The Warrior-Son by Scott Blasingame

The Warrior-Son by Scott Blasingame

Having read Mr. Blasingame’s two NightDragon books, I was a little trepidatious about reading his massive epic, “The Warrior-Son.” But then I read the introduction, which promised a story reminiscent of “What if those Amicus Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations from the 1970s had been choreographed by Sammo Hung” and I started to get excited. The book itself, while not quite that, is a generally happy mix of Burroughs-esque adventure with Blasingame’s extremely-detailed approach to writing martial arts duels.

In a world much like ours, the land is populated by humanoid creatures no larger than a foot tall. While all of them have enough in common genetically to be able to intermarry and have healthy children, each different tribe seems to have picked up a handful of genes from the animals whose name their tribe bears. There are also so tribes who are more or less human as we define it, and their tribes tend to be named from plants that dominate their respective territories. The story opens with a festival of sorts for all the major tribes, which is highlighted by a tournament of sorts. The organizer of the games, Rume of the Kudzu Tribe, has promised his daughter, Tara, to the victor of the tribe. By custom, Tara must choose one participant to be her “champion.” Not wanting to get hitched that way, she declares Thorn, her slave and bodyguard and the last member of the extinct Creek tribe to represent her. A slave has never fought in the games before, and that is but the beginning of our adventure, as Thorn soon must fight his way across the known world for the love and life of Tara, while a great evil threatens the peace that has dominated the land since Rume became chief of the Kudzu people.

First of all, this is a very long book. Moreover, Blasingame, who sites the venerable ERB as being one of his principal inspirations, takes a page from his writings and ends the book on a colossal cliffhanger. That could be infuriating to some, like those who complained after watching LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring and discovering that nothing is resolved at the end, but it makes sense in the larger context. The final battle that marks the climax of this book takes place on a rather intimate scale, which would be a little underwhelming considering all the time spent on world building. That said, my final mark for the series as a whole will depend on how or if Blasingame is able to tie up every story thread from this book in the next story.

And world building Blasingame does. Many of my favorite parts of the book are reading about how the characters—all of whom are about a foot tall—interact with the environment around them. There are forests and deserts and swamps and wastelands and an expanse of ravines known as “The Maze” for our heroes to visit. Even when our characters are just walking around and looking at the local flora, Blasingame keeps things interesting (at least to a former geography major like myself).

Of course, all the world building and compelling scenery doesn’t mean spit if the characters aren’t interesting. Thankfully, Blasingame nails that, too. The interactions between Thorn and his peers, especially his friend, a frog boy named Tad, and the Warrior-Sons of the other tribes are amusing and fun to read. Thorn grows out of both his self-imposed and class-imposed shell as the story progresses and he meets up with all sorts of interesting people from lesser-known tribes throughout his journey. Most important, Blasingame allows the eventual romance between Thorn and Tara to develop gradually, as the two have to overcome their pride and past hurts in order to show their love for one for another. It also doesn’t hurt that Tara learns how to be a bad-a** as the book progresses, and I loves me some strong, empowered female characters. But I’m also a big softie, and the numerous references to characters being shipped touched the soft spot in my MA-movie hardened heart. Blasingame is able to invoke the right emotions from the characters’ interactions without feeling too manipulative. And the villains of the piece are worthy of the reader’s scorn, albeit each for his own different reason.

Then there’s the action. Much like the NightDragon books, the action basically the collected works of Tony Jaa, Sammo Hung, Lau Kar-Leung and Yuen Woo-Ping transplanted to paper. There are recognizable references to movies like ONG BAK and DRAGON LORD in the fights, and the existence of animal-like tribes allows for different styles of combat suited to each tribe. The detail that Blasingame puts into the fights is amazing, as if he choreographed a fight with his friends, recorded it, and then wrote down every single movement and converted it to prose. In addition to the fisticuffs, a lot of the action comes in the form of chases, stalkings and escapes. My favorite action sequences include Thorn’s initial flight through the maze, some of the desperate fights against the dreaded Snake People, and the Rambo-esque stalking in the fog-shrouded village ruins. Great stuff. And in keeping with the whole Hong Kong influence idea, Blasingame also adopts the HK storytelling principal that NOBODY is safe and that anybody can die at any time.

So this was a great adventure that surpassed Blasingame’s NightDragon novels and is something he can truly be proud of. You the reader will need some patience in view of the book’s length, but the journey is more important than the destination (well, that and the story hasn’t reached its final destination yet) and there’s a lot to enjoy here. Here’s hoping that the next book, will be the story’s RETURN OF THE KING and RETURN OF THE JEDI, and not THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS.