Fantasy Book Critic: STEP INTO THE CIRCLE BLOG TOUR: The Combat Codes by Alexander Darwin (reviewed by Shazzie and Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Author Website
Pre-order The Combat Codes over HERE (U.S. | U.K.)

OFFICIAL AUTHOR BIO: Alexander Darwin is an author living near Boston with his wife and three daughters. Outside of writing, he teaches and trains martial arts (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu). He’s inspired by old-school Hong Kong action flicks, jRPGs, underdog stories and bibimbap bowls.

Outside of writing fiction, Alexander has written for publications such as Rolling Stone Magazine and SF Signal. His latest piece - "The Lost Diary of Anthony Bourdain" - was a featured piece in Rolling Stone’s January 2022 issue.

OFFICIAL BOOK BLURB: In a world long ago ravaged by war, the nations have sworn an armistice never to use weapons of mass destruction again. Instead, highly-skilled warriors known as Grievar Knights represent their nations’ interests in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

Murray Pearson was once a famed Knight until he suffered a loss that crippled his homeland — but now he’s on the hunt to discover the next champion.

In underground and ruthless combat rings, an orphaned boy called Cego is making a name for himself. Murray believes Cego has what it takes to thrive in the world's most prestigious combat academy – but first, Cego must prove himself in the vicious arenas of the underworld.

And survival isn’t guaranteed.

FORMAT/INFO: The Combat Codes was self-published in October, 2015, and is an SPFBO6 finalist. It is the first book of the Combat Codes Saga, and will be relaunched by Orbit books, and will be published on June 13^th 2023, in trade paperback, ebook, and audio formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS (SHAZZIE): I've been waiting to dive into this book since I saw the Fonda Lee blurb. I needed no other pitch.

I don't know if I can describe the premise accurately, but this book has a lot going on. We have Cego, a boy in the underground, who makes a name for himself by bringing down other fighters, and gets discovered by Murray Pearson, a once famed Knight who is now a scout on the hunt to discover the next champion. Cego is a teenager, but he seems quite mature for his age. He is honorable, perceptive beyond his years, and is unbelievably kind and noble for someone in the ruthless underworld. He has a past that he claims not to remember, and Murray decides to fight his way out of the rings and bring him to the Citadel, a place where the best are honed.

We fight so the rest shall not have to.

I'm intentionally vague with the specifics here, since part of what I really liked about this book was that the gritty, dystopian world that the story is set in is gradually revealed to the reader, and I applaud the author's approach to this. Cego is a partially clean slate since he does not remember much from his past, and Murray is a Grievar well past his prime, and the difference between the way they see the world in their respective perspectives kept me curious and eager to learn more about the world. I'll just say this: this is a dystopian world where nations settle disputes with single combat, instead of engaging in large scale battles and wars. Naturally, there is an entire system built around training those with abilities to best represent countries, and it is one that doesn't come without politics tied to it.

There is a cost to becoming better, you know that, right?

If you follow any competitive sport, there are certain things that immediately come to mind when you come across a book that revolves around similar elements, and I assure you that they're addressed here. The author addresses the ideas of honorable fighting, using substances to gain a competitive edge, or even the fears of dealing with changes as the athletes get older, he does it with finesse, and there are characters who help make these concepts come to life in varying degrees throughout the book.

Now, there's just one thing to keep in mind. this book has a lot of tropes readers are familiar with - the magic school, master and apprentice, the bully, and the well-informed and rule abiding student. It's not a book that will revolutionize the genre. I think the highlight of this book is just how well the story is structured, and the fight scenes were so well written that I could clearly visualize them like I was a spectator in the stands.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS (MIHIR): The Combat Codes has taken a long route to get to where it stands today. It was first self-published by the author in October of 2015. The author then entered his self-published debut in the sixth edition of SPFBO in 2020. We at Fantasy Book Critic were lucky enough to have it in our lot. We were convinced of its special nature and were thrilled to put it forward in the finals. Since then Alexander Darwin has gone from strength to strength, getting a literary agent to then finally getting picked up by Orbit Books. So now here we are, with a new expanded and edited version, that’s sufficiently more engrossing and features more worldbuilding details.

The book opens with Cego, an orphan of sorts who is forced to endure martial training and fight in bouts. Murray Pearson is an ex-Grievar warrior who now has to perform scout duties, which he tolerates barely. Murray is an old-school warrior who holds to the tenets of bravery, fortitude and hard work. He’s a strong believer in the Combat Codes, the teachings and regulations laid down by the Grievar of the old. The book focusses on a world that is a wild mix of SF and a tiny bit of fantasy. The main story is incumbent upon Cego’s eventual ascent as well as Murray’s struggles with the Grievar community.

The biggest strength of this book is how smoothly it reads. Alexander Darwin has written a simplistic story that’s filled with action, conventional tropes and a lot of heart. Both Cego and Murray are heroes and written as such. Cego especially is a person who will draw our heart strings as he struggles with his background (his memories of his island home and how he trained with his brothers). He knows the right way to do things and often makes the people around him to be better. Murray on the other hand has lost almost all of his hope and within Cego realizes a way to regain his and society’s honour.

The readers are treated to some excellent action sequences and herein we get to see the author’s martial background & expertise brought to the fore as rather than being flashy, he takes us through the minutiae. With each & every fight, Cego improves and the readers can see how exactly how and why. The worldbuilding is also more explicit than the self-published version as we get to know more about the nations that inhabit this world, the Grievar’s history as well as the Daimyo.

The story takes plenty of twists and turns but it is something that most of us have read and enjoyed before. This is what I loved about this story, the author’s writing style is a smooth one and he provides us with a story that while being familiar still has the spark of originality. Plus the ending is such a thrilling one, it makes you want to have the sequel “Grievar’s Blood” right now. I loved how that played into the mystery of Cego’s origins which gets partial clarity within here and then leaves some significant bits for the sequel.

CONCLUSION (SHAZZIE): The Combat Codes is a wonderful science fiction story in a new series full of potential. It is a cinematic read, and one I whole-heartedly recommend to fans of any competitive sport that want a well-paced story.