KNIGHT IN RETROGRADE

In this third installment of a series, a group of heroes confronts a formidable demon who wants to thwart societal progress.

Four years after eliminating the mad professor Keith Euyn, Sir Robert Endicott and his fellow Knights of Vercors continue to shape a better world. Their ambitious and dangerous Lighthouse plan would tame the Ardgour Wilderness that lies beyond the fields of the New School’s genetically engineered grain. The Knights, including Sir Eloise Kyre and Lord Gregory Justice, must help push back the skolves (humanoid wolves) and potentially battle the demons Skoll and Hati. Other key components of the mission are testing the Javelin communication system and eventually finding the lost Bifrost Bridge connecting all to the ethereal Methueyn Knights. Accomplishing these objectives will require the Knights’ dynamicist skills, which manipulate thermodynamics to alter probabilities. But the use of these abilities typically summons demons. Dynamicist Heylor Style knows their wrath well. His team of eight died fighting otherworldly monstrosities in the wilderness. He’s now back in Vercors, partnered with the understanding and even-tempered Constable Lynwen. He finds himself instantly smitten with her. They investigate a series of strange hangings, appearances by a cloaked man, and yet more protests at the New School. People once again prove distrusting of scientific solutions, this time a vaccine for goose fever. The real danger is that any instance of true scientific invention will bring forth Nimrheal, the demon who punishes innovators. Little does Robert realize that he and his love, Koria Valcourt, have already been punished. She suffered a stillbirth and fails to tell him before he leaves for an operation.

This final volume of Hunt’s fantasy trilogy bursts at the seams with notions of science, spirituality, and politics pertaining to the 21st-century political climate. He underlines a main theme of his series—that progressive society must remain vigilant against ignorance—by including vaccines, the bugaboo of conspiracy-minded parents, in the plot. Nimrheal is a literal beast to slay, but he also represents the amorphous forces of disinformation and dogma that plague industrialized nations. And while it’s true that “bad people succeeded because they were allowed to,” as Eloise believes, sometimes evil “had no face, no armor, certainly no name. There was no rational knowledge or true understanding of it to be had.” Notably intertwined with these epic happenings are Heylor’s personal struggles. He suffers an ever diminishing sense of self after running from a fight and losing his soldiers. When Lynwen accepts Heylor’s embarrassing family, he becomes attached to her. Readers also learn that Heylor used to bully someone in his youth and still harbors shame, despite outgrowing such abhorrent behavior. His grounded character arc is exceptional, as he’s surrounded by others, like Robert and Eloise, who seem like perfect heroes. These last two deliver plenty of straightforward fantasy action, as when “Eloise put her entire body into a ferocious lateral strike that cut the skolve in half at the waist.” But the unique pulse of this series remains the author’s dedication to thematic sprawl and a hard-science magic system.

Strong characters face a maelstrom in this intense, intellectually rigorous fantasy series finale.