Book Review: A Sword and Sorcery Flop

 Red Sonja: Consumed, by Gail Simone (Orbit)

I tried hard to like this book, but I failed. I never overcame my initial, extremely unpleasant impression of Red Sonja as callous, self-centered, and incompetent. Even the queen she beds and betrays dives headlong into revenge without a second thought. Jumping from one POV character to another further disrupted any engagement with the story.

Sword and sorcery in the tradition of Robert E. Howard is a stylized subgenre. The tropes are distinctive but consistent: larger-than-life characters with larger-than-life adversaries, colorful settings with mythic overtones, exaggerated action sequences, and a tendency toward florid prose. Consistency with Howard’s literary style without becoming ridiculous amounts to a high-wire act. In the hands of a master, the elements come together like an amusement park ride: breathless, engaging escapism that is ultimately emotionally satisfying. The best of these stories work by evoking psychological resonances (see Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey) in an immersive reading experience.

Alas, not only was I unable to connect with any of the characters in the book’s opening, but too many details strained my credibility even by the standards of the subgenre. For example, Red Sonja is remarkably unaware of her surroundings, allowing enemies to sneak up on her on a regular basis. She’s just plain incompetent at basic survival skills. Many details about riding and horses are wrong in the sense of being ignorant. (Example: a skilled rider on a familiar and extremely well-trained mount does not haul on the reins to halt but uses a shift in weight and pelvic angle.) Once my confidence in the author had been impaired, other things that might not have otherwise kicked me out of the story became barriers, like “firing” arrows in an era before gunpowder. That’s a linguistic bobble that has become commonplace and can be excused in an otherwise consistent setting.

On the plus side, Simone occasionally comes up with a memorable turn of phrase, action, or characterization (but not, alas, of Red Sonja).

I checked other reviews, both critical and defensive, to see what other readers thought. I wondered if I was missing something because I hadn’t read all the modern stories. The reviewers divided mostly into two camps: those with extensive knowledge of the Red Sonja novels and graphic and those who just want a fun reading experience. Some of the former novels are either critical of the many lapses in geography, nomenclature, and history, while others insist that this book cannot be properly appreciated without in-depth knowledge of the franchise. I disagree with the latter.

Good storytelling is good storytelling, regardless of genre. Nobody expects high literary values from sword and sorcery, but perhaps that is a mistake. Consider the work of Tanith Lee, C. J. Cherryh or C. L. Moore. Unfortunately, Gail Simone is not in their class.