Book Review: SEVENTH DECIMATE by Stephen R. Donaldson

(Title: Seventh Decimate / Author: Stephen R. Donaldson / Publisher: Berkley Books / Publication Date: September 4, 2018)


When you talk about authors in the fantasy genre who are widely regarded as ground breakers who step outside of the usual fantasy tropes and template, Stephen R. Donaldson is definitely one of those authors.  You can argue whether or not his books have too much violence, rape, or crass language, but what you cannot argue with is that Donaldson has written some extremely impactful series and has established himself as one of the most well-known names in fantasy.  

Personally, I didn't very much care for his Thomas Covenant books but I enjoyed his Mordant's Need duology a great deal and to this day it is one of my favorite portal fantasies ever. I received a review copy of the first book in his new series Seventh Decimate a while back but wasn't able to get to it until just recently.  I was interested in reading it though because Donaldson has elicited such different reading experiences for me and I wanted to see if this book would make me feel the same way I felt about Mordant's Need.  Unfortunately, this one brought me back to the dislike I felt with his original series The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, albeit in a much different way.

Seventh Decimate tells the story of two warring realms Belleger and Amika, that use sorcery as their main weapons of choice.  The shapes that the sorcery takes are called decimates and they parallel various elements of earth and natural disasters such as wind, fire, drought earthquake, etc...  However, there has been foretold that a seventh decimate exists that can undo all of the other forms of sorcery or decimates.  Because of this, Prince Bifalt, the prince of Belleger makes it his mission to embark on a quest to travel to a mysterious library that supposedly contains the secret to the Seventh Decimate.  

No one knows whether the library even exists but Prince Bifalt would like to wipe sorcery clean of his land and the only way he believes he can accomplish this is by finding the library to utilize the Seventh Decimate.  Once this is done, he can vanquish his nation's enemies and restore his Belleger as the proper dynasty that he views it to be.  The only things that stand in the way of him achieving this goal is a treacherous journey through unforgiving conditions and violent war bands that raid the land that he must cross to get there.  

His urgency is also exacerbated by the fact that Amika has found a way to produce rifles and will most certainly incorporate them into their war with Belleger.  Will Prince Bifalt find the Seventh Decimate before his realm can be invaded and conquered by an Amikan army equipped with both firearms and sorcery?  Does the library or the Seventh Decimate actually exist or are they simply rumor passed down from one generation to another?  Did I really care by the end of the book?  Sadly, I did not and here's why.

First let me say that I loved the premise of this book.  I thought the idea of different decimates or sorcery that take the shape of earth elements and natural disasters were pretty cool.  It wasn't until I started reading that I realized this wasn't going to be a book that I would enjoy.  Part of the reason why Stephen Donaldson is popular is his willingness to break from the standard "Lord of the Rings" type of fantasy.  

The big problem with this book is it is full of the same tropes that Donaldson has avoided for so much of his career.  The quest, the two warring nations, the overly-ambitious prince greedy for power, it felt like I was reading a mish-mosh of every standard fantasy I have ever come across in my life.  It was so generic and just felt wrong for a Donaldson book.  The world-building was pretty non-existent as well and the characters were simply never fleshed-out enough for me to care about the events that unfolded.  Seventh Decimate is also a short book in comparison to the tomes that Donaldson normally churns out.  This could have contributed to the rushed feel of the book.  

I know that there are other books that will be coming out in this series but this one didn't really make me pine to want to continue with future installments.  It was a fairly sad effort that I am puzzled by since Donaldson doesn't normally do things half-heartedly.  Yet that is the way I felt when I finally closed the book.  To say that I was disappointed would be a proper representation of my feelings.  Maybe others will find something to like about this book, but I was struggling to pick out the positives.  In the end, it didn't move me at all and I thought it was stale and uninspiring from an author who can do much much better than this.

(My Rating: 5/10)