What I’m Reading: Arena Forged

Arena Forged, by Robert Ryan, follows Drom, a quiet farmer in middle age who lives alone and tends his crop in the foothills of a mountain range at the edge of Camlanta. One spring day, a beautiful young woman rides by on the road next to Drom’s farm, both she and her mount exhausted. Not far behind her rides a dozen of King Conmah’s ruthless warriors.

Against his better judgment, but unable to let the woman face her enemies alone, Drom confronts the warriors, quickly disarming and dispatching the captain and then the rest of them–all except a grizzled old warrior who regards Drom curiously. He recognizes Drom for he Drom really is–or rather, was: Isarn the Invincible, the legendary arena gladiator who was never beaten.

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Drom defeats the final warrior and provides a hot meal to the woman, who is obviously important. Now he must decide whether to accompany her as she flees, for surely the King will send more warriors after her. What’s more, if the one warrior recognized him, others might too, and then Drom will never live in peace, for the King’s Vizier wants him dead because of a long ago affair Drom had with the Vizier’s wife.

So Drom sets off with the woman, and as they ride, he learns her name is Ariane, and that she’s a druid. Not a court druid, those servants of Arofel, the goddess of chaos who follow the Vizier’s orders and keep the evil, superannuated King Conmah alive long past his natural lifespan. Rather, Ariane is a true druid, the followers of Aroth, the good god, who have powers from their connection with nature but have been almost hunted out by the Vizier.

Now Drom and Ariane must flee Camlanta, cross the mountains, and reach the kingdom on the other side, where they hope to find others of her kind with whom she can share a secret that may lead to the downfall of King Conmah and his evil Vizier. But the Vizier has realized who is aiding Ariane, so he sends a court druid with the next group of mounted soldiers, a powerful manipulator of dark magick who is capable of raising the shadow creatures known as gorthas from their ancient sleep. Will even Drom, the former Isarn the Invincible, be able to keep Ariane alive long enough to reach her final destination?

Arena Forged is great, epic fantasy with careful, deftly written battle scenes. It’s also obvious that Robert Ryan must be something of an outdoorsman, because his descriptions of mountain forests and meadows, trails and cabins, have the details of someone who’s spent a lot of his own time in such settings. The magic system of the druids is well thought out and complements the setting and themes of the book. Most importantly, our main characters, Drom and Ariane, are well-rounded and sympathetic, and minor characters are treated as real people who would have their own complicated lives if only we knew them better. Even the chapters featuring King Conmah show that he’s perhaps not as purely evil as other characters perceive him, but has been corrupted by his own fear and the honey-sweet but ultimately poisonous promises of his Vizier.

I think Amazon recommended this book to me because, like my own books, it’s in the emerging fantasy sub-genre of noblebright. Noblebright rejects the cynical, amoral Game of Thrones type fantasy that was so popular a few years ago, preferring heroes who are truly good and evil that can be truly defeated, if only after great effort.

Arena Forged was a lot of fun and I highly recommend it. I am likely to read (and review for you) the next one in the series at some point. The one complaint I have with the book is that it didn’t feel like a complete story. It wasn’t quite as bad as Tree of Ages, by Sara Roethle, which was extremely well-written but angered me by ending on a cliff-hanger and caused me to give up on the series completely. Arena Forged certainly ends at a stopping point, just not one that felt like a true finish. My guess is the author probably originally wrote a complete 400-page book, and divided it in two for commercial purposes. Still, it wasn’t objectionable enough that I want to pass up the next volume in what promises to be an entertaining, well-written series.