"The Warden" by Daniel M. Ford
Patterner's book review of a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired dark fantasy novel
The Essentials
The Warden by Daniel M. Ford
Genre: fantasy
Format: novel
Age Range: adult
Publisher: TOR
Publication Date: April 2023
Is This A Series?: Yes
Is There Mature Content?: mild fantasy violence and implied sex
Would I Recommend It?: Yes
Would I Reread It?: Yes
What's It About?
I picked up “The Warden” incidentally because I walked by author
Daniel Ford at the Tor booth at New York Comic Con, sitting alone, with a
stack of books and a pen in front of him. I would not say that I’m good
at initiating or carrying conversations but he was excited to tell me
about his story premise and then we discussed at some length how he
created his wizard protagonist by blending together magical disciplines
one may not traditionally expect in one character. This story is
inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, by the way: Ford was
absolutely clear about that. And this is adult fantasy, not YA, which I
appreciate for a higher level of maturity and overall older characters.
If those all sound like things you enjoy in a novel, then I think you’ll
appreciate reading “The Warden”. On the next slide I’ll give you a
quick look into the magical, mysterious plot.
Aelis, a freshly graduated wizard who comes from privilege and has
never worked outside of the structures environment of academia, is
assigned as Warden to a small farming village where she arrives to find
herself unwelcome and uncertain of her own place. She feels angry over
her assignment as Warden to this village because her prestigious
training as a necromancer seems wasted in a small farming village where
little happens and at most she’ll find herself healing basic injuries
and solving minor disputes, but a string of strange magical occurrences
and unexplained disappearances lead her to discover mysteries far older
and more arcane than she could have expected. This is a series and we
are left with a pretty serious cliffhanger, but don’t worry! The second
book “Necrobane” will be out in April 2024.
Patterner's Thoughts
I enjoyed “The Warden”’s fresh approach to the DnD-inspired-novel
genre. Hard magic systems like the one in DnD can sometimes lose their
mysticism because they’re so game-rule-based that they simply become
actions to be taken and little else. What I enjoyed most about Aelis was
how she clearly had her own style with her magic that played to her own
personal strengths and we can see how magic-users can create many
different solutions to the same problem depending on their own
abilities. She thinks around problems in a way that makes the magic in
the story feel believable and I like also how Aelis’s magic blends
together with weaponry and physical combat. I think it challenges the
notion that wizards can only fit a certain set of molds and need to be
separated traditional fighting techniques, and it’s done in such a way
that doesn’t accidentally make Aelis seem overpowered. I’m a connoisseur
of magic systems, and “The Warden” certainly gave me a lot of enjoy and
think about and I think we’ll get to see a lot more interesting magic
in future installments where Aelis will be forced to push the boundaries
of her own magical knowledge and abilities.
My main criticisms are that we don’t get to see more of Maurenia
and Lun who are Aelis’s occasional companions—and romantic interest in
the case of Maurenia. I enjoyed Aelis’s romance with Maurenia and Tun’s
charming wit and humor balanced Aelis’s wizard academia well: they’re
both well-presented characters but they’ll need more page time to get
the development they deserve. I hope that they’ll be featured
prominently in future installments in this series. The main romance
between Aelis and Maurenia is a queer one, by the way, and we know early
on that Aelis is attracted to both men and women. Since this isn’t a
romantasy the romance isn’t a main focus of the story but it fits
naturally into the flow of the story and we get some nice quiet moments
of intimacy.
My final criticism is minor, and may be more reflective of me than
of this book: I wish Aelis were older. With all the skill she has as a
healer and in not one but THREE areas if wizarding magic, as well as her
skill with a sword, I personally wish she had more lived experience to
back up where she accrued that skill. Someone with 5+ years of field
experience after graduating from the Lyceum (university for wizards)
would still be inexperienced enough to work well in this story. That
said, this is a common criticism I have and I apply it to many things
that I reas. It doesn’t really impact my enjoyment. Personally I prefer
older protagonists!
Let's Wrap It Up
All that said, I think if you’re into fantasy novels or DnD or
wizards or magic or all of the above, you’ll find a lot for you in “The
Warden”. I will pick up book 2 when it comes out and I’m interested to
check out what else Daniel Ford has written.
Don’t forget to support your local bookstores and libraries if you
want to read this book. They can probably special order it or get it for
you on interlibrary loan if it’s not already on their shelves.
