And then the ride is over…

darrack1

May 28

'I didn't come from the gutter of London, where I came from we looked up with envious eyes and aspired to the gutter...'

Hannibal Smyth ~ A Spider in the Eye

Trilogies are becoming something of a lost art. Which is not to say people don't write trilogies any more, they just don't tend to write a complete beginning to end trilogies. For this I blame Robert Jordan and The Wheel Of Time... This is unreasonable of me, Robert Jordan can't be blamed for everything...

Back in 1990 before the second Wheel of Time novel was published, Jordan was about half way through the writing the third when he had a conversation with his publisher about how well the first novel The Eye of the World was selling and they discussed whether the trilogy Jordan had originally planned could be stretch to six books. With a deal to do this on the table by the time The great hunt came out in November 1990, Jordan had changed the direction of the original final novel by dint of making its climax the defeat of one of the big bad's minions rather than the big bad himself. If you read that third novel closely you can spot the exact point where that decision was made... Publishing history has been rewritten to claim that the original plan was for six novels all along, but I read a rather too honest interview with Jordan back in the early 90's in which he didn't follow the party line and he admitted he only originally planned a trilogy.

The Wheel of Time is much beloved by its fans, and became a victim of it own success as the publisher kept going back to Jordan with suggestion such as six books could become nine... maybe nine could become twelve. Personally I gave up about the middle book eight as the books got thicker, with more and more POV character while never getting any closer to any kind of climax... I am not alone in this, many readers fell away, but many didn't... Robert Jordan was not really to blame for this. He was a writer with a publishing deal and a publisher who kept throwing money at him to extend his series. He had a living to make, and many people love those books. If he hadn't died he would still be writing them now I suspect.

The fall out of The wheel of Time is however felt else where. Its the reason the same reason GRR Martin's as yet incomplete Game of Throne novels extend over so many books following the same pattern. The early (pre TV) success of the first novel led to his publishers saying "About this trilogy you have planned George, could it be a bit longer?" But again, you can't blame publishers, they are trying to make money out of books, by giving readers what they want and these days what readers want is to go on a near endless journey with a character. When a group of readers find a character they love they want to keep reading about them, they want a book every six months for half a decade or more. We know this because publishers have told us this is what readers want...

And so writing a beginning to end trilogy has become something of a lost art, because only an idiot plans and writes a three novel arc telling the complete story of a much beloved, popular, fan favourite main character. What kind of fool writes a trilogy, with a distinct beginning , middle and very definite end. Killing off a series, never to return as the lynch pin of the series has reached the end of their journey...

A glorious, wonderful, talented fool like Craig Hallam that's who, and thank the elder god of your choice such fools still exist...

A review of Grave Purpose, The Adventures of Alan Shaw: Volume Three By Craig Hallam

If you have not read the previous Alan Shaw novels, do not read this book... Not because this book does stand alone as a novel about an aging hero, long past his prime, still trying to be the man he was, despite infirmity and a hundred old scars catching up with him. It would stand alone perfectly fine on it own two feet, with the help of a cane, I assure you... You should not read this if you haven't read the previous two novels for one reason and one reason only. They are brilliant.

And so is this one...

In the first novel Alan Shaw was a guttersnipe orphan, who through luck more than judgement got out of the gutters of London and vowed as he got older to get as far away from them as he could. The second novel was Alan Shaw in his prime, adventurer, privateer, swashbuckling hero who doesn't always know what's going on but is sure if he punches back hard enough he will win through. Until the death of his step father drags him back to old haunts. This final novel takes place a decade or so after the events in Old Haunts, with Alans past adventures and the fame it brought him haunting a man well past his prime, with a lame leg, haunted by the spectre of Mister Slay.

As in the pervious two novels this novel comprises of a number of episodes, each given titles that would fit nicely between the pages of weird tales. Alan Shaw and the Spectres of Sutton Hall, Alan Shaw and the Shattered Soul, Alan Shaw and the... You get the idea. This is very much in the Doc Savage style pulp tradition. Which is very much the way in which Alan's stories read. This is proper abashedly pulp fiction, everything moves along with pace and purpose. Alan punches, shoots, and leans heavily on his cane to catch his breath for a moment before limping off again, he may not be broken down but his is breaking, but he isn't giving up, no yet, not until... Well everything ends.

And that's what this is, a swan song, a final throw of the dice, the last bullet is in the chamber and who knowns is the hammer will spark, or the pistol misfire. And through it all Mister Slay laughs a sardonic little laugh.

There are old friends, and new enemies, but as the novel goes on there is a sense of ominousness about it. We all know where this is going, we all know how this ends. It ends in a graveyard, because that's where old heroes always end up, one way or another. The only real question is who's in the grave and who's staring down at it, and that I'll not spoil. I will only say this. The ending is bittersweet and glorious in equal measure. The ending this trilogy deserved.

Bravo, Mr Hallam. Bravo.

There is no reason Craig could not write more Alan Shaw novels, and set them before the final story in this novel, but I sort of hope he doesn't. This is a complete trilogy, as I said it is something of a lost art in an age of ten book series. Sure he could write the odd short story here and there set in Alans world, there is plenty of scope to do that. But this is in of itself a complete thing. As beautiful and fragile as it is grim and gripping. Craig will also go off and write other things equally inspired I am sure. In fact having read most everything he has published I know he will.

He asked me to tell him what I thought of the ending, in that nervous not entirely sure of himself manner of his. The answer to that is simple, I loved it. It is what I expected it would be at the time, masterful. The ending his hero deserved.