The Traveler in Black

A short fix-up novel set in a dying earth setting. A mysterious and powerful figure, known as the traveler in black, takes a repeated journey through a world in which chaos prevents the use of common sense, where time has no meaning, and magic prevents the development of medieval technology. The traveler in black, who is the only entity of one nature, is tasked with incarcerating the elementals and rooting out the enchanters to bring order and reason to the realm.

I enjoyed this work quite a bit more than I anticipated. I really got on well with the prose that John Brunner uses; a rich, detailed, even baroque style that has a wonderful breadth of vocabulary. It suits the setting well, and he's able to paint the picture of a dimension in turmoil quickly and effectively. Atmosphere is definitely one of, if not the strong suit of the novel.

It's also kind of a ripping yarn. The Traveler in Black consists of four 50ish page vignettes that are all independent for the most part, but rely on each other for deeper understanding of the world. They weren't all consistence in terms of quality, yet I enjoyed them all in turn. The pacing of the story is good, and plot is interesting, leading to a quick and enjoyable read with a solid ending. Unfortunately, there was a fair bit of repetition in the story beats that I grew tired of over time, and the characters were mostly just cardboard cutouts to suit the chosen themes. The traveler himself is memorable, but not exactly fresh. I appreciated the wry sense of wit that he has, which was a welcome reprieve amongst the rest of the character work.

The Traveler in Black mostly focuses on a series of morality dramas in which the traveler plays judge, jury, and executioner. Science, reason, and logic are seen as wholly good forces, and magic is seen conversely as an evil one. Anyone who is willing to exploit magic for their own gain, regardless of how just they may be, are grouped in with the sinners. Also repeated at length is the idea of being careful what you wish for. It's fairly dull stuff as far as the themes goes, which is my main reasoning for not giving the book a higher score.

As long as your expectations are tempered going in, not expecting it to be groundbreaking, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It reads like a dark and twisted fairy tale most of the time, in the best way. There's apparently a version with a fifth story, written later than the others. If it says anything about how much I liked the book, I'm very interested in procuring that version should I stumble across it.