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| Is this a dagger I see before me? |
My friend and fellow author
Seth Chamberlin wrote the following book review.
The Last Bucelarii Book I:
Blade of the Destroyer, by Andy Peloquin from J. Ellington Ashton Press,
is like no fantasy book I’ve ever read. Being a huge fan of antihero
characters, the story of the Hunter appealed to me right away. It also deals with
demons and tons of realistic fighting with a dash—or bloody splash—or two of
magic tossed in, which is also totally my grizzly cup of tea.
Blade of the Destroyer
follows the Hunter, an immortal killer for hire. We are immediately introduced
to a character that seems cold, unfeeling, even cruel, and at first it is
difficult to like him. What I did like though, and I’m always drawn to in any character,
is his amazing abilities. Any character that is really good at some becomes
instantly interesting; this one just happens to be really good at cold blooded
murder. The Hunter tracks and dispatches his targets with a dagger called
Soulhunger. This seemingly living weapon not only helps the Hunter find his
victims but whispers to him, asking for its own blood lust to be sated, driving
the hunter to need to kill as much as the blade desires it.
In this way, I quickly
realized that one of the things I liked about the Hunter, was that he is, in a
way, a fantasy version of a serial killer. Yes, he does what he does by
contract, and is paid handsomely, but in the end, he kills because he there is
something in his wiring, as well as the relationship with the dagger, that
requires him to do so. This harkens to serial killer stories like Jeff
Lindsey’s Dexter (though the Showtime series does it best), or Dan Wells’ John Cleaver series, which starts with I Am Not a Serial Killer. Neither of
these series are fantasy, though they play with the supernatural (see the later
versions of the Dexter books). So, seeing this spun into a fantasy universe was
a special treat.
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