The Scrolls of Sin by David Rose
My rating: 3 of 5 stars Necromancers, Ghouls, Thieves, Writers, Revenge, Sex, and Violence The Scrolls of Sin (2021) by David Rose is a set of gritty, graphic, grotesque, unpredictable, dark fantasy stories in the vein of Brian McNaughton’s splendid Throne of Bones. Rose’s six short stories and two novellas are set in a world of rival and mutually antagonistic cultures possessing magic and medieval technology. The narratives share characters and situations and plot lines, coalescing into a composite novel that paints a morbidly fascinating portrait of a fallen fantasy world with echoes of our own (e.g., religion, politics, corruption, class, education, crime and punishment, popular writing, war). The stories explore love, hate, revenge, greed, violence, sex, and power. They rarely end happily or feature protagonists who are paragons of virtue. Rose’s necromancers, students, scribes, prostitutes, soldiers, writers, conquerors, thieves, morticians, body snatchers, and ghouls are neither wholly abominable nor very admirable. A necromancer utters what may seem to be the credo of the book: “Do as you will. For inside Good’s gilded halls, hide, my son, the scrolls of sin.” Rose’s characters, however, tend to (finally) get what they deserve. And despite often feeling soiled by their exploits, I wanted to continue reading and cared what happens to the immoral people. Rose’s ironic, outre, and funny sense of humor runs throughout. His writing is muscular and tight and features big words and bad words and potent figures of speech, like “Toadly’s tower wasn’t so much a tower, more a farmer’s silo, complete with thatched rotting top, giving the whole thing the appearance of a giant’s refracting phallus that had caught Thina’s Poxy.” He writes some neat descriptions of fantasy elements, like “The statue, a hand itself, was made of pure lapis lazuli. The size of your average man’s, strains of gold feathered and swirled in the deep blue of its outstretched fingers. In its palm, three faces made a row. The outer two left trails at its base near the wrist, thus completing a long-agreed-upon murmur that they resembled haunted tadpoles. And these both seemed poised to circle the central visage; caught in an eternal, devilish sneer.” He imagines some remarkable names: for people and ghouls (e.g., Arcus Zevon, Somyellia Ordrid, Propagord Phern, Conabitt Lotgard, Aricow Amphilliod, Dandana Nix, Gorial and Ghila), countries and cities (e.g., Orisula, Azad, Nilghorde, Pelliul), and streets and districts (e.g., Do-Gooder’s Row, Burnt Beetle Lane, the Morgeltine, Laugher’s Lot) However, there are typos, and sometimes the writing gets ungrammatical (e.g., “Toadly was laying on the table”) or awkward (“Fire has seemed to have forgotten you the craft”). At times I was yanked out of the stories by pondering things like, shouldn't “You don’t look like a tradesmen” be “tradesman”? Or by rereading particular sentences, not to savor them but to figure out what they mean. The stories often barge across the gross-out boundary (e.g., “Irion had personally prepped the body, bathing it in a preserving oil that wreaked [sic] of amniotic fluid and semen”). But Rose has a big imagination and a big ambition to do something different with the traditional epic fantasy genre beyond depicting struggles between good and evil. He can construct an intricate plot, as in his composite novella “Revenge,” comprised of eight short story chapters, an involved chain of events that almost lost me but never bored me. His set piece scenes are often entertainingly imaginative in their over-the-top Grand Guignol invention. Here is an annotated list of the stories: “Black Magic Summer”: In a world of grim conflict, never trust your sadistic, imbecilic, necromantic twin. “The Leaf of the Palm”: What does a boy really want, home or adventure? Vibes of Conan in Zamboula and Solomon Kane in Africa crossed with The Jungle Book and The Sword in the Stone. “Arigol and the Parilgotheum”: The dangers of writers (“fictionalists”) getting inspiration for their stories from firsthand experience, especially of a subterranean sort involving ghouls. “A Conqueror’s Tale”: Even heroic leaders can’t control the stories that grow up about them after they die. “Revenge”: a novella comprised of eight short stories demonstrating that revenge is a dish best served necromantically: I: The Final Meeting: A slimy treaty with a necromancer patriarch who promises revenge. II: The Mortician’s Tale Part One: A hulking mortician called Smeasil recounts his youth: a whoring father, a necromancer prostitute, a beloved black sheep, and an interest in dissection. III: Maecidion: The contested will of His Virulence (a dread necromancer), a reanimated skeleton, a possessed dead baby, a tricky imp, and a grossly hidden and revealed lapis lazuli hand of power—and more—all ending perfectly. IV: The Mortician’s Tale Part Two: Smeasil recounts living with his prostitute lover while grave robbing and opium smoking with a dinky thief pal Snier. V: The Municpal Dungeon: Snier is in prison when rumors of a necromancer paying a visit start spreading, the moral being, Don’t go to prison, whether as inmate or guard. VI: All Malevolent Masquerade: A Halloween-esque costume party attended by Smeasil’s prostitute girlfriend. VII: The Mortician’s Tale Part Three: Venereal disease, necrophilia, patricide, grave digging, specimen taking, and opium smoking lead to a new career path for Smeasil. VIII: Snier’s Tale: Revenge is liable to end up entangling unexpected victims (like orphaned former rent boys now thieves posing as butlers). “Bosgaard and Bella”: A star-crossed romance featuring rival body snatchers, rival ghouls, a cemetery heist, and a morbid but touching resolution via identity and flesh. “The Archer and Adaline”: A veteran addicted to sex becomes the bodyguard/pet of a businesswoman who likes to send caravans into a desert renowned for its ghouls. “A Hero, Emerged”: a nifty novella tying up “Revenge” and “The Archer and Adaline” in a stained bow: a necromancer father and disappointing son; a hungry, curious, and clever ghoul; a former grave robber and mortician now cemetery master and wannabe writer; his cute, pure, and very unsqueamish little daughter; and a surprisingly good priest in hiding. If you like dark fantasy with plenty of sex and violence (and ghouls), The Scrolls of Sin should scratch your itch. View all my reviews
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