Synopsis
Crow Holborn will never be the same again after leaving his father’s ranch alongside Callus, a wandering tribesman afflicted by a fearsome curse.
As Cal’s curse slowly spreads to Crow, the pair set towards bringing vengeance to a figure from Cal’s past. Along the way Callus and Crow hack, bite, and tear their way through a post-apocalyptic world.
When their journey takes them across the sea to a great and dark city, their thirst for revenge soon becomes a fight to survive the evil order within.
Review
I’m going to give you some helpful advice, friend. There’s one thing you can expect going into this story by D.B. Rook: you don’t know what the hell to expect. Let me tell you, I thought this was going to be a straightforward Weird Western based on the book’s cover and opening scene and it sure deviated away from that.
That deviation is what makes Callus & Crow one of 2023’s unmissable reads.
In an interview with Beard of Darkness Book Reviews, Rook recently talked about how he was writing a book that he’d want to read. This is an important point to keep in mind as it explains how C&C feels like a patchwork quilt of a novel, lovingly and skilfully stitched together. Albeit what’s being stitched together here are varying elements such as grimdark, weird west, Lovecraftian tentacle monsters, Rob Zombie-like splatterpunk … you know what, there are a few too many to list here.
So, in short, C&C is a wonderful chaos of a fantasy novel and a smorgasbord of the author’s favourite elements of fantasy. Rook just really goes for it and it works.
Two’s Company
The central duo, Callus and Crow forge a strong bond and quick. Linked by Cal’s curse, the need to feed on blood and to be consigned to death instead of sleep, there results an interesting concept of codependency at play. It’s like a father/son relationship except for the times when it ain’t. It’s vampiric … but it also isn’t. This book feels so familiar – it reminds us of what is so damn great about fantasy – but it’s also so subtly altered that it doesn’t use familiarity as a crutch.
Instead, C&C throws a wide variety of the weird and the wonderful over its pages. Rook brings an emporium of curiosities, none more so than the likes of Silk and Laz. Silk carries a piece of cloth possessed by the spirit of her deceased mother and fights with ferocity – a seriously novel and rare character concept. Laz is a sharpshooter with a bucket theory of life that gives the novel its philosophical outlet. They both help out Cal and Crow through countless sticky situations by dispensing sage advice or quite often shooting something. And the endearing thing about C&C is sometimes you don’t need an explanation for how these characters came to be, or why a situation goes south; you just need someone or something to get brained with a hatchet. That’s cool too. There’s just something deeply satisfying about Cal and Crow Bone Tomahawking their way through the Weird West and into the book’s bleak and oppressive grimdark second act.
Further supporting characters don’t stray too far from this weird hatchet formula too – Cal’s curse leads to a certain kind of life of violence and death that follows him wherever he goes, much like the carrion crows that accompany him in the opening chapters. Special mention to the Mariahs that appear later in the book, the guards of the evil secret society Callus and Crow happen upon after crossing the sea. They gave me really strong vibes of the Spire guards from Fable 2. I love anything that brings me back to a game like that. Then there’s the antagonistic Crave and his posse too, hunting down Callus for reasons I’m not going to spoil but acting suitably menacing and frightening along the way.
Rhyme and Reason
One of my favourite aspects of C&C was the dual narrative that often gives each of the titular pair’s own take on any given scene. Rook somehow manages to avoid repetitive writing while at times describing the same passage of events. It smacks of an author who trusts his protagonists to tell this story authentically but also his ability to make ‘em dance while doing so. I really liked seeing how Callus would burst onto a scene and interpret a situation in a completely different way to Crow and vice versa, which frequently delivers some outlandish consequences. Excerpts from journals, missives and the occasional side character inject plenty of intrigue to give context to the next twist C&C is about to take.
It’s the dual narrative approach that makes the last few moments of the story a particularly gut-wrenching read though. Daryl, if you’re reading this, I’m still devastated and I’m still mad at you.
A Wayward World
Callus & Crow definitely goes down as the most unique book I’ve read this year. I loved it. If you’re a fan of dual protagonists and want to know what would happen if you create a Weird West Grimdark mashup then you’ll get along nicely with this book.
If you want to hear more from D.B. Rook then allow me to direct you to his website: Home – DB Rook (dbrookbooks.com)
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