The Dark Paladin By Rex Jameson

The Dark Paladin 

By Rex Jameson

I've covered Dr. Jameson and the publishing last week, so let me just say that, The Dark Paladin was published in 2018. Before I continue, a warning: this review has massive spoilers for The People's Necromancer. You have been warned. Now let's jump right in.

Ashton Jeraldson was a nice kid, happy to spend his days with his best friend Clayton, struggling to learn how to become a decent smith. That was then, now he's a necromancer and wanted all throughout the Kingdom of Surdel for rising an army of the dead and attacking the Mallory Keep, the fortress of his feudal overlord (Workers of the world unite you have nothing to lose but your chains!{I would like to remind everyone that I am not responsible for my editor}). Of course, Ashton was raising his friends and neighbors who were murdered by bandits hired by competing lords looking to cause each other hell in a cut throat political feud. That detail is however overlooked by the great and good of the Kingdom of Surdel in the rising panic, a panic not helped by Ashton accidentally summoning a demon when trying to raise his long absent father (Opps). A demon that killed the beloved Crown Prince and caused the death of the tolerated Lord Mallory. Ashton has bigger problems than his king declaring his life forfeit (Although I am left to question if killing someone who raises the dead is really a good idea? Do we really want to see what happens when you throw someone with the power to cross the boundary of life and death into death?). Ashton, has found himself on a much bigger game board facing much more dangerous players then the King of a rather out of the way nation. Because Ashton is now dealing more than bandits and struggling with the ethics and practical limitations of necromancy; but literal Lords of the Abyss and the legions of world-ending demons and abominations. What may be even worse is that he's also attracted the attention of a creature older then those lords and likely much, much more dangerous. The self styled Queen of Chaos and the being who claims to have created the demonic races in the first place. When one of those Demon Lords reaches the surface and begins raising his own undead army of a size and scale that puts Ashton to shame, he begins feeling the clock ticking. Worse is the fact that he's been kidnapped, you see the Crown Prince wasn't the only loved figure that was killed in the fighting. A young man name Frederick, one of the best young knights of his generation was also killed trying to fight off the bandit army. The big issue is the that Frederick was the son of the King's General, who has grabbed Ashton and is willing to do anything to force him to bring his son back. Even risk loosing another demon within the very halls of the King's palace itself. Of course Ashton can get himself out of this. All he has to do is accept the Queen of Chaos' offer. Become her general, do her bidding, save his world and possibly lose his soul in the process.

Interestingly enough, while the Queen of Chaos will bargain with Ashton, try to seduce him, bribe him, threaten him and more; she doesn't seem to lie to him, or at least everything she tells him is true up to a point. She does feel perfectly free not to volunteer information however and to try getting out of telling the whole story though, so I can't say she's perfectly honest. In fact I'm pretty sure I wouldn't trust her or take everything she says at face value, but throughout the story she makes it a point not to directly lie to the people she speaks to and lives up to the terms of her bargains to the letter and in some ways to the spirit of the bargain as well. So while the other Demon Lords want to pull Ashton's world to the Abyss and turn it into a miniature hell for their own gain, I kinda believe her when she says that she has no such interest in this world and in exchange for helping her find the things she's looking for, she get rid of the Demon Lords and simply leave. Of course I'm also thinking that she may have engineered the whole situation so that everyone would have no other option but help and support her. Bluntly she is not a good or benevolent force and is perfectly willing to let good or innocent people die to get what she wants. She is however also willing to give the mortals in this story what they want to get what she wants. We get a sense of what being in a Pact with her is like because Ashton isn't the only character she's involved with.

Cedric Arrington is a paladin, a warrior who wields the power of light to defeat the undead and demons menacing the people of the land. Now in most fantasy stories paladins serve a god/ess of light and order and go forth to smite evil from temple fortresses. Cedric's order has been outlawed and reduced to a couple dozen families huddled in the forests around a mountain where demons appear regularly (in a world without cars you want to be able to walk to work after all). Cedric's order also isn't in the service of some great divine being of light and order. Instead their Pact is with the Queen of Chaos, or as they call her when discussing her with outsiders, The Holy One. Interestingly enough the name isn't entirely a lie but something that the demons call her, as they credit her with their creation. The Pact is pretty simple, kill demons, obey her in all things, keep the Pact secret and bring your sons to take up the oath when they are old enough and she'll empower you and your weapons with the ability to smite demons and protect your world, when you die, you will be welcomed into the afterlife she keeps for all her faithful servants. Break the Pact and she destroys every member of your family down to the tenth degree and fling your bleeding soul into the abyss to suffer for eternity. Dr. Jameson shows us this by taking us back to when Cedric swore the oath and lets us feel the shock and horror that Cedric feels when he realizes that instead of swearing to a Holy Goddess, he's made an oath to a creature that is just as indifferent to life and justice as a demon. We also met Cedric's family; his wife and children as well as his father in law and see his motivation for continuing even as he feels he has made a bad bargain (see kids this is why you have to be careful with your soul, it's hard to get it back once you've sold it). Dr. Jameson however, provides a counterpoint in Cedric's wife, Allison, who is also a paladin. Allison while having made the same oath at the same time as Cedric, sees the Queen of Chaos as the best possible hope for her world and doesn't feel like she was trapped into the oath. If anything she feels the opposite that she would have still chosen the Pact with full awareness of the Queen's true nature.

The Queen of Chaos isn't the only one recruiting however. A Demon Lord named Orcus has escaped to the surface and is unleashing his own army of the undead on the world. To counter the Queen of Chaos' recruitment of champions, he goes hunting for his own lieutenants. Orcus offers those who would follow him a dark bargain, follow him, abandon all morality and empathy, and he will give you power and eternal existence as a remorseless predator on those you used to love and cherish. As Pacts with forces go, it's fairly standard (I’ve always wondered who takes these bargains…){Generally people who are dying or have a dying loved one, or people so backed into a corner that they don't care}. Which brings us to why I've been using the word Pact to describe the relationship between the Queen of Chaos, Orcus and the mortals they bargain with. An Oath is a solemn promise that doesn't have to be a two way street. I can swear an Oath to someone to do something without an expectation of payment. However the oaths the Paladins swear, the deal Ashton makes, and the bargain that Orcus all offer the same thing. A formal agreement between at least two parties. In this case it's a formal exchange, the Queen and Orcus get servants that can carry out their agendas and plans without needing their constant attention and supervision. On the flip side the mortals get the power needed to carry out their own goals.

Cedric and Ashton are the main character focuses of the book here, with Allison and the returning Dark Prince Jayden mainly playing supporting roles to give us a better look at their characters. I would like to note that the magic items that we see Prince Jayden using, a whip of plasma from a far off star and a hilt that generates blades of ice from a far off world are amazingly creative. In the last review I mentioned I didn't feel like we got a real look at Ashton, in this book we get a better look at his character. Out of all the characters in this book, he's the one who puts up the most resistance to forming a Pact with a greater power, to the point of forcing the Queen of Chaos to basically lay everything out for him in black and white with no quibbling. He doesn't do this by being especially clever but by being wise enough to realize that he can't in good faith make a deal without vital information and doggedly clinging to that point even when his life might be at stake. Even when he caves, I got the feeling he did so because he couldn't figure out a better way to save his world. Not out of any self interest. Ashton is in a lot of ways the most selfless character in the story and the story does a good job of showing us how even being selfless can lead to you being hated in extreme circumstances. Cedric is also a selfless character, he's willing to risk his life for people who hate and fear him after all. He does so in a battle that in many ways seems hopeless, there are only maybe 2 dozen paladins left in his order against an endless sea of demons all looking for a way out to the surface. What makes Cedric different is that he is way more sure of his place in the world and his sense of pride, which is deeply injured over having made the Pact with the Queen of Chaos. His pride causes him to constantly wrestle over it and makes him believe he is damned no matter what he does. This makes his insistence on fighting to protect the people around him more heroic honestly at the same time this does blind him to certain things that are going on around him.

The characterization and worldbuilding have been expanded in this book, aided by the fact that it's a direct continuation of The People's Necromancer. It also manages to tell a complete story in it's own right. That said entire chapters are also devoted to planting seeds for the next book with no pay off in this book. I think that is going to affect how much you enjoy the story. I’m also disappointed to see Clayton drop out of the story, although I did enjoy seeing what the undead that Ashton had already raised were up to. I have to say that The Dark Paladin is an improvement over The People's Necromancer but there's still issues with plot pacing and spending time sequel baiting that I'm not a fan of, although there is less of it. I'm giving The Dark Paladin a B. I should mention that I am onboard with the next book and you should expect to see it reviewed here at some point.

Next week, we hit the Monster Blood Tattoo series with Foundling. Keep Reading!

Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen

Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders