Blackwing - Ed McDonald
Main Cast - chapter 16
Captain Ryhalt Galharrow - 6 foot 5
Nenn - crew with no nose
Tnota - male
Lady Ezabeth Tanza - initially, the Lady/McGuffin/quest - about 5 foot, awesome spinner
Count Dantry - her brother
Minor Cast
Dortmark - this world
Saravor - a sorcerer - 7 foot+
Crowfoot - the highest sorcerer, and in charge of Blackwing
Gleck Maldon - The spinner who discovered that the Princes are using the Pho for themselves rather than sending them to Nalls Engine
Range Marshall Venzer
Prince Herono - female, and cousin to Ezabeth Tanza
Stannard - Prince Herono's guard
Otto Lindrick - one of the order of Aetherial Engineers, and Tanzas accomplice. In fact, he called her, based on Maldons work.
Places
Nall's Engine- not sure yet, but apparently bad if it falls. Around chapter 9, you learn that it is the defense against the Deep Kings
The maud - The asylum
Glossary
The nameless - leaders on the Protagonists side. Not good - grey verging on black. But the enemies of the Deep Kings
Deep Kings - the Equivalent of Sauron or the Nazgul. They create the Drudge
- Shavada - the most cruel
- Philon - the most cunning tactician
- Iddin - the most Powerful
- Acradius - commands the most numbers
The Drudge - nasties
Darlings - more nasties who can do mind magic
Gillings - weird creatures in The Misery that can say about 6 phrases, and are like vultures, and will chew limbs off in your sleep
Spinners - some kind of magic warriors - later revealed to spin light into Phos, or something like that, but can also use the light stored for magic e.g. stopping arrows in midair (Chapter 11)
The Bridges - sex witches that recruit spies for the Deep Kings
Talent - not sure yet.
Phos - not sure. a Powersource somehow. Chapter 6 explains this more - Spinners spin light from the air and put them into what seems like torches
Order of Aetherial Engineers - like the guards at Buckinham Place - scholars, machinists and ironworkers with the duty of maintaining Nalls Engine, but pretty clueless how it works
22/4/2022
up to Chapter 3 - so far so good - the quest is to find Ezabeth Tanza.
Chapter 3 was a big battle scene, with the Drudge (equivalent of zombies?), and the Lady, Ezabeth Tanza.
And a little bastard called a Darling makes an appearance and puts a mind worm in people. nasty. One of the main party, Nenn, gets mortally wounded, so Captain Galharrow decides to take her to Saravor, who sounds like a nasty piece of work. He will bleed the crew of all their money - and them some.
Saravor (wizard?) is going to hopefully fix her up
Chapter 4 - a bit of background on the Drudge. they have glyphs that identify who created them.
And more journey and description. Not a mega-important chapter, more flavour and background.
22/4/2022
Chapter 5 - The awesome meeting with Saravor. The price to save Nenn was set, but not disclosed to the reader.
Chapter 6 - Flavour about what the Phos are. Also meeting with a Prince, who is female.
Chapter 7 - more about Ezabeth Tanz, how she was a past love (no surprise there), and seems to have gone a bit mad, as spinners do
Chapter 8 - The Brides get introduced, and killed off. Well, some Brides anyway. I'm sure there are more coming
and then the story started
Chapter 9 - Ezabeth Tanza goes to Galharraw and gives him a mission/quest...whatever. Find one of the old spinner who has gone mad as spinners do, because he recently sent her a garbled message about the light being sent to Nalls Engine not enough, and it's no longer effective against the Deep king.
Chapter 10 - Galharrow gets summoned to Range Marshall Venzer who wants to know why Tanza visited him. Don't listen to her lies, she's mad. Also a mention of one of the other sorcerers.
And two of the Deep Kings, Shavada and Philon, are on the move with the huge army.
Chapter 11 - Tanza and Galharrow break into the mad spinners house to retrieve his notes. While they are there, arsonists strike and try to burn the notebooks. They mostly succeed, but Galharrow gets a few........I think. This pretty much proves the theory that something is up. Tanza says she will pay the Marshall a visit. He's probably in on it....although in Chapter 10 he did seem shocked about the Deep Kings moving, so Nalls Engine should be a priority to him
Chapter 12 - return of Nenn, and first request of payment
Chapter 13 - very good chapter. Almost like a mystery novel Prince Herano requests Galharrow. Tanza has gone missing (again). So he goes looking and starts at her house, and finds letters written by O.L. Hmmmmm.
The search for Tanza leads him to the printing house, which leads him to the order of Aetherial Engineers, which, when he looks in their ledger of names, leads him to O.L. - Otto Lindrick. After a minor nasty torture scene, Tanza appears, and together they reveal that the heart of the engine is Pho's combined exponentially create energy. But cut it down, as it is, and it's completely unstable. Who supplies the flow of power - they're not certain, but the inner council comprises the three master engineers, the chief librarian, princes Adenauer and Herono, Marshal Venzer and two master lunarists. One of them controls the phos supple to the Engines heart. At least one of them must know. So the mystery will be investigation to....who knows. Each of them? meanwhile, The Deep Kings approach. Nice sense of dread.
Chapter 14 - background on Pho, Spinners and how harsh the Law is. if you show an inkling of magic, off to the Pho Mills you go, and you'll last a few years. Slaves, basically.
Ezabeth wants to get to the heart of the engine to prove her theory is correct (what? How does that prove anything? there isn't enough energy being produced - there's the proof). anyway, no one knows how to get in due to a locking mechanism, only Nall himself knows. Also the Order won't allow access. But she's determined anyway.
Chapter 15 - big jump.....Ezabeth has been arrested and thrown into the asylum. Gotcha. So, leap of logic, but her brother should be able to get her out, but he's in The Misery studying Cold crater, so that's where Galharrow is off to next. Such a questy novel, but it's good.
Chapter 16 - pays off a slight bit of the debt to Saravor who puts a tracer (glammer) on Galharrow in case he dies in the Misery. And that hurt. Felt like a dragon wrapped around his heart. Anyway, off to the misery with a letter for the Count
Chapter 17 - Into The Misery
Chapter 18 - The brother is found, but negotiates another day to complete research. Also, intro of the Gillings
Chapter 19 - background on cold crater, and the counts assistant gets eaten by a gillings, and looks like it was murder. And possibly Stannard. he sees to be the one who started the fire earlier.
Chapter 20 - So they get back and the Counts bank account is locked, and they won't let his sister out of the Maud. She's really pissed people off.
Chapter 21 - assassination attempt at a pub to get Dantry. Tnota's arm pretty much taken off. Galharrow pissed
Chapter 22 - so he heads to the Maud to get Tanza out, and she's sane, and reading calculations written in shit from when Maldon was imprisoned. They almost get her out when a Darling attacks, who is as bad a shot as a storm trooper, so they escape anyway. Still....nice bit of action
Chapter 23 - back at Otto's place. Bit of a political discussion as to why someone is trying to kill Dantry, but just trying to imprison Tanza. probably to keep her secrets quiet, and not get passed on. boring chapter, but felt real, and you can't have action all the time.
Chapter 24 - Background to Tanza and Galharrow when they were young. ok, filler to character
Chapter 25 - Galharrow captured, and tortured by Herano
Chapter 26 - Deux ex machine - Tanza and crew save the day, big battle. Stannard is killed and it's revealed that Herano was under control of the evil wizard. All very cliched, but well written
Chapter 27 - so turns out that Nells engine has NEVER worked, and the Deep Kings just wanted verification, hence the plant into Herano to find out. So the Deep Kings will win after all....unless Tanza can get access, and see if it can be repaired. Dun dun dunn.
28-31 - more romance stuff, being hassled for payment, and the battle starts. Looks like the Deep Kings are throwing a whole lot of fodder initially to see if the engine is working. which it's not.
32 - 36 - The battle begins. And they're losing. And The Darling is on a killing spree. Range Marshall Venzer hangs himself and Dalharrow takes his place. Everyone gets promoted. Dalharrow goes down to the engine for whatever reason, and the Darling is there. Twist - it's Gleck Maldon. Shavada captured him and turned him and we get all the details in a flashback scene. And the mindworms get thrown into Dalharrow, but the dragon placed in Chapter 16, battles and wins. As Maldon is dying (and turns good/back to normal) he reveals there's another spy in their midst, before being finished off. Looks like it must be Otto Lindrick but that's a Red herring. it's his assistant who kills Otto and takes off.
So then Galharrow gets the Tanzas and heads back to the engine and with their assistance gets in, and there's nothing there. it's almost an empty room.
And to wrap up chapter 36 - a kissing and pg rated sex scene. Lame. Hope it works into the story.
And ....it did work into the story, because she sacrificed herself, so it was a device to get sympathy. Anyway, it turns out that Otto Lindrick was Nall, and he returns as a ghost, just as the Big bad appears, and reveals to Galhallow that the Engine is useless, and there is nothing but bones and crap and a decaying heart from the previous deep king.
And it's a trap to trap him. It always was. Everything was designed years ago to have innocent parties (Galhallow and Tanza) send messages that the engine wasn't working in order to get a Deep King in his very situation. So all 4 Nameless then appear, and bind him, after a battle. And then Nall says that the Drudge are still here, and Galhallow offers to fight them.
So Gallhallow is fighting well, but after a while fails, but meanwhile Tanza is restoring the Phos, and blasts all the drudge into dust, at the 12th hour. And she also gets fried.
So Gallhallow is ok, the Engine is now restored with a new literal heard, and the barrier is fix. Game over, and story finished.
Pretty damn good, even if it was a bit cliched, and Deux ex machina-ish.
Themes
Slavery (Pho Mills), Royalty and how corruption and greed corrupts.
Also a bit of rip off of Lord of the Rings, but done in a good way.