Review: The Obsidian Path Series

This is my first review of work by a mainstream author on this site, in this case, Michael R Fletcher. I prefer reviewing smaller, indie works, but sometimes it's good to examine what the big kids are doing.

The Obsidian Path is a four-book series about Khraen, who awakens alone and lost. His heart contains a shard of obsidian stone, part of a larger piece that was shattered. This is the story of his hunt for the remaining pieces scattered across the world. With each piece, he regains some small shard of the man he once was. That hunt reveals unimaginable horrors committed by both past and present incarnations of Khraen.

Told in the first person, the first thing to note about Khraen is that he's full of flaws and is seeking redemption. He's not a towering figure of muscle. He's self-aware enough to know he has these flaws. He wants to be compassionate but isn't strong enough to force that compassion. While he doesn't want to repeat the mistakes of his previous incarnations, the new mistakes he makes in the process of avoidance are sometimes just as bad. In terms of physicality and ethics, Khraen is a weak protagonist.

What's impressive about Khraen's weakness is that while it defines him, he never comes across as piteous or whiny. Somehow, the author manages to create an interesting protagonist who you wouldn't like to meet, who makes terrible mistakes other people suffer from, who waffles from complaining about vile behavior while justifying murder and destruction of souls, yet is a pleasure to read. That's an amazing accomplishment, on the order of what Moorcock did with Elric of Melnibone.

The secondary characters are well done. Khraen receives a lot more loyalty and love than he should from them, for reasons that are complex and twisted. They are the vehicle Khraen uses for justification for the sins he commits in this lifetime. It's an interesting literary trick, one that works quite well.

As for the world, we learn about it over the course of the series. It's a deep, complex world with distinct places and cultures. Early on, we learn so much about individual locations, and it is a delight to read about them. The author is able to instill a lot of feeling about places in brief paragraphs, a nice trick that I don't think he gets enough attention for doing.

This is a fantasy story, and magic is powerful. Advanced users of magic are akin to superheroes or demigods, able to destroy individuals, cities, continents, and even whole worlds. "Riding a mountain into battle" is an incredible early turn of phrase, and it sets the tone for what people are able to do. It is also well-defined in defined schools, specifically demonology, wizardry, shamanism, elementalism, and necromancy.

I liked the series conclusion. I'm rather good at figuring out mystery books, so I was able to predict the ending. There were enough clues dropped that I put the pieces together and hoped it was the intended direction. It absolutely met my expectations and ensured the book fit solidly within the grimdark genre.

There are some flaws to the series:

• By the third book, the relationship between Khraen and Henka felt repetitive, but this was fixed in the fourth book.
• It is a horrific universe where horrific things happen with regularity. Be prepared to be shocked by some of the descriptions.
• There are places where the prose is arguably rough, but I always give that a pass in first-person writing. So long as the grammar is correct, I'm more forgiving when it comes to reading it from the point of view of the protagonist.

In summary, this is a fascinating series in the grimdark genre. Read it if you want dark fantasy set in a high magic world rich with culture, action, and introspection, yet full of torture and murder. That is the kind of thing I often really enjoy, which is why I gave it 5 stars.

Read Obsidian Path on Amazon