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A review by daviddavidkatzman
The Vagrant by Peter Newman
4.0
This review is for all three books in The Vagrant trilogy.
The Vagrant trilogy starts strong. It has a unique style and voice…creepy, disturbing, weird and intense. It’s a surreal dystopian fantasy that lands somewhere between The Road and Spawn. I did enjoy it throughout, but as the series progresses it begins to lose steam stylistically and the weirdness becomes less inspired and the style more traditional. Of the three books, the first part The Vagrant really captured me, but then each subsequent book was a bit less compelling.
The worldbuilding establishes a human world (Is it Earth? Possibly.) in the aftermath of a huge confrontation between demonic spirits that emerged from a crack in reality, and an “angelic” force called The Seven of immortal silver beings with wings and living, singing swords. When the crack burst open, one of The Seven, Gamma, was sent to destroy the demons, however she was killed while her sword survived. The demons won and seep into the world—corrupting, absorbing, and twisting humans forms with “a taint” that mutates them. The remaining six immortals go into isolation after the loss of their sister.
The Vagrant himself is a human warrior who takes up the destroyed angel’s sword and sets out on a quest with his only companion an ornery goat to defeat the current leader of the demonic forces. Over time, it becomes clearer that these forces while appearing as angels and demons aren’t really representations of heaven or hell per se. They may have other-dimensional and magical abilities, but their aspects are by no means so black and white. The angelic immortals aren’t all-good but they do generally represent “law” (and conformity) while the demons represent more chaos than evil.
The Vagrant is mute and never speaks, but he can sing and when he does it enhances the power of Gamma’s sword allowing it to generate enough energy to block projectiles or emit forces. He travels through a surreal world that morphs around him encountering bizarre creatures that hybridize human and demonic aspects. The atmosphere is dark and post-apocalyptic, which is quite literally true here as it takes place after the demonic apocalypse that infected most of the entire planet. The sun itself above was split into two halves—a yellow sun and a blood red sun. Newman does a very nice job developing a disturbing atmosphere that lies somewhere between horror and fantasy. It has a knowing ambiguity, as if there is much behind the scenes we cannot understand. Book one ends with a satisfying conclusion and the unique style and atmosphere drove me immediately on to the rest of the series.
As the second book begins, Gamma’s sword is taken up by The Vagrant’s daughter who in similar fashion to her father goes on a quest against demonic forces. Like her father, she is noble and kind-hearted, but whereas he often seemed reluctant and dragged into doing the right thing…she is rather painfully naïve. Her character grated on me at times because she was so innocent.
As book two moves into book three, we find the story continues to focus on The Vagrant’s daughter Vesper. Her mission at this point grows even larger as she takes sides in a final confrontation between the remaining immortal angels and the forces of the demons. The story in part three has evolved to combine singular heroics and warfare with political and cultural struggles. Vesper’s role becomes a figure infrequently seen in fantasy, a socio-political actor—something more than just a hero who defeats a great evil in combat. It’s an interesting evolution but technically, as a story it all becomes a bit less interesting. The story has lost some of its edge, and I also attribute that partially to the lack of depth of Vesper and the world becoming too set and established in its nature. It’s no longer as surprising and twisted as it was in book one.
I had a few additional niggles…some of the characters, particularly Vesper’s “love interest,” are grating and their relationship seems hardly justified. And Vesper’s story becomes too didactic by the conclusion. But overall, The Vagrant trilogy is a unique contribution to the fantasy genre and especially book 1 comes recommended to fans for surreal, near-horror dystopias.
The Vagrant trilogy starts strong. It has a unique style and voice…creepy, disturbing, weird and intense. It’s a surreal dystopian fantasy that lands somewhere between The Road and Spawn. I did enjoy it throughout, but as the series progresses it begins to lose steam stylistically and the weirdness becomes less inspired and the style more traditional. Of the three books, the first part The Vagrant really captured me, but then each subsequent book was a bit less compelling.
The worldbuilding establishes a human world (Is it Earth? Possibly.) in the aftermath of a huge confrontation between demonic spirits that emerged from a crack in reality, and an “angelic” force called The Seven of immortal silver beings with wings and living, singing swords. When the crack burst open, one of The Seven, Gamma, was sent to destroy the demons, however she was killed while her sword survived. The demons won and seep into the world—corrupting, absorbing, and twisting humans forms with “a taint” that mutates them. The remaining six immortals go into isolation after the loss of their sister.
The Vagrant himself is a human warrior who takes up the destroyed angel’s sword and sets out on a quest with his only companion an ornery goat to defeat the current leader of the demonic forces. Over time, it becomes clearer that these forces while appearing as angels and demons aren’t really representations of heaven or hell per se. They may have other-dimensional and magical abilities, but their aspects are by no means so black and white. The angelic immortals aren’t all-good but they do generally represent “law” (and conformity) while the demons represent more chaos than evil.
The Vagrant is mute and never speaks, but he can sing and when he does it enhances the power of Gamma’s sword allowing it to generate enough energy to block projectiles or emit forces. He travels through a surreal world that morphs around him encountering bizarre creatures that hybridize human and demonic aspects. The atmosphere is dark and post-apocalyptic, which is quite literally true here as it takes place after the demonic apocalypse that infected most of the entire planet. The sun itself above was split into two halves—a yellow sun and a blood red sun. Newman does a very nice job developing a disturbing atmosphere that lies somewhere between horror and fantasy. It has a knowing ambiguity, as if there is much behind the scenes we cannot understand. Book one ends with a satisfying conclusion and the unique style and atmosphere drove me immediately on to the rest of the series.
As the second book begins, Gamma’s sword is taken up by The Vagrant’s daughter who in similar fashion to her father goes on a quest against demonic forces. Like her father, she is noble and kind-hearted, but whereas he often seemed reluctant and dragged into doing the right thing…she is rather painfully naïve. Her character grated on me at times because she was so innocent.
As book two moves into book three, we find the story continues to focus on The Vagrant’s daughter Vesper. Her mission at this point grows even larger as she takes sides in a final confrontation between the remaining immortal angels and the forces of the demons. The story in part three has evolved to combine singular heroics and warfare with political and cultural struggles. Vesper’s role becomes a figure infrequently seen in fantasy, a socio-political actor—something more than just a hero who defeats a great evil in combat. It’s an interesting evolution but technically, as a story it all becomes a bit less interesting. The story has lost some of its edge, and I also attribute that partially to the lack of depth of Vesper and the world becoming too set and established in its nature. It’s no longer as surprising and twisted as it was in book one.
I had a few additional niggles…some of the characters, particularly Vesper’s “love interest,” are grating and their relationship seems hardly justified. And Vesper’s story becomes too didactic by the conclusion. But overall, The Vagrant trilogy is a unique contribution to the fantasy genre and especially book 1 comes recommended to fans for surreal, near-horror dystopias.