Gods, undead, and one gloriously reluctant hero
Destiny of the Dead, Kel Kade’s newest entry in The Shroud of Prophecy series, takes a hammer to the traditional hero’s journey. For the most part, both the series as a whole and Destiny of the Dead in particular succeed at exactly that. That said, as the story progresses, it also begins to settle into some of the more familiar patterns fantasy readers will recognize.
“Aaslo rubbed his chest as he led the odd group of horses and undead toward the chamber where he was most likely going to meet his own death.”
The story picks up exactly where Fate of the Fallen left off. Aaslo and his merry band of thieves, prophets, dropout wizards, and undead lurch from one spectacular fight to the next. This installment is far more violent, and Aaslo begins to grow into his powers in a more substantial way.
Fate of the Fallen set out to subvert the chosen one trope, and it did that very well. Now, in book two, the story feels more like it is moving toward a found-family quest fantasy. The subversion of the chosen one trope feels far less central here than it did in Fate of the Fallen. I like the way the story is progressing and maturing, because if Kade kept hammering home how The Shroud of Prophecy was smashing the chosen one trope, it would start to feel hackneyed. Instead, Kade strikes a solid balance.
Plot-wise, much of this book is concerned with the political machinations of various gods and their minions. It becomes a bubbling brew of characters with competing aims working against one another. My one real qualm with the book is that it can be difficult to follow at times. There is so much happening that it can be difficult to fully latch onto some of the essential side characters. There is no real fluff here; the side characters all serve the driving narrative. Still, there are quite a few of them, and I found myself getting lost now and then. That said, Aaslo’s group, very much a found family, is fantastic. That core group is filled with distinctive voices I could easily follow and invest in.
For instance, Dolt, the weird horse who is more than just a ride, is hilarious. I am convinced he is the reincarnation of Mathias. That is the sort of energy Dolt brings to the story. Teza is great, as is Mory, Peck, Myra the Reaper, and Ijen, the not-so-helpful Prophet. Ijen gets more fleshed out in this story, as does Myra. We still have so much to learn about the two of them. Kade drops some meaningful tidbits here that feel likely to matter in the third novel.
Aaslo, our protagonist, is such a refreshing character. Instead of an asshole, this antihero is philosophically an 80-year-old man yelling at people to get off his lawn. I can absolutely picture Aaslo smacking some poor unsuspecting ten-year-old in the ass with a stick for stepping on his begonias. He wants none of this nonsense, but he will put up with it out of duty and love of humanity.
The actual chosen one, Mathias, who was preordained for greatness, resides in a bag that swings from Aaslo’s hip. I love this little bit of macabre Kade wrote into the story. Not only is the hero dead, but his head hangs from the hip of his best friend, and he talks to Aaslo. Mathias is super dead and serves as an excellent comedic foil for Aaslo, even if the effort to make him relax never really works.
Unique voices, a moving plot, a bit of the macabre, and an unusual narrative make this series a lot of fun.
