This has been another enjoyable holiday read for me. In The Last Fang of God, a father (Kalen) and his daughter (Sascha) must journey together through dangers to reach a tree that is sacred to a god, which will grant them a way forward for her future. It's fast paced and features several dastardly villains, dark "skeletons in the closet", action, a neat magical system and engaging, rounded characters.
The story begins in a village where Kalen has been living for many years, making a new life for himself and his family. Inadvertently, he and his daughter, Sascha, must leave their home in the face of her true nature being revealed: she is "called" to the special tree of the fading old god, Vilkas. This is because of her "wolf" clan blood, and she must undergo trials there to meet the potential of her rune-crafting ability. What follows is a quest journey in order to attain the tree.
Both Kalen and Sascha are still dealing with the death of the mother, Embla. They must also face Sascha's blooming abilities and the need for training on the trek. Secrets long kept by her father are disclosed, revealing Kalen's grimdark past, his running from his history of violence and killing, and his own weakness. In part, it's a coming of age story in which Sascha must learn to build trust again with her father. She must reconcile her comfortable, familiar experience of him with his god-granted, formidable killing ability. And Sascha must make the decision to undergo the grueling trials set by Vilkas herself, and handle the issues of taking other lives as her responsibility.
The magical system is solid and revolves around the ideas of arcane runes provided by the gods to certain peoples. These symbols can enhance, heal or conceal the characters, endowing superhuman abilities. Each god's power is contained in a certain area, and is associated with their believers. Some areas like a forest glade provide "sanctuary", and there are mystical, hidden paths between these areas. I very much enjoyed the visits paid to the main characters by these supernatural beings. Their main message is that the world is cruel; this cruelty can be avoided or forgotten for some time, but eventually it will not be denied.
The villains of the story are members of the "scorpion" people, motivated by their darkly vicious god, Kunama. Naga is the first foil for Kalen: he believes his people were betrayed by him, and has sworn revenge for his perceived crimes. It turns out to be tragic how Naga has fallen under sway of a dark god like Kunama, even though he has the martial skill and special abilities to match Kalen. Jolon is the leader of the scorpions, and he provides another more conceited, arrogant foe to face.
The focus/strength of the novel is its fast pace, the exploration of the feelings of the main characters and their dilemmas, and the violent action. However, there was a bit of room for improvement. In the beginning, there are several references to "Bonde" and I was left puzzled for a while until details emerged as to who that was. Descriptions in the story are very minimalist, in regards to people and setting. (I would have liked to be able "see" far more often what the characters were expressing, and their appearance. I found something similar with John Gwynne's first novel.) At times I found the vocabulary a bit limited, for example on one page I encountered the same basic word, "food", three times. And the character, Sascha, seems to have thoughts mainly in relation to males in her life. She's a teenage girl: why didn't she say goodbye to and miss other female friends when she left the village?
This book is apparently a standalone, a fact for which I hope Kirk will change his mind some time. Because I, for one, would really be keen to read more about Kalen and Sascha's experiences.
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)
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