Fiefdom

Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel In the distant future, mankind is the stuff of legend, civilisation long destroyed by insect-like monsters known as Them. After many bloody struggles, he world belongs to the Aux; man-like dogs left behind in the dying days of humanity’s dominance. This is the post-apocalyptic world of Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel.

Fiefdom shares the same world Dan Abnett’s excellent comic book series Kingdom, which originally featured in 2000AD. Fiefdom moves the action one hundred years and half a hemisphere away to the ruins of Berlin. The exploits of Gene The Hackman and his friend, Oldman Gary have long since passed into legend and the Aux roam the ruins of human cities asserting dominance . Knowledge of the graphic novel isn’t needed here; any relevant information is quickly summarised fairly early on. The story instead focuses on a brave and courageous female Aux called Evelyn War. Evelyn believes that Them are coming back. Evelyn also believes that the Aux should unite to face this threat together, and this makes her an outsider. In order to save the day, Evelyn has to stand up for what she believes.

This is not a book for those with an allergy to puns. The Aux tend to have names that riff on the litery world; Oscar So Wild, Evelyn War, Atticus Flinch and so on; the puns never stop. Abnett has also given the Aux a unique pidgin language, one that is easy for the reader to understand and at the same time reminds you that the Aux are not human. Their short, brutal language defines them very well but doesn’t alienate the reader.
Abnett is a master of fast paced cinematic action. Abnett’s world building is as strong as always and this particular setting benefits from a shift to the novel style; we get a more in depth understanding of what has happened to the world and these little bits of information never fail to entertain. Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel is a solid read and fans of cinematic action will lap this up and that is, as the Aux put it “truer than true. “
8 out of 10 Reviewer: Ed Fortune Fiefdom: A Kingdom Novel / Author: Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent / Publisher: Rebellion/ Release Date: July 8th

First things first, I got this book from NetGalley, so thank you netgalley and Abaddon/Rebellion for this opportunity.
It is really a nice feeling when you get much more than you expected from a novel. 'Fiefdom' has been such an enjoyable experience for me. I started to read this expecting mindless fun, but ended up having enjoyed witty humor with some delightful action sequences as well as a nice story with likable characters. The setting of post-apocalyptic Berlin with genetically engineered dog-soldiers fighting alien insects turned out to be much more fun in a very different way than I first thought it would be.

'Fiefdom' tells the story in a previously established setting which came to be in the comic series 'Kingdom', but now the writers take the story about 100 or more years into the future. We get introduced with a community of the Aux (genetically engineered dog-soldiers) named 'Zoo Pack'. These guys have forgotten about the Them (alien invaders in the form of giant insects) as they live underground during a new ice age and only remembers stories about their masters and fighting Them in the form of myths. Now there is dispute among the different clans in maintaining their territories. The story stars with a omega dam Evelyn War trying to make people believe that the world is changing and them are coming back. This leads to various struggles of the pack with the melting ice, with people not wanting to embrace the change, with their struggle to unite the different clans for the war, with finally start of their war against Them.

The most fun aspect of the reading was the simplistic english which the Aux used as their way of communication and the various interesting names (like Evelyn War, Ezra Pound, Becky Sharp, Dorothy Barker to name a few) that the writers used. These facts adds a much more interesting and fun approach to the setting and makes the various short comings and triumphs of the Aux seem realistic in a subtle way. The battle scenes were done very nicely, and were heck of fun to read. The characters were once again approached in a simplistic way yet the authors managed to give some of them unique personalities and made me care about whether they will survive or not.

I had not read any of the 'Kingdom' comics previously and yet enjoyed this as a standalone experience which is another plus point to be certain, the authors introduced the world and its inhabitants in a unique way through the eyes of the Aux and also gave various hints of the past. The overall progression and the sense of mystery that was developed in the first half of the book regarding the nature of the 'Them' was another bit that I really liked.

It was a fun experience and I am really hoping for a sequel so I get to know more about these characters and this world.

This gets 4 out of 5 stars.