BLACKCLOAK

Chan’s firstfantasy novel in the Jaydemyr Saga drops readers into a world of psychic powers and swordfights.

Early on, readers first meet Blackcloak the Scourge and glean some information about the character’s Mindwarps and dream manipulation before they’re whisked away to the small village of Swimming Carp. It's the setting of the story of a 12-year-old boy called Dog-Ears who’s known as the so-called village idiot. In his world, which is reminiscent of ancient China as well as feudal Japan, all people serve the local Lord Ayakawa, who, in turn, serves the Emperor Tsukamoto, who is directly responsible to an all-powerful female God. At night, when everyone fears dangerous figures known as Blood Peddlers, Dog-Ears experiences vivid dreams of a “faithwar” that results in worldwide slaughter. Later, he discovers that he has a Talent for controlling fire. One day, he finds a town that is deserted, except for a formidable enemy called Hua-Shi, and a strange female presence named Fa Shai-yeh, who speaks to him in riddles and questions, calling him “Charan.” This encounter leads Dog-Ears to declare that his name is now Charan Jaydemyr, and that he and Fa Shai-yeh will go to the capital of Kaifeng together. There, Char becomes a respected thief, falling in with a gang known as the Rats, and he’s dead set on stealing a precious sword that seems to call to him. As Char moves across the capital and eventually ingratiates himself with the dangerous Blood Peddlers, the barriers between dreams and reality, present and future, and different facets of his own persona break down during a hallucinatory quest of self-discovery. 

Chan’s dreamlike work opens with a flurry of bombastic high fantasy and poetic language: “There is blood on a leaf….As small as it may be, this deposit of life is great enough to milk the moon and to hold its light within a shiny bubble. This is mysticism in minutiae, a miracle of the basest order.” It then goes on to weave together fractured narratives against the fantasy backdrop. Chan lays out a deep mythology that puts magical spins on real-world history, blending Abrahamic religion with samurai culture—a fascinating concept. However, nothing is quite clear, even after repeated use of the book’s Annexes. The difficult prose resembles an epic poem with dream logic that leaves little time to dig into the intricacies of the mythos. The plot itself is shrouded in mystery, creating a strange experiential journey, as if David Lynch rewrote the works of George R.R. Martin. Chan churns out beautiful turns of phrase on almost every page, delivering otherworldly aphorisms (“repulsion is too often little more than compulsion in denial”) and haunting descriptions (“The moon overhead was a splinter of curved bone”). But, for all its abstraction, numerous chapters stick to back-and-forth dialogue, bringing the action, linguistic or otherwise, to a halt. Basic plot elements still feel elusive: Where and when are we? What is a particular character’s motivation? Chan’s work is engrossing but consistently vague on these basic points. However, he delivers something daringly different for ambitious genre fans. 

A messy but mesmerizing introduction to a bold new high-fantasy world.