Book Review: Split the Party

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Characters:

In the first book in the Spells, Swords, and Stealth series we were introduced to the four-fold protagonists in Gabrielle, Grumph, Thistle, and Eric. In this installment, the story continues its focus on these four characters, and their struggles to adjust to their adventuring lifestyle, and save a town.

Even though there is a fairly even split in the narrative focus between all these main characters, Thistle seems to be the centerpiece of the story this time around. Everybody’s favorite pint-sized paladin struggles to fully come to terms with his status of a hero of the god of minions, Grumble. His method of dealing with challenges is to think it through and try and use his wits, but unfortunately his cleverness can’t get him out of his obligations to his deity. The paladin’s life is a hard one, and we see this vividly though Thistle’s challenges.

If Thistle was the standout main character, then Grumph follows a close second. His quiet intellectualism reaches its limit, and he finds himself needing help to advance down the path of the wizard. While his half-orc heritage does provide some friction initially, his fellow mages prove themselves more pragmatic than prejudiced. Grumph also gets the best action scene in the book as he proves his magical mettle.

Eric and Gabrielle seem to play second fiddle to Thistle and Grumph respectively. They serve as sounding-boards and foils but don’t get much in the way of individual attention. Gabrielle, does get some individual attention as she seeks to become a better warrior and master her rage. Despite this, it feels like her advancement is tantamount to an equipment upgrade. Eric is basically relegated to sneaking around to gather intel, and I would have liked seen more attention to his character.

There are several secondary characters introduced, but these are mostly limited to the guild mages. Fritz proves to be an inscrutable person who is far more than she seems initially, and I feel certain that we’ll be seeing more of her in future books.

Plot:

With the name; Split the Party you’d expect that the pseudo-adventuring part would, well, split. That is indeed the case here, and it serves as a good opportunity to let some of the individual personalities to have the freedom to develop. There isn’t much I can comment on about the plot due to wanting to avoid spoilers, but the broad arc is satisfying, if not a bit predictable.

But, inside the overall plot are a number of funny and intriguing subplots. Each main character gets their own branch off the main plot, and those aren’t as predictable. In all honesty, I feel that the side plots are more interesting than the struggle to save the village. Frustratingly, these plot lines are left open by the end of the book (as a writer I know that’s good design).

Setting:

The setting one of the weak points of the book in my opinion. Pretty much all the details of Briarwillow are left up to the imagination of the reader. While I don’t have to have the entirety of the town’s crop rotation and building construction detailed, I do like to see some mentions of culture and custom sprinkled in a narrative. As it stands, all I got from the town was a generic European medieval feel, and in today’s crowded fantasy market, you need to have some more individuality and distinction.

The interplay between the gods is a central focus in this tale, so there is a decent exploration of two of the gods in the setting’s pantheon. Unlike the physical and cultural descriptions, the gods do have a good amount of individual flair, and stand out well in the story.

Also the mages’ guild is introduced and explored in Grumph’s branch of the story. What makes the guild stand out in the setting is the group’s collective focus on the improvement of magic. To them, magic is the most important thing. They’ll overlook a great number of traditions or conventions if it may lead to, well, something magical, which is a refreshing take.

Recommended for: pen-and-paper RPG gamers. Fans of the first book, NPCs. People looking for a fun fantasy read that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Avoid this book if you must have a long, sweeping tale of epic proportions and purple prose.