The Heroic Legend of Arslan vol. 11

OH NO!  Gieve is departing Arslan’s service!  After being really smug to one of the new officers about how he killed– I mean, spared his brother from suffering, the minstrel gets in a very well-choreographed swordfight before Farangis shows up to put a stop to it.  Gieve realizes that his services are no longer necessary or welcome here and makes a big show of leaving even as Arslan pleads with him not to go. This would be a heartbreaking turn of events for the series… if it wasn’t a complete sham.  Gieve’s antics were just part of another plan by master strategist Narsus to give him cover to leave so that he could go and act as a spy in Ecbatana.

While I’m normally a fan of characters on the side of the protagonist who are capable of spinning plans ten steps ahead of the enemy, Narsus’ tactical prowess is starting to become a drag on this series.  Every plan of his has gone off without a hitch and it’s reaching the point where the series is struggling to manage even a little bit of suspense in its conflicts since we know that his strategies are going to ensure Arslan’s victory.  Even when the prince encounters a random Lusitanian patrol, something Narsus couldn’t foresee, he still manages to turn it to their great advantage.

So as the series gears up for Arslan’s march to the capital, it’d be nice to see someone on the opposite side give this tactician an actual challenge.  Guiscard may do just that with his 100,000-strong army, but we’ll see. In the meantime, we’re left to smaller things to hold our interest in this volume:  The return of Silver Mask in the end, fear and distrust leading to the suicide of many a Lusitanian after combat, and Arslan displaying a bit of a spine here.  It turns out he can hold his own in combat and can even outmatch an old acquaintance from the other side in rhetoric. I wouldn’t say all this is enough to make this a good volume of the series, yet it’s just enough to keep me from feeling like I’ve wasted my time by reading it.