REVIEW: The Last Vigilant by Mark A. Latham
I know that for some of us, epic fantasy has never left, but The Last Vigilant by Mark A. Latham might suggest that, for traditional publishing, epic fantasy is back. I’ve shoved the cover of this under lots of people’s noses, and everyone has oohed and aahed. It reminds me of the fantasy covers of about twenty or so years ago, where I’d walk into a book shop and see something like this and go ‘Yeah, that’s my thing’. The Last Vigilant gave me that feeling, so even though I’ve never read a single Latham book, I started this with the sense that I was about to embark on a similarly excellent epic. That is precisely what Mark Latham delivers. Bravo, Sir! If you can imagine the book baby of John Gwynne and Richard Swan, it would probably be this: a new fantasy world with a decent magic system, first-rate plot, brilliant fights, and a puzzling mystery. The Last Vigilant isn’t just my cup of tea, it’s my whole darn pot.
“I am the seeker after the truth. I am the voice of the meek. I am the sword of justice. I am the healer of the cursed. I am the watcher against darkness. I am everywhere and nowhere. I am everyone and no one. The gods made me, the gods protect me, and the gods will one day take me. – Taken from The Vigilant Oath.”
The last vigilant of the title, Enelda Drake (aka the lady Gandalf on the cover), is the final member of an ancient and powerful order, the Vigilants. The old order was disbanded, and Enelda has been living in solitude for decades, all but forgotten about until the child of a powerful ally goes missing. War will follow if he is not found, and Holt Hawley, an outcast soldier, is sent to find this last vigilant and make them help with the search for the boy. No one expects Hawley to succeed. It is a fool’s errand meant to embarrass him further. But Hawley does find this fabled vigilant. Enelda is old, out of practice, and doesn’t look very much like the living legend he was expecting. But together they might overcome the corruption and scheming surrounding them to find the boy and avoid another all-out war.
So, to get it out of the way, in terms of grimdark-ness, I don’t think The Last Vigilant will score highly on the grimdark-o-nometer. There is a dark magic system, a fair amount of dark and twisty goings on, some of which are pretty violent and upsetting, particularly when they happen to children, but we know who the goodies are and who the baddies are. Hawley, for example, is not morally grey; he is a good man wracked with guilt about a bad thing that he did for what he thought were the right reasons. Complicated, but not a grimdark anti-hero. Enelda swore an oath to protect. She is very clearly the good guy, who may or may not have experience with necromancy like magic. Latham is quite David Gemmell-esque in that the characters we are meant to dislike sneer or swagger and are generally rather unlikeable. But that does not in any way detract from the fact that I really liked this book.
The mystery plot of The Last Vigilant was a great literary puzzle. A hard one with lots of similar pieces. You like it, and you try to work out what goes where. But then you realise you messed it up and put something in the wrong place, and you must shimmy things around. I was like Hawley as the whole thing progressed, trying to work out the whodunnit elements and often not getting it right. That plot weaves in with the history of the vigilant order, the world Latham has built, and the political shenanigans. Honestly, I don’t think I have a criticism of The Last Vigilant, other than it might not be the darkest of dark epic fantasy out there.
This is a terrific new world, and as a new reader of Mark A. Latham’s novels, The Last Vigilant was a fantastic first impression. Also, because I enjoy a well-written fight scene, those particular moments in the book were very good. I get the distinct impression that (like John Gwynne) Latham may be a bit of a history buff. He knows his swords and how to swing them, which makes for excellent reading.
I am excited to continue this trilogy and think it might become a firm favourite. Thank you to Mark A. Latham and the Orbit team for sending us a copy of The Last Vigilant.
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