Thrall – E. William Brown

The Daniel Black series is solid “good bad writing”. It’s a wish-fulfillment fantasy: The protagonist finds himself in a world in which he has remarkable magical powers. He is surrounded by beautiful women who throw themselves at him. (So as not to have that go to waste, he uses said remarkable powers to give himself unlimited stamina.) Earlier in the series Black’s powers were written within the constraints of his having certain types of magic. By book four, “mana sorcery” has become “instinctive understanding of magic”, which has become “if he can think of it, he can figure out a way to make it happen magically.” So Black’s powers are the plot equivalent of “grants wishes”.

The larger plot is ambitious: Ragnarok is nigh. On one side, Loki and his allies have started an ice age, started to eradicate humanity, and marched on Asgard. On the other side is the Norse Pantheon - and it’s not clear that they’re the better alternative. Daniel Black and his allies are caught in the middle, trying to survive Ragnarok.

Black and his coven have been growing exponentially in power. (I mean ‘exponentially’. I hate it when people use ‘exponentially’ to mean ‘considerably’.) In book 1, a giant wolf was a fair fight. By book 4, it has become apparent that surviving Ragnarok will require being able to compete with Pantheons - and they are on the road to making this possible.

The geographic scope of the story is also growing. Book 2 was mostly confined to a single city. Book 3 included travel across Europe, and finally to another world. Most of book 4 takes place in Asgard, to which Daniel Black is shanghaied to repair a super-magical McGuffin. In order to regain and retain his freedom, he has to overcome (and/or hornswoggle) gods.

Book four was fun to read, but not as much fun as earlier books: The wish-fulfillment fantasy is crowding out the story. The sex-fantasy elements are starting to limit the story: Aside from Daniel Black, all male characters are rivals or spear-bearers. All allies are female. The power-fantasy elements are also starting to get in the way: If your magic power is to whip up any magical device you need, the only real risk is the risk of carelessness, or of insufficient imagination.