Book Review: Deathbringer, by Blake Carpenter
High fantasy Alfred Hitchcock
I’ve had Deathbringer in my Kindle for a while, along with half of the Based book sale catalog. Caroline Furlong reviewed Deathbringer in 2023.
When author Blake Carpenter came out with a sequel, I figured it was time to try it and see what the fuss was about.
The Story
In a small rural village, on Inga Ivanova’s wedding day, her mother revealed to her the family legacy: Deathbringer, a magic sword with a long and terrible history. Her name isn’t even Ivanova, but Alenir. Inga must tell no one about this, not even her husband.
When noblewoman Yenda Avard appears at the wedding ceremony, she’s there for the sword. She slaughters everyone present, even Inga, and takes Deathbringer.
But Deathbringer has the power of life and death. When Inga drags herself out from under the pile of corpses that were the wedding guests, she finds that Deathbringer is keeping her “alive,” even without a pulse. But if Inga can’t retrieve Deathbringer in one week, she’s going to stay dead this time.
And when Inga discovers her full power as a sword bearer, this is going to be one heck of a revenge story.
I generally can’t get into high fantasy, or attempts at high fantasy. Deathbringer has been the exception. The setting is interest, the problem is intricate and well elucidated, the writing is tight and concise. The melee combat is well executed, and the sword combat is on par with Fred Saberhagen’s. The tropes are few and far between. The villain is unique in being almost pure evil, with no redeeming values that I can find—it’s nice to have a villain who isn’t just misunderstood. Everyone has their own motivations for doing what they want, for good or ill.
The Characters
Inga is a smart character, who doesn’t have a lot of experience in the larger world, but adapts quickly. She also has no experience with magic, and comes up with some innovative solutions. She also has no patience.
Surprisingly, a lot of the story ends up revolving around her sidekick, Kale. The antagonist is his fiancee, the destination is his home town, and he ends up in conflicts with his family as well. Inga had one very bad bad day. Kale’s entire life seems to end up beating him down.
And Yenda is … “obsessive evil psycho b*tch” seems to sum up her personality. Her entire personality. It’s been a while since I’ve tripped over a fantasy villain this evil. Maybe Light from Death Note.
Even Deathbringer itself makes for an interesting character.
The World
The world-building here is subtle. Just the detail of a matriarchal society and all those problems are introduced in a sideways fashion. You may not even notice it until a quarter of the way through. The late Victorian-era level technology next to magic swords doesn’t even feel discordant. Between the story and the index, Carpenter clearly has a history of the world he hasn’t info-dumped on us. I admire his restraint.
Politics
If you can find political messaging in this book, I worry for you.
Content Warning
There is very little on-screen issues. One male character has been roofied repeatedly. And there are a lot of bodies by the end of this one.
Who is it for?
While Blake Carpenter has cited some of his inspirations for the book on his Amazon page, I can’t concur. While the sword Deathbringer seems to have some general overlap with other magic swords—sorry, but I never liked Elric, unless we mean the Technomage from Babylon 5.
Deathbringer feels more like high fantasy Alfred Hitchcock. Our protagonist is a fugitive, who doesn’t know who she can trust, with aid coming from the most unexpected places.
Then we get to the end, where it turns into something from Middle Earth: Shadow of War.
Why buy it
It’s a steampunk fantasy world with Alfred Hitchcock plotting and pacing. What’s not to like?