The first book in a trilogy, The Vagrant by Peter Newman was a very different kind of book than I had ever read before. There was a lot of discussion among the book club members, and my husband, while we were reading it and the opinions were quite varied. It has sci-fi and fantasy elements throughout the story, which makes for an interesting, and sometimes difficult to follow, read.
Punctuated by flashbacks that take the reader back up to eight years before the story starts, the novel follows a character known only as the Vagrant as he travels north with a baby and a singing-sword. The world has been attacked in a great battle between humans and creatures from The Breach. The creatures, infernals, spread a tainted essence throughout the land of the south and the Vagrant must navigate his way north to complete his mission of finding sanctuary for the baby and delivering the sword to the Shining City. The flashbacks are placed throughout the book and take the reader through the details of the past; from when the great battle happens, all the way up to just before the story begins and the Vagrant starts his journey in New Horizon.
Because this book was more difficult to get through, we pushed the February meeting to mid-March to allow more of us to finish the book. In the end only two girls didn't finish: Rebecca only had 5 chapters left and she went the audio book route which apparently for this novel was long and had way too many pauses. She played us a sample and we all groaned. Elisha got half-way through and was really quite liking it, so she plans to finish it even though the discussion did give away some parts and the end.
Again, we were split on who liked it and who didn't. Majority I think liked it this time, where as January's book was majority didn't like it. An improvement, I guess. We all agreed that there wasn't enough description for characters, creatures and settings. It either needed more details in the story or illustrations to go along with it. It left too much up to the imagination and that led to differing opinions on what things looked like. We all also agreed that no one was able to get invested in the story until about half-way through. The investment either came from a particular character being introduced or from the Vagrant's treatment of the baby.
During the meeting's discussion, some unique comparisons were made. Harm and the Vagrant were compared to Frodo and Sam from the Lord of the the Rings. As were the Knights of Jade and Ash compared to the nine ring wraiths. The Hammer that Walks was compared to Brienne from Game of Thrones. The Breach, where the infernals come from, was likened to the underwater gateway the kaiju come through in Pacific Rim, as well as to the Fade from Dragon Age.
One theme we discussed, which is very underlying in the novel, is 'disposable-ness.' The infernals treat humans as disposable. Using their bodies to enhance themselves or protect themselves only to toss them away when they need new parts or people to help them. Club members even talked about how some parts of the book and story are disposable, not needed to get the point across. Even how the Vagrant doesn't dispose of the baby even though it slows him down on his mission (and is not his). It's even interesting on how the humans let the infernals use and abuse them so. Trying to survive with what they have after what happened and having no where left go.
This book has a lot of good reviews on Goodreads, which is why a few of us girls were quite excited to read it. It either lived up to its hype or was not quite what was expected, and that depends on which member you talk to. I personally liked it and was mostly just happy that my husband also read it and were able to discuss it together. Kaila said she just read it all in one go and didn't stop to think things over or take notes. Maybe that is the way to go about this story; don't look too much into things until the end.
The Vagrant is followed up by The Malice and concludes with The Seven. The back covers of each book kind of spoil the one that comes before, so Jason warned me, and I in turn warned Kaila, not to read the back covers of the other two books. Newman also wrote another novelette called The Hammer and the Goat which runs parallel to the events in The Vagrant. It tells the story of The Hammer that Walks and the goat when their left up to their own shenanigans. We all loved the goat as a character, so for it to be featured in another book is excellent. Such a crazy and defiant creature.
As February's choice trailed into March, our March choice is now going to be our April pick and allow us all some time to catch up on this next one. Since I already started the March book, I'm hoping to have it done fairly soon so that I can hopefully crank out a couple more books from my Reading Challenge before it is over at the end of April. (I can't believe it's already over.) I've got Transcendental by James Gunn and then The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin lined up before it comes to an end.
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