Book Review: Chronicles of Aragore Book 1: Naming by Tyler A. Mann
The troll caravan guard that we meet at the beginning of the story has no name. The family he was born into did not have a tradition of naming children, and the circus that enslaved him only called him “the troll.” But his great strength and toughness impressed the caravan’s recruiters and if he succeeds in this assignment, he will be allowed to formally join House Morkae and earn a name. In a certain sense, the guard is a “nobody.”
Bandits and monsters are normal hazards for a caravan crossing the desert, but the guard is surprised when a holy warrior attacks him in particular. She accuses him of crimes he has not committed, either mistaking him for another troll, or having been fed lies for an unknown reason. He manages to subdue his attacker without killing her, despite the Rage that dwells within him.
This convinces three other members of the caravan that he is trustworthy. They are Gerald the gnomish bard, Jiang the stoic swordsman, and Korivare the warmage. Korivare decides that the guard at least deserves a nickname so he can be referred to more clearly, and dubs the troll “Pax.”
It’s not known if the holy warrior said anything about her motives, as shortly thereafter, a dragon attacks the caravan, and our four protagonists are separated from their companions. After a fierce battle, Pax and the others manage to slay the dragon and gain some of its treasure, but this is only the beginning of their troubles. It’s as though a god or two has taken a personal interest in the quartet, with all the danger that implies.
This fantasy series appears to be heavily inspired by a fantasy role-playing game campaign the author ran. It’s easy to spot the genetic material of Dungeons & Dragons at various points, as well as what the writer has put in as homebrew rules.
Good: Making the uneducated Pax the viewpoint character allows us to learn more about the world of Aragore as he’s introduced to new concepts and backstory. His struggles with his confidence and his temper make him an engaging character with strong development.
Jiang has the quirk of not expressing his emotions on his face, but instead by making hand gestures to help him control his feelings. This is not just used as a character quirk, but gives the protagonists an important communication tool that comes in handy more than once.
Lots of action of varied types.
Less good: There’s a fifth protagonist, Telemnar the elvish huntress, who more or less drops out of the air two-thirds of the way through the book like the new player character who just joined the campaign this week. This is handled rather clumsily.
The in-universe mythology and the secret magic system our protagonists are the true heirs to come across as generic and kind of dull. The action slows to a crawl for a while whilst our quintet try to get a handle on this new gift, and the character work doesn’t quite make up for it.
There’s quite a few spellcheck typos, indicating that the book could have used a minimum of one more editorial pass.
Content note: sexual assault and a flashback to another incident in the past. The author’s foreword advises that this is coming up and which chapter it’s in so that the reader can choose to skip it. Fantasy violence, often lethal. Slavery and child abuse. Fantastic racism (Pax faces bigotry against trolls often), religious prejudice. Attempted human sacrifice.
While there are some unanswered questions at the end of this volume, and it’s very clearly the first in a series, the current story has a sufficiently satisfying ending that many readers will be able to enjoy it even if the sequel never sees print. This is also pretty clearly an early work for the author, and he has a lot of growth potential.
Recommended primarily to the sort of fantasy gaming fan who enjoys reading or watching other players’ campaign logs.
