“Anyone who’s ever been woken by a knife knows the difference between a real attack and the unmistakable command not to move.”

When I picked up The Pits of Itar, I didn’t expect it to be the weirdest book in my batch, but here I am and here it is and it turns out it’s deeply weird (just not, perhaps, in the ways you’d expect). Certainly, the cover, title, and the plot description of a ne’er do well who’s enslaved in a mining camp alongside the bastard son of a prince isn’t a book you’d expect to be filled with wacky hijinks, the power of friendship, and copious farting. The Pits of Itar has all this and more!

The premise, beyond what I’ve articulated above, is that a sometime-thief named Rya has got herself in trouble (thrown in prison, to be precise), after punching a prince’s son in the jaw. The leader of her hometown’s underworld takes pity on her and sends both she and the prince’s son (Tiam) on an errand that takes them out of town. The pair, along with Tiam’s tutor, are attacked by mercenaries on the way and are consigned to a brutal mine known as the Pits of Itar. It’s fairly clear that this sequence of events must have been orchestrated by Tiam’s scheming relatives (perhaps even his cruel father), though this aspect of the story is only briefly touched on in the book itself. As Rya and Tiam work together to survive the Pits, they befriend not only each other, but a number of other wacky characters, chief among them a fearsomely strong dwarf named Zelin. The majority of the book focuses on the bonds of friendship between these characters, occasionally interspersed with escape attempts.

It’s impossible to describe the feel of The Pits of Itar, but I’ll do my best.

On the one hand, I read this one the most quickly out of any of the books I was assigned. This is, admittedly, partly due to external factors such as my day job calming down and SFINCS (in which I was also a judge) ending. That said, Itar is eminently readable. A translated work, it’s an undeniably smooth read, which perhaps speaks to the skill of its translator as much as the author himself. On the other hand, the plot more or less meanders around the outskirts of its more interesting questions and depends a lot on arbitrary contrivances to sustain itself. It’s a book that gives the feel of grimdark intent, yet combines that with anime-esque, whimsical characters. There are also so so so many fart jokes, references to farting, references to bums, and even a lengthy sequence in which the characters bond over the communal humiliation of having to shit into buckets alongside one another (while talking about farting). About 50% in I regretted having not kept track of this from page one with a fartometer.

Beginning of Spoilers

One of the key issues with Itar is that its premise depends on Rya and Tiam being unable to escape the mines. Relatively early in their captivity, however, Zelin informs Rya and Tiam that his cousin is a guard and can help them leave. For some reason (presumably the need to keep the characters in the mine for the plot to work), neither Rya nor Tiam follow up on this point and instead try (and fail) to escape using a much riskier plan. It’s only toward the end that the cousin-guard returns and with about 10% remaining in the book Zelin reiterates that they can simply leave at any time. Unlike during the earlier scene, Rya and Tiam react to Zelin’s offer. They claim they didn’t believe him before, but say Zelin’s plan is worth attempting. Although the arrival of a villainous guard captain adds a brief hiccough to the plan, ultimately it’s a small bump on the characters’ road out of the Pits. The ease with which this part of the narrative concludes retroactively makes much of the rest of the book seem a little pointless.

At around thirty percent from the end of the book there’s also the addition of a new POV that, at least as of the first book, has little to no meaningful connection to Rya and Tiam’s story. While in the mines, the protagonists manage to sneak a letter to Tiam’s royal father out with the help of a sympathetic guard. The guard’s POV suggests that he has his own reasons for being there and for getting himself kicked out of the job. The new POV focuses on the guard, not in his capacity as messenger, but as the kidnapee of two mercenaries named Jes and Jas. At first, Jes and Jas were so similar in personality to Rya and Tiam that I thought maybe this was somehow a flashforward, but it turned out not to be. The majority of their chapters (which increase in number around the 85% mark, so that the urgency of Rya and Tiam’s escape is interrupted by this second storyline) are concerned with the sale of three stolen horses. Multiple pages are devoted to the characteristics, sale, and worth of the horses. It does turn out that the horses were Rya and Tiam’s horses from the beginning of the book, but given how briefly Rya and Tiam had the horses, it’s a very bizarre shift in focus.

End Spoilers

It’s possible that these storylines converge in Itar‘s sequel (or a future planned volume in the series), yet their interruption of the climax feels like a poor integration of the two elements. While twins, twinning, and similar concepts recur to a degree throughout, the similarity of the different characters also laid bare some of the book’s flaws–a general similarity in humour and personality between multiple characters. Rya, Tiam, Zelin, and many of the other characters are quite likeable (even loveable), but they all sort of orbit the same core set of characteristics. The issues with Zelin’s cousin is also not the only plot hole in the book, just the most significant one.

For all that Itar has some quirky problems, it was easy to read and I had a lot of fun. The magic system was also quite cool. It’s not a world in which magic is zapping willy nilly from wands, but magic is nonentheless a key element of the worldbuilding. In Keck’s world, characters ally themselves with one of eight deities. Characters do this once and only once in what amounts to an unscripted rite of passage. In return for this allegiance, their chosen god gives them a magical Gift, though the individual has no say in the nature of the Gift, nor do they know when the Gift will manifest. Gifts can be fairly niche or minor, but they can also be very powerful. Part of Rya’s story in particular involves her deciding on her god and receiving her gift. Along the way, Tiam and Zelin are supportive not only of Rya, but each other. As I noted in my opening paragraph, friendship is central to Itar‘s plot, and the bond between these three characters in particular is both important to the story Keck is telling, while also being compelling for the reader. It was a nice change (and surprise), to see a cast of characters who are largely (though not universally) interested in helping their fellow humans instead of tearing each other down.

I’d recommend taking a look at The Pits of Itar for how surprising it can be. I had a good time with it, despite its flaws.