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The Traitor Son Cycle
Nov. 30th, 2015 09:23 pmI just finished the third, and most recent, volume (of a projected five) of Miles Cameron's Traitor Son Cycle: The Red Knight, The Fell Sword, and The Dread Wyrm.
Cameron has come to fantasy from historical fiction, shifting a first name as he did so (his real first name is Christian, and he chose the pseudonym Miles for his fantasy work with an eye to the Latin meaning of the word). Cameron is an ex-naval Intelligence officer, a mediaeval (and ancient) re-enactor, and an armourer, and all three backgrounds shape his work, which falls firmly into the military fantasy category.
By military fantasy I mean that subset of fantasy of which Cook's Black Company novels are the primary exemplars. A lot of works straddle the border between it and epic fantasy: after all, LOTR has a significant heroic / military component: the cores of two of the six books are battles (but it fails to be military fantasy because its viewpoints are never, or never for very long, from the milites within the book[1]). Plenty of works draw elements from both heroic fantasy and military fantasy sources. Thus Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen has significant parts which are pure classic military fantasy alternating with very different components - much of Deadhouse Gates is a straight military narrative in the March of Dogs, but it is paired with the Felisin elements which are anything but military. On the whole, though, the thread that holds it together is the Bridgeburners and the Bonehunters and Fiddler in particular, which pulls it into the military fantasy camp. Moon's Paksennarion books start out as military fantasy and shift into more general heroic fantasy as Paks moves from soldier to paladin.
The Traitor Son Cycle starts out as thoroughly military fantasy - mercenary company, difficult siege, perspective from the points of view of the soldiers (among others) - all the markers you might expect. However, as it moves on the angle widen and although it remains very much about battles, marches, logistics, and the odd formal challenge - plus arcane combat - it begins go take on some of the lineaments of a more extended heroic fantasy: the foe visible by the end of the third volume is beyond standard human military response, although it's not exactly a Dark Lord, either.
The prose is flexible and professional, the characters diverse[2] and interesting. Cameron makes heavy use of multiple points of view in this work, and sometimes one has to wait for a while for disparate threads to vote together - but they do, and they have a payoff.
If you like this general sort of thing this will be the sort of thing you will like. I don't mean that lukewarmly, as I myself like it very much. But while not grimdark it is gritty and realistic (and especially realistic about conditions in mediaeval times and in wartime) and I have friends to whom I would not recommend this because it is not to their taste.
[1] In a deeper sense, LOTR is very much military fantasy because parts of it are rooted in Tolkien's military experience during the Great War.
[2]Cameron provides not only powerful women in "traditional" fantasy roles - religious, queens, noblewomen - but also in serving military roles. He pays as much attention to the underclasses as to the nobles. He has strong characters drawn from different races and cultures.
Cameron has come to fantasy from historical fiction, shifting a first name as he did so (his real first name is Christian, and he chose the pseudonym Miles for his fantasy work with an eye to the Latin meaning of the word). Cameron is an ex-naval Intelligence officer, a mediaeval (and ancient) re-enactor, and an armourer, and all three backgrounds shape his work, which falls firmly into the military fantasy category.
By military fantasy I mean that subset of fantasy of which Cook's Black Company novels are the primary exemplars. A lot of works straddle the border between it and epic fantasy: after all, LOTR has a significant heroic / military component: the cores of two of the six books are battles (but it fails to be military fantasy because its viewpoints are never, or never for very long, from the milites within the book[1]). Plenty of works draw elements from both heroic fantasy and military fantasy sources. Thus Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen has significant parts which are pure classic military fantasy alternating with very different components - much of Deadhouse Gates is a straight military narrative in the March of Dogs, but it is paired with the Felisin elements which are anything but military. On the whole, though, the thread that holds it together is the Bridgeburners and the Bonehunters and Fiddler in particular, which pulls it into the military fantasy camp. Moon's Paksennarion books start out as military fantasy and shift into more general heroic fantasy as Paks moves from soldier to paladin.
The Traitor Son Cycle starts out as thoroughly military fantasy - mercenary company, difficult siege, perspective from the points of view of the soldiers (among others) - all the markers you might expect. However, as it moves on the angle widen and although it remains very much about battles, marches, logistics, and the odd formal challenge - plus arcane combat - it begins go take on some of the lineaments of a more extended heroic fantasy: the foe visible by the end of the third volume is beyond standard human military response, although it's not exactly a Dark Lord, either.
The prose is flexible and professional, the characters diverse[2] and interesting. Cameron makes heavy use of multiple points of view in this work, and sometimes one has to wait for a while for disparate threads to vote together - but they do, and they have a payoff.
If you like this general sort of thing this will be the sort of thing you will like. I don't mean that lukewarmly, as I myself like it very much. But while not grimdark it is gritty and realistic (and especially realistic about conditions in mediaeval times and in wartime) and I have friends to whom I would not recommend this because it is not to their taste.
[1] In a deeper sense, LOTR is very much military fantasy because parts of it are rooted in Tolkien's military experience during the Great War.
[2]Cameron provides not only powerful women in "traditional" fantasy roles - religious, queens, noblewomen - but also in serving military roles. He pays as much attention to the underclasses as to the nobles. He has strong characters drawn from different races and cultures.
