Review: The Last Ancestor by Alexander Hellene
Book 1 of the Swordbringer Trilogy
Know you this: the Last Ancestor by
is an action-packed
The story
When the human refugees first landed on the planet Yxakh, they had to contend with the warlike Kharvali, otherwise known as “Growlers,” dog-like humanoid aliens who already dominated the area, and had no desire to share it with newcomers. Only their possession of modern firearms kept the humans alive and their blade and bow wielding enemies at bay, leading to an uneasy ceasefire that allowed the human colony Canaan to exist on the Growlers’ home world.
In that original conflict, Garrett Nestor’s father sacrificed himself to save the nascent human colony from the Growlers. Even now that Garrett is almost a man himself, the tensions between the two peoples have done little to die down - except for the case Garrett and his best friend, Ghryxa. The human and Growler have become inseparable, spending their time exploring the nearby caves for artifacts from ancient Growler civilizations and crashed human spaceships. But after a confrontation with a group of Growlers intruding on human lands, they are both drawn into a plot to wipe out Canaan for good.
After an introduction of the characters and world, the Last Ancestor ramps up to a quick pace, with plenty of action and intrigue to keep the pages turning. The plot unfolds naturally as the characters discover clues to leading not only to the revelation of the plan to destroy the human colony, but also of the nature of the Kharvali religion’s prophecy of the Last Ancestor’s return and the end of their own civilization.
The characters
Garrett Nestor has big shoes to fill - his dad saved his entire community. And even though he dies, Garrett’s father is a constant presence in his life not only through his memories, but a whole collection of recordings meant to convey values, traditions and basic life lessons. Despite his father being gone, Garrett is far from fatherless, and he still manages to fill the mentor role for Garett even in death.
Ghryxa’s father, by contrast, is alive, but at once overbearing and absent. Ghryxa is never enough for him, and the best he can hope for is to be ignored. The contrast of these two upbringings connects the two along with their curiosity about each other’s cultures. Their friendship is the glimmer of hope that some day their two peoples could live in peace.
Both of these main characters are proactive and drive the story with their decisions, displaying courage and virtue even while their youth and inexperience shows their fallibility along the way. In my view, both serve as examples that a father would want their sons to follow in a way that I often find lacking in other young adult fiction. The depiction of the two friends from different worlds reminds me of the old sci-fi adventure books I would read when I was growing up and there was a market for fiction geared towards boys.
The world
Yxakh is a hostile planet full of ferocious monsters and exotic environments - giant serpent creatures, savage humanoids, voracious vermin, active volcanoes and flooded caverns all make appearances in the world. The dog-like Growlers give the appearance of a run-of-the mill warrior culture, focusing on strength in combat as the highest good, going so far as to ban all forms of art or writing. But their dissident subcultures and the subtext of their prophecies hint at something more beneath the surface.
Christians have been driven from Earth, and Canaan is their last refuge - one of the reasons they are so stalwart in its defense - they have nowhere else to go. Within the community are members of denominations and cultures from all over the world: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, American, Greek, and Lebanese. Hellene mixes in bits of those cultures and their adaptations to the planet - especially cuisine - to great effect. Often in contemporary Christian fiction the level of religiosity and commonality of faith requires a suspension of disbelief in our secular dominated culture, but the world Hellene has created makes common and public expressions of faith fit comfortably in the story.
The politics
The residents of Canaan were forced to flee Earth from a combined threat coming from Islamists, a Western globalist empire, and the Communist Chinese bloc.
Religion is not politics, but since they are often paired together, I’ll include this here. This is the most Christian book I’ve read outside of Quo Vadis - I’d go so far as to say more so than even C. S. Lewis’ fiction. There is no doubt that Christianity is true, and while there are no miracles or depictions of the supernatural in this story, if there were it would not have so much as raised an eyebrow.
Content warning
Garrett is quick to brandish his father’s pistol, and he and Ghryxa are battling monsters and enemies throughout the book. That makes for plenty of violence. There are few graphic descriptions of blood or gore, but there is a particularly gruesome execution involving insect-like creatures, and one character is shown to have had his skin flayed from his face.
Who is it for?
The Last Ancestor is for fans of swashbuckling science fiction and especially young boys looking for something written with them in mind.
Why read it?
Read the Last Ancestor if you are looking for the wild monsters and strange cultures of John Carter of Mars, but with more gunplay, a favorable view toward Christianity, and young protagonists who have to learn and grow before they can triumph over their foes.
heh, I forgot about the face thing