This morning, I finished The Man with the Golden Torc by Simon R. Green. It’s been on my To Read list for four years now, but it wasn’t until I got the Kindle that I finally got around to picking it up. Oh well. Better late than never, I suppose.
Edwin (“Eddie”) Drood is part of the Drood family. Their family business is keeping the world safe from supernatural threats. This is no rag-tag Scoobie Gang. The Droods are equipped with the latest gadgetry (both scientific and magical) and they run their operation with all the slickness of the CIA or MI5. Their greatest weapon is the golden torc that they wear around their necks. When activated, the torc creates mystical golden armor that covers the entire body and makes the wearer well-nigh invulnerable.
Eddie is a reluctant participant in the family business and he prefers to keep his distance. But when a special mission goes wrong, it emerges that Eddie has been declared rogue by the Drood Matriarch and he is forced to turn against his own family, who are now trying their best to kill him. All kinds of hijinks ensue and Eddie ends up teaming up with former enemy Molly Metcalf (the wild witch of the woods) as he tries to bring his family down. Along the way, he learns some pretty unpleasant things about the source of his family’s power, which leads him to question everything he’s been taught.
Although the book was enjoyable enough, I can’t say that it was an unqualified success. My biggest gripe was that there were places where Green just went completely over the top. Early on, Eddie is attacked by carnivorous automobiles, dragon-riding elves, the ghosts of people who died on the motorway, and evil techno-magicians with flying saucers. All in the same scene. Individually, there’s nothing wrong with these these foes, but it’s a bit much to have them all attack in the same scene. That’s by far the most egregious example, but there are many other places where Green throws everything but the kitchen sink at the reader, making it harder and harder to suspend disbelief.
On the whole, the characters are dynamic and interesting (I especially liked Molly). Sometimes, however, they behave in ways that defy common sense. Toward the end of the book, when Eddie and Molly are infiltrating the Drood family home, she ends up “pouting rebelliously” because she’s not allowed to look at something in the house. Rebellious pouting just doesn’t seem like a logical response when you’re behind enemy lines and could be killed at any moment. There’s also a supernatural entity at the end of the book whose behavior just makes you scratch your head and go “huh?”
Green’s “Secret Histories” series is basically an homage to James Bond (Eddie’s secret agent moniker is actually “Shaman Bond”), so perhaps I would have appreciated this book more if I were a fan of 007. I’ll probably read the other books in the series, but only when I have a gap in my To Read list.
Codex Lochianus 