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Mike Barrett
Iron Angels & Annihilators: John Morressy’s Novels of Heroic Fantasy
The field of heroic fantasy can be restrictive, unable to appreciably evolve beyond its own limits without losing the very elements that define it. This is not necessarily a bad thing if the fiction itself remains entertaining, but the limited scope offered means that any impact must be very much reliant on the quality of the writing and the inventive capabilities of the author, and the two do need to complement each other for full effect.
Superior books incorporate action and thaumaturgy in a creative setting, peopled with believable characters who develop as a result of their experiences and whose destiny the reader becomes interested in. The basic plot of a land in thrall to evil and the efforts of the rightful heir to banish that evil and assume kingship need not be trite; in the right hands it can still fascinate and beguile, and it can still result in works that are engaging and forceful.
John Morressy (1930–2006) was an accomplished science fiction writer who successfully turned his attention to heroic fantasy with four outstanding novels, Ironbrand (1980), Graymantle (1981), Kingsbane (1982) and The Time of the Annihilator (1985). These books demonstrated that imaginative and memorable books could still be produced within the narrow confines of the field, and they were all exceptional works, combining crisp plotting and readability. Morressy was admittedly using the standard elements of the genre, but his persuasive writing meant that he was able to fully engage readers in his storylines and produce compelling narratives. The novels also benefited from the creation of a well thought-out and internally consistent fantasy world that may not have been strikingly original but which was still appealing.
It is a world that encompasses the beauty of the Crystal Hills and the dangers of the Mistlands, the dense Southern Forest and the remote Headland, the Cape of Mists and the Fastness, the Fool’s Head and the Citadel on the Lake Isle, the Long Wood and the High City, the Drylands and the Red Mountains. There are plains and swamps, high peaks and forbidding offshore islands, small villages and mighty fortresses, mines, inland seas, and hidden places where the old gods are still remembered. Ancient and deadly creatures survive in unhallowed areas and prey on incautious travelers, and barrow-wights guard the graves of sea-pirates; there are near mythical delvers deep below the mountains, and there are mages who work their sorceries, both dark and light, in secret surroundings far from curious eyes.
Morressy’s world is colorful and interesting, and each of the four books is set in the same milieu but at different periods. The principal back-story has its historical roots in the person of Ambescand, a warrior and mage who guided the land well and prosperously, until he was eventually challenged by rebellious nobles backed by eleven strong wizards. The ultimate defeat and apparent death of these sorcerers then led to the rise of a mysterious being called the Cairnlord, whose powerful dark magics and inexorable ascent led to a domination that seemed total, although there were enigmatic prophecies concerning his ultimate downfall.
The Cairnlord is an entity whose origins are initially shrouded in mystery but who is aeons-old, predating history, and whose ambitions are to gain brutal supremacy over not just this world but beyond and out into the stars. Time is of little relevance to him, and his plans may take many years to reach fruition. However, he is not omnipotent and is vulnerable in certain ways, ways that those of the bloodline of Ambescand are able to exploit.
Ironbrand starts with the death of Vannen on the Headland. His three sons, Col, Ord, and Staver, inherit three swords of power from their father and learn that their destinies lie far south across the Fissure, where they are the true rulers, heirs to a land held in thrall by the Cairnlord and his minions, human and inhuman. The blood and the magic of Ambescand runs through their veins, and their task is to secure their respective interdependent realms, Col as Colberane Whitblade, Master of the Southern Forest; Ord as the Scarlet Ord, Keeper of the Fastness; and Staver as Staver Ironbrand, Mage of the Crystal Hills. They soon learn of the dread forces that will be opposing them when they are attacked by gray men, undead creatures that are virtually unkillable.
They first have to cross the Fissure, an impassable crevasse that has isolated the Headland for all living memory. Once that impossible task is accomplished, and with the aid of the inscrutable Dark Prophet, they set about rallying their forces, a dispirited and persecuted people who see new hope in the fulfillment of the old prophecies foretelling the end of the Cairnlord’s malign reign. Battles are fought and wizards defeated in an action-packed story that is forceful and exciting with many memorable moments. The final confrontation between Staver and the Cairnlord on the bleak Stone Hand is particularly potent, a clash that complements the epic battle on The Plain taking place at the same time as Col and Ord struggle against endless hordes of gray men.
Morressy’s descriptive prowess is much in evidence here. His depiction of the Fissure, with its fierce and deafening tide-race and in his recounting of the windwraith-generated storm in the midst of the crossing of the Fool’s Head, impresses. He also formulates the characterizations of Col, Ord, and Staver effectively, giving them distinct personalities early on in the narrative, and then displaying their maturing outlook on their designated roles. There is a realization that it is the welfare of the people that really matters, not the attractions of the ascension to their thrones as they had at first thought. Empha
sis is laid on the cost of victory to the combatants and their leaders—freedom comes at a high price, but a price that is ever worth paying.
There is a good conclusion to what is a well-rounded and satisfying novel, one that leaves scope for further tales in the same setting, with the ending indicating that “in time evil moved in the world once more” and that this was “a story to be told elsewhere.” This was to be related in Kingsbane, but before that Morressy produced Graymantle, set in the time preceding Ironbrand to tell the story leading up to the events of the first book.
Graymantle is about Ambescand, the forefather of Vannen and the man whose betrayal by the eleven wizards had been instrumental in calling forth the Cairnlord. The broad details had been told in Ironbrand in the form of history and legend, related by characters in that book, and consequently the broad plot is already known to readers of the first volume. It would have seemed to make more sense for Graymantle to have appeared first, but presumably the author had not initially intended to write the book; perhaps it was his enjoyment in writing Ironbrand that prompted him to return to its world and to characters already established but whose earlier story was still worth telling.
As it is, Morressy gives vibrant life to Ambescand, a reluctant hero who is the true son of Pytrigon, the Lord of the High City, but who is switched at birth and brought up in the Long Wood to avoid an inevitable assassination. Becoming a master swordsman, he earns a reputation as the mighty Graymantle, a reputation that he is never comfortable with, questioning the moral aspect of killing, even in self-defense. He earns fame as a warrior and soon becomes the powerful Duarin’s “Hammer,” but when Duarin becomes the Lord of the High City and then the King of the Northern Lands, his obsessive paranoia leads to almost unbearable loss for Ambescand. Duarin is overthrown and Ambescand subsequently assumes his rightful Kingship, a rule starting with grief but bringing peace and stability even while the dark clouds of the Cairnlord are slowly but surely gathering.
There is a low-key ending with the death of the aging Ambescand and his brother, and then the dissolution of the kingdom as the Cairnlord’s forces rise and gain control after many years of war. One of Ambescand’s last acts is the forging of the three swords of power, that many years later were to be wielded by Vannen’s sons to eventually liberate the land. The conclusion therefore gives the promise of the salvation seen in Ironbrand.
We are given a closer look at the fellowship of the eleven malevolent wizards who had appeared only fleetingly in the first book, all of them having distinct powers of magic and names that are evocative and well-coined. They are Hane of the Withering Touch, Darra Jahn the Rouser of Envy, Aoea the Windwraith, Taerhael the Beclouder, Jashoone of the Frost and Flame, Ulowadjaa the Twister of Bones, Rombonole the Earthshaker, Korang the Warmaker, Cei Shalpan the Stormlord, Bellenzor the Blightbringer, and Skelbanda the Destroyer of Hope. Formidable as this cabal may be, their fixation on gaining even more power proves to be their undoing as they unknowingly draw the Cairnlord back to a brutal dominance that will endure for many generations.
However, it is Ambescand who plays the major role in the book and whose legendary status is shown with a human aspect, with all of the doubts, fallibilities, and sadness that the myth disregarded. This fleshing out of the fables outlined in Ironbrand emphasizes how the passing of time alters the structure and the content of oral history, and it shows us the truths behind the legend.
Although it is not as quick-moving as its predecessor, Graymantle is another flowing and well-written novel, with a somewhat different scenario of violent political intrigue and lust for power replacing the action-driven narrative of Ironbrand.
Kingsbane is the third volume in the series. It begins some 250 years after the events of the first book, when the peaceful reigns then established have disintegrated, with magic thought long dead and the familiar lands once more fragmented and perilous places. The population is at risk from roaming bands of lawless brigands and outlaws, and in place of the three realms there are many different territories, large and small, ruled over by petty warlords.
One man in particular, Halssa, occupies the High City and seeks to expand by armed force; his opponents, an alliance led by Brondin of Balthid’s Keep, intend to bring him down, but Brondin’s authority is reliant on a talisman in the form of a cloak pin. The worth of this precious but apparently powerless object lies in what it symbolizes, a link to the bloodline of Ambescand. When it is stolen, Brondin leaves the Keep in a desperate attempt to retrieve it, realizing that without its possession his authority over the alliance will become questionable.
He encounters various people during his quest, all of them well-drawn and of significance to his search, and he also learns that he is to be instrumental in combating the re-emergence of an ancient evil. It transpires that Karbash, Halssa’s sorcerer, is seeking to bring back the essence of the Cairnlord, believing that he can control the entity that he resurrects. However, just as others before him had discovered, a resurgent Cairnlord serves no one but himself.
Like Ambescand before him, Brondin realizes that his own role is pre-ordained and that higher powers are using him to defeat the evil that is arising; his own lack of confidence, primarily due to his physical lameness, means that he lacks the self-belief to confront his foe. Reassurance comes from an unexpected source as one of the sons of Vannen reappears and is instrumental in the banishing of the Cairnlord. Once the magical threat has been nullified it is up to Brondin to face Halssa in single combat with the freedom of the land as the prize.
Morressy’s next book was The Time of the Annihilator, and this does not initially appear to be a part of the Iron Angel sequence. However, it gradually becomes apparent that it is, the novel being set long before Graymantle with place names and even landscapes differing, although even then there were the Crystal Hills. The story begins during the decades-long conflict between the Empire of the White City, governed by the Thirty-three, and the Eastern Alliance of the Nine Lords, with the tide of what had been a bloody stalemate slowly but inexorably turning in favor of the Alliance. Losing faith in their three major deities, the Empire’s magicians turn to the Fourth Child, the grim god Ankaria, summoning him in thrall from his lasting banishment to win the war for them.
But Ankaria cannot be controlled and becomes the principal god to both sides; he feasts on death, from which he gains power, and brings destruction to all. It is left to Gariel, a powerful mage who has also been bequeathed the magic of a predecessor, to face Ankaria, whose essence resides in the body of Gariel’s brother, Bellenzor. Bellenzor was (of course) one of the eleven wizards who rebelled against Ambescand, as was Darra Jahn who also appears in the narrative, although it is unclear as to how these two survived.
However, what is quite clear is that Ankaria is the Cairnlord of the earlier novels. His evolution is described here in detail, convincingly and well. Such explanation of the specific origin of this malevolent being establishes his ongoing presence with strength and originality, providing far more depth to the characterization than is normally found in books that similarly use a dark adversary.
Ankaria’s downfall takes place on what becomes the Stone Hand, which is where the four surviving rebel wizards of Ambescand’s future time were interred alive. The presence of their lingering strong magic was obviously the catalyst needed to release the Cairnlord, unleashing him on the world once again; that resurrection was not accidental, with the final events of Graymantle and the way in which the wizard’s caskets were sent to the Stone Hand brought into sharper focus.
The Time of the Annihilator also reveals the specific source of the metal that forged the cloak pin of Kingsbane and the swords of power of Ironbrand, and Morressy thus clarifies all aspects of his saga in this final volume, even though its setting is long before the other books.
Each of the four novels presents a different perspective on the emergence of an evil with apparently limitless powers, an evil which can be vanquished temporarily but which cannot be complet
ely eradicated. There are higher forces that can provide the means to resist evil. Both Ambescand and Brondin come to realize that their roles are to a great extent predestined, which leads them to question the parts they are expected to play. Their lack of confidence is one of the more absorbing aspects of the stories, as is the fact that each feels that he has been used as a pawn in the hands of others.
But just as evil can be resisted, so can good. There is no inevitable positive outcome to the conflict, and as Staver tellingly says in Kingsbane, “The way is plotted, but the end is unknown,” highlighting the fact that in the end it is the individual who can and does make the difference between victory and defeat.
The impact of loss is also significant in these works; Ambescand and Gariel lose their families early on to violence, an experience that ultimately hardens their resolve and leads them towards the completion of their tasks. Those deaths can consequently be seen as a cruel necessity, emphasizing the casual indifference of a fate to which individual lives mean little in the context of the enormity of the stakes being contested.
Although they appear to have been written and published out of sequence, the four books work well in the order that they appeared, as the revelations of the later novels add a retrospective frisson to the earlier works. All four tales are fine examples of inventive heroic fantasy fiction, with Morressy demonstrating his ability to take standard themes and adapt them to produce fast-paced and enjoyable narratives. He showed that the genre was not going to stagnate as long as a writer brought creative and literate storytelling to his contributions and was prepared to develop a convincing and intriguing background to support his plots.
Morressy retained his interest in fantasy, and later books revolved around the exploits of the wizard Kedrigern in a light-hearted series of novels and short stories from 1986 onwards. These were entertaining in their own way, but they lacked the dark power of the earlier series, which stands as a lasting testament to its author’s abilities. It also served as new proof that the heroic fantasy genre remains an eminently capable vehicle for the production of impressive works of fiction.
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