Where Gods Fear to Go

Dark humor and a strong narrative voice are the high points of the violent, plodding epic fantasy that concludes Watson’s West of West series (after The Land You Never Leave). Finn the Deep (formerly known as Finnbogi the Boggy) and the surviving members of his party, comprising the formerly feuding Wootah and Calnian tribes, trek through a hostile landscape to the Meadows, where a dark force is gathering. Finn tasks Sofi Tornado, a powerful warrior, with protecting young prophet Ottar the Moaner and his sister, Freydis the Annoying, from the monsters that attack them along the way, not knowing that the nefarious Warlock Queen wants to use Ottar as an agent of her apocalypse once they reach the Meadows. Watson competently reimagines an early North American landscape replete with magic and monsters, and draws from Norse myth to characterize the Viking-like Wootah. While Finn is a dynamic protagonist, other characters become indistinguishable and the many bloody battles blur with repetition, giving the quest the feeling of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign that drags on too long. Even dedicated series readers will be frustrated. Agent: Angharad Kowal Stannus, Kowal Stannus Agency. (Dec.)