The Bush League Critic

I've been anxiously waiting for this dark fantasy debut since I read a few early reviews that pushed buttons I wasn't even aware I had. It spoke to me. (OK not really, but it sounded like something right up my alley)

The city of Isca is set like a dark jewel in the crown of the Duchy of Stonehold. In this sprawling landscape, the monsters one sees are nothing compared to what’s living in the city’s sewers.

Twenty-three-year-old Caliph Howl is Stonehold’s reluctant High King. Thrust onto the throne, Caliph has inherited Stonehold’s dirtiest court secrets. He also faces a brewing civil war that he is unprepared to fight. After months alone amid a swirl of gossip and political machinations, the sudden reappearance of his old lover, Sena, is a welcome bit of relief. But Sena has her own legacy to claim: she has been trained from birth by the Shradnae witchocracy—adept in espionage and the art of magical equations writ in blood—and she has been sent to spy on the High King.

Yet there are magics that demand a higher price than blood. Sena secretly plots to unlock the Cisrym Ta, an arcane text whose pages contain the power to destroy worlds. The key to opening the book lies in Caliph’s veins, forcing Sena to decide if her obsession for power is greater than her love for Caliph.

Meanwhile, a fleet of airships creeps ever closer to Isca. As the final battle in a devastating civil war looms and the last page of the Cisrym Ta waits to be read, Caliph and Sena must face the deadly consequences of their decisions. And the blood of these conflicts will stain this and other worlds forever.

I'm not going to fool around with a long rambling review here. I'm just going to come right out and say it: I. loved. it... read the book! (Post-review note: I lied... I had a lot of "ramble" in me, apparently.)

None of the reviews I saw bothered to mention whether the The Last Page (part of a planned duology) had some sort of ending, or if it left you hanging in the lurch waiting for its companion volume, Black Bottle. Let me put your fears to rest... The Last Page contains a completely satisfying story arc. Who'd 'a thunk it?!? I was beginning to think that nobody was capable of writing a work of speculative fiction (that was part of a series) that didn't leave me screaming expletives at its complete and utter disregard for the literary concept known as "The End". Anyway... I digress. And apparently, that's my own personal beef with the current state of the genre.

Huso plops you down in the middle of his world and adamantly refuses to explain any of it. Almost annoyingly so--almost, but not quite. I found it quite a refreshing change from the tried and true "brick-by-brick-by-(excruciatingly tortuous holy-shit-did-I-really-need-to-know-all-that?)-brick" world-building technique that pervades the High Fantasy genre. I don't mind using a little bit of my own imagination, and Huso obliged me. I thank him profusely for that! So if your idea of world-building is strapping on your unicorn-bedazzled fantasy bib while the author spoon-feeds you his world on a soft, plastic-coated baby spoon... don't read this book. There's plenty of others out that require no effort on the part of the reader.

Huso's prose is delightfully twisted and he has an excellent feel for the macabre:

It moved. A pustule that could roam, sliding like a parasite just beneath the cuticle of real. A monster. Pressing. Struggling to reach her. Pushing its formless mass against the locus of an ancient embryonic sac.

Yet he still has the good sense to interject some humor. Like when the High King of Isca asks his spymaster; "How insidious are you?"

Sometimes when you’re sitting under the chain and you let one drop you get a splash that comes up and snaps you right in the hole. It’s alarming but you tend to forget about it almost immediately after it happens. I’m like that. I’m the cold water that makes your ass pucker.

The Last Page is a very dark tale told in High Fantasy style by a fresh new voice. Which means that some are going to love it and some are going to hate it. There probably won't be a lot of middle ground, here. I, for one,  can't wait for the sequel.