I Read Books: The Last Guardian

 

The Last Guardian

Jon Shannow, the Jerusalem Man, didn’t die at the end of Wolf In Shadow; he’s found by a mysterious man living in a cave. The man nurses Shannow back to life but becomes progressively stranger. Eventually he transforms into a lion and attacks Shannow who is forced to shoot him dead.

This is the third of three main strands to the story, the one centred on the lion people of the lands beyond the Wall (a mysterious wall that cuts off an area with the 11,000 year old ruins of Atlantis). Amazinga Archer, one of the Guardians from the previous book is trying to find out why the people there are turning into animals, the wolf people dying out, the bears turning into bears and some, mostly the best and brightest of the young men, of the lion people turn to lions. Shir-Ran had been her lover until he left, feeling the change; now she is trying to save his brother. She blames Shannow for her previous husband’s death, not entirely unfairly. Beyond the wall is The Sword Of God, a mysterious giant floating object in the sky.

The second strand takes place in Atlantis 11,000 years ago. The King is using sipstrassi stones to open portals to other worlds. In one they’ve found guns, and the King’s favourite Sharazad has been using them to equip lizard-like creatures from yet another world. A priest of a banned god, Nu-Khasisatra, condemned the use of blood sacrifice to feed sipstrassi, and he has fled through a portal to that world. Sharazad and the King have big plans for all the worlds.

That world is, of course, 11,000 years and two world-turning falls into the future, the post-apocalyptic Western world of Shannow. Shannow travels on to the settlement of Pilgrim’s Valley, encountering widowed mother Sara McBride, who has already got the better of bandits before he catches up. Pilgrim’s Valley is growing, and has problems associated with it. Deiker is a trader, and also a scavenger of the ruins of the old world (including a sunken ship that one scholar thinks is a metal fortress). He’s putting together an expedition to cross the Wall. The money and land have attracted a lot of men, some of whom are greedy and violent. Shannow has seen this before, cleaned up some towns only to be asked to leave and them to fall right back into the hands of the next criminal.

So we have a Western town, with troubles and also big plans – a preacher known as The Preacher is trying to improve things, and get a church built; meanwhile anyone who wins big at a gambling house ends up robbed. On top of that is an expedition into the weird realm beyond the wall. And more, Deiker’s expedition is being funded by selling guns to Sharazad. She and her lizard men are hunting Nu-Khasisatra, who stumbles onto a wagon train heading for Pilgrim’s Valley. He uses his sipstrassi stone to heal some of the ill pioneers. All this is already a lot of violent plots coming together, and that’s before the King of Atlantis learns of the ruins of his city in this world. His preparations will create a time paradox that may destroy more than one world.

The novel engages with the time-and-space portals, the weirdness brought up in the first novel. And it has more Western-style conflict, the people in the town trying to get things done. And a new version of the old Gemmell standby, the siege against huge odds. Still this doesn’t hit quite as hard as the original. Jon Shannow’s doomed quest to find Jerusalem is just there, it’s no longer mythic. Bringing in lizard people and lion people (and bear people) doesn’t add much.

Read This: Clever post-apocalyptic Western sequel that looks at the limitations of violence and the dangers of hubris
Don’t Read This: More Shannow is just a fainter shadow