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 Bestowed: Champion of the Condemned by C. Ryan Crockett is an epic fantasy novella that tells us the tale of Ethnar, boat builder and warrior, who, after some unfortunate and tragic events back at his home tribe, wakes up on a slave ship and has to forge a new path in his life which takes him in a surprising direction.

The first we see of Ethnar is him in a precarious, dangerous position: bound and guarded on a slave ship headed far away from his home. Among the sailors is the man who helped destroy his past, the so-called Cragmason who commands powers impossible to resist. But Ethnar is grieving, numb, and for a long time, even when a newly made friendship with a prince of another tribe, Tasak, means to inspire him, he does not think about escape. He does not hope or expect anything from the future—he doesn’t explicitly want to die, but after his loss, there’s not much to carry him forward. And he blames himself, too, his strength, his skill, his ability to fight, because it was what caused suffering to his loved ones, so it really does look like it’s over for Ethnar, damned to live out the rest of his days as a slave. But when a conflict sparks between the hated, corrupt, ruthless Cragmason and Ethnar’s new slave-mates, will he be able to rise beyond his misery?

Considering the title and the cover, I expected a much more action-heavy start to this novella, and I was pleasantly surprised about how contemplative and quiet it was. We get a very good picture of Ethnar’s state of mind as he thinks (or tries not to think) about his current predicament on the ship and remembers what got him there. We also get a little description and context of the world which to me felt Norse- or Celtic-inspired which I enjoyed, even though we are far from the tribes and mostly see events on a small scale or from the outskirts, so a lot of the large-picture stuff remains to be discovered. There are also interesting magical capabilities in this world which I’d love to get to know more about. But what’s even more important is that in this starting section, we see Ethnar fail, be cowardly, deny part of his nature, and feel hopeless… and at the same time, even in this inhuman situation, we see him make human connections. First with Tasak, who is all about rebellion and figthing his way out, then later, as Ethnar is put to work in the city they are transported to, with Micks, a craftsman who is suffering under the rule of the Cragmason. This brought his character closer to me, and helped give a foundation to his personality and later decisions. I especially loved the memory pieces we get with him and his father, building boats. The writing also shone the best here, in these moments.

And when finally things get moving, this type of more quiet characterisation was why the novella ended up being more meaningful and enjoyable, and even with the low page count, a fairly satisfying little story. Ethnar wasn’t just one more buff man fighting for freedom or revenge, but we actually saw him crawl out of grief and sorrow, knew why he was fighting, the battle inside him, and the type of person he was. The world he inhabits never became truly grim, but there were lots of ways why the story was dark, and thus, Ethnar’s “rising above” sufficiently glorious. I thought this could have been even better if we could have followed him right from the beginning, from the tragedy that unmade him back home—then the character development would be even more complete and the emotional throughline shown better. But I did appreciate the attempt and it did work, especially through Ethnar’s showdown with the Cragmason, even though the ending is a bit too swiftly and neatly rounded up with Ethnar finding his new calling (which fits him perfectly, to be honest). All in all, this truly felt like a tale giving a backstory to a character that will go on fighting for lost causes on impossible quests in the future.

The Bestowed: Champion of the Condemned is a character-centric adventure centering grief and community, which leads us into an interesting world and introduces a character worthy to follow. I recommend it to epic fantasy lovers who love reluctant heroes and want to jump into a world not-too-grim, but not-too-simple either.