My quest for good fantasy books about clever thieves continues. While searching for more inspiration for the Silver Key, I jumped into the Amazon and tried to look for fantasy stories starring a rogue-like character. After finishing Jack of Thieves, a neat little book called Nightblade popped up as my next recommendation. Though Nightblade is a small part of a much larger expanded literary universe created by Garret Robinson, it still functions quite well as a standalone story. Though I found Jack from Jack of Thieves to be a bit more of a warrior who sometimes sneaks, Loren from Nightblade was exactly what I believe a thief should be.
Blurb
“She has a magic dagger. But she won’t use it to kill.
Loren’s always dreamed of becoming a great thief. One day she gets her chance.
She follows a fugitive wizard out of her forest home. On her back is a noble’s stolen cloak. At her belt is a dagger the world hasn’t seen in centuries.
But something keeps her from ever taking a life.
Soon she crosses path with a family of smugglers. In no time, she’s run off with their most precious treasure.
Now the king’s law AND other criminals want her dead. Wonderful.
If she can survive, Loren may become the most infamous thief in the world.
If she falls, she’ll be only the first to burn in a war that threatens all the nine kingdoms.
” ~ Amazon Product Description by Garret Robinson
Plot
Rating the plot of this book is challenging because it is clearly the beginning of a much larger story. There are currently six books within the Nightblade Epic as of this review with the last book being written in 2017. That being said, I will be rating this book’s plot as a standalone story. If I finish the series, I will post a review of the entire epic as a whole.
The plot of Nightblade is very character driven. The stakes are quite low compared to many other fantasy stories where the fate of an entire nation hangs in the balance. Loren’s story is simply about survival. The one thought that hangs in the reader’s mind throughout the book is if Loren and her new friends are going to survive the next day in an unfamiliar world.
With Loren being so human and completely devoid of magical powers or combat skills, relatively minor obstacles such as becoming separated in a crowded city become far more tense and Robinson’s prose places you in her shoes. You feel as if you are the one lost in the big city. You feel as if you are the one who just walked into a bad neighborhood.
Though the plot’s tension is kept high throughout the story, it is easy to tell you are following in the footsteps of a teenager. Many of the story’s conflicts are caused by miscommunication or misunderstandings. Though it may be realistic, it may have been used a couple more times than necessary for my taste. It can be nice to see a hero lose from time to time, but if it seems like they can never win, the hero’s likeability starts to diminish.
What I truly loved about the plot was the very clever solutions Loren was forced to come up with to solve her problems. Even better, despite her clever ideas, sometimes her plans would still fail, leading to even more tension created with every action. Unlike Jack, Loren has a strict rule against killing and even lacks the strength to fight her pursuers on her own. Cleverness and speed are her only tools and exactly the inspiration I was looking for.
Another personal issue I have with this particular story is the lack of a clear antagonist. There are several characters within this story that are technically antagonists in that they prevent Loren from achieving her goals and threaten her survival, but just like a reader needs a protagonist to latch onto, I feel that readers need a villain to latch onto as well. There can easily be multiple villains in a story, but only one of them should take the center stage each book. Though we do eventually know who the main antagonist of this series will be, it isn’t until the end of the book that you know for sure that particular villain is the one you should care about.
The issues I had with the plot were very minor and likely a symptom of being the first book in a fairly long series. Because of that, I won’t be able to give this single book a five star plot, but it is a strong four star.
Characters
This story’s shining feature is its characters. The main protagonist, Loren, was truly a joy to follow. She is the sole POV character of Nightblade by design. Robertson really wanted the reader to be able to insert themselves into Loren’s shoes and be introduced to his world of Underrealm through fresh young eyes.
Loren is a fully fleshed out character with all her own traumas, quirks, history, and desires. Her mysterious connection to her mystical dagger grants her this dissociation with her own identity. As an escape from her repressed abusive home, she had created this persona of herself that is a skillful thief just like the hero from the stories she heard growing up. This harkens back to my young days believing I was destined to be the next red Power Ranger. I feel that everyone can understand aspiring to be greater than we are as an escape from reality and seeing that in a fantasy character was endearing.
Being a story with only a single POV, it can be difficult to write fleshed out side characters strictly from the eyes of the protagonist. Robinson still found a way to do it through a combination of strong character voices and subtle quirks that speak volumes. Xain, the wizard was always shrouded in mystery from beginning to end. I suspect we will see more of him in the future books, but for now he was more of a plot device than a character. Loren’s trusty companion, Gem, was also a heart warming character who reminded me of the little thief kid from Scorpion King. Young, but useful.
This book had many villains, too many if you ask me, but each of them was great in their own right. The merchant mob boss, Damaris, proved to be my favorite villain. She carried weight with every word and you could never tell if she was threatening you or just speaking normally. Her muscle, Gregor, played his role well with every scene involving him being filled with intimidation and fear.
Another villain was a wretched witch known as a were-mage. Of all the villains, I believed her to be the vilest and truly the one I personally would have loved to see take more of the spotlight, but sadly she had to share it with Damaris and the constables. I can’t reveal too much about her without getting into spoiler territory, so I’ll let you discover the were-mage for yourself.
The constables of the story were about what you would expect from the plucky cop role in an urban story. Nightblade’s authorities proved to be fairly competent in their own right, making them a legitimate threat for a careless thief rather than an inconvenience like they were in Jack of Thieves.
One last thing I would like to point out was the diversity of the cast. There are POC within both the villains and the heroes, but their skin color isn’t just thrown in your face every five minutes. From what I can tell from reviews of his other work, Robinson makes it a point to be inclusive in his writing, and for that I applaud him. Many of the one-star reviews I see are from people who seem to have a problem with that diversity. Ignore them. They are ignorant and the opinions of lesser people mean nothing.
With a strong cast and well-realized protagonist, I’m giving the book five shinies.
Prose
There isn’t much to say about the prose. The characters had a dialect that sounded almost like it came straight from a civil war movie or an old western. It caught me off guard at first, but it never really bothered me much.
However, there is one blaring thing that I simply cannot ignore about this world’s speech… Mayhap. This book uses the word “mayhap” more than I thought possible. I have no idea why this word is used so much, but when you are listening to the audiobook, it constantly sticks out and slaps you in the ear. It is used in place of literally every “maybe” or “perhaps” as if Robinson just ctrl + H ‘d them all and replaced them with mayhap. If you are going to use old timey words, then all the words need to be old timey or it will constantly distract the reader.
Despite that one very repetitive flaw, the editing of this book was decent enough to keep it readable. Mayhap you will not find the mayhaps as distracting as I did.
Worldbuilding
I knew coming into this book that it was only a small part of a much grander world. As far as I know there are three series taking place simultaneously during the events of this one giving the book a truly epic scope.
That being said, if you simply picked this book up on its own without knowing about the other series, you wouldn’t get much in the way of worldbuilding. This is mostly due to the limited understanding of Underrealm that Loren has. If she was this all knowing sage that was familiar with the world’s history and politics, I imagine there would be more for the reader to see, but with Loren being a 15 year old girl alone in the world, readers will need to accept her limited view of it for now.
The few bits we did get seemed well thought out though. The fact that it didn’t seem to be a D&D or Middle Earth clone was a big plus in my eyes. So far, I haven’t seen any evidence of other species walking around besides humans. Some may take issue with that, but I think humans are diverse enough to fill any world on their own.
I would give the world five stars, but without getting to see much of it, I’ll need to be reserved in my judgement until I read on. Perhaps when I finish the series, I’ll have a more definitive rating. For now, all I can review is what I have seen.
Magic System
Like the worldbuilding, the magic system of Underrealm did not receive much page time. There were only two major wizards in this book and one of them was shrouded in so much mystery that you never really get a clear idea of what he is capable of.
However the other mage was intriguing. She was what was known as a were-mage. Calling a shapeshifting mage a were-mage was a very creative idea and the powers she possessed were very similar to Shalnark. It really is a shame that we didn’t get to see more of her from the very beginning of the story since she makes her appearance halfway through.
There really isn’t much more to say about the magic system. The nightblade itself seemed to have some sort of mystical aura to it, but we never see it do anything or give anyone powers, so I can hardly include it in my review. Without more to see, I’m gonna have to give this one a four as well.
Conclusion
I came across Nightblade searching for inspiration for my own character, Shalnark. Did I find it? Actually, yes! Loren was a true thief in that she needed to steal to survive and relied on cleverness over strength. I think I’ll continue reading the Nightblade series and see what else it has to offer.
I would recommend Nightblade to anyone looking for a story with a different kind of protagonist and unique plot. After averaging my star ratings, I give this book a solid 4/5. I will certainly be reviewing the other two books in the series sooner or later, but for now, there are so many other indie books out there that require my attention.
Have you read Nightblade? What did you think about it? Is there another indie fantasy book you would like to see reviewed next? Better yet, do YOU have a book published that you’d like to see reviewed next? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Nightblade Epic. You can email me at info@larncehicksauthor.com and tell me just how wrong I am.
Follow the Author
You can find a nice catalog of Garrett Robinson’s work on his website.
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