Bane of Evil by F.N.Scott
Bane of Evil by F. N. Scott
This is Book One of the ‘Scourge of Saventia’ Trilogy and is an exciting story about two brothers going on an epic quest together to save their lands from an ancient evil spreading in the North. It is nicely done and the two main characters, Shai and Nathan, are well realised and, a personal favourite of mine, consistent in their thoughts and actions. The story is little familiar and cannot help but compared to The Lord of the Rings Trilogy for its use of elves, orcs and travelling immense distances and The Song of Fire and Ice series for its world that has dragons as a source of the worlds magic and some well done battle scenes. Whilst the story is comparable the skill with which it is told is not quite up to those very lofty standards and this should not be seen as the Author not meeting expectations just a testament to some of the amazing work out there at the moment.
Quite frankly there is a hell of a lot going on in this book and I find myself sitting on the fence as to whether I really liked it. I think I need another read just to get it all digested but don’t know if I want to spend the time. There are so many beasts like dragons, orcs, goblins, dwarves, elves, gnomes, and one or two less traditional ones that it’s like Spielbergs “Willow”. I am waiting for the smartass brownies to jump out and shout, “Your mother was a rat”!
Some of the dialogue is a little clunky with some exchanges being pretty cringe worthy like a Goblin saying “Weese sorry! Weese so scared boss master! He killed dem with fire, boss! Me’s afraid of fire!” I had a few issues with this. Firstly they are speaking like Jar Jar Binks in terms of sentence structure and hasn’t Jar Jar pissed everyone off enough. Then we have the ‘boss master’ phrase, which in my mind gives them the station and voice of slaves on a cotton farm and I was uncomfortable with the lowest ranked ‘beastie’ in the book being given this voice. It reminded me of Star Wars Phantom menace when all the bad guys from the tax federation came out with distinctly Asian accents and was just as unnecessary.
Sometimes less is more and while the level of detail is fantastic, at times, it can be repetitive and interrupt the flow and emotion of the scene. The brother’s relationship holds this book together and it is the best-written and most engrossing part of it. The journey was interesting and entertaining but if you are a big reader of Fantasy and Sci Fi you may find it a bit familiar. It’s a fairly easy read and suitable for younger adults and older kids and may be a great starting point to get someone in the genre.
3 stars
