The  General’s Legacy: Part One: Inheritance by new author Adrian Hilder is just the ticket for those of us who love well-written fantasy with real people, rich settings, solid plot.  I’ve lost my tolerance for books that hit on one or two of the five cylinders – plot, people, setting, style, emotion – but miss the rest.  Inheritance is a wonderful surprise, full of rich characters, vivid descriptions, fast-moving plot, good dialogue and a balance of suspense, magic, romance, determination, fear, loathing.

Setting

Have you noticed many new books completely skip the setting?  Reading them vs. reading Hilder’s Inheritance is like watching today’s miserable kids’ cartoons vs. the richly detailed Disney or Bugs Bunny cartoons from the 1940s-60s.  Hilder makes us feel the rich spring air, the steep mountain paths and old castle towers by spending just the right amount of time staging the scene.  We can easily feel our legs turn to mush along with Cory when he runs up and down the 5 towers, can feel the heat from the fire and smell the nasty odors from the tanneries polluting the lake.

Recently I read yet another Modesitt story that had way too much detail, too many words describing soggy breakfasts or dusty roads.  In Modesitt’s novels I read the words but don’t feel them, don’t smell the horses or feel the rain.  In comparison Hilder hits just the right balance.  Too much time on setting and we forget the story, too little and it’s gray instead of color.

Plot

Hilder starts the book off 15 years ago at the General’s climatic battle to save the country of Valendro from bloodthirsty neighbor Nearhon and starts every chapter with a synopsis of battles that the General won over his long career.  Now the General is dead and grandson Cory must pick up and go on.

The plot is complex with plenty of action, some romance and leavened by orchestra concerts and Council meetings.  Again Hilder balances the need for action with the fact that action is most vivid when it contrasts with the daily routine.  We are alongside Cory and his brothers as they work with their father, the King, to govern Valendro during peacetime when the biggest conflict is which city should get the road upgrade first.  We are still with Cory when he confronts the deadliest enemy.

There are a couple small plot questions that related to the magic, such as why the Nearhon wizard Magnar didn’t strike sooner, but nothing bothersome.  I don’t look for detailed discussions of the magic systems in fantasy novels, suffice it that the magic exists, that it has some limitations and costs, that it can be reasonably consistent.  Hilder delivers this.

Character

Most of the main characters are multi-dimensional, well-developed.  I found the ladies sufficient but not quite as interesting as the men.  For example, Julia’s father has not been able to win arguments with her, but we don’t see her as quite that strong of a person.  Don’t get me wrong, Julia is well developed, just not quite as thoroughly.  We get hints that there is far more to Julia than a pretty face, music and horses.  I’m hoping book 2 shows more of her character.

The enemy wizard Magnar doesn’t appear in the novel many times, but when we does we notice and we remember!  He’s not a cardboard villain, but a person obsessed with magic and exploring its depth and breadth all while walking a tight rope with the king of Nearhon.

Style

Hilder does a bang up job telling the story through side vignettes and dialogue.  Some dialogue is internal, as when Sebastian wrestles with his frustration at not knowing much about diplomacy or Cory struggles to not be overwhelmed with his responsibility.

The pacing is also solid.  We go fast, then slow down a bit, then speed up zoom zoom!  A few places I had to go back to re-read to make sure I inferred correctly what happened because Hilder tended to skid right through some major plot events.

Emotion

I like books that make you feel.  Authors do this in part by creating characters that feel like real people, like friends you want to meet, and partly by the dialogue and plot.  The vivid setting and scene staging help too.  This was the most emotional book I read since Naomi Novik’s Uprooted (see review here), and like Uprooted, Inheritance has the horrible sense that failure meant that everything failed, a dash of romance, determination, and the characters’ fierce joy in accomplishing what they must.

Overall

I enjoyed Inheritance and look forward to reading the second book, The Whiteland King.  I rarely give 5 stars but will do so with Inheritance.  Solid writing, first rate characterization, fun plot, vivid setting rate a 5 from me!

King Arthur is dead.

The Knights of the Round Table are dead.

The Table is broken.

There is no leader left and Albion is disintegrated.  The dream of a united kingdom is dead.

Queen Guinevere has fled and all have deserted Camelot.

Morgana enslaves Britain’s people, conspires with murderous Saxon war chiefs and seeks the head of Merlin the wise.

The Return of Sir Percival is no ordinary Arthurian romance, no mere retelling of the rise and fall of a magical realm.  Instead author S. Alexander O Keefe bases his story on the historical invasion of Celtic/Roman Britain by the Saxons and sets it after Camelot falls and King Arthur dies at Cammlan.  In this retelling Guinevere was not unfaithful to Arthur; Morgana and Merlin were from the Eastern Roman Empire and bitter enemies and Morgana seeks revenge, power, wealth and status.

People

Morgana is a critical character, here a vicious, scheming, malevolent woman. Arthur and his kingdom defeated Morgana at the battle of Cammlan, but lost overall when no strong leader emerged to keep the British people united.  Instead the kingdom devolved into small pockets, some ruled by thugs like Ivarr the Red, others by family and clan groups, others more or less left alone.  Morgana seized the lucrative silver mines and allied with the Saxon invaders who will turn on her the minute she is unable to pay them off.  Morgana is a noblewoman from Byzantium, related to the Emperor, and is in Britain at his behest (and also from a well-founded fear she would be killed if she returns).

It’s hard to show the character of someone as despicable as Morgana without making them cardboard, and O’Keefe does his best to show Morgana is motivated by more than spite and hatred.  She doesn’t like the northern climate and longs to return home to the Empire but dares not leave without securing the Emperor’s goals.  Characterization is moderately good.

Capussa is a great addition to the story.  He is a Numidian ex-gladiator friend of Sir Percival who joins him on his return home to Albion. Capussa is an excellent military strategist and helps Percival in battle but his biggest contribution is that of wry humor.   We don’t get to know Capussa as a person particularly, but he is a fun character.

The other main characters, Sir Percival, Merlin and Guinevere are interesting and enjoyable to read about but we don’t get to know them well.  In all fairness to the author it is difficult to show the characters of people that we think we know so well from legend, especially since O’Keefe discards much of the romantic trappings.  In this novel Guinevere was never in love with Lancelot; instead she and Percival were good friends on the verge of falling in love when Percival honorably left Camelot, first to build the northern defenses, then for his Grail quest.

Story Line

The plot here is excellent, very well thought-out, enjoyable and interesting.  O’Keefe based his ideas on actual situations to build a story that felt plausible yet was aligned with the romantic Camelot legends.  For example, early Britains did mine silver (and gold) and the Eastern Empire would have coveted the mineral wealth.  Britain was quite civilized after 300 years of Roman occupation, with good roads, some literacy, some sense of national identity.  It would be easy for the Eastern emperor to covet such a pleasant territory and its riches.

Writing Style

Author O’Keefe published a thriller, Helius Legacy, before he wrote The Return of Sir Percival.  He shows himself to be a careful writer, creates clear sentences and narratives.  The book moves a little slowly in parts, most in the beginning, and picks up the pace.  O’Keefe alternates between Morgana, the Saxon leaders and Percival for his main points of view which helps us keep the sense of time and urgency.

One weak point that I’d like O’Keefe to improve is the setting.  He did a good job on the back story and used Capussa and Merlin to help tell the story of what happened to Percival and to Albion, but the physical descriptions were weak.  Stories like this with scenes that depend on our sense of place need more vivid descriptions.  I lost track a few times where the characters were.

Maps would have helped.  It’s not necessary to have the action take place in the real-life locales – this is a fantasy – but something to show us about where Guinevere took refuge relative to London and about where Morgana ruled in her castle would have helped.  I wondered several times why Morgana didn’t take bolder action to follow up upon Arthur’s death and Albion’s disintegration, and knowing about where the various power centers were would have cleared that up.

Overall

This is the first of a planned series and I expect to read the subsequent novels.  I grew up reading imaginative Arthurian fantasy by T. H. White and Mallory and found most later novels set in the same legend (such as Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave) were disappointing.  The Return of Sir Percival uses the legend as backdrop and asks “What if?”.  What if Arthur’s kingdom wasn’t completely dead?  What if Guinevere was faithful and alive and ready to help lead people back to a unified Albion?  Setting the novel seven years after the fall of Camelot helped position this as a separate tale – and a good one.

4 Stars.  If I were rating solely on the imaginative use of the story I would give this 5 stars.  Overall execution and characterization were slightly less.

I received an advanced reader copy for free from NetGalley in exchange for a review.