Review: The Fourth Bear of God, by Denton Salle

In Denton Salle's first book, Sworn to the Light, we met Jeremy, a young lad who had a problem of turning into a panda cub.

In The Fourth Bear of God, Jeremy's adventures continue, and it's going to get even stranger.

The story

There is a new student at Master Anthony's keep named Galina, and Anthony's ward Jeremy find himself smitten with her. She's a healer. Jeremy's training to be a warrior, and he's developing nicely.

But when the forces of the dark have them both marked for death, the stakes are higher than teenage romance.

Like all school stories (magic or otherwise) this is carried by the characters more than any linear plot. Unlike most of the genre, this does not run on any one singular antagonist, or social faux pas and embarrassments for our main character. Especially when one considers that this is more akin to a Junior ROTC academy; there is little call for the teenage antic tropes when everyone is learning to use weapons, unarmed close-quarters-combat, and supernatural powers.

On the other hand, this story mercifully does not get bogged down in details of training. There are no endless pages of training montages. When Jeremy is going to be trained in fighting more multiple combatants, we're told that the training is to happen, and in the next scene we see him roughed up, and more training is to follow. That's all we need, and we see the end results. We are given the information we need as we need it. On occasion, this leads to fights that are similar to Lee Child's Jack Reacher, or the Sherlock Holmes of Robert Downey Junior -- they are plotted out in Jeremy's head, and the fights are won or loss depending on the opening move.

And then Jeremy gets to have a ride along with patrol routes, and then all heck breaks loose.

The characters

Jeremy is a good kid, and he's growing up nicely. If my math is right, he's about sixteen in the book, having been a student of Master Anthony for five years. He's developing nicely over time. Denton Salle obviously did not feel the need to give him entertaining personality quirks (the Panda has most of those, and even the Panda does not make an appearance in this novel). Jeremy is brave without being stupid. Again, you can see his evolution through the novel, even just by the nature of his observations.

And the more he learns about his own heritage and backstory, the more interesting it becomes. Salle does not bash you over the head with how "JEREMY'S A CHOSEN ONE!" trope. If a Chosen One trope is coming into play, no one has explicitly stated it, and I may even be reading too much into it. At the moment, Jeremy is "the sidekick" to the powerful part-time warlord, and for all we know, may remain as such. Even the fact that his grandfather is a lord, and that Jeremy is related to Master Anthony is mentioned, but never over-developed. After all, Jeremy is already treated like part of the family, who knew it was more literal than that.

Master Anthony is a fun character, though he gets less time on the page in this book. He’s still an academic who prefers his research and dislikes people. When the forces of evil appear, he's the warlord of his relative youth ("relative" because he's a few hundred years old). And he can get away with lines like "Level one city and people just assume the worst."

Galina is well developed as Jeremy's love interest. I hope to see more of her in the next book. Jeremy, she's shy and not as socially adept as others. She's even given classes in the social graces. But she has a sense of humor dark enough that she is going to fit right in with the rest of the magic keep. Also don't mess with her, she turns into a Kodiak bear.

Harald, Jeremy's best friend, is ... a mad scientist. As a smith, in this universe, this means he basically gets to experiment with magic and weapons, and "What do you mean you put 'meteor strike' as a spell on your war hammer?"

For the most part, everyone gets a nice, gentle relationship arc along the way. No one is bludgeoned to death with telegraphing and foreshadowing.

The world

Denton Salle's world building and exposition style is still very much like David Weber's; information is conveyed in stories within the narration, and tied into little details along the way. It's refreshing to have a fantasy built from non-Western traditions, but more Eastern Europe in nature. And Denton Salle has a great blending of the five senses, catching scents and sounds as well as visuals.

There are even enough details around the development of metal working to show that Denton knows his stuff there, too. Again, "meteor strike on a war hammer?"

This is a rich, wonderfully developed world, and it's only getting better as we go along. The addition of enchanted weapons is colorful and fun--especially when the weapons have personalities.

I even like the idea of using bards as high fantasy psychological warfare. The mechanics of magic and even enjoyable here. There are even multiple magic systems and methods at play, since not even healing powers were the same.

And yes, women still go to the washroom in groups, even when they're teleporting.

The politics

The politics here are simple: evil exists, and it deserves no mercy.

There are elements that this is a Christian fantasy, such as casual mention of church, icons, "The Lion of Judah," and "the four bears of God" that represent the gospels. But unlike Christian fantasy that treats messaging like blunt force trauma, you may have to deduce the religious aspects here.

Content warning

There are sword fights, but the warning levels are akin to Lord of the Rings or Star Wars. When limbs are removed, they're removed; there are no spurts of blood or gore. It might as well be as bloodless as a Skywalker losing a hand.

The biggest content warning might be their sense of humor.

"Let's not be hasty. I can tear their souls out and bind them to the flames in our fireplace forever. We can listen to their screams on winter nights."

At least I think that was a joke.

Who is it for?

By the stupid rules of traditional publishing, as our character is a teen, therefore this must be YA, or NA, or whatever label they have this week. But like Narnia, this is too good to be wasted on children.

If you’re a fan of Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera, you will want to read this book. It has similar depth of world building, but with a different mythology. Of course, there is the inevitable comparison to Harry Potter, which would be unfair to Harry Potter.

Why read it?

You'll want to read this for a fun, entertaining story with unique characters and myths, and approaching familiar problems from different angles.