The First Scars by Ivor K. Hill
Before resurrection, there must be death.
The immortal Branded are needed once more; the Druidic Curse has returned to the Fatherland, and an entire city has fallen. The Great One calls for aid, and the devout and the desperate come in droves to sear their skin with His mark.
Niko Puchev, reeling from his banishment from the Old Magic Inquest, seeks to prove his detractors wrong, and can see no better path than to take the brand. But Tasha Zolanova volunteers with a single question on her lips; can the Cursed be saved?
To end the nightmare, Niko, Tasha and the other Branded must destroy the source. They will scour the bloody, hate-ridden streets of Ranitsa City, their every step stalked by the ravening Cursed. And they will die, over and over, only to wake once more, clinging to their swords and the tatters of their wills.
But the truth lurking behind the Curse will tear them from their souls.
And here you got our third semifinalist! Another one that had some of us utterly loove it, while others were less enthusiastic. This year is definitely the year of hot discussions at fantasy faction!
Patrick: The First Scars fits what I think of as the “Dark Souls” genre. Let’s be clear. I have never played Dark Souls and have only a vague notion of what it involves, but there we are. I never claimed to be logical.
After a weak start, this book became increasingly compelling and engaging. Strong characters, lots of tension, and a vivid story. Is it grimdark? I have no idea. But it’s certainly dark, and a lot of people die and go through traumatic experiences. Pretty much every character you care for will die, many of them multiple times. Still, it was gripping and I was very much invested in the story. The negatives? The story was a bit disjointed in the middle, some more clarity would have been welcome from time-to-time, and occasionally words were misused. Despite that, this was one of our strongest entries and deserves to be a semifinalist.
Kerry: Every few years a curse falls upon the Fatherland; this curse turns humans into a zombie like state, intent on one thing – to kill. I am generally not a fan of zombies (unless there’s some comedic element) but thankfully these are not mindless zombies like one generally sees in TV series or movies, they are still capable of thought and often their killers see a glimpse of these thoughts. (Reminiscent of the book Altar on the Village Green which was an SPFBO entry a couple of years ago).
To rid the Fatherland of this curse, thought to be a product of Druidic magic, the Velakov (ruler of the Fatherland) asks for volunteers to get branded to fight the cursed. Zealots, soldiers and the very desperate get one brand at first which allows them to become resurrected if they die “He stood, alive, staring at his own dead body. He’d known Branded leave their carcasses in their wake”,– however they must be in a certain proximity to a Nuducha circle that the Velakov’s priests create. (there are 3 other brands as well; a brand that negates the first one once the curse has been contained, a brand that gives the wearer the power to stop others from being resurrected and the 4th which compounds the strength and speed of the person who wears that brand – usually only given to the Consort of the Velakov)
The prologue explains where the idea (propaganda) that the Druids are the cause of the curse as they have attained a form of immortality; this really p*sses Death off and thus the seeds of the curse are planted.
This novel is set in 3 parts, the first part in the city of Ranitsa where the curse has caught hold. We follow a number of the branded, mainly a young man named Niko and a young woman Tasha. Niko is a zealot and aspires to be a hero and find the source of the curse meanwhile Tasha is the complete opposite, she wants to know if the curse can be stopped and the cursed cured especially as her family are from Ranitsa, succumbed to the curse and had to be killed. I must admit it took a couple of tries to get a good start on First Scars. I really liked the prologue but then I met and instantly detested Niko, his zealotry and his blindness to the unfair class system that would always stop him from achieving his imagined heights grated on me. I was considering giving a DNF but then I met Tasha and other soldiers (all of whom were much more interesting) and learnt more about the different brands and the powers imbued in them. I was now fully invested in the book and with bated breath I followed the rag-tag troop of women and men as they fought, died, lived again, fought, died again and not everyone managed to die near the resurrection circles. The cause of the curse is discovered (and it certainly wasn’t what the soldiers and I expected) and unfortunately get unleashed to spread so Tasha and Co sail to the land of their lifelong enemies – the Druids. They are the only ones who are able to put an end to the curse and hopefully the deathly brands.
I like seeing branding as a form of magic weapon as well as resurrection. Piercings and tattoos have often been used for magic in fantasy whereas branding is often a sign of slavery so I enjoyed this inversion. I liked how whilst one may gain power there is often a hidden or delayed cost. First Scars also contained a number of twists that the characters and I didn’t see coming (I always give extra points for that) After my initial hesitant start (which was definitely a me thing) I’m so glad I kept going on because I ended up enjoying the rest of the book a lot. Plot and pacing were good and I ended up reading the book in a day. Also as I said previously I enjoyed that the cursed still had human thoughts and feelings and not mindless beasts or raised skeletal remains.
Prepare for people you care about to suffer but always look out for moments of friendship, bravery from the least likely quarter as well as glimmers of hope. A great grimdark debut from Ivor K Hill.
Julia: This for some reason never clicked with me. I’m having the hardest time trying to put a finger on why, but I just never really got drawn in.
I kept reading, as it’s not a bad book, but just a few days after reading it, I’m having trouble to even remember what it was about, apart from some scenes that stuck with me.
The beginning was good, and the characters and world interesting, or I’d not have finished it, I just remained sitting on my couch reading, instead of getting fully immersed.
I think this is more an incompatibility issue between me and the book, than a problem of the book itself though.
Adawia: This is one of the harder books for me to judge because I’m just not sure how I feel about it. I think, overall, I’m not really liking the prose, the style of the writing. I only began actually enjoying it around the middle and that’s largely because of some new characters that were introduced and the general trajectory of the plot (which is decidedly thickening).
Some sentences feel quite random, and the story occasionally feels a little disjointed. Also, it feels like some of the major events are not really dealt with or reacted to appropriately and I often feel like these things might be foreshadowing and I need to remember the details for when they come up later – but so far they haven’t come up later, we’ve just moved on. All that said, I’m really getting into the story and was curious and invested enough to finish the book even though I’m not loving the writing style.
Geoff Matthews