R.A. Salvatore is a highly productive author and one of my absolute favorites. He is mostly known for The Legend of Drizzt and other novels in the Forgotten Realms fantasy setting. This one is an exception, however – it’s part one in a entirely new trilogy called Saga of the First King, which takes place in the land of Corona. You may recognize Corona from the Demon Wars novels, and this is one and the same only the events in The Highwayman takes place hundreds of years before the Demon Wars.
 |
Corona is a feudal society scattered in small kingdoms and ruled by kings who for the most part treat their people like slaves. The countryside is swarming with dangers such as the blood-thirsty red cap dwarves. There’s also an ongoing struggle between two religions – one the merciless but traditional Samhaism, and the other the newly formed and more progressive Church of the Blessed Abelle. But as usual Salvatore doesn’t tell stories in black or white, and the latter isn’t necessarily pleasant either.
Bran Dynard is a monk of Blessed Abelle and returns from mission in a far-off and supposedly savage land. He returns a wiser man, having absorbed the more refined and civilized culture of the “savages” and married one of their dark-skinned women who is pregnant when they return. As it turns out, Bran’s brothers aren’t that eager to accept either his new-found wisdom or his new wife and quickly label him a heretic. Soon enough a witch hunt is set in motion that none of the two survives, but first Bran’s wife gives birth to the couple’s severely handicapped son Bransen – the soon-to-be highwayman.
That is the onset of the Highwayman’s story; Bransen grows up as the village fool, but when he finds a book that his father wrote, and gets gets to familiarize himself with his mother’s martial arts training he becomes a different man altogether.
Salvatore is not only good at weaving intricate and absorbing stories, but his descriptions of fighting scenes are amazing. In this first book of the trilogy the action takes a while to kick in, but once the Highwayman is born it becomes a real pageturner. Can’t wait to read the second novel in the Saga of the First King!
Get it from Amazon.com
It is an epic tale that encompasses a fair portion of the Forgotten Realms, including many of its inhabitants. Even some creatures who are normally strangers to the Realms are caught up in the clash. Compared to Salvatore, who most Forgotten Realms readers are familiar with, Cunningham draws upon some slightly more fantastic beings – even by fantasy measures – but still manages to keep the storyline relatively straight, although personally I’m a bit put off by the whole “elementals” stuff.