You Die When You Die

Sometimes a book leaves you constantly thinking back to it. In the past I have found this in the beautiful language of Rothfuss’s King Killer Chronicles, the sheer epic nature of the Stormlight Archive, and the perfect execution of twisting plots found in Lynch’s Gentlemen Bastards. Now, after listening to Angus Watson’s You Die When You Die, I find myself doing so again, this time for the sheer brilliance with which he has written his different characters’ many perspectives. Some aspects of this book may not have blown me away, but getting to the end nearly made me go back through what I promised myself would be the absolute final draft of my own novel to try and emulate this level of character perfection.

The story follows the survivors of the Hard Worker tribe; a group of Viking descendants who landed in America five generations prior only to have all their needs met by the locals who believed the tall, bearded, and steel weapon bearing northmen to be divine in nature. However, when the ruler of the local empire has a prophecy that white skinned people will lead to the death of all native Americans, the few Hard Workers that survive her first attempt to wipe them out must flee westwards at the behest of a brain-addled boy with the gift of far-sight. With a team of elite, magically fuelled warrior women on their tail and every surrounding tribe told to kill the Hard Workers or be killed and eaten by the empress’s minions, our band of sheltered Vikings are forced to undertake a harrowing journey that will forge some into heroes and other into corpses.

Now, there are two main points that I will concentrate on for this book. First, the story is a simple one. There really aren’t any complex twists and turns that leave you ‘oooing’ and ‘ahhing’ at the cleverness of the plot. It simply boils down to a group of people on the run and another group chasing them. That’s basically it. Now usually this wouldn’t be enough to really get my hearth stoked, but that brings me neatly onto the second point. The mission itself may not be overly gripping, but the characters who undertake said mission are so damnably brilliant that I could have listened to them washing a large tower of dirty dishes and still been thoroughly entertained. There are a lot of character perspectives in this book, and often that can lead of the reader/listener getting a little lost. Not so here. Fin, the main(ish) character is the single best example of a angsty, horny, self-obsessed teenager that I have ever come across, and it is a mark of Watson’s brilliant writing ability that we as listeners/readers still come to empathise wholeheartedly with Fin. I found myself both laughing aloud at the logic labyrinths Fin twisted himself into and also fully understanding the mindset that allowed him to achieve such mental gymnastics. And Fin is but one of a whole host of wonderfully written characters whose eyes we peer out from during the course of the book, each as well crafted as the last but always in their own unique ways.

This book genuinely made me laugh. Like, properly laugh out loud and not just that weird half-snort thing that people do. And it did so time and time again. The storyline itself may not have been that exhilarating (which is my only real criticism of this book), but with the constant giggles couple with the unvarnished glimpses into a plethora of psyches, I was never bored. Now if only Watson could have channelled a little of that genius into a more expansive storyline, me might have had another visit from the very rarely seen 5-star fairy.

As for narration, I started off not so keen on Sean Barret, but that was because he initially reminded me of another narrator that I’m not super keen on. However, after a few hours I was able to effectively slice away my similarity-induced prejudice and come to appreciate Barrett’s style to a great degree. His inflections and tone couldn’t have been more perfect, and thinking back on it, only someone with the particular lack of seriousness that his voice is infused with could have mastered the humour of this novel. A brilliant performance.

Personal Score: 4.5 stars

Profession Score: 4.5 stars

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