The Silver Skull

I finished another of the "I've never heard of this before" books I picked up on my trip. It appears to be meant to be the first in a series. 'tis all about the rigors of war! Well, okay, not directly. Actually, it's about England in an age of taking on all comers. The Spanish are rivals over shipping conflicts. Most of Europe hates England over breaking with the Church. And the Unseelie Court wants to stomp England for actually standing up to them. Ah! There's the supernatural element.


Yes, the main protagonist is "England's Greatest Spy," but that's mostly a public show. He, and those he's connected with, are far more concerned with the Enemy (said fae folk) than any foreign powers, though the conflicts are interwoven. All the campfire stories are real, the fair folk have been preying on humans for ages, but they're just subtle enough that all those incidents can usually be brushed off as superstition. What drives the fae is unclear. They are shown to be highly condescending, seeing humans as little more than vermin. And yet they also seem to be deeply, deeply malicious. They don't just hunt their "vermin," they pursue, torment, tease, and sometimes hound them through generations. They seem keenly aware of fears and weaknesses among their prey, and make good use of that. There's really nothing shown as good about them, and no "Seelie" Court in counterpoint. They're shown for have some reason for their current spite, but I can't see much of redeeming value. They almost seem to feed off human anguish, though that's a little bit of a leap.

And their most dangerous power seems to be to, by nature, unhinge most people. The mere sight of them can leave a person tormented and questioning reality. A few whispered words can drive a man to suicide. And yet, that isn't always the case, or there wouldn't be a group of "spies" to stand against them. There's talk about those being eased into knowing as handling it better, but I find it really hard to justify the policy of keeping such things so secret under such circumstances. To quote Agent K of MiB: "The person is smart. People are dumb, panicky animals..." It seems like when anyone is exposed (or in danger of such) to the Unseelie, you'd want to sit them down and talk about it to give them as much grounding and forewarning as you can. More often, the policy seems to be to try to keep them in dark and be surprised/disappointed when they see something they shouldn't and start to crack from it.

So... anyway, after ages of playing superior, the Unseelie are pissy about England having found some way to ward itself to them. They've been plotting and scheming for a while on revenge and their first move is something of a prison break. Though I'm at a loss as to what those wards actually do if they can't keep the fae from traipsing into London for what they want (at the beginning and the end of the book). I guess it limits them in some way. *shrugs* And the race is on to get back a powerful supernatural weapon, unlock the secrets of its use, and deal with a Spanish armada arrayed against the nation. Along the way, it becomes clear this shadow war has left pretty much everyone involved scarred and stained - it's a pretty ugly affair where even the good guys aren't good in their desperation to not lose.

It's a bit dark by the end. The characters were interesting enough to follow, though none really resonated with me strongly. There's a dash of James Bond-ish gadgetry: retractable blades and exploding not-quite-but-may-as-well-be cuff links. It's not a bad read. Not great, but not bad. If the character has a little more of some... spark, I guess, I probably really would have liked it. I could actually see something like this as an RPG campaign. Maybe 7th Sea? A secretive group of PCs dedicated to defending humanity against the dark things of the night. Heck, throw in characters from other nations working together and you almost have a Victorian Era GI Joe. ;)