The Fallen Blade
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
ISBN: 031607439X
Price: $10.19
Release Date: January 27, 2011
Publisher: Orbit

Plot Summary:
In the depths of night, customs officers board a galley in a harbor and overpower its guards. In the hold they find oil and silver, and a naked boy chained to the bulkhead. Stunningly beautiful but half-starved, the boy has no name. The officers break the boy’s chains to rescue him, but he escapes.

Venice is at the height of its power. In theory Duke Marco commands. But Marco is a simpleton so his aunt and uncle rule in his stead. They command the seas, tax the colonies, and, like those in power before them, fear assassins better than their own.

In a side chapel, Marco’s fifteen-year old cousin prays for deliverance from her forced marriage. It is her bad fortune to be there when Mamluk pirates break in to steal a chalice, but it is the Mamluks’ good luck – they kidnap her.

In the gardens beside the chapel, Atilo, the Duke’s chief assassin, prepares to kill his latest victim. Having cut the man’s throat, he turns back, having heard a noise, and finds a boy crouched over the dying man, drinking blood from the wound. The speed with which the boy dodges a dagger and scales a wall stuns Atilo. And the assassin knows he has to find the boy.

Not to kill him, but because he’s finally found what he thought he would never find. Someone fit to be his apprentice.

Best line: “If an angel can fall, a demon can rise.”

The Review:
The novel immerses you in the heart of 1400s Venice with accurate but vivid historical details that make the setting come alive. In a novel like this, the setting becomes a character, too. Grimwood starts things off with an unnamed male character then continues to the point of view of Guilieta, a princess.

The reader will sense definite shades of The Tudors but a more apt comparison is The Borgias if they got their own show, which they have.

The principal female character, Giulieta, is from the Millioni family, a wealthy but murderous clan that the Pope has declared to be false, and thus anyone can kill them. If you like your fantasy novels politically charged, then you’ll like this one.

Soon enough, we switch back to the John Doe from the first bit of the novel, who turns out to be a vampire named Tycho, which struck me as an odd choice because of its robotic-sounding quality. It’s probably better than something flowery like Alessandro or Romeo but still sounded a bit stiff. Then again, he has the coldness of a machine, so it could well be an intentional choice

Tycho washes up on the shores of Venice, naked, and a girl named Roslyn finds him. She drips blood onto his face, his eyes turn black, and although we know going into the book that he’s a vamp, I thought the author injected some good creativity into this aspect. The book has a great filmic quality and the author is a poet. It’s quite absorbing, so I recommend not reading it on the tram or you might miss your stop

But one thing that made me scratch my head was the printer that Tycho meets, because if it’s still 1407 as the book suggests, the printing press would not have been available until 1450 at the very earliest, and in Germany, with Gutenberg. Italy didn’t see its first printing press until 1465 and in Subiaco, not Venice. It might seem a trivial point to most, but for book history buffs, it will stand out.

Another somewhat distracting element was some instances of modern vernacular language, such as “the creeps,” which one definitely wouldn’t have used in the era. It would have been acceptable if the author had made all the dialogue/interior monologue in modern speech despite the time period (Season of the Witch, anyone? Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman talking like two angry New Yorkers in the middle of the Crusades — priceless ).

However, one of Tycho’s abilities almost makes up for these things — when he kills a person, he takes on their memories and knowledge. I thought that was a neat little addition. Amid the political manipulations and power plays, we start to get some romance elements as Tycho finds Giulieta in a church and sucks some of the blood from her rib that she has punctured herself (she kind of has the whole morbid “death wish” thing going on because she’s going to marry a guy she hates. Oh, and her supposed benefactors torture her to further their own ends. So you can’t really blame the girl). As the story progresses, you’ll start to sympathize with Giulieta even more. The novel reads like a smoother Shakespearean play at times, and there’s even a Dramatis Personae at the beginning, along with a map, which is definitely useful for this kind of fantasy.

I’m not a huge fan of political machinations, but these seem to dominate the novel, with everyone using everyone else to their own ends, which can be entertaining at times, but my interest was primarily with Tycho. Tycho’s past, when revealed, is quite compelling, and it will make you want to know more about him. The action scenes and Tycho’s eventual relationship with Alexa, Giulieta’s aunt, make the book more interesting, as well as the monsters of this book, werewolf cum zombies called Krieghunds.

Overall, if you like fantasy with political intrigue, historical elements, vampires, and some romance, you’ll enjoy this book very much.