Book Review: Tales of Pannithor Pious

Hello everyone, today I bring you a article written by Matthew Green reviewing Mark Barber’s newest novel, Pious. Thanks to Matthew for sending it my way, enjoy!

Mark Barber returns to give us a further look into the world of the Basilean Hemogemy in this naval adventure on the Infant Sea. Pious follows the story of Jaymes Ellias, a disillusioned Lieutenant in the Basilean Navy. As the tale unfolds we see the action and adventure as Ellias and the ships’ company, the HW Pious, as they track the deadly fleet of an mighty orc krudger, and self-styled Admiral, Ardmural Ghurak.

I was excited, but more than a little cautious when I received this book. I had a number of concerns, which I will detail below, but let me say now, by the end these had been set aside. I’ve read a lot of fantasy war stories, especially ones that tie into other media and I’ve become nervous of stories that just consist of ‘he hit him then he hit him’ descriptions of constant fighting. This is a book that ties into a game, but it obviously has to stand on its own two feet.

Pious jumped very quickly into the action, but my initial worries that it would be all fighting, low on the story were very quickly set aside. Characters were introduced at a good pace, without anyone appearing suddenly when the plot demanded, and the story progressed at a good pace. The actions the characters took seemed meaningful and were consistent with the personality set out for them. Certain characters, such as the lieutenant featured in the main story arc or the captain of a trade brig, became genuinely likable characters, and even the bad guys were interesting and engaging. It doesn’t hurt that it had a few goblins featured, even if they were not in main roles!

As a part of the larger Kings of War storyline and a form of naval fiction, it is worth discussing how accessible the book is to both the die-hards of those genres, and the uninitiated.

Firstly this book has its roots very distantly in historical naval fiction, the worlds of Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey. For a very short time, I felt nautical terms and technical language were being thrown in pretty thick and fast, putting the story in danger of bogging down like an old school historical novel. As with my previous concern, this was quite soon put to rest. The use of the marine captain onboard the Pious, a ‘landsman’ adrift in a world of sailors mirrored any uninitiated readers. This was a clever trick used to explain any new words. With hindsight, any nautical language used is necessary for the narrative, well explained and pretty much established by the first few chapters.

Secondly, this is very much a Kings of War book, and to be more accurate, a Kings of War: Armada one. The book feels well integrated into the existing world narrative, and while there are not as many ‘Easter eggs’ and references as there were in the author’s previous work, Steps to Deliverance (2019), they were still certainly there. Crucially, I don’t think a reader who does not have a detailed knowledge of Mantic’s Pannithor in general or the Basilean faction in particular, would feel lost. The book remains very open to new readers.

It is also worth considering how the wargame origins of this lore affected the story. Tabletop game mechanics are undeniably constrained by the limitations of a gamer’s collections and space. Very few of us have the sprawling rooms and immense collections to recreate realistic battles with combatants in the thousands. Instead, a game of Kings of War will feature more modest armies, at most a few hundred miniatures. This in turn has an impact on authors trying to write a story around these games, unless they choose to abstract out the numbers somewhat. The author of Pious has chosen to stick very closely to his source material, which has the benefit of feeling like a real game of Kings of War at times, and left the gamer in me envisioning how I could recreate the land battles on the tabletop, but does limit his numbers. When a unit only has between ten and twenty members, it’s rather tricky to write in realistic fighting with suitably impressive-sounding magical explosions, without very quickly running out of characters. Luckily the amphibious nature of the battles in this book, with units of marines and landing parties of crew, made the numbers feel a lot more appropriate and realistic. The sea battles in turn feel equally believable, with numbers that feel sensible for the Caribbean-esque world the author has created. I don’t know how closely the action on the seas fits with the Armada tabletop game, as I have not yet played it, but the story certainly leaves me wanting to find out.

My final concern, was more around the context of Armada itself, than this book in particular. I was worried how early 19th-century navy feel would mix with a faction that always felt medieval. Basically, Basileans don’t traditionally have cannons, and ships like the HMS Victory didn’t have marines in chainmail. Thankfully this book does a good job of merging the two. There was enough traditional Basilean character and the explanation of legion conservatism combined with the navy cooperating with the dwarves, to leave me happy that this can work. The result was not only a believable book but also left me happier about the game.

This book managed to avoid all my concerns, made me more excited about the game it is supporting, and stands alone as a genuinely good book. While I enjoyed Steps to Deliverance, I feel that Pious represents an author becoming even more comfortable in the world he is now expanding. By the last few pages I was honestly getting sad it would end soon, so I really want a sequel. To sum it up this is a great book, with compelling and likable characters that I would recommend both to Kings of War players and fans of the fantasy genre.

Pious is available now as an ebook from Winged Hussar as well as other digital book sellers https://www.whpsupplyroom.com/fantasy/p/tales-of-pannithor-pious-ebook?rq=Pious

Pious will be released in printed form this December.