Most of the people of Albion are certain that the time of Heroism has passed, that they remain within Legend, and are even uncertain as to whether the great deeds they are said to have done were even real in the first place.
Amongst the educated, it is agreed that creatures such as Balverines are pure Myth; exagerated tales of large wolves. Anybody that thinks otherwise is ridiculed or thought to be delusional.
Peter David's Fable: The Balverine Order takes place, as you may have guessed, within Lionhead's Fable universe. Set somewhen between the ending of Fable 2, and the start of Fable 3.
We follow the joint story of Thomas, a well off son of a merchant from Millfields, and James, his servant & best friend from Bowerstone.
At a very young age, Thomas survived an attack by a Balverine that nobody else is willing to believe in. This has lead Thomas to spend his days reading as many books as he can find that detail the lives of Balverines and many other magical creatures.
One fateful day, Thomas and James set out on a quest across Albion to find the Balverine that attacked him, and get revenge.
The adventure takes our characters through familiar Fable locations, and then out into unexplored territory (something that I hope is remedied in the next Fable game), progressing much like the characters of the games. Thomas & James gain access to weapons and information at a fair pace, with new characters getting introduced and then removed from memory in a matter of pages.
This is one fatal flaw with The Balverine Order. Having a book based on an RPG that can take many hours to complete is a hard thing to pull off, and this one only just manages to pull it off.
The storyline is fairly interesting, and certainly helps flesh out the world that Lionhead have created, though details remain sparse throughout the story so it doesn't contradict a decision made in your own game (though they do decide that the current ruler of Albion is a King, and not a Queen).
I may be feeling this way after being spoiled by the likes of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, but the detail is really lacking in some much needed areas. Locations that take them days to reach are skipped over in just a few pages, with the journey gaining more focus than anything else, and we are often introduced to characters that are described simply by how threatening they look.
Leaving the lack of detail behind, The Balverine Order does have a couple of things going for it.
For starters, the way the story is told to the reader is a fascinating case of a story within a story. We are introduced to an aging King of some distant region, or land, within Albion (not to be mistaken for the King of Albion) as he takes a leisurely stroll through the royal gardens. Whilst doing so, he bumps into a mysterious man who begins to talk to the King about Heroes, Magic, and Legend. The King takes a seat, and listens to the story of Thomas & James.
At various points throughout the book, we take a small rest and head back to the storyteller & King, and hear their thoughts on whichever harrowing situation the main characters are in. The way these scenes are written are fantastic, and often make up for the lack of detail elsewhere in the book.
Secondly, we are introduced to various storyline threads that hint at the future for the game series. The Balverine appearance in Fable 3 is partially explained, and we briefly witness the future of Hero-kind for the world of Albion.
All the seeds are there for this book to spawn a much better sequel, or perhaps a reference in a future piece of DLC for Fable 3, but as it stands the book is generally only worth reading if you have taken a genuine interest in, and liking to, the world of Albion, it's inhabitants, and the stories told within it.
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