Book Review: We Are the Dead (The Last War Book 1)

I decided to take a break from Horror and Weird Fiction with the Dark Fantasy of We Are the Dead by Mike Shackle, which is the first book in a trilogy called The Last War. I reviewed it on social media as I was reading and now that I finished it, I’ll be reviewing the book as a whole. Warning: SPOILERS.

Social Media Reviews: Twitter | Bluesky | Threads (each review has a different quote, so you might want to check them out)

OVERVIEW

After a devastating attack, Jia is conquered by their old enemy, the Egril. Their new rulers seem invincible, with powerful magic and deadly armies. They’re also brutal, arresting and executing people at the slightest provocation. The chance of Jia becoming free is small, but there’s hope and people are going to have to choose how much they’re willing to sacrifice for it.

The Egril have always hated us. Generations ago, they loathed us for our magic. They thought we were like Gods, and this they could not allow.

The chapters are split by POV, so you get to spend a lot of time with each of the main characters. Unfortunately, that’s not really a good thing, as they’re very one note and their inner monologues are incredibly repetitive. The POV characters are: Tinnstra, a member of a clan of elite warriors who can’t finish her training to become a Shulka because she’s too scared to fight; Jax, a former Shulka himself, who’s now in charge of the Hanran, the Jian resistance; Dren, a rebellious teenager who lost his family in the conquest, and formed his own group to attack the Egril with suicide bombings; Yas, a young mother who lost her husband in the conquest, and is asked to help the Hanran after she starts to work for the Egril as a cleaner; Darus, one of the Egril Chosen, who’s a sadistic interrogator and hates his sister, Skara. Throughout the book their paths will cross with mostly predictable results. Also, character development is practically nonexistent, and when it happens, it’s only to serve the plot, which is itself pretty simple - take Queen Zorique to Kiyosun so she can board a ship to her mother’s homeland, improve her magic, and hopefully one day return with an army to take back her kingdom, plus a side-quest to free Jax from his Egril captors. Whatever palace intrigue there was, it took place off-page; We Are the Dead is more about narrow escapes, fights, and rescue missions. In a way, this feels like an incomplete book. I don’t mean that there are parts of the story missing, rather that it seems to have stopped halfway through the development process. The structure, the action sequences, and the bits of lore that matter for the plot are all finished, but there should’ve been another step before the end where the characters and their world were fleshed out beyond these basic sketches and weren’t. So, you get one-note characters whose single trait gets hammered to death in each chapter, and no real talks about the magic and religion, even if it would’ve made sense for at least one person to be curious enough to ask more questions.

THE CHARACTERS

Tinnstra’s chapters were particularly frustrating. At first the character seemed interesting and different, but after several instances of her dwelling on her cowardice and general worthlessness, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I’m not saying that she should’ve got over it immediately - it’s just that there were several opportunities for the character to move on from constantly thinking about it and how she should run away, but Shackle just kept her stuck there. How the hell can she possibly still be having doubts during the big confrontation with Darus? How? It’s a good thing she gets quickly connected to an important storyline, or I might’ve been tempted to skim her chapters. Jax doesn’t have much of a personality, which makes his chapters an easier read than Tinnstra’s. The psychological effects of the torture on him were well written, but he got over his PTSD way too quickly. Yas’s concern for her son is more bearable than Tinnstra’s impostor syndrome, and I was eager to read about the aftermath of her shocking decision to poison everyone at the Council House, including her friends. I was expecting some inner turmoil, doubts, guilt, her mother’s reaction to how far her daughter had gone - I got nothing. Yas briefly thinks about having killed many people, but that’s it.

I noticed some similarities with George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire in the beginning - great wall guarded by a group of elite warriors separating the kingdom from the savage Egril tribes who were recently united by a single, strong leader - and it was impossible not to compare Darus to Ramsey Bolton. Frankly, I’m sick and tired of OTT evil characters, and while Darus wasn’t as extreme as Ramsey, he was still too much. He was already a knife-loving torturer, did he also have to be a pyromaniac? Especially since the fire bit doesn’t matter at all. I didn’t get the hatred for his sister. Yes, Skara might’ve been undermining him, but there wasn’t enough on page to justify its intensity. So, should I add paranoid to the list? Ugh! The only good thing about his chapters was learning more about the Egril’s twisted magic. Darus is the only Egril POV, and while there are glimpses of slightly different Egril, they’re basically presented as a bunch of cruel, evil rapists. Tinnstra has to fend off an attacker, Yas and the other Jian staff at the Council House make a point of not being caught alone or they’ll be raped, and Yas is subjected to groping every time she’s searched going in and out of the building. This means that her guilt over poisoning them and her wondering how many even wanted to join the war ring pretty hollow. Shackle could’ve given readers a more nuanced portrayal of the bad guys, but he didn’t, so I didn’t buy Yas’s reaction. The Egril’s religious nutjobbery doesn’t feature much beyond that first sequence of Tinnstra in the temple and a few speeches about Kage and the Great Darkness. There’s an Egril at the Council House who stops Yas’s abuse and reminds the others that they’re there to spread their faith, but he doesn’t turn up again. There are Egril refugees, who fled to Jia because of their new leader before the story begins, and some of them turn out to be undercover to help facilitate the planned invasion, though it’s unclear if they were all in on it. Look, I’m not saying I wanted nice Egril characters - I’m saying that I wanted more than one paranoid, sadistic loon, and a host of one dimensional villains.

THE WORST

Yes, Dren is a character, too, but since he’s the one I hated the most I felt he deserved a whole section to himself. Him starting out as a rebellious teen didn’t help, as that’s definitely not my favourite type of character, but Shackle’s decision to turn him into a terrorist who doesn’t mind killing a bunch of Jian to get a couple of Egril, has no understanding of the nuances of life under occupation, and doesn’t care how his actions impact the lives of innocent people made him even worse. Chapters 16 and 25 give readers a good look into Dren’s post-conquest mind and it’s pretty ugly. Readers are told that he’s used child suicide bombers and we see him bully Falsa, an orphan who has nowhere to go but whom he thinks is too soft to join his group. His closest ally is his cousin, Quist, and there’s this weird thing going on that sees the 2 sometimes swap personalities. So, in Chapter 16, Quist is upset because Dren wants to split the food with the others, while in Chapter 25, Dren acts like a jerk towards Falsa and threatens to kill her, and we see Quist concerned he might actually go through with it. After Dren’s epiphany, Quist morphs into a greedy traitor who loves killing and is mad that his cousin wants to do the right thing and thus ruin his fun. Falsa, too, goes from blubbering mess to smirky killer in what seemed like only a few days, eager to sell out and kill the other desperate kids. Considering that Dren was the leader of the group and that he’d been selling his violent philosophy to the desperate souls he came across to later send them to their deaths, there were plenty of legitimate reasons for everyone to feel betrayed by his sudden change. Not to mention that the cousins’ hatred of the Shulka, whom Dren now wants to work with, predates the Egril conquest and even increased after they failed to stop them from taking over. But of course, people being mad at Dren for legitimate reasons would make him look bad and it’s clear that after Chapter 41 he’s supposed to be one of the good guys.

And how exactly does the little terrorist sees the error of his ways? Well, it starts with him telling the Egril about Jax’s connection to the Hanran, which gets himself, Jax, and his wheelchair-bound son, Kaine, arrested and repeatedly tortured. Jax’s arrest also causes a massacre among his neighbours, and leads one of his underlings, Kara, to threaten Yas’s family to force her to kill everyone at the Council House so they can save their leader. Dren’s utter stupidity kickstarted this deadly chain of events, but absolutely no one holds it against him (well, Yas might have, but she never finds out). The arrest and torture serve as an excuse to give Dren a personality transplant. Yes, ‘personality transplant’ because character development isn’t supposed to be instantaneous. Read in a vacuum, Chapter 41 is a good Dren chapter, but when put in the context of his previous chapters and the ones after, it fails as a justification for this radical change. I can understand tough guy Dren seeing just how weak he really is during the torture and being scared and confused by that realization, but going from that to believing the Hanran’s criticism of his methods were right and that he should listen to Jax? Him feeling crippling guilty about putting everyone in that situation would’ve helped, but like I said, they all just forget about it. So, Dren comes out of jail a reformed soul who just wants to do his part in the Hanran’s plan. Aw, how nice, except Dren’s betrayal is the gift that keeps on giving and after he and some others get away, Jax is captured again, which forces Kaine to get himself arrested again, too, so he can kill his own father and stop his mind from being read by the mind reading Egril who interrogated Yas and conveniently never shows up again. Yes, she could’ve died along with everyone else at the Council House, but what was the point of introducing the threat of telepathy for a single scene? Unfortunately for Jax, Darus can heal people and brings him back after his son poisons him and himself, tortures him, and forces him to spill the whole plan. Except, Jax wouldn’t have been there in the first place if it hadn’t been for Dren. This is something I just couldn’t get over and find it baffling that Shackle expected readers to just keep reading his POV chapters and not root for that little shit to die a painful death. Dren was a good complex villain - horrible but with moments of vulnerability, especially when he remembers the parents he lost - and maybe he could’ve been redeemed in the following books, but not like this. If Shackle really wanted Dren to join the good guys without anyone complaining well before the end of the first book and he wasn’t willing to spend the page-time needed for some real character development, then he should’ve made him a lot less awful.

It’s funny that when I read Dren’s first chapter, I started worrying that this might be a Young Adult book. Of course, rebellious teens aren’t limited to YA literature, but the other issue I had with the character is the kind of thing you’d expect there. There was too much about his continued existence that just didn’t seem believable. How could the Egril possibly not have found him and his group? They live on roofs and the Egril have flying demons! Why would the Hanran tolerate the bombings that were drawing attention to the town where they were planning to bring the Royal Family to? The only thing they needed was the bombs, and there’s no reason for them not to have found them already. Then there’s the near drowning. So, we’re supposed to believe that these highly trained Shulka warriors couldn’t find Dren’s knife? And not only does he manage to free himself but also gets to sneak up on one of the Hanran and kill him? Seriously? He turns 16 during the story, FFS, and he’s just some random boy with no special abilities. And let’s not forget Kaine telling his father that he might change his ways if they told him about the bigger picture, which I guess means the royal escape plan, right before Dren tells on them to the Egril. Naturally, Kaine doesn’t get to say anything bad about him after the arrest. And why the hell would anyone even think telling something so important to Dren was a good idea? Oh, and after everything, he still gets to give Tinnstra a pep talk when she starts doubting herself once more during the final attack on the Council House. Double ugh!

TWISTS AND TURNS

While the plot is straightforward, there are a few mild twists. Some of these felt forced and none has much of an impact on the characters as what should’ve been meaningful events are quickly forgotten. The only truly felt betrayal in the whole book is Yas using the poison. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last as she barely thinks about it afterwards. The other big shock was Dren telling on Jax, but only because it was so insanely stupid. Dren’s own betrayal by Quist seemed to come out of nowhere. No, he wasn’t happy with working with the Hanran, but I just couldn’t believe he’d turn to the Egril after seeing what they did to Dren when he told them about Jax. Also, since Jax would’ve known about the Hanran plans, which always included Dren and his group, he could’ve easily told Darus about it, which makes Quist’s betrayal unnecessary for the plot. Oh, and let’s not forget the Egril flying demons who should’ve had no problem spotting Dren and the others on the roofs. On top of all of this, the Egril had just interrupted an attack on the Council House and likely expected the Hanran to try to release Zorique, so they should’ve been on high alert and proactively looking for any possible threats. And of course, readers don’t even get much of a reaction from Dren to losing his closest friend and ally.

FIGHT!

The fights and action sequences are good, especially that devastating first attack. I also liked Aasgod, the Lord Mage VS Darus and his Egril soldiers in Chapter 38. However, sometimes it was hard to accept no one ended up dead, or at least incapacitated. The attack on the wall should’ve killed everyone, but it made sense for Shackle to introduce most of the characters right away so readers could see how everything changed. Also, at least Jax and his son didn’t escape unscathed. However, there were other instances when I wondered how the hell did the characters survive. The most egregious example is Tinnstra’s face vs Skara’s axe. That axe is shown time and again lethally wounding people but Tinnstra gets struck on the face and all she gets is a nasty scar? That thing should’ve cracked her skull!

HOW CONVENIENT

Skara’s axe isn’t the only thing that loses its effectiveness at pretty convenient times. The Kyoryu are unstoppable and destructive, but when it’s time for Tinnstra to defeat one, she does. The terrifying Daijaku turn out to be pretty ineffectual after the initial attack: apparently they can’t even see in the dark (seriously?!), and again, when it’s time for the heroes to end the story with a victory, they become a lot easier to kill. The Egril themselves turn into bumbling idiots who seem to have forgotten how their own bombs work when the Hanran, Tinnstra, Dren, and Yas need to get into the Council House to get the captured Zorique. And how fortunate that Darus finally kills brutal flying warrior Skara before the big confrontation. However, there were issues before that. It was ridiculous that no one was spying on the suspected members of the resistance and Jax was able to chat with Dren about what the Hanran have been doing and what their plans were with absolutely no one noticing. Then there’s the fact that Kiyosun is known for its ports, yet no one had thought to check every place where a ship or boat could dock until Jax talked. The good guys have some unbelievably stupid moments, too. I already mentioned Dren’s existence, how this loose cannon was somehow deemed as worthy of taking part in the Hanran’s big plan, and Jax carelessly sharing secrets in an Egril prison cell, but the final fight with Darus was equally dumb. They all know he can come back from the dead and no one thinks to behead him the first time they defeat him? Seriously? But if they had, then he wouldn’t have been able to ‘shockingly’ come back to life, beat some more of them, and thus push Jax to instantly get over his PTSD to kill his tormentor.

THE BEST BITS

I liked the Egril’s twisted magic, especially the Kyoryu and the Tonin, and their sinister religion. Their view of the Four Gods and Kage was interesting and made me wonder if there might be some dark secrets in Jia’s past. Shackle could’ve used Aasgod to tell the readers more, but he shares little and only stuff that’s directly related to the plot. I also liked reading about how the ordinary people were living under the occupation, even if it didn’t take long for the focus to shift to the organized resistance. It’s funny, because whenever I have issues with a story, it’s usually the characters that keep me reading/watching, but here I kept reading in spite of the characters and found the limited worldbuilding more interesting.

VERDICT

We Are the Dead has a great beginning, gives readers an intriguing if underdeveloped world, cool magic, and some good fights. Unfortunately, it also has thinly sketched characters and extremely repetitive writing. A complex plot might’ve distracted from that, but despite a couple of twists, it’s all pretty simple. Yet, even with all these issues, I would’ve given the second book a chance if it weren’t for Dren. I’m sure he’s someone’s favourite character, but I just couldn’t stand him. So, for me, The Last War trilogy ends here. 

By Danforth