Children of Chaos

On the world of Dodec, the land of Florengia was invaded by the ruthless warlord Stralg, including the city of Celebre. The doge of Celebre's children Benard, Orlando and Fabia have been held hostage in Stralg's homeland of Vigaelia for 15 years and the doge's other son Dantio died shortly after the fall of Celebre. Benard is an artist devoted to the goddess Anziel, Fabia was adopted by a wealthy merchant and Orlando has dedicated himself to becoming a warrior of the Vigaelian cult of Weru.

Yet all is not well in the world. Stralg's campaign in Florengia has stalled and his casualties mount. The doge of Celebre is failing, and his children soon find themselves thrust into a position where one of them may have to assume the empty throne of Celebre as a puppet ruler. Meanwhile, rumblings of discontent with Stralg's rule in Vigaelia begin to build.

I hadn't read any of Duncan's work before, so I went into Children of Chaos with no idea of what to expect. Duncan has a pretty good eye for characterizations and dialogue, so even the secondary characters (Guthlag, Saltaja, etc.) are reasonably interesting in their brief appearances.

Benard and Fabia are well-done also, though Orlando is neglected for much of the book and doesn't play much of a role until the last 40 pages, so he comes off as a bit flat in comparison. I also liked Duncan's style of beginning each chapter with the name of the character whose viewpoint would be shown in that chapter (similar to Martin's Song of Ice and Fire). Admittedly, the showing of numerous secondary character's viewpoints does slow the plot down a bit at times.

The worldbuilding is good on a number of points, in particular the various gods and the powers derived from them, like the Witnesses of Mayn and the Werist cult (a good take on the Norse legends of berserkers). However, Benard's "power" gained by praying to his goddess comes off as rather contrived, especially in his introductory chapter.

All in all, I found Children of Chaos to be a pretty good read and there's a good setup for the conclusion in Mother of Lies.

Other Reviews of works by Dave Duncan

The Alchemist's Apprentice - Apr 15, 2007

Mother of Lies - Feb 25, 2007