The Copper Promise
The Copper Cat series, Book 1
Jen Williams
Angry Robot
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Demons, Diversity, Dragons, Girl Power, Magic Workers, Thieves
*****
Description
There are many tales in the land of Ede, but perhaps no place inspires more tales than the legendary Citadel, where it is said the mages of old trapped
the five gods away... along with their secrets, their powers, and their untold treasures. Even the most hardened adventurers hesitate to enter the forbidden
edifice - and those who do are never seen again.
A clever thief like Wydrin, the Copper Cat of Crosshaven, should've known better... but she and her adventuring partner, disgraced knight Sebastian, needed
the money.
Hired by the crippled Lord Aaron Frith of Blackwood, who seeks the means for vengeance against the usurpers of his throne, they set out into the Citadel's
depths, but the mission goes wrong from the start. When they unwittingly unleash the dragon goddess Y'Ruen, her flames and brood army begin a march of
unimaginable destruction across Ede, a land that has long since forgotten how to deal with gods, let alone stop them... unless the Copper Cat of Crosshaven
and her companions can rediscover secrets that died with the mages of the Citadel.
Review
Brimming with imagination and adventure and more than a little wit, The Copper Promise pays homage to classic sword and sorcery, but with more diversity and stronger women. Sebastian and Wydrin take after Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, one the towering northern swordmaster cast out of his home and the other the trickster thief with a penchant for knives and clever remarks, though the characters stand well on their own and aren't simple rehashes. Lord Frith starts off as a third wheel, so focused on revenge that he nearly gets his companions and the whole world killed, but he manages to come around. Meanwhile, Wydrin and Sebastian see their partnership tested to the utmost over whether to face what they've helped unleash (and face almost certain death) or slink away like smart adventurers (and face a later, but still almost certain death.) The three develop a nice, if not always harmonious, working chemistry. They roam a world straight out of a dungeon-crawler, full of legends and secrets and demon cults and hidden treasures and adventurers looking to make a name for themselves amidst it all (not to mention the requisite townsfolk just trying to survive amidst it all, and often failing), colorful and larger than life. Even amid several gory scenes and times of danger and darkness, it maintains its air of adventure and heroism, avoiding grimdark brooding. The plot has an almost episodic feel to it, a series of distinct encounters and incidents as it builds to a breakneck climax. Once in a while the episodes almost feel like padding, drawing away from the main arc for page count, but they were entertaining enough I didn't mind, at least not enough to shave anything off a top rating. It's been a bit since I enjoyed nearly every page of a story as I did here. I'm looking forward to future adventures with the Copper Cat.