Enemy Glory

(Volume One of Enemy Glory)
by
Karen Michalson

Tor, January 2001, 564 pp.
ISBN: 0-812-56885-0

Genre: Fantasy
Reviewed: 6/3/2003

Reviewed by: Conan Tigard

Book Cover

Excerpt

"Can I offer you tea and moldy bisquits?"

"No." Cathe waived his hand. "To taste your tea is--moldy bisquits, did you say?" He smacked his lips again.

"Why, yes, wouldn't think to give you any other kind."

"Why, yes then, coz, if I could just lick the mold a little, to complement the taste of the tea...You are most kind." I gave him some of Cristo's old bread. "Green--oh, how truly saucy." He kept holding the crust to his tongue and removed it.

"You wouldn't happen to have a spoon, would you?"

"A spoon, now? As a matter of fact, I did have a spoon. Lovely little thing until the rats ate it. Sent it back to your master sticking out of a hard little rat with my love. Mentioned your name and how we were the next best thing to family, now that I think about it. Suppose that clears the day, hmmm?"

"You know something, coz of my heart? I do find that your very presence makes waking worth the day. In fact, the instant I woke this morning I said to myself, 'Wouldn't it be a fine thing now if my good friend Cathe should happen to pay a call? Haven't seen him in a while and I do wonder how the old boy is keeping his life and spirit up.'"

"Did you now? Did you really say that?" He sat up excitedly and leaned on his staff. "Well, the dear Lady be damned and damned again. May she bless the seeds of my baggy tumors and damn my own heart to blessings besides. May She hang cracking like a bloated leech upon the outer reaches of inner thought! Well, well." He smacked his lips. "And here I was in all my squashy shyness thinking perhaps you had forgotten me. Sour mother of goats!" He leaned back against my pillows and started tracing patterns again.

"Forgotten you? I'd sooner forget myself. How blows your precious life?"

"Neatly and full. Thanks for asking." He gave the bread back to me, sticky with his saliva. I threw it in the fireplace to burn. "Aah, you're scalding my tongue!" He held his tongue out in the air between his fingers and gasped and sweated until I put the fire out.

"Ashes, ashes, and don't we all fall down?" I sang softly. "So, tell me truly, coz, how does your precious wife?"

"Ah, Habundia the Lady--"

"I mean Caethne."

"So did I. Caethne does as she does. North and south. And that, of course, is why I am here. Caethne needs your help."

"Then Caethne can ask for it."

"Well, she can't ask for it if she doesn't know she needs it. You see--" he waived one hand around in the air--"sometimes life is logical that way."

Synopsis

Llewelyn, an evil cleric, travels to the north looking for Isulde, a girl he met earlier in his life. Because of the magic in the north, Llewelyn knows he cannot survive there for long without the magic slowly killing him. He is captured by Walworth, a man that used to be his friend, and forced to tell his story.

As a young man, Llewelyn ends up in possession of a magical key that can open any door. When his town is attacked, he flees with Baniff, a dwarf, and ends up rescuing Lord Walworth from the dungeons. He soon joins with Walworth’s sister, Caethne, and starts to be tutored by Grendal in the ways of magic. But when things go sour, Llewelyn is forced to flee with Lord Cathe, Caethne’s husband, and is placed inside a monastery. Not really wanting to be in the monetary, but force to stay, Llewelyn ends up being a scribe for El. 

When Walworth is captured and framed for treason, Llewelyn works secretly against El to bring evidence forth that could save his old friend. Forced to continue being a captive in the monastery, he finally flourishes under the tutelage of El, he earns the respect of his elders as he trains to become an evil cleric.

Enemy Glory, by Karen Michalson, is the first book in the Enemy Glory trilogy. It is the author’s first published fantasy novel. The trilogy continues with the second book, Hecate’s Glory. These two books were originally one novel which were split up by the author’s publisher. Thus, this book ends rather abruptly in the middle of Llewelyn’s story-telling. Enemy Glory is a dark fantasy novel about the evolution of a young man into an evil cleric in a world ruled by magic and religion.

Review

I was excited to read about a truly evil character. I found the concept of an evil cleric to be quite intriguing, especially since they are trained to be evil in a monastery. But as I started reading, I found myself becoming distracted by the flamboyant use of the English language by the author.

A lot of the descriptions seemed to come out of left field and left me wondering what kind of image Karen Michalson was trying to draw with her words. The main character, Llewelyn, was a disappointment. Is he truly evil? I never really witnessed this. Sure, he mentioned a few things he would like to do, but he never really did anything bad. I waited…and waited…and waited. And there is a lot of waiting to be done in this book. How much action is there in Enemy Glory . . . little to none.

I kept expecting something exciting to happen. Nothing ever did. The story just dragged on and about characters I didn’t give one iota about. I am hoping that Hecate’s Glory will have a more interesting plot and a character I can care about. But I fear, because these two books were originally written as one novel, that I may be disappointed again. Let’s hope not.

I rated this book a 4 out of 10.