Marshall Ryan Maresca's Maradaine series started with "The Thorn", a university student turned vigilante, with something of a murky past. The series quickly broadened in scope to follow multiple characters in stories of their own, from working beat cops to literal knights in shining armour. But Veranix was the first face of Maradaine. It's fitting, therefore, that in The Assassins of Consequence, his be the first story picked up after the explosive events of the last book, which brought all the various characters together, and lit a fuse. The consequences of the following explosion in the metaphorical fireworks factory are reverberating through the world of Maradaine - and through Veranix.
This Veranix is a mixture of the familiar and the strange. Always a little cocky, he's now trying to risk less, to keep himself and his friends as far out of trouble as he can, while also fighting crime, scowling broodingly from rooftops, and, oh, yes, being a magic student at the university. The university, incidentally, has recently had its magical programme taken over by what passes for a branch of Maradaine's military intelligencee service. Quite why, is another matter entirely. But in terms of chracter, the change dislodges Veranix from his comfort zone. It puts academic pressure on him, it puts demands on him that come backed with social legitimacy. While he's inching closer to his goal of bringing down organised crime boss Fenmere, he's doing so with other pressing calls on his attention. Our superhero is growing up, and not only finding out that heroism has costs, but that both he and others will be forced to bear them, whether they will or not. The text does show us the Veranix we know, in witty banter, athletic leaps from rooftop to rooftop, and daring escapes. But there's a pensiveness, and moments of introspection that suggest the Thorn is more troubled than before, more drawn to being, well, Veranix.
There's some excellent turns by Veranix's gang of do-gooders as well. They're all hanging together, trying to work together to make things better. But they're all pulled by conflicting priorities, loyalties, and their own needs. Sometimes, fighting the good fight in a cape isn't very rewarding, and sometimes you might get appalled at the costs, in life, treasure, and humanity. As a group, Veranix's support team are a joy - each a fully realised individual, with a story
The villains are entertaining, though I must confess that in this case there were rather a lot of them. Fenmere, always the overarching threat, and a host of Veranix's past conquests, getting the band backl together in a jailbreak to go mess him up. And rumblings of others still to come. They're fun to read though, seeing the other side in the vein of Suicide Squad. There's enough moments of humour and humanity to help them not just feel like ciphers, even if the narrative focus is on their grudge, and their scheme to finish it - which, incidentally, includes identifying Veranix, and feeding back into the question of who the man who is The Thorn would be, if he didn't have The Thorn to be any longer.
I won't speak much on Maradaine the city, because I've waxed lyrical on it before. Suffice to say it remains a vibrant, living world. There's ahistory there that you can feel in your bones. And if we don't see as much of it this time around as we have before, we still have the flavour and colour in asides and moments of reflection. Maradaine lives, friends, Maradaine lives. This time it lives in its slums and dockhouses, worn down inns and flashing knives. It lives in its quadrangles and literal walled gardens. In faculty meetings and gang interrogations. It's aplace, still, with depth, and weight.
Anyway. Is it good, then? I don't want to spoil the story, because this one is laced through with turns, twists, chases, escapes, derring-do, moral crises and just plain old crises. I will say that I read it quickly, that I wanted to get to the end and I didn't want it to end. It's maybe not an ideal option for your first Maradaine book (but don't worry, there are lots of entry choices!); but if you're a regular reader, this one is going to follow you around the room. It's great fun, and a great read.
No comments:
Post a Comment