SFINCS Review: The Pawns of Havoc by Dave Lawson
- Angela Boord
- 8 minutes ago
- 3 min read
“The Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS, pronounced “sphinx”) is a yearly competition to recognize, honor, and celebrate the talent and creativity present in the indie community. We are a sister competition to both SPFBO and SPSFC, and we highlight greatness in the novella format in all areas of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.).” – From the official SFINCS website.
Note: The following review contains only my personal thoughts as a judge and does not reflect the views of the team as a whole.
No Mercy, No Questions Asked.
Cork has quickly made a name for himself among the Kosellan mercenaries, but now his boss has come to him with an unusual job. Cork’s erstwhile countrymen, the Winn, have hired him to travel into the barren Frozen Lands and destroy a convoy, leaving only one survivor.
Cork isn’t sure he can trust the Winn. He feels like a pawn in their political game. However, his mother is sick and the Winn have promised to heal her if Cork does the job. And killing is what Cork does best.
To make matters worse. Cork’s crew has been decided for him: Arabella, an inexperienced and infuriating archer, and Nessa, a gloomy criminal with murder on her mind.
Cork will have to figure out how to complete the job, avoid Winn treachery, and manage conflicts with Arabella and Nessa along the way.
It's going to be chaos.
Review
When I got my list of assigned novellas, I decided I would let my family choose my current read by picking a number between 1 and 9. The Pawns of Havoc was 7 on the list. I was looking forward to reading it based on the blurb, but I was surprised that it ended up as my second read!
The Pawns of Havoc was a lot of fun for me, as an epic fantasy reader/writer who reads more dark than cozy. Based on what I knew about Envoys of War, the first book in the Envoys of Chaos series, I was not expecting Pawns to be as dark and morally ambiguous as it was, but considering the level of banter, the breeziness of the writing, and the touch of romance, I would classify it more as a dark sword and sorcery tale than anything resembling grimdark.
Cork’s mother is a member of the mysterious and feared Winn, but has apparently had a falling out with her people and left their island. The problem: when Winn mages leave their homeland, they suffer a wasting disease that eventually leads to death without the constant use of an expensive tonic. And though she and her son are not accepted in their new home, Cork’s mother refuses to go back to the Winn. This puts Cork in a tough spot; in order to afford the tonic, he’s been selling his sword—or rather, his giant axe. At the beginning of this novella, Cork is offered a job he can’t refuse by the very people his mother is running from—the Winn.
We’re never told why Cork doesn’t suffer the same wasting disease as his mother (is it because Cork is a fighter instead of a mage?) and we’re also not given much background about the Winn, other than their fearsome reputation. I think this may be because Pawns of Havoc is a prequel novella written specifically to tell Cork’s backstory. Cork is an easy character to root for. He’s down to earth, pragmatic, a little snarky, but generally, I found it easy to sympathize with his plight even as he started making questionable moral decisions.
I really appreciated that Lawson didn’t shy away from the moral ambiguity inherent in the plot. When it came time to go there—he went.
My only complaint is that I thought the story wrapped up a little too quickly. While the story definitely went difficult places without cheating, it didn't spend a whole lot of time dealing with the aftermath or the consequences of Cork's actions. I feel like this might also have had something to do with the story being a prequel novella, but as my introduction to the series (I haven't read Book 1), I would have appreciated an ending that was a little less neat.
I would recommend this to epic fantasy readers who like a touch of darkness to their adventure stories but who don't want to go on full-on grimdark, and also to readers looking for a light romantic subplot that isn't romantasy. Arabella and Cork's relationship was a highlight of the story for me--no enemies to lovers here, more shades of an old-fashioned historical (not the spicy kind) done sword and sorcery style.