Lord of Souls; An Elder Scrolls Novel Review

 Written by Greg Keyes
Published by TitanBooks, London (2011)
ISBN: 9780857680877

Lord of Souls is the sequel to Greg Keyes’ first Elder Scrolls novel, The Infernal City. This is a direct sequel, meaning that if you haven’t read The Infernal City then you will find it very hard to follow the events of this story. The Lord of Souls originally released in 2011, just two months before the release of The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. I really enjoyed The Infernal City, giving it five stars when I reviewed it. Is Greg Keyes able to continue the same high quality within the second, and final, part of Umbriel’s story?

Considering that this is a sequel to The Infernal City I will assume that you’ve read my review of the previous novel, or the novel itself; Based on this assumption, I will not repeat the background information that I went over during that last review. I will, however, give a quick recap of the basic plot from The Infernal City to contextualize what I talk about during this review. Needless to say, but there will be spoilers for The Infernal City within this review, so if you’ve not read that amazing novel, then I’d stop reading this review and either go read the book or at least my review of it.

A closer look at the floating Island of Umbriel taken from the front cover of The Infernal City.

During The Infernal City we witnessed the floating city of Umbriel carve a bloody path from Black Marsh’s southern port town of Lilmoth, all the way to the ruins of Vivec City in Vvardenfell. Annaïg and Mere-Glim managed to survive the destruction of Lilmoth by using a potion of levitation to intercept Umbriel. While the two survived, they both ended up trapped on the alien land. Annaïg ended up in the cut-throat world of Umbriel’s kitchens, preparing meals for the various lords of the city. One lacklustre meal could mean death within these perilous kitchens. Despite the danger, Annaïg was able to move up the ranks to the position of under-chef thanks to a combination of her natural alchemy skills, and her knowledge of Tamriel and its flora and fauna. Glim was sent to work within the sump, the place where the citizens of Umbriel are grown from small worms into various forms of man, mer, beastfolk, and even daedra. It was here that he grew close to the skraws, the workers of the sump, and quickly became their leader as he ran a rebellion.

Meanwhile Prince Attrebus Mede was able to make contact with Annaïg due to a magical locket of hers. After learning of the threat posed by Umbriel, he set off with his entourage to heroically defeat the evil city and save the pretty woman held hostage within. His dreams were quickly shattered when all his men were wiped out in an ambush, and he was captured. He learned, from his captors that his entire life was a sham. Attrebus wasn’t the heroic knight he thought he was, his many battles had all been staged, his friends and fellow knights were all agents paid to keep an eye on him for his father, Emperor Titus Mede. While he was freed from captivity by a dark elf called Sul, his spirit remained broken. Sul on the other hand was already a broken man, desperate for revenge against the one he held responsible for the death of his beloved and all of Vvardenfell. You see, after the disappearance of Vivec during the Oblivion crisis, the meteor known as the Ministry of Truth, threatened to complete its journey to the surface thus destroying the city. Sul had worked with a man called Vuhon to create a machine called the ingenium that could keep the Ministry of Truth suspended, but it required souls to function. Vuhon used Sul’s lover, Ilzheven, to fuel the ingenium. Sul was thrown into a rage and destroyed the ingenium attempting to remove Ilzheven from it. This caused a portal to Calvius Vile’s realm of Oblivion to open up, which both Sul and Vuhon were pulled into, trapping them within the Prince of Bargain’s domain. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Truth impacted with Vivec City and exploded, causing a chain reaction that caused the Red Mountain to erupt which destroyed all of Vvardenfell, as well as most of Morrowind’s mainland. After spending decades trying to find a way back to Tamriel, Sul was desperate to get his revenge on Vuhon and so he teamed up with Attrebus to track down the man who now rules Umbriel.

The logo of the Penitus Oculatus

Lastly, inspector Colin Vineben of the Penitus Oculatus has been uncovering a conspiracy within the new Mede empire. He discovers that the Prime Minister, Hierem, was responsible for the prince’s kidnapping. Honestly, Colin suffered a lot from the large cast of the last novel and as such didn’t get to learn or do as much as the other characters. This is rectified within Lord of Souls as we follow him for the majority of the first section. Watching him uncover the conspiracy that connects Hierem to Umbriel was a real highlight early on during this sequel. He eventually contacts a woman called Letine Arese, a double agent working undercover for Hierem on behalf of the emperor himself. Colin and Letine end up in a romantic and sexual relationship. I like both characters, individually, but they didn’t really feel like they worked together. It just felt like Keyes forced their romance because that’s what’s expected when a man and a woman team-up. I really enjoyed Colin’s chapters for the investigation into Hierem, but the relationship between Colin and Letine just didn’t work.

After confronting Vuhon at the ruins of Vivec city, and losing horribly, both Sul and Attrebus are forced to jump into oblivion where they end up having to persuade Malacath to aid them. Thanks to Attrebus’ natural charisma, the Prince of Lies agrees to help them. They need to find the sword known as Umbra, since it’s the only weapon capable of defeating Vuhon, who since merging with the essence of Umbra, now goes by Umbriel. To this end the pair are dropped off within Solstheim, the island between Morrowind and Skyrim. Here they begin their search for the mystical sword. I love this story. Prince Attrebus is my favourite character within the Umbriel narrative. Him learning that he’s far from the hero he believed himself to be but still trying to live up to those ideals despite the impossible mission in front of him, really hit home for me. Keyes rather intelligently pairs Attrebus with Sul, a man whose denial of his own failures has blinded him to everything else. While Attrebus looks up to Sul for his strength and magical talent, we’re able to understand that Sul is in fact a dark reflection of Attrebus. Sul is what Attrebus could become if he’s not able to accept his failures and move past them. This theme is even reflected in the Umbra sword itself. It’s a weapon that Elder Scrolls fans may have seen in either Morrowind or Oblivion. This weapon will possess its host, pushing them to kill and feed it souls until they become lost to it. While Sul isn’t influenced by Umbra directly, he has become lost, defined by nothing more than the need to kill Vuhon. This was all indirectly caused by the actions of Umbra as it attempted to escape from Calvius Vile. Sul is just another person who lost themselves to Umbra, this time it was just a little more indirect.

The sword Umbra, from The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Remastered

Then we have Annaïg and Glim, still trapped on Umbriel. Annaïg has been forced to come face-to-face with the awful, horrible, things she never believed herself capable of. She’s plotted, schemed, and even killed to stay alive within the violent world of Umbriel’s kitchens. Survival was always a rare thing within the kitchens of Umbriel, but Annaïg has always been good at taking control and pursuing her own desires. Within her previous life, in Lilmoth, this had been various adventures or alchemical experiments. She led the way, and Glim was always willing to follow her. Since Glim has been stranded on Umbriel, he’s been forced into a leadership position with the skraws. He’s now an uneasy leader. As Umbriel makes its final push towards the Imperial City, both Annaïg and Glim will have their relationship tested. Glim will have to trust himself to lead, and Annaïg will have to accept her friend’s leadership. That’s unless the darker side of Annaïg is unable to let go of that control. These two friends will have to decide if they’re still on the same side of this conflict. Watching this friendship get tested was really something special. I found myself invested in this struggle of ideals that the two are forced to contend with. While I don’t want to spoil anything, I think that the pay off for this conflict was very well written.

Of course, we also have the relationship between Annaïg and Attrebus. Unlike the Colin and Letine relationship, I think that the chemistry between Annaïg and Attrebus works because it’s allowed to slowly form over the course of both novels. We get to see it begin as mutual infatuation, then get tested as both continue their personal journeys and finally settle into something strong and lasting as the dust settles. It helps that Annaïg and Attrebus work as thematic foils to each other as well. Prince Attrebus believed himself a hero but discovered that he was an unwitting fraud. Annaïg believed she was a kind, good natured person but has discovered that she’s capable of awful acts of violence and betrayal. Both are forced to confront these realities, and doing so brings both closer together in a way that feels rewarding and well-earned for the reader.

The Sleeping Tree within Skyrim that's said to be grown from a seed that fell from Umbriel

My biggest complaint about The Infernal City was that its cast of characters was simply too large. This bloated roaster meant that Colin’s story was never able to shine when compared to either Annaïg and Glim’s story on Umbriel or Attrebus and Sul’s pursuit of the floating island. It seems that Greg Keyes didn’t learn his lesson because we have a similar issue with a pair of newly introduced characters. Mazgar, an orc soldier of the Imperial legion, and Brennus, an Imperial mage, are sent out on a scouting mission to track, observe, and report any suspicious activity that Umbriel makes. When the massive floating island turns away from Morrowind towards the Imperial City, their squad of scholars and soldiers are caught in the wake of the unnatural island. This is a wonderful concept for a story, a desperate race to stay ahead of Umbriel as its shadow turns anyone it crosses into its undead thralls. In reality, though, it’s just not given the time it deserves. Mazgar gets a little bit of characterisation, not much, but it’s far more than Brennus gets. Beyond knowing that he’s a scholar forced to use his magical abilities to fight the ever-encroaching undead army, we never learn anything about him. You could remove this entire plot, and the overarching narrative wouldn’t be affected at all. While it had potential, this story thread just isn’t given the attention and time it needed to be anything worthwhile.

Something that I would like to mention during this review is how Greg Keyes manages to use who appears in any chapter to manage the pacing. During all of The Infernal City, as well as parts one and two of Lord of Souls each chapter will focus on a particular area or set of characters. We have life on Umbriel with Annaïg and Glim, the search for Umbra with Attrebus and Sul, the investigation with Colin and Letine, and lastly the retreat from Umbriel with Mazgar and Brennus. This keeps the pace feeling consistent and even. Then during part three of Lord of Souls, as Umbriel closes in on the Imperial City, we start to see these stories interact with each other. We will suddenly jump from Colin’s investigation, to Attrebus and Sul in their adventure, or to Annaïg and Glim struggling to survive on Umbriel, all within a single chapter. This change of pacing allows the last section of this book to feel faster and more intense than the rest of the adventure. It really helps to give the final fight against Umbriel and Umbra a feeling of urgency and dread. Once again, talented writing from Greg Keyes.

The Imperial City 

Both The Infernal City and Lord of Souls are fantastic additions to the existing Elder Scrolls franchise. Greg Keyes proves, once again, that he’s a talented writer, capable of bringing the world of Tamriel and the realms of Oblivion to life in such an exciting and engaging way. Lord of Souls is another sensational read. The perfect onboarding point for new fans while also feeling like a rewarding experience for those fans already in love with the series. This book, like its predecessor, is a must read!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐