The Queen of Stone (The Thorn of Breland #1, Eberron) by Keith Baker review

    THE QUEEN OF STONE by Keith Baker is the first novel in the Thorn of Breland series. I was a big fan of his The Dreaming Dark trilogy and very excited to see him continue writing novels in the setting he, himself, established. After all, no one does it better than the creator. In this case, this is a series about an agent of the Brelish Dark Lanterns. More or less MI6 for the fantasy set, this is a spy novel set in the fantastic steampunk (or dungeonpunk if you prefer) world of Eberron where sorcery has been used to roughly immitate 19th century technology with a few additions like airships.

    The premise is that Thorn starts the adventure on a mission to recover an ancient book from a goblin merchant who has made the questionable decision to steal it from one of the Daughters of Sora Kell. The Daughters of Sora Kell are three powerful Baba Yaga-esque evil witches (or “hags”) that rule the unrecognized “monster” nation of Droaam. Unlike Mordor, Droaam is actively seeking recognition of its status as a nation of laws and treaties with diplomats from all over the continent coming to discuss the issue.

    I really like when fantasy settings get into the legal trappings of things like international relations and embassies. In this case, there’s just something that tickles me about the concept of a bunch of evil sorceresses trying to wine and dine other nations. This is not the main focus of the story, though, as Thorn has her spy mission with this as a backdrop. She must find the legendary hero, Harryn Stormblade, and free him from his state of petrifaction at the hands of the Queen of Stone.

    Part of what I like about this book is it gives us a look at the kind of heroes who existed in Eberron before the Last War. Galifar is basically a more typical Dungeons and Dragons setting with heroic knights and wizards battling evil in far off lands but Eberron deconstructs this setting. The lands of evil remember these knights as murderers coming to slaughter them for existing. Harryn Stormblade is not just a subversion of heroic knights, though. The book implies heavily he was a lot more complicated figure than history chose to remember him as.

    Thorn is a great protagonist because in addition to being a snarky heroine, she’s also severely flawed. Thorn is passionately loyal to Breland when nationalism is far more ambiguous in its morality. She is also bigoted against warforged and monsters, holding opinions similar to the majority of humans in the setting. Equally good is her awakened dagger, Steel, who serves as her handler and is even more devoted to Breland than her. It’s very subtle political satire and all the more effective for the fact it is applicable to any number of real life attitudes.

    Droaam is a fascinating mix of being an "evil" kingdom full of cannibalistic monsters and ruled by cackling witches but goes into the fact that these people are still going about their day. It asks, 'what would Mordor be like on any given day and if it was trying to be at peace with its neighbors?' If you could be at peace with a land full of monsters, shouldn't you be or is such a thing impossible by the nature of the differences? The hag monarchs certainly don't help their case with the fact they can't NOT act like they want to kill Dorothy and Toto.

    I was very fond of the characters Harryn Stormblade and Sheska too. The legendary hero out of myth is understandably confused about waking up to find out his kingdom is divided by civil war, a nation of monsters is trying to emerge, and betrayed by a most unusual love. Harryn Stormblade is not just a typical heroic knight, though. The book implies heavily he was a lot more complicated figure than history chose to remember him as.  Sheshka, the Queen of the Medusa, is perhaps the biggest sign that Eberron's monsters are not what they appear to be. Like the original Medusa in our world, she is a character maligned by Eberron history as a monster but perhaps due for a reevaluation.

    In conclusion, The Queen of Stone is a great novel and I enjoyed it even more than any of The Dreaming Dark novels. The plot is just a little bit juicier, the characters a bit richer, and the setting more intriguing. I’m a big fan of Droaam and the fact it interrogates a lot of attitudes built into more standard D&D settings works well with it. I think this would also work well as a beginner’s introduction to Eberron.

9/10 

Available here