TALION: REVENANT
by Micheal A. Stackpole

book report

      I did my book report on a 467 page fantasy novel, Talion:Revenant. It is written by Michael A. Stackpole, and published by Bantam Books. I know it is a fantasy novel because of the picturistic content and style of the cover art, the mystery words in the title, and the word "Fantasy" on the spine. In Talion:Revenant, Nolan ra Sinjaria is assigned to protect the man who slaughtered his family from an assassin even his masters think cannot be stopped.

SETTING: the time and place where the action of a book, film, etc., is shown as happening
         Talion:Revenant is set in a land (whose name was never given) that resembles medieval Europe. Two of the most important settings are the city of Talianna, and the Castle on Seir.
 "Star within a pentagon within another pentagon, Talianna rose up, a gleaming white stone city full of strength and power"-page 22
        Talianna is a city devoid of dust, mud, or poverty. Set into the Tal Valley ("I’d never seen anything so green before..."-page 21) in the forbidden nation of Tal, the city is home, training center, and temple to all the Talions.
         "As if a giant squatting amid a toy village, the Castle rose impressively up from the buildings gathered below it."-page 306 The Castle is the parliamentary building and home to Hamis and the royal family of Hamis. Built of white marble that dazzles the eye and thick granite walls that fend off attacks, the Castle sits high on the southern wall of the Seir Valley.

CHARACTER: the qualities that make a person different from another; moral nature
         The hero of Talion:Revenant is Nolan ra Sinjaria. Other major characters include Morai, and Marana.
         Nolan, known outside of Talianna only as Talion, is tall and slender with strong features, dark hair, and bright green eyes. He has a death’s head tattoo on his right palm that marks him as a Justice. Nolan cares for people. Because he remembers dreading the Justices as a child,  he makes the effort to show people the Justice who is the friend and protector instead of the Justice who is to be feared and hated. He is brave and will walk right into a suicide situation if he thinks it would save another. He did just that by facing the nekkebt in the Hamis family crypt. Nolan is also able to keep his ego in check. He is able to laugh at himself, and recognize his mistakes for what they are. He was able to appreciate the irony of laughing in the face of a goddess, and then being killed by the means she warned him of. Nolan’s character doesn’t change very much throughout this story, but he does shake off the ghosts of his past by breaking the promise he made to his family to kill the man who killed them. Nolan suffers hardships in this novel, but he essentially stays the same.
         Some minor characters include the Fealareen Jevin, Lothar ra Jania, and Ring.
         Ring is the Justice Nolan was supposed to spend his Journey  year with. Cruel and cold, he is the example of what Nolan doesn’t want to become.

PLOT: the set of connected events on which a story, play, film, etc., is based
COMPLICATION: something that adds new difficulties
         The complication of this story occurs about half-way through. That is when Nolan learns of his assignment and of the loose nekkebt.
CRISIS: moment of great danger or difficulty
 In the order the novel presented them, some of the main crises were;
    -Nolan’s entry test, man against man (Nolan against the tests)
    -a disastrous first mission, man against man (Jevin, Marana, and Nolan against the kidnappers)
    -the Cirhon challenge, man against man (Nolan against Lothar)
    -the fight with the nekkebt, man against supernatural (Nolan against the nekkebt)
CLIMAX: the point of highest tension, usually near the end
         The climax was the fight between Nolan and the nekkebt, plus the results of it. There was a lot of tension because we knew the high stakes of the battle and the poor odds of a positive outcome. The climax was very dramatic. I was effective because it tied together almost all of the events, and it was suitable because it stopped the story from being about Marana.
DENOUEMENT: once the climax has been reached, the denouement (resolution) takes place. Any points that are still puzzling to the reader will be solved in the denouement
         The denouement was good, it cleared up the matter of Marana and the rest of Nolan’s past. The novel was fast-paced.

THEME: a theme is the underlying idea of the story; the point that the author wants to make; the lesson that he/she wants you to learn. It is usually implied rather than stated outright
         Two predominant themes are; Justice is a gift to be given, not a right to demand ("Remember, Talion, justice is your gift to the world, not a right to demand from it"-page 427) and The end justifies the means ("To prevent that widespread a conflict I would gladly send you or a hundred like you to certain death..."-page 425). Both of those themes were said outright near the end, but this story was the set-up story for a larger story-arc, and a adventure story to boot, so it didn’t need deep morals.

ATMOSPHERE: the feeling among a group or produced by surroundings
         The feeling that takes up most of the novel is the rushed feeling of danger and movement. That feeling comes whenever there is an action scene, like the escape from the Dhesiri warden or Nolan’s battle with Tafano.
         A very memorable feeling is that of deep sorrow. This is the feeling we get when Nolan holds a private funeral for Lothar ("I loved him like a brother and he died by my hand...I thought Lothar would be proud. I hoped I would be forgiven."-page 450/451) and when Marana dies.
         Another predominant feeling is of intrigue and intricately woven conspiracy. "The difference between the warren and the court is that in the warren you know who your enemies are"-page 306
         Stackpole has a way of creating atmosphere so it leaves a significant impact. I think its the way he tells you outright what’s wrong instead of making you guess.

STYLE: What is style? It's often thought of as a combination of several things, including: word choice, phrasing, rhythm, point of view, level of penetration, attitude
        Stackpole’s vocabulary was of medium difficulty, as most modern fantasy novels are. This makes it easy for him to whisk the reader through the story, making sure the reader can understand perfectly what he is telling them without having to stop the story to describe something. Stackpole uses very vivid, very personal descriptions. He doesn’t write what a thing, place, action etc. looks like so much as he writes what that thing feels like. A phrase that I really liked was "my stride ate up ground greedily". Or how about "his smile brimmed over with memories"? Stackpole’s use of dialog was effective and realistic, with a distinctive voice for each of his characters. He has a habit of omitting the "said" tags, which adds to the smooth, fast pace of this novel. Even though there are two story-arcs told from first-person perspective, the scenes and parts of the story flowed seamlessly.
         I think the title was appropriate; Talion is the series name and Marana’s revenant is what the story deals with.

         Stackpole has a raw-edged writing style that I really like. It wasn’t as apparent in Talion:Revenant than it was in the X-Wing novels and I, Jedi (other books by Stackpole), but it was there. Something that really annoyed me was how much this story resembled I, Jedi. Both books were written in the first-person as well, which didn’t help. The strongest aspects of this novel are Stackpole’s writing style, the format in which it was written (flashback every second chapter), and the Talions. There weren’t many weaknesses in this novel. But only revealing the fact that Nolan is ulHamis (descendant of the disgraced king of Hamis) at the end made the fact seem like it was just thrown in as a quick-fix. I thought the fact should have been revealed sooner.  Also, when I first finished the book I thought the ending was inappropriate. But then I realized that Talion:Revenant is a set-up novel, and that the things Stackpole wanted to do were to introduce the Talions and to define Nolan’s relationship with Morai. In that context the ending was more than fitting for the story. I would recommend Talion:Revenant to anyone who likes Star Wars (unless they’re fiercely pro-Imperial), who reads at a grade 9-10 level, and who isn’t scared off by thick books. Younger people would like this especially; teens to early twenties. Talion:Revenant is Stackpole’s twentieth published novel. Other books by Michael A. Stackpole include Once a Hero, Bred for War, The Blood of Kerensky Trilogy, and The Warrior Trilogy.

Sure--go ahead and use it as a boot-leg report. I don't particularily care...Well, no, not so much that. I just have no way of stopping people who want to. Anyway...

Take me away from this horrible place!