Synopsis

The lords have fallen.

It was the war to end all wars. Violence had plagued the Fractured Kingdoms since the fall of the Old Empire. But as the generals and the lords died in the Valley of Torglen, the folk looked beyond their allegiances. Beyond their nations.

The bedraggled masses that survived the battle flocked to the nearest town with hopes of a new life. One in which their rulers remained rotting in the mud.

Brigge led her company of sellswords to foreign lands. Now she seeks to lead the dispossessed into a new life.

Ebar was forced into duty. Conscripted by the war machine of Volgsland. Though the war is over, his service is not.

A killer stalks the streets of Bright Hollow. Tortured by their past and longing for vengeance.

Disparate tales intertwine as the lives of the survivors collide. Bright Hollow is a small town, brimming with newcomers.

Quick Review

An anti-war story set in a Medieval town, The Scroungers plays with a lot of really fun ideas. It’s a story told through many perspectives and vignettes, from characters on both sides of a disastrous battle and the events that follow.

Full Review

In The Scroungers, Thomas J. Devins imagines a Medieval town shortly after the events of a large battle wherein both warring parties lost their leaders. As the dust settles, they form an odd and uneasy union, both anxious of the other but repeating a common refrain: everyone was just doing their jobs. It’s not any surviving person’s fault they went to war.

The book frequently calls out this point and points at the horrors of war as a game between the nobility of each country—a game which the people of Bright Hollow seek to depart.

I really enjoyed the format of this book, with many perspectives that don’t quite see eye-to-eye, some of whom take part in the same scene and perceive it differently (a very underrated storytelling technique that I love to see). 

It was also interesting to see an anti-war message that I associate with modern times, especially after the World Wars and then easy access to television, placed into this Medieval setting. The murder mystery that developed along the way made for a fun story as well, as former enemies work together to try and figure out who did it.

That said, I had some trouble relating to these characters, who were presented in vignettes and short stories that never quite gave us time to get to know them. They were all interesting, but never quite had the time to shine. I might have thought differently if I were reading the book digitally or physically, but with the audiobookI found it was sometimes challenging to keep track of things.

I also personally didn’t care for the poems that preceded every chapter. They were fun examples of worldbuilding at first, but ultimately felt long and repetitive.

All that said, these issues I had were not enough to mar the parts of The Scroungers that I did enjoy.

I recommend The Scroungers. I enjoyed the themes and setting, and the couple of twists that came later on. This is a great little fantasy book that you can finish over a day or two, with a nice balance of introspection and grisly murder.

Given the many perspectives that all intertwine, I don’t know that the audio version of this book is the best way to enjoy The Scroungers. However, the narrator R.J. Bayley did a fantastic job with this performance. If you don’t have the time to read this another way, or just prefer audiobooks, I’d still recommend trying it out.

Thank you to the author for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.