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Orcs in the Hills
Issue 2 - Online Edition Return to the Contents Page
Go Back to the Previous Article - Continue on to the Next Article A short book review by Steve Blease. 
"It is the final years of the 18th century, but a world which few would recognise. The people of Europe shleter in small islands of safet, havens from the enchanted wilderness - the strange boundless forest men call the Tumble.
It is across this demon haunted ladscape that the lowborn officer Taliesin must lead his men, caught up in the deadliest of intrigues while fighting wars for a noble class which despises him.
With vicious murderes from the worst gutters in the Realm marching behind him, and the forces of the most powerful nations on the mainland arrayed against him, the odds are stacked against Taliesin. Heavily.
Yet he will fight on, battling armies, weirdsmen sorcerers, assassins, beastmen and cross into the face of hell itself.
Not for loyalty, or a grudging respect for his scheming monarch - not even for the small mountain of silver the Island Queen has promised him if he succeeds.
But because fighting is all he and his hard pressed band of cut-throats and thieves have ever known."
Stephen Hunt's For The Crown & The Dragon is the first book in the Triple-Realm series and may well appeal to Flintloque gamers looking to use an alternative background to the world of Valon, or just for some inspiration.
Centred heavily around the character of Taliesin a low born one-eyed officer of the Triple-Realm's army and his unit of Dragonbrown's (foot skirmishers) and thier mission to recover their Queen's sister from a distant land.
The character of Taliesin is akin to Cornwell's Richard Sharpe who appears to have been a major influence, which in itself is no bad thing. The other characters are generally stereotyped, but by and large work well and are quite convincing.
The only real problem with the novel is Hunt's ambition. He has some good characters, a good background and some great ideas. Unfortunately he just tries to cram too much into the three hundred and sixty pages. Taliesin and his men are continually moving from one strage land and situation to another so quickly that eventually it ceases to hold the readers interest, Hunt failing to allow the reader to settle and experience fully his excellent ideas.
That said the book is only the first part of a story and awaits a sequel to allow us to see whether Taliesin succeeds in his mission! I feel Stephen Hunt would have been better served to either visit less of the lands in his fantasy realm in the frst book and use them in later works or make his story into a trilogy or bigger if necessary.
I think Flintloque gamers will like the book and gain inspiration from it. It ain't Bernard Cornwell, but the opening chapters at the siege of Drum Draiocht are very good reading, with scenarios just itching to be turned into a Flintloque scenario.
Overall certainly worth reading, the major disappointment being that the many fine ideas deserved to be better treated.
Orcs in the Hills
Issue 2 - Online Edition Return to the Contents Page
Go Back to the Previous Article - Continue on to the Next Article Webmaster's Notes
This was originally published in the second issue Orcs in the Hills in the Spring of 1996 by Wessex Games. For the Crown and the Dragon was Stephen Hunt's first fantasy novel, published in 1994. It introduced a young officer, Taliesin, fighting for the Queen of England in a Napoleonic period alternative reality where the wars of Europe were being fought with sorcery and steampunk weapons (airships, clockwork machine guns, and steam-driven trucks called kettle-blacks). The book was reviewed by Andrew Darlington who used it to first coin the phrase Flintlock Fantasy, describing the sub-genre of fantasy set in a Regency or Napoleonic-era period. Sadly Hunt never returned to the Triple-Realm setting to finish Taliesin's tale... However, Hunt did go on to create a new series (currently standing at five published works) of novels set in a Victorian-esque world with the addition of magic in various forms and where steam power, rather than oil, drives the economy. These books also provide many scenarios and campaign ideas for the Flintloque gamer and are a damned good read to boot. |
