Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel Review

Readers of the Kingdom comic book series published by 2000 AD are going to love getting a hold of this new book, published by Abaddon. Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel is based on the Kingdom comic book series and is written by Dan Abnett (who is the original writer for the comic series) and Nik Vincent. How does the novel stack up against the tales we’ve seen in the comics and how will the last of humanity ever survive?

The events of the novel take place one hundred years after the events of the comic. The main character of the comic, Gene the Hackman, has long since died and is now only talked about as a legend. The main character that the novel follows is Evelyn War who is of the same species as Gene the Hackman, called the Aux. The Aux are a genetically modified soldier race that are half human and half dog, appropriately referred to as “dog soldiers”. The Aux were seemingly bred to fight against giant insects called ‘Them’. The Aux have not seen a creature in a very long time and ‘Them’ have slipped into legend just like Gene the Hackman. The Aux have split into many different clans that now inhabit different parts of the Berlin subway system.

For readers looking to pick this book up, it’s not necessary to read the comic first. The book does a good job of standing alone from the comic by talking about Gene Hackman and his exploits. Fans of the comic should be able to ease right into the novel knowing about the Aux already. Their social structure and day to day activities are explained with enough detail to take the reader inside their world and how they operate. When it came specifically to the Aux, I would have liked to have a little bit of a description of what they look like physically, which was unfortunately lacking. Also, it would have been nice if the Aux had just a little bit more of a personal history. Part of the narrative was that they didn’t know much about themselves which is fine, but giving the reader just a little bit more information about their race would have been nice.

Readers will notice quickly that the Aux have a unique way of talking which would suggest that they are not very intelligent. Fortunately, the novels titular character, Evelyn War, is noticeably more intelligent than the rest which is an important point in the book. Evelyn War’s dialogue is smoother and much easier to read than the other Aux.

One of the more entertaining aspects of the book is the Aux naming convention. Every Aux is named after a well known human from history. Their first and last names are used every time one is referred to either by the book’s narrative or by another Aux. In addition to Gene Hackman, some other names used are Ezra Pound, Robert Browning, Ben Gun and Oscar Wilde.

After the normal setup and character introductions, the main conflict in the book is introduced which is changing weather patterns and with that, warnings of a returning enemy. The book does a good job of building up suspense before the first ‘Them’ makes an appearance. The suspense is warranted because the Aux haven’t had an encounter with a ‘Them’ for over one hundred years and many of Aux don’t believe ‘Them’ exist anymore. The Aux have a touch of arrogance when it comes to talk of having to do battle with ‘Them’. They believe since Gene Hackman was able to kill ‘Them’ so can anyone one of the Aux’s fighters, but they are soon shown that ‘Them’ are much tougher than they thought. The first encounters between the two races are complete bloodbaths. As far as the battles go in the book, they are wild melees with as many as twenty Aux fighting one ‘Them’ with the Aux using mostly bladed weapons. People looking for intense and vicious action won’t be disappointed, there are plenty of fights and battles and the authors are not shy about describing the extreme violence. The detailed descriptions of the violence are not misplaced since we are dealing with giant, unfeeling insects with huge, sharp blades for arms.

Fiefdom is a pretty easy read. It’s not overly complicated and it describes just what you need to know in each setting. Reading a couple of the comics beforehand would be helpful, but not necessary. The pacing of the book is great; the action is intense and violent and there are no parts that lull too much. People that read a lot of books will probably get through this pretty quickly, too. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that you don’t need to concentrate too hard on to follow.