Synopsis:
Set in a world where magic is forgotten, monsters lurk in the dark woods, and honorable soldiers are few, this utterly gripping epic fantasy tells the story of two flawed humans, an out-of-practice wizard and a hot-headed sargent, who are thrust into the heart of a mystery that threatens to unravel their kingdom’s fragile peace.
Shunned by the soldiers he commands, haunted by past tragedies, Sargent Holt Hawley is a broken man. But the child of a powerful ally has gone missing, and war between once peaceful nations is on the horizon. So, he and his squad have been sent to find a Vigilant. They are a rumored last survivor of an ancient and powerful order capable of performing acts of magic and finding the lost. But the Vigilants disappeared decades ago. No one truly expects Hawley to succeed.
When he is forced to abandon his men, he stumbles upon a woman who claims to be the Last Vigilant. Enelda Drake is wizened and out of practice, and she seems a far cry from the heroes of legend. But they will need her powers, and each other, to survive. For nothing in the town of Scarfell is as it seems. Corrupt soldiers and calculating politicians thwart their efforts at every turn.
And there are dark whispers on the wind threatening the arrival of an ancient and powerful enemy. The Last Vigilant is not the only myth returning from the dead.
Review:
Putting together a well-crafted mystery within an expansive fantasy world is no easy feat, but Mark A. Latham managed to combine both with his latest book The Last Vigilant, the first in a new series.
Even more than the mystery or the world, Latham’s two protagonists are the best part of the book — a great foundation he can build a multi-book series off of. First up, we’ve got Sargent Holt Hawley — a career soldier who has seen things and done things he can’t undo. His past haunts him even as he tries to fulfill his duties, which takes him to a remote woods at the beginning of the novel to find a Vigilant.
Understanding what a Vigilant is will go a long way to understanding the book. Years before the events of this book, there was an entire order of VIgilants — people capable of magic and almost like agents of the FBI of Latham’s fantasy world. Hawley’s quest to find a Vigilant brings him to the doorstep of Enelda Drake — the title character. She was once a powerful Vigilant and as the book progresses we see that wisdom and power slowly reveal itself as the mystery at the core of the book becomes apparent as well.
Of course, if we have a mystery, it’s only natural to put a character in the “Sherlock” role and that is Drake. And just like Sherlock had his own eccentricities, Drake has her own, including social anxiety and other quirks that present themself from time to time. If Drake is our Sherlock, then Hawley is the “Watson,” the eyes and ears for the audience. In that role, I’m not sure if he succeeds quite as well since Hawley has some major trauma from his past he must deal with, putting his career and his life in jeopardy just as the case is ready to reach its apex.
It’s only natural that there will be comparisons to Robert Jackson Bennett’s Ana and Din books (A Tainted Cup and its sequel A Drop of Corruption). Bennett’s books are truly some of the best books I’ve read the past two years, so the comparison is a little unfair, but both are mysteries and both are fantasy novels, so the comparisons will come.
The book’s pacing is a little lethargic at times and characters do a lot of talking in rooms, but when the action comes, it really hits you over the head. The mystery at the heart of the novel appears bad but a tad benign early on, but the brutality of the truth is horrific when it’s all revealed. Overall, the ending is fantastic and Latham really sets up the characters for future sequels and has them in roles that are both at the same time new and old for them.
I enjoyed The Last Vigilant and look forward to what Latham has up his sleeve for the second Kingdom of Oak and Steel novel.
Thank you to Orbit for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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