Review: The Ten Thousand

On the world of Kuf, the Macht are a mystery, a seldom-seen people of extraordinary ferocity and discipline whose prowess on the battlefield is the stuff of legend. For centuries now, they have remained within the fastnesses of the Harukush Mountains. They have become little more than a rumour.

In the vast world beyond, the teeming races and peoples of Kuf have been united within the bounds of the Asurian Empire which rules the known world, and is invincible. The Great King of Asuria can call up whole nations to the battlefield. His word is law.

But now the Great King’s brother means to take the throne by force, and in order to do so he has sought out the legend. He hires ten thousand mercenary warriors of the Macht, and leads them into the heart of the Empire.

Is it possible to be a fan of fantasy books and don’t like magic? If the use magic is presented in a ‘believable’ way I have no problem with it; unfortunately to my taste magic is often too contrived or convenient for my (too limited..?) imagination to capture. I have no problem with elves, orcs or trolls – but when they or some uberwizard starts shooting fireballs from their staff or freezing time or something else which can miraculously save the day I’m turned off from maybe an otherwise interesting story or a well build up world.

I am a historical fiction fan boy but I also like to read a good story in a fantasy setting; sometimes maybe even more so because of the fact that knowledge of the ‘real’ history cannot conflict with the enjoyment of the story. So give me a book that tells a good tale in a believable fantasy world but without much (miss)use of magic and I am a happy man.

Enter The Ten Thousand. This is my kind of book. We have the isolated Macht, a human race that lives isolated from the rest of the empire; physically separated by sea and because of events centuries in the past. These Macht are a hard people, warriors to the bone, who’s phalanx fighting style combined with their discipline and endurance make them a formidable foe. This is book is clearly based on the classical tale of the Greek mercenary army that was hired by a pretender prince of Persia to overthrow his brothers reign. The Macht can be compared to the Spartan warriors of legend and the continent they live on is like ancient Greece with its city states. In this book a story similar to Xenophon’s Anabasis unfolds – a pretender brother hires the Macht to take his brother’s throne and takes them to the heart of the empire where a battle will take place between the pretender’s Macht army and the emperors own army. The outcome of this battle sets the stage for the rest of the book.

We get to know Rictus, a city-less warrior who will make a name for himself; Jason, a war leader who discovers a new goal in his life during the campaign; Vorus, a Macht who lived in Kuf for over twenty years and is a general in the army of the emperor, the Kefren Emperor and his pretender brother Arkamenes; Arkamenes’ concubine Tiryn and more secondary characters – some more interesting than others (I would have liked to see more of Proxis and his motivations; I didn’t care much for Gasca).

The battle scenes are what makes this book shine – the reader is taken right to the middle of the battle lines and feels part of the dying; the blood and the guts. I would have liked to see more of the political machinations and the motivations of the main characters. Because of the relative shortness of the book I found that the characters were a bit 2 dimensional and less developed than the world they are part of. I found Kuf to be an interesting world, with a well explained and believable history. Apart from the fictional world of Kuf, the only real fantasy element in this book were the humanoid races of the Kefren and the Juthan (and the Qaf, but they play only a marginal role). The end was a little abrupt and a bit of a blow (eventhough I saw it coming...)

The only gripe is I have with this book is that it could and maybe should been have longer... It’s close to 500 pages in (smallsized) paperback, but with not a lot of words per sentence / page – so it’s a relatively quick read. I would have liked to see a bit more character development, some more of the history of this world and I would have liked to see more background of the different races. Ah well – maybe more stories in Kuf in the future?

Conclusion: Recommended. The Ten Thousand is a quick and fun read for anyone who love an alternate history full of action, blood and guts and who prefer their fantasy with a realistic feel.

7.5 / 10