Helyna L. Clove

I read this novella for the indie novella competition, SFINCS. The following review is my own personal opinion as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole. Find out more about the competition here and my team, The WIPs, here!

The Dregs by Thomas J. Devens is a grimdark fantasy novella that through a desperate last mission of its cast of ragged survivors, shows us the horrors of war and the consequences of the misuse of power.

The Battle of Torglen is over, its armies marching in from all corners of their divided continent done slaughtering each other for now. In the aftermath, survivors stumble through the burned and blood-soaked fields, searching for a reason to take their next step. Willuck, a butcher-turned-soldier, is one of these survivors. He just watched a commander of his die, taking with herself the last hope that Willuck had for justice and for a better tomorrow. As he leaves the dead behind, joining a ragged group of three other survivors, all from different, enemy lands, but united in their scorn of the politics that got them there, he also has to contend with the news that the high price they all paid was for nothing—a tyrannical king is dead, but his place will soon be filled by his not-at-all better successor. In a close-by town, Rasp, a young farmer with magical capabilities is just now in front of this new tyrant, proving his skills so he could become another cog in a machine of conquest. Looking on is a guard, Ilanya, who has lost her sister in the last battle and is starting to realize that loyalty and hope for honor simply aren’t worth selling her soul anymore. As the novella progresses, these different characters form alliances and/or fall into conflict when Willuck and the rest of the dregs decide set off on one more dangeous quest…

The world of The Dregs is one where good does not win and hope fails in the face of corrupt and greedy rulers that care nothing for the life of another human being. It is a cold, cruel land, where war is constant, and it is always the poor and the powerless that suffer the whims and passions of the nobility. Among this grimness, there is something incredibly empowering about taking your fate inside your hand, even if it is the last thing you do, if it results in some small measure of justice, and that is exactly what the novella is building on. We are dropped into a hopeless, bleak situation and we watch it become bleaker and more hopeless, and what we get is maybe a few flickers of goodness and light before the end. A man who killed dozens saves another man. Soldiers from enemy armies form an alliance; a disillusioned guard plays with thoughts of rebellion against her corrupt rulers; a young man realizes his monstrous powers might both doom and save him. As a group of these lost souls decide they are willing to give their lives for even the possibility of things becoming better, or for revenge, or simply just for one last proof of their agency, the novella forces us to face all-ecompassing despair and death and search and grab for the small moments of humanity and hope present, and I appreciated this intention a lot.

The continent, peoples, and history of the Fractured Kingdoms can be grasped by recalling the many examples of medieval epic fantasy we have in literature, however, the world-building is far from flat and clearly has a lot of thought put into it, evidenced by the bits of context we get throughout the story and the songs/poems serving as short epigraphs in between the chapters that talk about rulers, warriors, and battles of old. These verses are interesting additions to the work, although more often than not, they break the flow and prose of the story a bit. Even with these, we don’t get to know a lot about the magic, or Power, present in this world, but I really enjoyed the one type of magic we do encounter through the character of Rasp. The writing style is straightforward and embodies the gritty, bloody feel of the setting and the topic well—though it does perhaps become a bit overwhelming in its relentlessness occasionally. The characters we encounter are well-handled, diverse, and interesting enough, but I definitely felt like the characterisation suffers from the low pagecount, making it harder to truly know and root for the unfortunate souls. I especially wished for more interactions between the group before the main parts of the action to develop their relationships better, thus allowing me to be more emotionally involved in the violent, bloody finale of their story.

In the end, The Dregs crosses the finish line as a satisfying, brutal story of defiance and bravery that can invoke strong emotions in contrast of the misery it depicts. I think lovers of the genre will find a lot to get immersed in here.

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