reminders of who a character mentioned earlier was; for example, I had forgotten who Yeriel actually was by the time she actually turned up.
This book is focused on plot, but it is a long and slow story. Sometimes there is just too much going on. One of the main issues I had were that some of the characters (Azariah, Rhiannon, Lorelei) failed to really capture my interest and imagination. And it's apparent sometimes how Beaulieu borrows bit of other authors' ideas and styles. In a crowded epic fantasy market, readers might expect a bit more for a new book to make into the "top tier".
Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus publishers for an ARC of this book.
Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)
⭐⭐⭐
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