I really like Gemmell’s style of fantasy. It’s grounded
in a sense of reality and it makes it feel refreshing when compared to other
series filled with dragons, orcs and other magical beings. It’s not to say that
Gemmell’s fantasy is devoid of typical elements of the fantasy genre. There’s
plenty of magic for example, and Morningstar
even has a few Vampyre Kings. The fantastic elements are toned down. The magic,
or magick rather, isn’t the Dungeons and Dragons or Forgotten Realms battle
magic and it’s not the magic you would find in Epic fantasy series. It’s
simple, yet effective. Understated seems to be a good description of his use of
magic and creatures. It fits rather well in Gemmell’s overall style of military
fantasy and Morningstar fits nicely
amongst the rest of Gemmell’s body of work.
Morningstar is
based on the legend of Robin Hood. Jarek Mace is a thief who lives in a little
village in the forest and steals from the rich for his benefit, sharing the
wealth with some of the villagers. Through small encounters with the armies of
a warlord, Mace and some of the villagers become accidental heroes and leaders
of a rebellion. Morningstar is about
heroes. More specifically, it’s about how heroes are just like everyday men and
women. Jarek Mace became the legendary Morningstar and the novel is the story
of how that legend came to be. The interesting aspect here is that Jarek Mace
is an amoral thief whose only concern in life is for himself. The creation of
the legend happened because of a misunderstand act of selfishness. Much like
self-fulfilling prophecy, once the legend of the Morningstar was created, Jarek
feels increasingly obligated to become that person. A significant portion of
the novel deals with Mace’s struggle to remain the man he always was or rise up
to the occasion and selflessly save the people from the resurrected Vampyre
Kings and a conquering warlord.
Magic in Morningstar:
The magic is organized in two different categories, magick
and sorcery. Magick is the creation of illusions using tricks of light. Owen
Odell regularly uses illusions to entertain patrons in the taverns and inns he
visits. The purpose of illusions is primarily to entertain and Odell uses them
to make a living as a travelling entertainer. What other use could there be for
the Hatchling Dragon, a tick in which a baby dragon is shown to hatch for the
crowd?
Sorcery is the kind of magic we’re used to reading about
in fantasy novels. It’s harnessing the power of base elements, like heat and
light or warmth and contentment, and combining them in a way to create or
destroy. Sorcery is essentially a more advanced form of magick. It’s
interesting to see Odell’s progression from entertainer to accomplished
sorcery. By harnessing heat, building it and shaping it and mixing it with some
light, he’s able to make fire. It’s not an original basis for a magic system
but I find the relation between illusions and sorcery to be an interesting. One
is the building blocks on which the other is created. Sorcery doesn’t seem to
have any limitations. A certain character uses it to travel in time. Odell’s
mentor, Cataplas uses his magick for necromancy, creating hellhounds out of
dead animals.
The creation of a
legend:
The story is told in the first person narration. The
bard, Odell, tells the story of how Jarek Mace became the morning star from his
point of view. It’s fascinating to see a character like Mace change and grow
over the course of the book from the point of view of one of his companions.
There are numerous books in which a character becomes a hero but the point of
view is internal, we have that very same character’s point of view. The
narration by Odell is also important to the main theme of the book. It’s not
just a first person narration. Gemmell writes a framing sequence of an older
Odell telling the story of Morningstar. He specifically tells the story from his
point of you as opposed to the legend of Morningstar.
I really like how Gemmell address the fact that a true hero’s
work isn’t done when the last evil man is slain. He has to replace the head of
state. It’s not enough to wield sword and shield and defend the innocent. You
can’t leave a power vacuum to be filled by the next opportunist in line. Mace
was singularly adept at thieving, single combat and leading men into battle but
he was next to useless when it came to administrating a city-state. It’s not
the focus of the book by any means, but it’s addressed because it provides yet
another example of why Mace doesn’t think he is suited to be the legend
everybody thinks he is.
The tragedy of Jarek Mace is that he’s the only one,
aside from Odell, who is aware of the irony that he, thief and overall
scoundrel, is acclaimed as a hero of the people. He’s the only one to struggle
with the idea that a rogue such as he can be a hero to others. It takes him a
very long time to realize that a hero isn’t remember for who he was, but what
he did. It’s a person’s actions that are remembered through the ages, not the
individual.
The quest of a hero is accidental as is the creation of a
hero. The first half of the book is mostly Owen Odell and Jaerk Mace escaping
the armies of the Angostin and helping those they come across. Usually, Mace
has ulterior motives for helping others (acquiring gold and other riches) but
over time, rather rapidly, the legend of his accomplishments as the Morningstar
begins to grow. They’re pretty reactionary until the middle of the book where
they uncover the evil plot of Cataplas. As always, Mace goes along reluctantly,
urged on by his followers which continue to increase in number. It was never
his intent or his goal to become the hero of the people. There is a force
pushing, urging Mace to fully embrace the legend. It’s not his destiny, though.
There is no cosmic entity forcing him to take on the role. Gemmell is arguing
that it’s the choices of Mace and his company that were made along their
journey that ultimately made a hero out of Mace. He could have run away on
numerous occasions but he continuous decided to stay and help those in need.
The fact that he often had ulterior motives doesn’t matter because the end
result was so positive. Regardless of his reasons, his selfish acts often times
didn’t earn him the riches he was working for. Without his wanting to, Mace’s
selfish acts were made selfless.
The novel is also about identity and the conflict that
every individual has to be true to themselves in spite of exterior influences.
It's primarily characterized in Jarek Mace, of course. His internal conflict is
a result of the polarized versions of himself, how he sees himself and how
others choose to see him. There are similar conflicts of identity with other
characters. Young Ilka who is forcefully living the life of a whore and her
desire to leave that life behind. Piercollo who doesn't like violence and only
takes part when he thinks it's necessary. His love of cooking and singing
contrasts with the way others see him because of his giant and muscled body,
the body of a warrior. Owen Odell who despite having made his choice long ago
t
With Morningstar,
Gemmell manages to tell a story that has many similarities to his other works
but also defies the genre. The juxtaposition of real events and the story told
of them tears down the romanticism often found in the fantasy genre. It’s such
a strong element of the genre that it was jarring for me, a regular reader of
fantasy, to read about such a complexly flawed character such as Jarek Mace. To
know that the hero of the Highlands dismissed the suicide of a woman who loved
him as a trivial matter was shocking. It resembles the anti-hero archetype of
which we see everywhere today but Jarek Mace is of a different breed. He
struggles with both sides of himself and Gemmell told his tale, through the
mouth of another, in a beautiful way. He also wrote some kick ass action scenes
because he’s David Gemmell and I expect no less. I would recommend this book to
anybody who’s ever complained about the lack of single volume fantasy novels or
fans of heroic fantasy. 
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