Review: The Infernal City

Title: The Infernal City: an Elderscrolls Novel
Author: Greg Keyes
Length: 288pgs
Rating: 4 Stars

I am a fan of the Elder Scrolls, I have been since I played "Arena" back in 1994 (on a side note: Elder Scrolls 1 and 2 are available free for download here released on the 10th and 15th anniversaries of the Elder Scrolls) and I had never herd of Greg Keyes.  I understood the potential for how colossally bad this particular book could be.  Typically novels based on video games tend to fall on the shadier side of quality, but at the very least I knew that my fanatacism for the elderscrolls setting would mean that no matter how mediocre the tale might be I would probably enjoy it.  Even if it was terrible, it was only 288 pages.  Who knows, maybe this Greg Keyes was even an published author, if he was, he might even be decent, maybe even pretty good.  So, with that in mind I shelled out the $10 and went on home.

Upon inspecting the inside of the rear cover when I got home, I discovered that Greg Keyes had indeed previously published books, infact he'd even won some presteigious awards; looks like rings are coming up roses.  So, as I was travelling to Massachucetts I settled down with this little ~300 page gem.  I must say, I am thoroughly impressed.  Keyes' style is suprisingly similar to my own (I think) and it made for a very enjoyable read.  Pacing started out slow, which I believe was quite intentional.  He initially dumps the reader into the new political situation since the fall of the Septim Dynasty as well as the cultures and languages of Tamriel but then gives time for you to catch your breath.  He ramps the action up slowly at first, character development follows a similar pace, initially leading you to believe that you're going to read about a bunch of flatly archetypal characters the whole way through and then begins bleeding in more depth as the plot starts to twist and weave. 

Keyes does a brilliant job translating the setting to paper.  He captures the brutal magesty of The Elder Scrolls very well.  Mystical and fantastic while at the same time being brutally honest.  Yes it is a land where there is magic and spells and elves and all that, but yes people die, sometimes they die horribly, and sometimes thats not the worst thing that happens to them.  The new portion of the setting he has created (or at least brought to life), Umbriel, is like a twisted version of Wonderland and he does a wonderful job of making the people inside of it perfectly real yet simultaneously insane.  This is only compounded by dropping an 'Alice' type normal person into this madness.  These people are not silly, loony, insane. They are a very real and disturbing insane.

I was pleasantly suprised by this book.  It was a great read, and there were some passages where I simply could not put it down.