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A review by tommock
An Altar on the Village Green by Nathan Hall
3.0
A Talent In The Dark - More Than Just Monsters
A new Lance pledges himself to the Chained God and departs into the Fallen Lands where he will face the Horrors eating away at the world. He is called to a village where he dies and dies again as he struggles to defeat the Horror that has trapped the people of the village in a cycle of madness, eternally reliving their torments and death. But is he getting any closer to victory, or, like the fallen Lances before him whose stories he sees in visions, is he doomed to suffer forever?
The story of the nameless Lance serves as a frame narrative for several short story visions of the travails of past Lances in the world of An Altar on the Village Green. Viscerally violent, nightmarish and strange with hints of dark poetry, the tone of all these stories is as dark as their circumstances are varied. The earnestness, even naivete, of the nameless Lance helps to balance the horrors of the village as he tries desperately to uncover the source of the evil and defeat it, and also understand the mysteries of his new power, of the cycle and the possibility of changing its outcome. He is a true believer, and though he struggles with hopelessness, we are always routing for him.
Although the frame narrative was slow to develop and felt stretched to make room for the visions, those short stories were active, mysterious, awful, emotional, and concise, giving the reader a broader picture of the world of the fallen lands as well as the characters of different Lances. More than just monster stories, they show Lances who fight against doubt and regrets; who, swamped in madness, succumb to temptation; who are indifferent to the suffering they witness; who return to their own homes, facing their families taken by Horror; and who refuse to let the wicked torment the weak. I would have been delighted if some of those stories, especially Opit's, had been more fully told elsewhere.
This is an ambitious debut I would recommend to fans of grimdark and horror fantasy looking for a new voice and a unique read like something torn from the pages of Weird Tales with hints of Sapkowski's Witcher stories. I think Hall has talent. I'm interested to see what he does next.
A new Lance pledges himself to the Chained God and departs into the Fallen Lands where he will face the Horrors eating away at the world. He is called to a village where he dies and dies again as he struggles to defeat the Horror that has trapped the people of the village in a cycle of madness, eternally reliving their torments and death. But is he getting any closer to victory, or, like the fallen Lances before him whose stories he sees in visions, is he doomed to suffer forever?
The story of the nameless Lance serves as a frame narrative for several short story visions of the travails of past Lances in the world of An Altar on the Village Green. Viscerally violent, nightmarish and strange with hints of dark poetry, the tone of all these stories is as dark as their circumstances are varied. The earnestness, even naivete, of the nameless Lance helps to balance the horrors of the village as he tries desperately to uncover the source of the evil and defeat it, and also understand the mysteries of his new power, of the cycle and the possibility of changing its outcome. He is a true believer, and though he struggles with hopelessness, we are always routing for him.
Although the frame narrative was slow to develop and felt stretched to make room for the visions, those short stories were active, mysterious, awful, emotional, and concise, giving the reader a broader picture of the world of the fallen lands as well as the characters of different Lances. More than just monster stories, they show Lances who fight against doubt and regrets; who, swamped in madness, succumb to temptation; who are indifferent to the suffering they witness; who return to their own homes, facing their families taken by Horror; and who refuse to let the wicked torment the weak. I would have been delighted if some of those stories, especially Opit's, had been more fully told elsewhere.
This is an ambitious debut I would recommend to fans of grimdark and horror fantasy looking for a new voice and a unique read like something torn from the pages of Weird Tales with hints of Sapkowski's Witcher stories. I think Hall has talent. I'm interested to see what he does next.