Beastheart : Slayer Book 1 by A.H. Blade

On one level, Slayer, the first book in the new Beastheart series, is a vile and violent book, one that would not be confidently recommended to children. Why one may ask do children need to read about such brutality in such graphic detail? Against this, one must note that Slayer is written by the same group of authors, writing under the same non de plume of A.H.Blade, that produced over 100 books in 20 different series called Beastquest.  

A.H.Blade has a huge following of fantasy lovers. While hesitant about promoting this book and during discussion about appropriate book selection, an eleven year old student challenged me with "Why wouldn't you keep it in the library for us! It's just D.& D."  (Dungeons and Dragons).

Beastheart : Slayer is the first book in what will be another epic fantasy adventure series. The kingdoms, the worlds, are extremely complex, consisting of complicated alliances and rivalries between and within hierarchical human, elemental and magical kinds. The focus is on creation and destruction of Biblical proportions with " kinds" organised in a style reminiscent of Linnaeus's system of classification. These worlds were created in the beginning. There was an order but humans destroyed it. The new world is run by beasts called the "new kind" and humanity is the bottom class living a frightened slave-like, menial existence. 

Our protagonist, Jonas, is a human. He has been blamed and jailed for the mysterious destruction of his village - an act of which  he has no memory. To reduce his sentence he has to use his killing power to catch criminals to trade against his sentence. Jonas is hard to like. His killing is a passion within him but there is also a struggle within him and a fear and uncertainty about his history. Importantly, he has a secret, supernatural connection with an invisible spirit which gives him strength and companionship. The reader feels there is hope for redemption for him but it is a long time coming. 

The characters and the settings are complex; the plot is complicated and convoluted. A fantasy world is built; violent confrontations and deaths occur. A  powerful cinematic world of action and colour is achieved. There is the mysterious past, there is the dangerous present, there is warfare, there is destruction, there are unstable alliances, despair and a vague hope.

Slayer is set in multiverses. Readers who are fluent fantasy readers, who can cope with multiple twists, characters, events and subplots, who can hold multiple threads together and are comfortable with tangled, intricate and sometimes impenetrable layers will enjoy Slayer. 

I will test it on the abovementioned student. No doubt the series will be a resounding success! 

Themes: Fantasy kingdoms, Warfare, Human, magic and elemental realms.

Wendy Jeffrey