Book Review: Aïn, the Halfling’s Death by Atalanta Nèhmoura (The Chronicles of Ulriach the Madman #1)

 

Note: The title of this book has been translated into English by me for the reading comprehension of this blog's viewers as the book itself isn't available in English (yet). The original title reads De Kronieken van Ulriach de Waanzinnige #1: Aïn, de dood van de halfling.

What a mouthful of a title. Even in the original Dutch version. This fantasy sparked my interest at the library, so let's have a look. Spoilers ahead, and this review does include a very brief mention of CSA if that makes you uncomfortable.

We meet Arktran as his father, the king, is killed and his kingdom taken over by a dark mage. Arktran flees and gets injured, but is later taken in by two elven brothers. Here he learns a difficult truth: He's not just a human prince, he's actually a halfling (elf-human hybrid) named Aïn and is destined to put an end to Nemroth, the mage who took over his kingdom. From here on Aïn takes it upon himself to train in the ways and moves of the various elf species before taking on his destiny by finding their goddess. 

I don't think this book was that bad or anything, it just didn't do anything for me personally. I liked it okay but I just didn't care that much overall. It has some good elements. I like the relationships between Aïn and the characters around him, most notably his cousins Serathan and Karathan. I liked some of the world-building and concepts, such as the corrupted versions of known races serving under Nemroth. And the fact that they weren't all evil, those are good elements. 

But also like, the rest just felt like the standard fantasy tropes. Lost prince who is the prophesied hero and a descendant from some higher lineage. A generic as fuck dark magical lord character who has nothing to set him apart from the stereotype (thus far). A special amulet/locket. Mythical creatures like dwarves, elves and dragons that pretty much fall into the generic fantasy tropes as well with little to no deviations from the norm. I do like that the one dragon in this (the one on the cover) isn't actually evil but rather good, but even then I felt kinda cheated because she's barely in the story whatsoever. Only a few brief chapters near the end. 

I also wasn't too fond of how there's barely any female characters to speak of in this book. Seriously, all major characters in this with the exception of Aïn's mother are male. There's a few other female characters on the side, but they do nothing major. One of them, a woman, also takes Aïn virginity (also correct me if I'm wrong because I can't find the passage stating his age anymore, but wasn't Aïn sixteen in this? I'm pretty sure he was mentioned to be around sixteen. Isn't that CSA and rape because he cannot consent because he's a minor? Yikes man). 

But literally no other major characters are female. There's a goddess character, but even she doesn't actually physically appear until the last few chapters and is just talked about in passing for 99% of the book. So I'm not counting her, either. Just feels a bit sexist, you know. I don't need my books to be a perfectly even balance between male, female, non-binary, agender, etc. but this book literally felt like a sausagefest where all the women aside from Aïn's mother got to do nothing of note (and even his mother wasn't that major in the grand scheme of things here). Maybe this improved in future installments, but it shouldn't even be the case here if you ask me. It's not like sexism is an actual part of the plot, either, so the book at least acknowledges it. It's just something we're supposed to roll with without ever addressing it. 

Another thing I didn't care that much about was the characters. I found Aïn to be rather boring as a protagonist. There's brief instances where we follow other characters but those didn't do much for me, either. The ones I genuinely found myself liking were Serathan and Karathan, the elven cousins of Aïn who at first tried to kill him but later become his closest friends. But that aside I didn't care much for the other characters. 

Also, one last note, another thing I felt a bit cheated by aside from the dragon is the title. There's no hobbits in this book. Halfling is generally used as a (copyright-free) alternative to hobbits in a lot of fantasy works, but in this book the word "halfling" exclusively refers to human-elf hybrids. Which I guess in and of itself isn't bad, you can change a word's meaning, but it also leaves fantasy fans who want to see hobbits (like me) disappointed. Especially since this book isn't shy about using other generic fantasy elements with little to no deviation from the norm.

So overall this is a book with potential, but it didn't stick with me, really. I don't think I'll be reading future installments of this series, but perhaps someday I'll pick up book two. It just utterly failed to grab me upon my read.

Rating: 3/5