Daniel O'Malley: "The Rook"

Author:  Daniel O'Malley

Title:   The Rook

Plot Type:  UF

Ratings:  V4; S1; H3

Publisher: Little, Brown (1/2012)

     I'll begin this review by saying that this is the best paranormal fiction book I've read in a long, long time. The mythology is inventive and fresh, the world-building is unbelievably detailed (but in a fascinating, non-boring way), the clever humor is witty and sly, and the characters are quirky and fully developed to the nth degree. It's not a perfect book, but the compelling story line and surprise-on-every-page action kept me reading well into the wee hours. 

        WORLD-BUILDING        

     Set in an alternate London, the series is filled with all manner of people with other-worldly talents and/or weird physical traits. Imagine a 19th century circus freak show and give each of the freaks his or her own powerful magical skill, and you've got the picture. For example, there's a man who can see through human skin, a woman who can cook a person from the inside, a leper who can project his disease instantly and fatally into his enemies, girls who can talk with clouds and get intelligible answers, and a 4-body "person" with a single hive mind. Here's a partial list: "sorcerer, bunyip, golem, goblin, pict, pixie, demon, thylacine, gorgon, moron, cult, scum, mummy, rummy, groke, sphinx, minx, muse, flagellant, diva, reaver, weaver, reaper, scabbarder, scabmettler, dwarf, midget, little person, leprechaun, marshwiggle, totem, soothsayer, truthsayer, hatter, hattifattnener, imp, panwere, mothman, shaman, flukeman, warlock, morlock, poltergeist, zeitgeist, elemental, banshee, manshee, lycanthrope, lichenthrope, sprite, wight, aufwader, harpy, silkie, kelpie, klpeto, specter, mutant, cyborg, balrog, troll, ogre, cat in shoes, bod in a hat, psychic, and psychotic." (p. 219) The author has pulled these creatures from all sorts of myths, legends, and fantasy fiction—including H. G. Wells' Time Machine, C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, China Mieville's Bas-Lag novels, Chris Carter's X-Files, and Laurell K. Hamilton's ANITA BLAKE series.

     Controlling all of these magical, and potentially dangerous, people is the job of the Checquy (pronounced shek-eh), which is a term used in Heraldry to describe a checkerboard. The Checquy is a highly secretive organization with its ranks named, aptly enough, after chess pieces. 

     The Court of the Checquy is the executive council that oversees the entire organization. At the very top are the Lord and Lady. Below them are the two Chevaliers (supervisors), then the two Bishops (responsible for foreign operations), and finally, the two Rooks (responsible for domestic operations). The two lowest levels are the Pawns and the Retainers, with the difference between them being that the Pawns have powers and the Retainers don't. The soldiers of the Checquy are called the Barghests. In the U.S., an offshoot of the Checquy is called the Croatoan. The book pokes some serious fun at the Checquy bureaucracy, with its by-the-book Pawns, endless stacks of paperwork, and behind-the-scenes secretaries and assistants who really run the show.

       "The Rook"        

     Think back to the "Tabula Rasa" episode of Buffy the Vampire Killer—the one where Buffy and company became amnesiacs. That will give you a general idea of the premise for this novel. The opening sentence sets up the plot: "Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine." That body belongs to Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Alice Thomas, who wakes up one night in a rain-soaked London park and finds herself surrounded by dead people wearing latex gloves. Myfanwy has no memory of who she is, where she is, or who the dead people are, but she finds two letters in her jacket pocket explaining that she is in reality a new Myfanwy, who is one of the Rooks of the Checquy. The old Myfanwy, who is called Thomas throughout the book, had her memory wiped clean by an unknown enemy. Thomas knew what was going to happen to her, so she wrote a whole suitcase full of letters to her future self explaining her life and filling in all of the blanks that she could think of so that the future Myfanwy would have a chance of surviving. Thomas gives Myfanwy a choice between fleeing the country or staying to fight, and Myfanwy chooses to stay so that she can find out who did this to her and then punish him or her—or them.

     The story follows Myfanwy as she bluffs her way through each work day, relying completely on Thomas's letters and her own intelligence and wit to provide the facts and details she needs to speak the proper words, go to the right places, and make the appropriate decisions. As Myfanwy reads the letters, meets her fellow Court members, and gets thrown into several huge magical messes, she surprises the Checquy Court members because she is not at all like Thomas, who was a meek, delicate, plain-Jane workaholic. Myfanwy adds some color to Thomas' life, along with a tough-girl attitude, new magical powers, and a tendency to talk back.

     Eventually, Myfanwy uncovers the fact that an old nemesis of the Checquy—the Grafters—are back in business after having been defeated a century ago. The Grafters are conscienceless fleshcrafters who carve and transplant and graft body parts—not always human—into and onto human bodies, which results in monsters who are nearly unkillable. Now, the Grafters have infiltrated the Checquy Court, and Myfanwy must find and unmask the traitor(s). 

     The primary weakness in the plot is the addition of Myfanwy's sister to the story. I'm sure that story line will be further explored in the sequel, but in this book it seemed superfluous (except that it was probably the only way that the author could think of to get Myfanwy away from her bodyguard and out on the town for a necessary plot-related scene). The structure of the book worked for me, with the letters (always in italics) sprinkled throughout the story, mostly coordinating with the action that Myfanwy is facing at the time. Myfanwy's own thoughts are also in italics, so sometimes it is somewhat difficult to tell whether an italicized section is part of Thomas's letter or Myfanwy's thoughts, but it didn't really slow down the reading for me.

     This is definitely not a genre novel. The mythology is extremely detailed, with most of the supporting characters having complex backstories with lots of fascinating details. For example, for one Court member who is a vampire, we get the fascinating story of his birth—when he was hatched from an egg! This is world-building with depth and breadth. Unlike the typical UF heroine, Myfanwy has no romantic hero or best friend to help her out; she's completely on her own because she can't let anyone know about her memory loss or about the traitor she is hunting down. Myfanwy is a terrific heroine because of her smart, funny, take-no-prisoners approach to her new life and because she has such intelligent reactions to the weird situations in which she constantly finds herself. 


     Here is an example of O'Malley's dry humor as he describes the club of Sir Henry Wattleman (aka Lord of the Checquy): "It...was decorated in a very specific style that showed the decorators were lacking both imagination and a second X chromosome....The carpet didn't shag and very likely never had. Even the light filtering through the windows was tired and respectable. Leather-covered armchairs were occupied by the elderly, the plump, the male....Cigars were chewed, pipes sucked, and snuff snuffled." (p. 98)


     Most of the story lines are resolved, but there are a few left open for the sequel, which I am eagerly awaiting. Click HERE to read the first four chapters.