Book Review: "Talus and the Frozen King" by Graham Edwards

- by Señor Editor, 4 April 2014

Even though there are some exceptions to this, I can't say I'm a big fan of the "fantasy" genre. Despite all appearences, though, Graham Edwards' "Talus and the Frozen King" is not really a fantasy book. It's a detective story, set thousands of years ago, in a time when concepts such as "detectives", "crime scene investigation", "justice" or "pants" were not yet known.

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Seeing as I'm a sucker for crime fiction, that's exactly what got me interested in reviewing this latest offering from Solaris Books. I can't say I've ever read any other book by Graham Edwards, even though he apparently wrote some pretty well-received ones, so my only prior knowledge of this novel came from the promo materials we got. Dawn of society! Dead (and frozen) king! Six mourning sons, each of them could be the killer! And Talus, a bard and a proto-detective, on the case! Sounds pretty interesting, right?

We first meet Talus as he's wandering some northern, Scotland-like islands with his friend Bran. Talus is a bald bard with an analytical mind, and Bran is a big and strong fisherman with a crippled hand. They've met in tragic circumstances, namely during a storm in which Bran's wife died in the sea, and they have been travelling together ever since (the destination they want to reach and the reasons for it are revealed later on in the book, and it's pretty important, so we'll skip that for now).

One night, they hear cries of torment coming from a nearby island (which we soon learn is called Creyak). Thinking they might be able to help, they pass the stone path leading to the island, and find villagers, gathered around their dead and frozen king. They are unnoticed at first, due to all the commotion, but soon the village shaman, Mishina, stops them - this is not a good time for outsiders to visit, as the villagers just found their king dead. They think he died a natural death, but Talus begs to differ. Despite the crowd's hostility, one of the dead king's sons allows Talus to examine the body for marks, and soon finds one and proclaims that the king was murdered.

Now see, this scene is the first one where we get a taste of the hardships of trying to do detective work in these days of old. In the year SeveralThousand BC nobody wants you to examine their dead relative. They'd rather put a stone axe to your head then let you touch a dead person they liked. Dead people get a burial ritual and that's that, they go to whatever afterlife they believed in and nobody is wondering whether it was really the butler who did it (THERE ARE NO BUTLERS!!!). So this is all very new and hard to understand for the fur-wearing warriors of Creyak. It's as hard getting them to cooperate as it would be getting Conan the Barbarian to go through a prostate exam.

After getting through the "You say he's been murdered? Then maybe YOU murdered him, strangers!" phase, our duo earns some trust from the king's oldest son, Tharn, because they managed to plant a seed of curiosity in the man, and he would now like to know who murdered his father. It becomes clear that the main suspects are Tharn and his five brothers...

And that's all I can say about the plot. This is a very entertaining book, offering something that hasn't really been done much in the detective genre. Graham Edwards tells an intriguing tale that really gets you turning pages. The setting is fresh, the world is full of mystery, and solving the "case" is not an easy task for our protagonists.

Talus and Bran are an interesting duo. Talus is something of a Holmes analogue, with a powerful mind, but not that much in terms of social skills. He's painfully and delightfully logical, and his profession and backstory make him a nice, full character. It makes some sense that a man with a knack for storytelling would be good at seeing what story lies beneath a murder. He notices a lot of details and his mind can fill in the blanks, when it needs to. Bran is not really a Watson, though. He is a simple fisherman, built like a bear, and ready to protect his friend whenever somebody gets tired of all of Talus' heady stuff and wants to strike him down. They are a well designed duo, with an interesting story that brought them together. They are likable characters, and we root for them.

The pace of the book is also very nice. There are no sudden jumps, and we learn about Creyak, its inhabitants, and the world around the island gradually, and it is never boring. The dialogues are good, and even though we have nothing to compare them to, they sound natural given the story's world and the times we're in. The ending is also satisfactory, tying all the loose ends and setting up stage for more books in this brand new series.

All in all, this is a good read and it kept me entertained. I would be interested in reading another novel in this series, especially considering that Talus and Brans' wandering ways could lead them to some very exciting and exotic places. I hope to see Edwards exploring all these possibilities in future books. Get this one, whether you're a fan of detective books or a fan of fantasy books.


"Talus and the Frozen King" is out now from Solaris Books! Are you planning to pick it up? Let us know in the comments!

Tagged: books, Reviews.

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