There's nothing quite like a hero, is there? Those great defenders of virtue, steely-eyed in battle, firm of sinew, and pure of heart, they've strode through the world's literature before we even had writing. Whether it was Homer spinning his tales around the fireside for his fellow Greeks or Valmiki reciting verse after verse in praise of Rama for future generations of Indians to recite hasn't mattered. Heroes, the epitomes of all that we hold to be virtuous, puff up our vision of ourselves as a people. By the same token they are useful for propagating a specific way of being and establishing and enforcing the character traits that a society considers attractive.
However, where would the hero be without his scribe? Would we have even heard of Achilles and his buddies' attempt to take Troy if it weren't for Homer? When the Vikings used to set out upon their raids into foreign waters they were always accompanied by at least one poet or bard who could recreate the heroic deeds carried out by his countrymen as they raped, pillaged, and looted their way through coastal Europe and the British Isles. After all, what was the good of performing deeds of great valour if they weren't going to be properly appreciated? Yet haven't you ever wondered about the relationship between scribe and hero? There's something almost symbiotic about it, as they each depend upon the other for ensuring their places in the annals of history and the pages of literature.
It's this relationship that is deconstructed in The Vault Of Deeds, a new novella by British author James Barclay, just released by the British independent small press PS Publishing. Barclay first made a name for himself through the publication of the six-part series, soon to be seven, covering the exploits of the heroic mercenary company known as The Raven. While he never used the flowery prose of the romantic writers from the late 19th centuries, and his heroes were not necessarily men and women a good son or daughter would take home to meet his or her parents, the member of the Raven did possess heroic characteristics. Brave, resourceful, and somewhat noble—if not always completely pure of heart and innocent of evil influence—at least their intentions were always for the best as they fought both human and inhuman enemies in defence of their homeland and what they believed to be justice.
So it's only fitting that Barclay has written this farcical satire on the connection between the hero and his scribe. Something is going terribly wrong in the blessed kingdom of Goedterre. One after another, all the great heroes are being defeated in battle by the forces of evil. Helpless scribes are forced to sit idly by while, instead of recording their hero's eloquent words as they vanquish another demon from the pits of hell to the abyss, they watch them cut down in mid-sentence. A feeling of unease and disquiet has come over the now unemployed scribes of the best Hero (H.E.R.O. = Hideous Evil Routinely Overcome) school in all the land. Fully 47 heroes have suffered consecutive defeats, the worst record since the Dark Ages.
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