Knight Erant by Anthony Reynolds.
At the time that this book was released (2008) it was the first Bretonnian novel and heralded as such. I bought it, but just never got around to reading it. Until now. The Old World game has been out a good while now, and yet only one unique novel set in it has been released through the Black Library. There have been a few older omnibus editions rereleased with The Old World branding, but hardly anything else. So while rooting through my library this one jumped out, and it seemed to fit my current tastes perfectly.
Essentially the story is about a pair of young noble Knights who are freshly trained and eager to prove themselves in combat. The novel starts off simply enough as we are introduced to the brothers Calard and Bertelis who are happily dealing with a band of brigands (they're really just a scurvy group of peasents). It's a good visceral impression of the class divide that persists in Bretonia. Later we see the two brothers reporting to the Lord and Lady Garamont and we quickly learn how the younger brother is overly favored by the pair of them. Calard is always eager to prove himself to his father but the Lord has eyes only for Bertelis. As does his step-mother, Lady Calisse Garamont, who seems to utterly despise Calard.
What started off feeling like it was about to be a Cain and Able-like fable dressed up as knights thankfully never played out like this as throughout the story the two brothers really do seem to have each other's backs. And this made for a far more interesting, and less predictable, read.
During a banquet a knight arrives bearing a message from the the Duke of Bordeleaux that help is needed in a campaign to rid the realm of orc invaders. The two brothers are tasked to lead an army of Garamont knights and men-at-arms to aid the Duke. Tanebourc, a knight who has been having an affair with Lady Garamont, is set to accompany them as well. However, in a wicked twist, we see an encounter between Tanebourc and Chamberlain Folcard where Folchard tells Tanebourc that the Lady would prefer that Calard does not return to Garamont upon completion of their quest. As the story progresses we find out that the reason for this is that the previous Lady Garamont died after an apparent miscarriage, and Calard's twin sister mysteriously disappeared whille they were still children. Regardless, the current Lady Garamont regards the siblings of the previous Lady Garamont as blighted stains on the Garamont name. We learn throughout the book that she is not alone in that belief.
As the Garamont force sets out, other forces join their crusade, most notable being Baron Montcadas and his army. The Baron takes Calard and Bertelis under his wing.
Also accompanying the two nobles sons is their life-long protector and mentor Gunther, who has overseen their weapons training.
And they are also accompanyed by the envoy from the Empire, a noble named Dieter Weschler, a Captain from Reikland. He appears in this story to provide a counterpart for Bretonnian society and to compare it to the Empire with contrasting cultural observations.
After almost a week of riding they arrive to the battle which is already in progress. Their reinforcement turns the tide of the battle and the orcs are vanquished. It is while hunting down the fleeing greenskins that enter the forest only to find that a more vile foe awaits them: beastmen. Things get more and more grim and challenging for Knights as the evil leader of the beastmen, a magic using fiend called the Gave, is manipulating events to set un the Bretonnians for a big final battle. however the Knights just can't see the tapestry for the threads and simply continue sorties to try to root out the beasts.
On one such mission Calard's group is investigating a ruined castle when a Handmaiden of the Lady appears and tells him a lot of strange details regarding his mother. She quickly reveals that she is his long lost Sister Anara who has been training all this time with the handmaidens of the Lady to become what she is today, a magic wielding bad-ass. While processing all of this paradigm changing reveals, they are quickly forced to rejoin the rest of the Duke's army at their base camp because Anara has a vision of the impending beastmen attack.
The Grail Knight Lord Reolus is an interesting character in that he is revered and respected instantly by all who behold him. He even has a pose of fanatical pilgrims who follow him everywhere. One of the running subplots throughout this story is that of Chlod, a groady hunchbacked peasant with a pet rat who is constantly plotting for anyway to better his lot in life, or to simply avoid death. He gets pressed into a plot to try to kill Colard, and while avoiding justice, ends up pressed into joining the men-at-arms before ultimately becoming the spiritual leader of the Reolus' battle pilgrims.
The bodycount in this story is high. The final battle in this story is less Warhammer and more Warmaster in it's scale and intensity. Some of the characters I have mentioned above do not survive it, and if they do, they don't do it unscathed.
The Gave itself is a fascinating creature. At first I thought it was just a beastman shaman but as the you find out more you realize that this is a unique creature, and then the surprise reveal unveils this fiend's horrific truth and it's horroric origin.
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As old as this book is, I still hesitate to spoil the story's ending as I simply enjoyed this book and hope anyone iterested in it will as well. Even though half of it was lance-charge porn, it was well-written lance charge porn. There are a lot of reveals and surprise moments in this story, which I was quite happy with. The book is available via E Book through the Black Library and was also collected into an Omnibus along with the sequels and novellas I didn't know existed until I was almost done with this first book. So now the hunt is on to find them.
- Did I like it? I really did.
- Was it hard to put down? It was a very easy and engaging read, but with my work schedule and life in general, sometimes i have to put a book down for weeks at a time. This story was the kind of book where I could do that and pick it right back up without missing a beat.
- Could I care about the characters? yes and know. These are haughty nobles and although we follow them as the main protagonists the way the peasant class is treated makes one hope that the "Bretonnian Revolution" happens sooner than later. Having said that, the characters I felt the most invested in was Anara, who I hope we learn more about in the sequels, and Chlod, who is the avatar of shit on the bottom of a shoe. I can't say that I care about Chlod, I am very interested to see how his fate unwinds.
- Did the writer truly grasp how the 'world' of Warhammer functions a genre? Yes, especially in regards to the way the Bretonnian classes interact. One particular moment stands out to me as the Knights defeat a group of beastmen who had just sacked a peasent village:
Peasant women wailed over the mutilated corpses of fathers, husbands and sons, while others struggled to contain the fires that still raged, but Calard was oblivious to their suffering, focused completely on his own victory. He had been tested in the forge of battle and had proven himself worthy. - Was I being talked down too? No, the tone was very well crafted and I found that the book was easy to engage with. An aspect of the book that I do have a complaint about, which has nothing to do with the writing, is the map. It looks like a good map, but with all the gray tone washes and the small print size, it is virtually unreadable.
- How predictable is this story? At first it started off almost like a dark Disney cartoon, but it got way more intriguing and darker as the story went on. Quite frankly, the fact that any knights survived this story is miraculous considering the odds that we against them.
- Do I recommend this book? I do. It is a good story to introduce someone who is new to this setting as well.
