The Malice

I wasn’t blown away by Book 1 in The Vagrant series, but I loved the universe. Because of that I gave The Malice a go. Unfortunately, where I was somewhat on the fence of love and indifference of Book 1, this time around the winds of fate blew me just enough to fall off said fence and onto the indifference side. That is not to say that this is a bad book, because it most certainly is not. For a listener with a certain kind of taste, this book will be very enjoyable. I just don’t have that taste. Allow me to explain.

This book sees us return to the shattered, demon-infested world twelve years after the events of Book 1, and this time it is little Vespa who takes up the mythical sword of Gamma. Where before the quest was to get the sword to safety, this time it is to take it into harm, to try and close The Breach and defeat a new threat that is rising. We get off to a good start, but very quickly the whole host of potentially interesting characters that we are alluded to are whittled down to just Vespa and one half of her bodyguard, Duet, and therein lies the problem.

Neither of these characters really grabbed me. Vespa was ok. She is an innocent girl who over the course of the book has her eyes opened to the true horrors that her sheltering father has protected her from. She has a decent amount of character development and a realistic progression by the novel’s end. This is done fairly well, but not astoundingly well. But Duet, well, I just didn’t like her. Not in the way that many characters are written to be disliked. In the way that I just didn’t connect with her. There was potential there, but she kind of just filled the spot of a guardian while her story-arc was pretty half-baked. And when that accounts for 50% of your main characters, your narrative is going to take a hit. I just never felt the need to keep listening. There was no tug to pop in my headphones and squeeze in an hour here and 30 minutes there. Because of this, the novel took far longer than it should have to finish. I expect that scraped away more of the positive aspects of the book and left me to linger on the negative than was usual. Again, not a bad book, but it just didn’t grab me like I hoped it would.

There were other side-stories going on, thank god. Ones with a little more spice to them. The first of which was that of Samael, a fallen knight who begins to regain his humanity. This was done beautifully, and when his path finally connected with Vespa’s, things for the main storyline started to pick up. Unfortunately, this was about two thirds of the way through the book. There was also a series of flashback chapters to over a thousand years before, to the events that led to the formation of the Empire of the Winged Eye. This I loved. Finally, some much needed context after the rather vague explanations given in Book 1. I could have very happily listened to an entire novel about this history and the series of events that led to the world being in such a terrible way and still been left gagging for more. 

The novel’s story itself was, I’m afraid, a little lacklustre. There was a vague and non-descript new adversary that was growing in power, and the way it was dealt with left me completely unsatisfied. I didn’t really get much of a sense of foreboding from The Yearning. We just keep getting told that it’s really bad with any real context. Not the right way to write a unfathomable evil in my opinion.

One aspect that I did truly love about this book was the glimpse we got of Verdigris, the city that had rebelled against the infernals in Book 1 and had now been eking out its existence as a free city, with a populous that are part human and part demon. The time Vespa and Duet spend here is some of the most interesting in the book because of the way the city has learned to cope with the odd duality of its people. I loved it. Then we come to the ending, as the book continues for some time after the true quest has ended. And this too is a very positive aspect. The story itself may not have been first class, but the realistic tying up of loose ends and practical outcomes to the problems still faced by the inhabitants of the world are, for lack of a better word, satisfying (one of my highest terms of praise if you have read any of my other reviews). In fact, the landscape is set for the next book in such a way that, despite my lack of love for this book, I expect that I will buy Book 3 eventually. 

As with the first novel, Jot Davies’ performance was first class. There was a far thinner rota of ghastly demons in this book for him to wrap his incredible vocal range around, but those that were there were done to perfection. This man can voice evil beings, and for a book set in a world beset by an unending horde of such beasties, he is the perfect man for its narration.

Personal Score: 3 stars

Professional Score: 3.5 stars