Season of the Runer Book III

The Eldritch Hunt

By: Abigail Linhardt

Narrated by: Aaron Smith

Length: 17 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

There is no life without death. No love without cruelty. No freedom apart from bondage. There must be one to have the other.

©2022 Abigail Linhardt (P)2022 Abigail Linhardt

A Well Seasoned but Slightly Underbaked Runer

For the third time we follow the titular Runers as they travel the map. This time, however, our protagonists have a drive and purpose behind them. Having a driving force lights a fire under our heroes and gives the whole experience a much more personal and intense feel. This is a much-welcome change from the previous books in the series that I didn't even realize was missing until I started this one.

In this outing we follow Tzarik and returning anti-hero Tarkan as they travel together to the freezing land of Caerwren, both for their own somewhat interconnected reasons. Along for the ride is Zeva, Tarkan's ward recently rescued from the grasp of the villainous scholar Sharar. Once they arrive in Caerwren they must contend with a deranged warlord and her ploy for domination of the icy land. Tzarik requires the help of Tarkan to pull Sybal's soul back from the other side, but Tarkan has his own plans and desires to gain the powers of the Necro'Khan.

Book 3 is much more character driven than the first two installments. The characters make choices, have reasons, and push the plot forward. This installment is easily the best written of the three as well as the longest. It avoids feeling rushed and allows for the characters and world to roll out at a pleasing pace that leaves little behind. The added points of view from Tarkan and Zeva give a fresh interpretation of the world that we have not seen and allow the reader a nice understanding of the evil black magics of the world.

The land of Caerwren is based on western barbarian cultures such as the Goths, Celts, and Picts. This setting is slightly more familiar to fantasy than previous settings, but Caerwren has the unique property of having literal gods walking around it. The people are very superstitious and go to extreme measures to please their gods. As is the usual with these books, the world, setting, and lore are the most interesting part, but unlike the previous two adventures we actually get to spend time with the culture and learn about gods, the strange and dangerous God Deep, and get an in-depth look at the magics within the setting. It is a fantastic time that really lets you sink your teeth into the setting.

Our protagonists are driven and have goals. Tzarik retains his growth from the previous book and is much more fun to follow as a result. He needs to save Sybal and will stop at nothing to do so. Zeva is a naïve young girl with a positive outlook, and Tarkan has his own twisted motivations that make him interesting. The cast of side characters is slim but well rounded, adding much more to the story this time around. I do wish the side characters had more page-space, but there was a lot going on so things needed to keep moving. The protagonists also seem to have a bad case of plotarmor in some instances, but that does not detract from them as characters.

The villain is Sjorna-Reks, a shapeshifting warlord bent on reviving her long-dead lover and conquering all of Caerwren. She is almost cartoonishly evil and feels like a good Bond villain. She is delightfully nasty and chews up the set dressing in every scene she's in. If she had a mustache she would twirl it. Most of the plot revolves around our protagonists having to help further her goals in order to accomplish their own. There is a power dynamic between her and the protagonists that feels good and exciting at first but ultimately falls short in the second half. More on that later.

Throughout the book there is a theme of decay. It borrows, albeit likely unintentionally, from Dark Souls of all things. The theme of death, decay, and eventual rot is present in most of the book's major elements. Caerwren is place of decayed morals, rotten gods, and and obsession with death. Sjorna's love for her husband is rotten to the core, and her dead husband's good nature has decayed away to weakness and subservience because of her rotten love. Tarkan and Zeva literally decay away as they use their powers. Even the magical realm of the God Deep sees people dying over and over again until they go decay and go "hollow", losing the will to keep going. Things are rotten in this book and it adds to the dark and oppressive atmosphere extremely well.

Overall, this adventure is a good one, best in the series. It feels much closer to a "standard fantasy" this time, mostly due to the setting. However it still has the dark flare and strange magics that make it feel unique. This one is the best of the series so far and shouldn't be missed. The highs are very high, but the lows are pretty low and could have been ironed out. Those lows do not break the book, but they did break my suspension of disbelief. There also are a few plot points that I thought would play a larger role in the story or be more impactful to the characters, but then they were resolved rather quickly and unceremoniously. There was also a startling lack of the series primary antagonist Sharar, yet somehow this installment feels more like a proper addition to the overall series plot than the previous book.
None of the cons, however, detract greatly from the experience. There is never a dull moment and the reader is never left behind, unlike in the previous installments. The characters are well written and have excellent motivations. There are more monster hunts, more action, more lore and worldbuilding, and more bunny girls. If you like a grittier take on fantasy and are looking for a dark druidic touch, then this adventure will not leave you out in the cold. All in all, a very good time.

SPOILER SECTION AHEAD
As with the previous book, most of my complaints, cons, and praise cannot be stated without going into heavy spoilers. Be warned.

As stated above, this book is heavily character driven. Everyone has reasons for what they are doing and then the things they do push the plot forward. Its great. That is until the character motivation falls off halfway through. There is one massive issue in the book that nearly derailed the whole thing. The issue can be summed up as the change in power dynamics that occurs roughly halfway through the book.

At first, Sjorna is holding all the cards. She has Zeva and Sybal as captives and makes Tarkan make a magic oath to revive her lover. She essentially forces Tzarik and Tarkan to work for her. Their goals may be different but they both require the same solution. Tzarik wants to get Sybal's soul back, which requires Tarkan to be Necro'Khan. Tarkan wants to be Necro'Khan so he can keep himself and Zeva safe. Sjorna wants her lover back, which requires a Necro'Khan. It's all great and made me very excited. The two T's (Tzarik and Tarkan) are essentially her prisoners and must acquiesce in order to accomplish their own goals. Sjorna keeps pushing her own agenda, making T and T's situation worse and worse. It quickly becomes clear that even if they fulfill their end of the deal, Sjorna will not just let them go. What a pickle!

However! All this changes halfway through the book when Tarkan uses Zeva to become Necro'Khan and pulls Sybal back to her body. Our protagonists have accomplished their goals, but the villain still needs them. That's an issue. At this point, Tarkan and Zeva are very powerful, Tzarik has killed a god, and Sybal has become a better hunter. They are a powerful team and could easily ditch Sjorna and leave Caerwren, but they don't. They keep complying with Sjorna even though the tables have turned dramatically in their favor. There is a massive disconnect between the character's actions and their motivations at this point. They are prisoners, more or less, and want to leave. For some reason they do not use their new positions to leverage a better bargain or even just kill Sjorna and leave. The characters WANT to leave but just won't, no matter how many chances they get to better their situation.

There is a point in the book were the protagonists are alone in the woods with Sjorna and instead of capturing her, killing her, or just running they instead do what she orders them to do (curse a side character). Why not curse her instead? Or have Tzarik, who has killed a literal god by this point, just knock her head off?
There is another point where Tarkan is literally holding the soul of Sjorna's lover in his hands, and he could literally do anything with it, he just does what Sjrona says instead of leveraging the situation. He was literally holding all the cards at that point but does nothing with it.
Yet another point happens when Tarkan has raised an army of dead at the behest of Sjorna and just keeps complying instead of turning to Sjorna and saying, "Ok, I have your army now. I will turn it against you unless you let me and Zeva go. If you kill me, you lose your army. If you kill Zeva, I will set the army on you. Either way you are in no position to bargain." Zeva does the same thing with a risen dragon later on and both times they just accept Sjorna's demands for some reason.
The characters are given many chances to change the bad situation they are in but constantly just keep following Sjrona's orders like they don't want to escape the situation... It tainted my appreciation of the excellently written characters and was very aggravating, making the characters seem oblivious to their circumstances at points. It got to the point that whenever Sjorna showed up I would yell at the characters, "Why are you still dealing with her!? Knock her head off and get going!"
All that aside, it does get somewhat resolved when the heroes (not Tarkan) finally do make their escape and get away fairly easily. Why not do it earlier? Couldn't tell ya. Maybe there was a reason but it was not conveyed well.

Lastly I would like to discuss Tarkan. Tarkan is a very well written character, maybe one of the best I have come across in a long time. His motivation is excellent and understandable, the outcome of his arc lines up well with the motivation (even though it is the unexpected outcome), and he starts as a true anti-hero and ends as a villain. Lets dive in.
To start, Tarkan is a weak, selfish, and cowardly man. His fear of being controlled ultimately allows him to be controlled by Sjorna. His cowardliness continues to allow Sjorna to use Zeva against him. His selfishness makes him sacrifice Zeva's innocence to gain great power. He loses everything due to his flaws, including unintentionally killing Zeva.
He is a repulsive, despicable, reprehensible person. He has a shot at redemption but every time he chooses to further bury himself in the selfishness and evils of his black magic. The author gives him some moments at attempted sympathy, but even at the start of the book they fell flat. Tarkan is realistically beyond sympathy (what with all the death, destruction, and horror he caused in the first book), but I had hoped he would have had a profound moment of realization and redemption but that never came. I had hoped he would have realized that the things he was doing were only driving him further into the captivity he tried to escape. Alas, that was not the case. At one point, once his transformation from flawed anti-hero to villain is complete, he murders a guy that just saved him.
Tarkan's greatest issue is that in trying so hard to protect Zeva, he actually is crushing her like the small bird she is. The tighter he grips to the things he thinks will give him power, the further from that power he slips and the deeper he slides into the traps that he fears. That theme of decay plays a large part in his and Zeva's character arcs. His constant struggle for control eventually erodes the twisted love they have for each other and causes the rot of everything he holds dear.
He is similar in that way to Darth Vader, and if he makes a return in future installments I hope he gets the chance to shine as the true villain he is and suffers a suitably horrible death to make up for all the suffering his pursuit of power caused to everyone around him. He is a poetic Greek tragedy and its bittersweet.
END OF SPOILERS

A true hidden gem

The writing could only be matched with the beautiful narration of Aaron Smith. Both elevate each other in a way that leaves the listener immersed in this fantastic journey.