Book Review: To Ride Hell’s Chasm by Janny Wurts
To Ride Hell’s Chasm wasn’t just a book, it was an experience. This book took me completely out of my world and whatever was happening around me and sucked me in, in the best possible way. To say that this is a fantasy standalone is outstanding. I feel like I’ve read a 7-book series, that concluded in a satisfying way, in 700 or so pages.
The plot itself seems deceptively simple. On the night of her betrothal Princess Anja goes missing. Sensing darkness in a country that has seen nought but peace for many years, Anja’s disappearance has caused outrage and unrest amongst the rich and powerful. The sick King calls upon desert bred Mykkael to find her; entrusting an outsider with his daughter’s life. Mykkael is met is obstacle after obstacle in his quest, it seems that everyone one around him questions his motives at every turn and may even suspect him of the crime itself. This treatment is not new to Mykkael and he will stop at nothing to bring the princess home.
You, like me might go into a premise like that thinking, ok. We’re going from A to B to do a task. That is where you are wrong. This story is so intricate with internal and personal politics, magics and faith that this plot thickens with every turn of the page.
The prose, pacing and storytelling style in To Ride Hell’s Chasm were perhaps my favourite part of this story and it was such a breath of fresh air after having read some fast-paced books. This book is not handed to you on a platter. In fact, it purposefully demands that the reader slow down and take their time with the words. Words which are beautiful, brutal, and brilliant. This has all the feel of a classic fantasy, while turning your ideas of classic fantasy on its head.
I would be remiss not to mention some of the social commentary inside the pages. The conversations surrounding racism were … well, they were necessary and eye opening. It went so much deeper than ‘xenophobia is bad’ to ‘how many times does one have to be the bigger person and push though the BS before another turns around and admits they were wrong’. Mykkael was different to the norm, and he pushed and pushed and pushed through absolute nonsense because he had a task, and he was going to keep to his word, because that was the kind of man he is.
Which brings me to the characters. While a lot of the book does focus on Mykkael and honestly, he alone had me gripped from the beginning; but each and every character we were introduced to had significance. There were no place holders, no characters of convenience, everyone had purpose whether you realised it at the time or not. The foreshadowing for character events is there, you just need to be paying attention to it. As the story progressed our characters became more important to one another, making for an interwoven connection between the players in this political, magical game. Side note, I don’t know that anyone has ever made me care about a horse before. But by golly, the passion for the equine in this book had me rooting for the four-legged friends as much as our protagonists.
Finally, the magic system here starts off so subtly, to the point the reader might not even pick up on the fact it is there. Then, it is there and it’s staring you in the face. It’s dangerous, and it’s too late to stop the sorcery from growing and taking over everything. The stakes heighten as the magic unfolds and you as the reader have no idea what is going to happen next.
I feel like I could talk about this book for an age, but then we would go into spoiler territory. I had such a great time with Wurts’s writing and I cannot wait to continue my journey with her works.
