Review: Hell's Feast

- originally published in Serendipity's Circle

Game Fiction Written by Greg Farshtey

The first in West End's series of Bloodshadows novels, Hell's Feast is a great way to get a feel for the world of Marl. The book shows the world, and the city of Galitia, through the eyes of private eye Jack Deacon as he becomes embroiled in the Godwar, the covert conflict between the forces of Order and Chaos.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the book is the fact that neither Order nor Chaos is portrayed as the embodiment of good or evil, but rather both are shown to be ruthless, deadly, and singleminded in their aim to rule the world. The only sympathetic characters, apart from Deacon himself and the other non-aligned humans, are the Oathbreakers, people called by one side or the other to join the fight who do not wish to participate and who struggle to remain unaligned.

Farshtey also manages to keep up the banter characteristic of the film noir, as well as using many of the old cinematic cliches to his advantage. He uses the magical element of the world well, making it seem both unusual and ordinary at the same time. This is no contradiction, since magic is like technology for the world of Marl. Even though everyone uses simple spells to light cigarettes and such, heavy-duty spells are as uncommon and often as unwieldy as computers in the 1950s.

One of my favorite bits is a variation on the scene from The Maltese Falcon in which Spade insists that Gutman appoint a fall guy. In this case, however, Deacon is dealing with a couple of nasty unnaturals who would just as soon eat him as look at him.

And, yes, there are plenty of unnaturals in this book, but they are used well and do not merely turn the story into a free-for-all. For instance, Larissa, the mysterious woman who plunges Deacon into the middle of all this in the first place, is a vampire.

Not only as a game novel but also as a hard-boiled detective story, I found Hell's Feast a great read.