Customer Reviews

The Vast White

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Sometimes the cover says it all. Desert setting. Mythological creatures. Warriors battling to the death. An overemphasis on the female anatomy. The Vast White is one for the guys.

The author, Jason Walters, is an interesting character. His biography describes him as "surrounded by firearms and semi-feral dogs." He lives in Nevada's Black Rock Desert, "a billowing sea of sand not unlike the one featured in the book."

Walters has Highdome, the main character (picture a cross between the bald Billy Zane from Titanic and Vin Diesel), narrate the book as if he is recording the actions of his Red Regiment for the imperial archives. Highdome is loathe to accept this assignment and insults the reader at every turn for lounging in civilized luxury while he is toiling away in a vast wasteland.

His rag-tag army of misfits has sworn an oath of loyalty to the regiment, even if they are mercenary soldiers. Walters refers to them as a group of murderers. They are made up of an odorous pedophile, a defiant young girl, canine-like beasts, insane wizards and lizard-men - just to name a few. The goal of this motley crew is to seize the prosperous city of Salt. There are just two problems. The city has never fallen to an invading force, and the regiment must first defeat another army also bent on conquering the lucrative city.

Walters is at his best when he delves into fantasy. He brings the vengeance of a wicked sandstorm to life. He creates terror with a marsh creature arising from a tepid bog. However, he stumbles a bit by having the reader rely on a nine-page glossary in order to translate his prolific terminology. The characters themselves border on unlikeable. Crude. Perverted. Drunk. Think The Lord of the Flies meets Animal House. They bicker more with each other, than fight against the enemy.

This first installment in Walters' saga ends with the regiment joining forces with the opposing army in order to survive a debilitating sandstorm. In the final scene, what is left of the two armies gain access to the illusive city of Salt in exchange for relinquishing their weapons.

Overall, this is a book that a teenage boy would love.

The Upside:

The Vast White, The Murderers Edge is a fantasy novella written as an accounting of a war, written from the point of view of a mercenary captain in the employ of an expanding empire. There are some classic Fantasy races involved, but for the most part they are sideline to the humans, in fact according to the written account they are outlawed. Which doesn't stop a mercenary company from employing a few, since laws are always a bit hazy on the outer edges of an expanding Empire.

The two sides are very reminiscent of real cultures, the attacking side feels like it could be the Roman Empire, the defending side is definitely a take on various Arab and Northern African (specifically Bedouin) cultures. Right down to religious beliefs.

This falls both on the good and bad side of things. I liked that aspect specifically because I didn't need to be front loaded with a whole host of cultural information, pretty much everything I needed comes straight from what I learned in school, or read in books. Being fantasy, however, there are still enough elements that are different to make the invaded army interesting and new - Harpy riding Mages for one thing.

The book itself is written as an accounting of what happened during a particular battle in the Conquering Empires quest for world domination. All from the point of view of a mercenary captain. It reads like part field report and part commentary, with a liberal dose of sarcasm.

The style allows for a lot of long winded information heaps without looking out of place. The down side is that you have to read through a page of background information that, all told, takes maybe a third of the already short novel. It is at least written in an amusing manner instead of dry information.

The rest of the book is a first hand account of a decisive battle between the Empire and all the tribes of the desert people, focusing on the portion the mercenary regiment is involved in. From before the fight, through and to the subsequent fleeing of the battle scene once an unnatural sandstorm appears. Remnants of the two sides must work together to get to safety. Safety - as it turns out - is none other than the single city the two armies were fighting of the right to siege in the first place.

Aside from the occasionally dry history lessons presented the action is well written and the book over all is paced well, gliding along at a friendly speed.

The Downside:

It was hard for me to decide if the blatant copying of real world cultures was a boon or not to the book. From one stand point it's not entirely imaginative, could possibly be seen as lazy, and at the extreme might have a few historians up in arms. On the other hand, I don't have to spend a lot of time learning a whole new fantasy culture, religion or society so I have a built in knowledge I can simply rub the serial numbers off of. So, while it looks kind of boring it's not really, in fact it was refreshing to not have to cram my brain with another made up culture.

No, the real downside to this book is that it's too short. The end caught me off guard, as in I turned the page and blinked as I came the conclusion that there was nothing more, and made really wish there was more to read. That and every once in a while it read like someone was documenting a Gaming Session.
The Otherside:

The book comes with an Appendix of terms, which seems like it wants to go out of it's way to let someone create a Game in the books world. Which would be kind of neat, all things considered.

As far as fantasy novellas go, this one is pretty good, it kept my interest throughout the entire thing, and even left me wanting a bit more from it. Which is more than I can say for most fantasy novels I start to read.

In Northern al-Muttaqiina Mountains bordering on the Vast White in the Year of Ascension 327, the Sultanate and the Etrisian Empire prepare for war over who annexes the Spice Cities into their monarchy. Both sides covet Salt, the unconquered Spice City that neither has been able to bring under their rule. The winner of this battle will invade the city that has never been occupied by outsiders.

Padisha the Sultan has his army of Bedune units growing; each new arrival comes with his camel herd to show off his worth. On the other side of the upcoming battle is the Etrisian forces led by Horsehead the terror wizard who recently destroyed the Spice city Saffron. Murdering mercenary Highdome, leader of the Red Regiment of killers, mutants and monsters, observes his leader Horsehead patiently waiting as if he wants more of his enemy in his way.

Both sides release new magics to totally annihilate their opposition. Neither considered the consequences of sorcery on the edge of the Vast White. Both sides soon find monster issues as the suddenly awakening Vast White ignites in retaliation. Horsehead and his Red Regiment struggle to survive the raging expanding desert with no hope except perhaps unleashing the uncontrollable Murderer's Edge force not knowing the subsequent consequences, if they can even perform this seemly impossible task, may prove worse than the raging assault of the awakened Vast White.

Part of the fascination with this exciting military fantasy is there is no hint of a concept of good and bad warring. Instead survival not necessarily of the fittest is what the war turns into. The Red Regiment is an intriguing group as murdering misfits must band together whether they are monsters, mutants or mortals if they want to stay alive once the Vast White begins its "cleansing" of the Sultanate and Etrisian forces. Narrated by roguish Highdome, the audience mostly obtains his viewpoint of what is going wrong. Fans will enjoy this entertaining tale though the print copy contains a very small font size that detracts from the enjoyment.

Harriet Klausner