Roc Isle: The Descent by Alex JamesMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Roc Isle is a fantasy novel that has all the usual ingredients for such a story. There are kings, queens, lords and ladies, plus of course the essential knights and their code of chivalry. For me such a tale becomes inevitably compared, at the back of my mind, with Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe, and which I would recommend all would-be writers of similar fantasy novels read first. While I am not suggesting modern authors copy the rather rigid and stylised narrative and dialogue of Scott, one cannot read Ivanhoe books without coming away with a strong sense of how the knights and their contemporaries behaved and spoke. The books drip with honour, their code of behaviour and correct use of language in their conversations. Alex James’ novel is full of imaginative ideas and interesting plots, including a main character, Ankah, who seems to possess autistic traits of behaviour – a favourite theme of the author’s.
Ankah is a boy who lives in a village, Clenly, with his father and who lacks the confidence to visit the local town. When he becomes duped by some older boys into helping them steal a knight’s prize money Ankah is suddenly presented with the chance to travel away from Clenly, in order to train as a Knight Prentice. There is another main character, Lord Azure, who is a 14 year-old boy and whose parents have been recently killed. He is faced with taking his father's place, as the rightful Lord of his people, but has to resist scorn and ridicule from the traitors within his court, and eventually go to war. The two boys are later united in the inevitable fight for Good over Evil. I found the Ankah character well-drawn and likeable, particularly when it relates to his confused feelings about Zest, the girl he has known through childhood.
The book appears to be well researched and rather similar to others like Lord of the Rings and Dune, but has its own compelling twists and turns. Where I found difficulty with Roc Isle was in the telling; with the use of contemporary phrases and idioms that I thought were too “modern” for such a tale of medieval adventures. Too often the story did not flow smoothly from one set of circumstances into the next. Unfortunately the author’s writing style was often too pedantic and repetitive, which I found tiring. For example the beginning of Chapter 2 starts a very short paragraph with the clichéd “It was a dim and depressing day…” and then, in the space of about nine or ten sentences, begins two with the word “He” and seven with the word “His” as if in a shopping list – not the most descriptive style of exposition. I think Alex James could maybe think more about his descriptions in such a tale, trying to add more gravitas and elegance to his royal and aristocratic characters and plots. But to (younger?) fans of similar fantasy tales there is much to commend in this exciting and action-packed epic yarn.
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