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Pathfinder Tales #6
Death's Heretic
Nobody Cheats Death
A warrior haunted by his past, Salim is a problem-solver for a church he hates, bound by the death goddess to hunt down those who would rob her of her due. Such is the case in the desert nation of Thuvia, where a merchant on the verge of achieving eternal youth via a magical elixir is mysteriously murdered, his soul stolen from the afterlife. The only clue is a magical ransom note offering to trade the merchant's spirit for his dose of the fabled potion. But who could steal a soul from the boneyard of Death herself ? Enter Salim, whose unique skills should make solving this mystery a cinch. There's only one problem: The investigation is being financed by the dead merchant's stubborn and aristocratic daughter—and she wants to go with him. Together, the two must embark on a tour of the Outer Planes, where devils and angels rub shoulders with fey lords and mechanical men, and nothing is as it seems.
From noted author and game designer James L. Sutter comes an epic mystery of murder and immortality, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
A warrior haunted by his past, Salim is a problem-solver for a church he hates, bound by the death goddess to hunt down those who would rob her of her due. Such is the case in the desert nation of Thuvia, where a merchant on the verge of achieving eternal youth via a magical elixir is mysteriously murdered, his soul stolen from the afterlife. The only clue is a magical ransom note offering to trade the merchant's spirit for his dose of the fabled potion. But who could steal a soul from the boneyard of Death herself ? Enter Salim, whose unique skills should make solving this mystery a cinch. There's only one problem: The investigation is being financed by the dead merchant's stubborn and aristocratic daughter—and she wants to go with him. Together, the two must embark on a tour of the Outer Planes, where devils and angels rub shoulders with fey lords and mechanical men, and nothing is as it seems.
From noted author and game designer James L. Sutter comes an epic mystery of murder and immortality, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
385 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 1, 2011
23 people are currently reading
506 people want to read
About the author
James L. Sutter
116 books208 followersJames L. Sutter is a co-creator of the best-selling Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games. He’s the author of the young adult romance novels DARKHEARTS and THE GHOST OF US, as well as the fantasy novels DEATH'S HERETIC and THE REDEMPTION ENGINE. His short stories have appeared in Nightmare, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the #1 Amazon best-seller Machine of Death, and more. James lives in Seattle, where he's performed with musical acts ranging from metalcore to musical theater.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 108 reviews
March 7, 2013
The book gets three stars for being fairly rote fantasy. Nothing great, nothing awful about it. There is a problem with the main character in that he works for a church, but has a disregard for religion. We’re not told why this is. I suppose it’s supposed to make our hero, Salim, seem mysterious. For me, it just made him out to be a petulant snot. By the time we learn why, 3/4ths of the way through the book, I certainly didn’t care.
The book portrays itself as a mystery story, but there are no clues and we are eventually straight-out told whodunnit by an NPC. “You’re looking for the maltese falcon? Joe’s got it in his trunk.” Down to two stars.
The huge problem of the book though, earning it it’s one star rating, is the juvenile sexism throughout.
First up, the Bechdel test: There are only two major women in the book and they never talk. There are a couple minor women in the book: a naked nymph, a naked dryad, and serving women (not busboy, waiter, or servants - serving women).
The first of these women is a stunningly beautiful half-elf, former prostitute, and now the respected and desired owner of the town’s most esteemed brothel - how original. Her office is of course a bedroom, our hero sees many salacious sights on the way to speaking with her, and - after a mere 30 seconds of conversation - she offers herself to the hero for absolutely no reason whatsoever. She then disappears completely from the book.
The second woman in the book is our heroine, Neila, a stereotypical young, beautiful noblewoman - a facade of strength and resolve on the outside, but unsure and vulnerable on the inside (if only she had a man to help her out!). Not only does she pensively bite her lip, but our hero has to take her by the wrist and lead her out of danger as if she’s a dumb, panicked horse - not once, but twice. If only the author had had Neila faint at some point, he could have completed the helpless woman trifecta. He does give us this gem: “she would have overbalanced and fallen from the sudden vertigo if Salim hadn’t grabbed her hand to steady her” -- for a woman, the act of looking up at a tall tower requires the assistance of a man.
Or consider these lines:
“when he saw she didn’t understand, he sighed”
“Do you trust me?” (I don’t have to explain myself to you)
“without giving her the time for further questions”
“Just keep quiet and let me do the talking”
“Nobles had all sorts of manners, but never the ones that actually mattered”
“but surely the trial? … This time Salim couldn’t help it. He laughed once, hard and without humor.”
There’s nothing wrong with portraying a female as young, perhaps naive, and inexperienced. When the hero though treats this with disdain and open contempt, that’s sexist. Perhaps the author means to show Salim as an asshole? No, he’s the unflawed hero. The kicker for this is that Salim comes up with a plan to trade away Neila’s land to a bunch of fey to get their support. Does the man discuss with the woman if it’s OK to give away her property? Nope. He goes to fey and makes the offer directly to them without consulting her.
“her hair and blouse were damp with sweat and clung to her becomingly”
“she stretched out her legs, shapely in the traveling leathers that were just too fitted to be practical”
Nothing automatically egregious about those lines - it could be describing a building sexual tension, it could be two lines of many in a salacious book. In this book though, it’s neither of those. Those lines come out of nowhere early in the book, plop down on the page like wet turds, and lay there. They are a writer’s version of a construction worker’s wolf-whistle.
We’ve also got a lecherous satyr making frequent suggestions to the heroine, but never to the man. Salim, our hero, asks if Neila “would like to stay and enjoy the festivities?” in reference to an orgy.
So if you like a very vanilla fantasy story, with the answers to a mystery being spoon-fed to the reader, interspersed with frequently stopping and asking yourself “did the author really just say something that sexist?” -- then this book is for you.
The book portrays itself as a mystery story, but there are no clues and we are eventually straight-out told whodunnit by an NPC. “You’re looking for the maltese falcon? Joe’s got it in his trunk.” Down to two stars.
The huge problem of the book though, earning it it’s one star rating, is the juvenile sexism throughout.
First up, the Bechdel test: There are only two major women in the book and they never talk. There are a couple minor women in the book: a naked nymph, a naked dryad, and serving women (not busboy, waiter, or servants - serving women).
The first of these women is a stunningly beautiful half-elf, former prostitute, and now the respected and desired owner of the town’s most esteemed brothel - how original. Her office is of course a bedroom, our hero sees many salacious sights on the way to speaking with her, and - after a mere 30 seconds of conversation - she offers herself to the hero for absolutely no reason whatsoever. She then disappears completely from the book.
The second woman in the book is our heroine, Neila, a stereotypical young, beautiful noblewoman - a facade of strength and resolve on the outside, but unsure and vulnerable on the inside (if only she had a man to help her out!). Not only does she pensively bite her lip, but our hero has to take her by the wrist and lead her out of danger as if she’s a dumb, panicked horse - not once, but twice. If only the author had had Neila faint at some point, he could have completed the helpless woman trifecta. He does give us this gem: “she would have overbalanced and fallen from the sudden vertigo if Salim hadn’t grabbed her hand to steady her” -- for a woman, the act of looking up at a tall tower requires the assistance of a man.
Or consider these lines:
“when he saw she didn’t understand, he sighed”
“Do you trust me?” (I don’t have to explain myself to you)
“without giving her the time for further questions”
“Just keep quiet and let me do the talking”
“Nobles had all sorts of manners, but never the ones that actually mattered”
“but surely the trial? … This time Salim couldn’t help it. He laughed once, hard and without humor.”
There’s nothing wrong with portraying a female as young, perhaps naive, and inexperienced. When the hero though treats this with disdain and open contempt, that’s sexist. Perhaps the author means to show Salim as an asshole? No, he’s the unflawed hero. The kicker for this is that Salim comes up with a plan to trade away Neila’s land to a bunch of fey to get their support. Does the man discuss with the woman if it’s OK to give away her property? Nope. He goes to fey and makes the offer directly to them without consulting her.
“her hair and blouse were damp with sweat and clung to her becomingly”
“she stretched out her legs, shapely in the traveling leathers that were just too fitted to be practical”
Nothing automatically egregious about those lines - it could be describing a building sexual tension, it could be two lines of many in a salacious book. In this book though, it’s neither of those. Those lines come out of nowhere early in the book, plop down on the page like wet turds, and lay there. They are a writer’s version of a construction worker’s wolf-whistle.
We’ve also got a lecherous satyr making frequent suggestions to the heroine, but never to the man. Salim, our hero, asks if Neila “would like to stay and enjoy the festivities?” in reference to an orgy.
So if you like a very vanilla fantasy story, with the answers to a mystery being spoon-fed to the reader, interspersed with frequently stopping and asking yourself “did the author really just say something that sexist?” -- then this book is for you.
December 24, 2012
Death's Heretic is my second Pathfinder Tales novel, after Elaine Cunningham and Dave Gross' Winter Witch. The Pathfinder Tales novels are set in the world of Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder Role Playing Game, though knowledge of the game isn't necessary to appreciate either work. In fact, Death's Heretic was chosen as the number three fantasy novel of the year in the Barnes & Noble Book Club's 2011 Best Fantasy Releases (a fact which more than legitimizes the Pathfinder Tales fiction editor, James L. Sutter, in publishing himself in his own line).
Death's Heretic stars Salim Ghadafar, a man from a country of militant atheists, who now finds himself bound in the service of Pharasma, the goddess of death (as well as birth and prophesy, but it's her aspect as goddess of death with which the novel is chiefly concerned). Salim is sent to the nation of Thuvia, where a recently-murdered powerful merchant's soul has gone missing. The local church of Pharasma obviously has an interest in seeing the matter dealt with, as does Neila Anvanory, daughter of the murdered and missing merchant. The novel reads like (and actually is) a classic noir transposed to a fantasy setting, though not in the Jim Butcher sense--no fedoras or trenchcoats, though there is a damsel in distress and a suitably compromised investigator. The plot points don't stray far from the archetype -- eliminate the obvious suspects, identify the guilty party, tables turned while trying to apprehend them -- but it's the richness of the language, the breadth of the world-building, and the depth of Salim Ghadafar himself, hung upon this rather straightforward scaffold, that make the novel exceptional. Without spoiling anything major, the excursions to multiple planes of existence really take the novel into exciting and most unexpected territory, even as everything ties together nicely in the end.
There is a little bit of "male gaze" in the description of women, which I could do without but probably won't throw off fans of either noir mysteries or old school sword & sorcery, and Sutter's language, which for the most part is one of his core strengths, does go a little overblown in a few places, but these are quibbles in a unique, fascinating, engaging, and interesting fantasy work that I have no trouble recommending highly. If every Pathfinder Tales novel is as good as the two I've read so far, then this line is certainly a place for vanguard swords and sorcery fiction. Clearly, anyone expecting merely serviceable, by-the-numbers tie-in fiction is in for a very pleasant surprise.
Death's Heretic stars Salim Ghadafar, a man from a country of militant atheists, who now finds himself bound in the service of Pharasma, the goddess of death (as well as birth and prophesy, but it's her aspect as goddess of death with which the novel is chiefly concerned). Salim is sent to the nation of Thuvia, where a recently-murdered powerful merchant's soul has gone missing. The local church of Pharasma obviously has an interest in seeing the matter dealt with, as does Neila Anvanory, daughter of the murdered and missing merchant. The novel reads like (and actually is) a classic noir transposed to a fantasy setting, though not in the Jim Butcher sense--no fedoras or trenchcoats, though there is a damsel in distress and a suitably compromised investigator. The plot points don't stray far from the archetype -- eliminate the obvious suspects, identify the guilty party, tables turned while trying to apprehend them -- but it's the richness of the language, the breadth of the world-building, and the depth of Salim Ghadafar himself, hung upon this rather straightforward scaffold, that make the novel exceptional. Without spoiling anything major, the excursions to multiple planes of existence really take the novel into exciting and most unexpected territory, even as everything ties together nicely in the end.
There is a little bit of "male gaze" in the description of women, which I could do without but probably won't throw off fans of either noir mysteries or old school sword & sorcery, and Sutter's language, which for the most part is one of his core strengths, does go a little overblown in a few places, but these are quibbles in a unique, fascinating, engaging, and interesting fantasy work that I have no trouble recommending highly. If every Pathfinder Tales novel is as good as the two I've read so far, then this line is certainly a place for vanguard swords and sorcery fiction. Clearly, anyone expecting merely serviceable, by-the-numbers tie-in fiction is in for a very pleasant surprise.
March 21, 2016
I was only made aware of this audiobook -- and the Pathfinder Tales series in general -- because Pathfinder publisher Paizo emailed me letting me know it was available for free on Audible.
Well, their promotional strategy was a definite success, as I really enjoyed this novel, and would definitely read another Pathfinder Tales novel -- especially another audiobook from the creative team of author James Sutter and narrator Ray Porter. Seriously, Porter's narration is among the best I've ever heard, and especially chilling when he's voicing angels and demons.
Speaking to this novel, it is set in the Pathfinder role-playing universe, in a very specific land with a distinct Arabian flavor. This made the novel both familiar enough to be accessible and differentiated enough to be interesting. Anyone who has enjoyed the DragonLance and/or Forgotten Realms novels from the Dungeons & Dragons universe will likely enjoy this a great deal.
Well, their promotional strategy was a definite success, as I really enjoyed this novel, and would definitely read another Pathfinder Tales novel -- especially another audiobook from the creative team of author James Sutter and narrator Ray Porter. Seriously, Porter's narration is among the best I've ever heard, and especially chilling when he's voicing angels and demons.
Speaking to this novel, it is set in the Pathfinder role-playing universe, in a very specific land with a distinct Arabian flavor. This made the novel both familiar enough to be accessible and differentiated enough to be interesting. Anyone who has enjoyed the DragonLance and/or Forgotten Realms novels from the Dungeons & Dragons universe will likely enjoy this a great deal.
October 9, 2015
Salim was a very engaging hero, Neila suffered a bit from Princess Leia syndrome, but it was an okay read.
May 22, 2012
Death’s Heretic Will Leave You Dying for More!
As I have often said, a good tale needs three things to stand on its own, good characters, a lush and imaginative setting, and a well-planned plot. James L. Sutter has all of these things nailed down in Death’s Heretic, and on top of that, his writing style is wonderfully flowing his pacing is fast and fun to read.
Death’s Heretic, Pathfinder Tales novel set in the role-playing game world of Golarion, revolves around Salim Ghadafar, a reluctant solver of problems for Pharasma, the goddess of birth, death and prophesy. He is also an atheist, but in a world in which the existence of the gods is beyond doubt, that term means that he simply refuses to worship any deity. This makes Salim a very interesting character, and how he got into the position of serving a deity he refuses to worship is a tale in and of itself, and one that Sutter hints at first, then finally gives us. Without giving anything away (I loathe spoilers) suffice it to say that Salim is a tortured soul, bound into service, although he does, at times, enjoy his work.
Sutter does not pull any punches in this story, which is refreshing and breathes realism into the tale. He loves lush descriptions, but they are not onerous, and there is plenty to describe, as the characters go on a vast romp though many planes of existence. The fight choreography is excellent, the conversation is real without being stilted and the plot twists work wonderfully, without a single “Oh come on!” moment in the whole book. Highest recommendation for this wonderful tale.
One note: this is shared world fiction set in a gaming environment, so there are some assumptions that the reader has some familiarity with the setting. You could read and enjoy this book without having ever played the Pathfinder game, but having a look at some of their materials might make the experience richer for you.
As I have often said, a good tale needs three things to stand on its own, good characters, a lush and imaginative setting, and a well-planned plot. James L. Sutter has all of these things nailed down in Death’s Heretic, and on top of that, his writing style is wonderfully flowing his pacing is fast and fun to read.
Death’s Heretic, Pathfinder Tales novel set in the role-playing game world of Golarion, revolves around Salim Ghadafar, a reluctant solver of problems for Pharasma, the goddess of birth, death and prophesy. He is also an atheist, but in a world in which the existence of the gods is beyond doubt, that term means that he simply refuses to worship any deity. This makes Salim a very interesting character, and how he got into the position of serving a deity he refuses to worship is a tale in and of itself, and one that Sutter hints at first, then finally gives us. Without giving anything away (I loathe spoilers) suffice it to say that Salim is a tortured soul, bound into service, although he does, at times, enjoy his work.
Sutter does not pull any punches in this story, which is refreshing and breathes realism into the tale. He loves lush descriptions, but they are not onerous, and there is plenty to describe, as the characters go on a vast romp though many planes of existence. The fight choreography is excellent, the conversation is real without being stilted and the plot twists work wonderfully, without a single “Oh come on!” moment in the whole book. Highest recommendation for this wonderful tale.
One note: this is shared world fiction set in a gaming environment, so there are some assumptions that the reader has some familiarity with the setting. You could read and enjoy this book without having ever played the Pathfinder game, but having a look at some of their materials might make the experience richer for you.
January 24, 2015
A short take:
The hero of this book is a servant of the Goddess of Death and empowered with the means of traveling between planes. Sutter puts this latter talent to some good use and takes the story to some funky places. The main plot was less interesting than these sideline jaunts.
More thoughts:
Sutter is on to something: Salim is an interesting character whose history and talents suggest a wide variety of awesome tales. I just wish that Sutter had included a larger dose of intelligence in his recipe for Salim's character. For someone who has been around awhile and taken on some fearsome enemies, Salim doesn't show a lot of sense, and he ends up paying for lack on more than one occasion in this story. Each time Salim suffered this kind of self-committed set-back, I shook my head and read on, certain that Sutter would maneuver Salim out of another folly. I also did not care for Neila's character, plucky as she might have been.
These shortcomings are a darn shame, because when Sutter hits the right note--as he does in Salim's account of his sad past--he spins good fiction. For this reason, I will likely give the next Salim novel a shot.
The hero of this book is a servant of the Goddess of Death and empowered with the means of traveling between planes. Sutter puts this latter talent to some good use and takes the story to some funky places. The main plot was less interesting than these sideline jaunts.
More thoughts:
Sutter is on to something: Salim is an interesting character whose history and talents suggest a wide variety of awesome tales. I just wish that Sutter had included a larger dose of intelligence in his recipe for Salim's character. For someone who has been around awhile and taken on some fearsome enemies, Salim doesn't show a lot of sense, and he ends up paying for lack on more than one occasion in this story. Each time Salim suffered this kind of self-committed set-back, I shook my head and read on, certain that Sutter would maneuver Salim out of another folly. I also did not care for Neila's character, plucky as she might have been.
These shortcomings are a darn shame, because when Sutter hits the right note--as he does in Salim's account of his sad past--he spins good fiction. For this reason, I will likely give the next Salim novel a shot.
January 17, 2017
I'm not having luck with the pathfinder novels. This is the third I read that honestly simply bored me.
I was wondering why I didn't like it and another reviewer got the nail about the casual sexism and its true. It's very juvenile, but more than that, there is honestly no sense of suspense in the story. You get spoon fed the mystery and the solution and is more like a travelogue to the outer planes than anything else. The character Salim was interesting because you can see how much being in a god thrall hurts him, how much as a "free man" it disgusts him to bow to the gods of golarion. He (and the author) misuse the word Atheist but maybe that's simply the in-world evolution of the phrase and when he explains why I honestly can see where he is coming from.
But the rest is weak. I honestly jumped from the middle to the book to the ending because it was so tedious, to see how it would end and... it was horrible. It was honestly underwhelming how banal and cheap the confrontation and resolution went and the last line between Salim and Ceyanan was so corny that I could only roll my eyes.
So yeah, juvenile sexist, ham-fisted romance and plot weak make a bad reading.
For me, the best part was the beginning when Salim was hunting the ghouls when it looked that it was about to be a terror story that drew me in.
Oh well, another one to go.
I was wondering why I didn't like it and another reviewer got the nail about the casual sexism and its true. It's very juvenile, but more than that, there is honestly no sense of suspense in the story. You get spoon fed the mystery and the solution and is more like a travelogue to the outer planes than anything else. The character Salim was interesting because you can see how much being in a god thrall hurts him, how much as a "free man" it disgusts him to bow to the gods of golarion. He (and the author) misuse the word Atheist but maybe that's simply the in-world evolution of the phrase and when he explains why I honestly can see where he is coming from.
But the rest is weak. I honestly jumped from the middle to the book to the ending because it was so tedious, to see how it would end and... it was horrible. It was honestly underwhelming how banal and cheap the confrontation and resolution went and the last line between Salim and Ceyanan was so corny that I could only roll my eyes.
So yeah, juvenile sexist, ham-fisted romance and plot weak make a bad reading.
For me, the best part was the beginning when Salim was hunting the ghouls when it looked that it was about to be a terror story that drew me in.
Oh well, another one to go.
February 13, 2013
I've read plenty of game-based fiction, from D&D to Battletech to the Shadowrun universe. This is my first foray into the Pathfinder spin-off books, and I gotta say: they read like precisely what they are; to whit, generic Tolkienesque quest-fantasy with all the serial-numbers filed off. There's nothing original here.
But then again, nobody expected there to be. In this volume we have our standard quest-fantasy tropes (a missing mcguffin, a lone-wolf protagonist who's quick with a blade, an attractive sidekick, nefarious magic). The real moral questions or even the diagesic elements of the tale are never realized nor even much explored (why does the death-defying elixer get auctioned off instead of used by the priests? Why are there woodland nymphs and dryads in a desert setting?). Two interesting characters, the initial suspects in the crime, are forgotten by the author and never resurface. Meanwhile, a middle section in which we explore the outer plaes of existence is drawn out much too long. At the climactic moment of the book, there is another inter-planar journey which interrupts the action for no purpose whatsoever.
It's workmanlike, readable, with some basic structural errors, and ultimately forgettable. McFantasy.
But then again, nobody expected there to be. In this volume we have our standard quest-fantasy tropes (a missing mcguffin, a lone-wolf protagonist who's quick with a blade, an attractive sidekick, nefarious magic). The real moral questions or even the diagesic elements of the tale are never realized nor even much explored (why does the death-defying elixer get auctioned off instead of used by the priests? Why are there woodland nymphs and dryads in a desert setting?). Two interesting characters, the initial suspects in the crime, are forgotten by the author and never resurface. Meanwhile, a middle section in which we explore the outer plaes of existence is drawn out much too long. At the climactic moment of the book, there is another inter-planar journey which interrupts the action for no purpose whatsoever.
It's workmanlike, readable, with some basic structural errors, and ultimately forgettable. McFantasy.
January 31, 2018
I went into this book looking for a quick, fairly simple high fantasy story. And I pretty much got what I was looking for. I'm not especially familiar with the Pathfinder world, but the world aspects are simple enough to follow even for a newbie like me, at least for the purposes of this book. The characters are pretty easy to grasp. While they aren't super interesting, they're still distinct enough to enjoy the basics of the story. Really, the book didn't do too much that was particularly bad, it just didn't do too much to stand out to me in my mind. The romance, plot twists, and character backgrounds felt copy/paste and predictable, though not in a way that was too annoying. I still enjoyed it since I was pretty much looking for something like this. I'm sure if you're into Pathfinder worlds and stories, you'll probably enjoy it more than I did. But I wouldn't prioritize this book otherwise as not much about it really stands out.
February 18, 2013
A fun, light read for the weekend, but lacking the depth I tend to look for in fantasy novels nowadays. It’s been a good while since I read an RPG tie-in novel and I don’t remember the game-play aspects being quite so blatant as they were in this one. Of course, I was a teenager then and probably blind to those parts. Also, I doubt that I really understood how nonsensical RPG worldbuilding could get sometimes, with its easy, cheap, too-powerful magic and cultural anachronisms galore (for instance, European-style fairies in a Middle Eastern-style desert country). Nevertheless, my memories of books like the DragonLance Legends series was that they would stand up on their own even without an understanding (and tolerance for) role playing conventions and formulas.
I don’t want to slam Death’s Heretic too much, though. It is what it is, and Salim Gadhafar, the priest-hunter forced into servitude to a death goddess he hates, is an interesting, complex character and I wouldn’t mind picking up another novel or two about his adventures. Once the story veers off into the Outer Planes it becomes really fun in a "Moorcock light" vein. Also, this book rekindled my interest in playing fantasy RPGs, so: mission accomplished.
I don’t want to slam Death’s Heretic too much, though. It is what it is, and Salim Gadhafar, the priest-hunter forced into servitude to a death goddess he hates, is an interesting, complex character and I wouldn’t mind picking up another novel or two about his adventures. Once the story veers off into the Outer Planes it becomes really fun in a "Moorcock light" vein. Also, this book rekindled my interest in playing fantasy RPGs, so: mission accomplished.
February 1, 2012
Sutter's foray into Paizo's Pathfinder Tales line attempted to do multiple things, and it did a commendable job of accomplishing that objective.
Role-playing game associated fiction usually has two minds to appease: 1) the gamer who wants to recognize rules and scenarios from his or her own play experience and 2) the genre reader who is looking for another twist on their favored pastiche. The result is not always well-balanced. The best examples of gaming fiction, however, contain all the things a gamer wants to see without alerting other readers to the mechanical subtext.
Death's Heretic is a fantastical murder mystery/romance/adventure. It is a veiled psychological exposition on the interplay of belief and free will. It is an illustrative ecology for various locations and entities in the Golarian world setting for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. A reader can focus on any one of these three perspectives. The text is only complemented by the other two.
Read it for fun, read it for analysis, or read it for insight.
Role-playing game associated fiction usually has two minds to appease: 1) the gamer who wants to recognize rules and scenarios from his or her own play experience and 2) the genre reader who is looking for another twist on their favored pastiche. The result is not always well-balanced. The best examples of gaming fiction, however, contain all the things a gamer wants to see without alerting other readers to the mechanical subtext.
Death's Heretic is a fantastical murder mystery/romance/adventure. It is a veiled psychological exposition on the interplay of belief and free will. It is an illustrative ecology for various locations and entities in the Golarian world setting for the Pathfinder Role Playing Game. A reader can focus on any one of these three perspectives. The text is only complemented by the other two.
Read it for fun, read it for analysis, or read it for insight.
June 30, 2012
I imagine that the editor in chief of the pathfinders tales fiction line called James L. sutter in his office one day and told him:" we need a pathfinder tale that takes the readers on a tour across the planes of existence of Golarion." And James L sutter answered: " I have just the idea for a story like that. My roleplaygroup had an adventure that took us there. I'll make that into a novel."
And that is what this book feels like. It feels like a^pathfinder adventure where the gamemaster just bought a book about the planes and is eager to exploit them. And that is a good thing when you are reading pathfinder tie-in fiction. You want it to feel like a pathfinder adventure.
Death's heretic is a detective story with all the classic ingredients. A tough detective with a good heart and a dark past, a girl in trouble who turnes out to be stronger than she thinks, betrayal, romance and adventure. As an added bonus you get the wonders of other planes and the alien mindset of creatures living there.
I trully enjoyed it.
And that is what this book feels like. It feels like a^pathfinder adventure where the gamemaster just bought a book about the planes and is eager to exploit them. And that is a good thing when you are reading pathfinder tie-in fiction. You want it to feel like a pathfinder adventure.
Death's heretic is a detective story with all the classic ingredients. A tough detective with a good heart and a dark past, a girl in trouble who turnes out to be stronger than she thinks, betrayal, romance and adventure. As an added bonus you get the wonders of other planes and the alien mindset of creatures living there.
I trully enjoyed it.
March 19, 2016
OK, one thing that bugs me about a lot of fantasy is that despite the infinite possibilities, it's so constrained in scope -- you have all of time & space & the infinite planes to play around with, and you end up sticking with a relatively small corner of a relatively conventional quasi-medieval/quasi-Renaissance world.
This book was not so constrained.
Salim, refugee from the atheist kingdom, now a less-than-willing priest of the Goddess of Birth and Death (and is there a story there? Oh, probably ...) is sent to a desert realm to hunt down a soul that, impossibly, went missing somewhere in the journey to the afterlife. With the aid of the local church and the victim's daughter, he embarks on a quest that will take him ... Well, he doesn't cover a whole lot of ground within the nation of Thuvia proper, but at various points he does journey to a number of suitably bizarre otherworldly landscapes from the shores of a river of souls to the realm of absolute law to ... well, other, less definable places.
This book was not so constrained.
Salim, refugee from the atheist kingdom, now a less-than-willing priest of the Goddess of Birth and Death (and is there a story there? Oh, probably ...) is sent to a desert realm to hunt down a soul that, impossibly, went missing somewhere in the journey to the afterlife. With the aid of the local church and the victim's daughter, he embarks on a quest that will take him ... Well, he doesn't cover a whole lot of ground within the nation of Thuvia proper, but at various points he does journey to a number of suitably bizarre otherworldly landscapes from the shores of a river of souls to the realm of absolute law to ... well, other, less definable places.
October 22, 2025
I’m not gonna go on a rant. I’m not gonna say the book pissed me off, or the prose was hideous, or a child could do better, or anything else outlandish. But I will say this wasn’t good.
Though it’s dressed from head to toe in fantasy regalia, this is a whodunnit. I’m generally not much for mystery fiction, but I was intrigued by the idea of a genre mashup. Problem is, it’s a lazy whodunnit. Suspects are dismissed after a single conversation. Our hero does strangely little detective work, with most of the plot advancing through happenstance and villains being too talkative. Magic is used whenever necessary as a plot convenience. Et cetera.
The book has other flaws, like ubiquitous mansplaining, but none so glaring as its lack of intrigue. The best I can say is I’ve read worse, which says it all, right?
Though it’s dressed from head to toe in fantasy regalia, this is a whodunnit. I’m generally not much for mystery fiction, but I was intrigued by the idea of a genre mashup. Problem is, it’s a lazy whodunnit. Suspects are dismissed after a single conversation. Our hero does strangely little detective work, with most of the plot advancing through happenstance and villains being too talkative. Magic is used whenever necessary as a plot convenience. Et cetera.
The book has other flaws, like ubiquitous mansplaining, but none so glaring as its lack of intrigue. The best I can say is I’ve read worse, which says it all, right?
March 23, 2013
The book had rich description and interesting characters. I felt the pacing in the first half was a bit slow but acceptable. Then came the second half. Right after you find out who did it the story repeatedly goes off on what felt like forced and unnecessary side trips and tangents. It felt like the author fit his original idea for the story in three quarters the pages he told them he'd write and decided to pad the ending. I found this frustrating and it destroyed a lot of the good will the book had built up in the first half. But the writing was competent and it ended well.
March 8, 2012
Its not often when you can read a book based on a RPG that doesnt sound like your playing the game in the book. This is one of those times. I found the book enjoyable while also learning about the Pathfinder lore thats due out next year. I got into the Salim right away and the backstory was believable. Now i am headed to the Paizo site to read up on some of the additional tales posted there.
September 15, 2012
A very impressive debut novel from James Sutter. A well-crafted and highly readable action/adventure, this book requires no knowledge of the Pathfinder game or its universe. It's one of those books which proves that RPG tie-in books have earned their place on the fantasy bookshelf.
November 10, 2011
Lots of fun and a great sense of scenery. Solid adventure.
January 28, 2019
The Pathfinder Tales series is the fiction line that supports the Pathfinder fantasy role-playing game, a Dungeons & Dragons clone (literally, based on the open-source 3rd-edition rules). Its primary purpose is to drive sales for the game books, which is the publisher's main business. Telling a good story, being a good fantasy novel, is at best secondary. This is a common problem in fantasy series fiction, as any fantasy fan has probably discovered. Paizo is certainly not the first to create a fiction product from their game; it's been a common element of the genre going back to the early days of D&D and its other progeny.
The "problem," as I call it, is that fiction in support of something else (be it a tabletop or computer game, a movie, or a religion) runs a very good chance of being shovelware. Look at the Forgotten Realms -- over 300 books before finally succumbing to whatever vagaries of the market causes these things to peter out (Paizo has also put its Pathfinder novels on hold for something like 18 months at this point while looking for a new publisher since they don't want to do it themselves). That's very near a book a month for 30 years straight (the first Forgotten Realms book came out in 1987). There are some real stinkers in there.
I mention this stuff in prologue because I've always enjoyed shared-world fantasy: the mosaic anthologies of Thieves' World and Wild Cards; the tribute additions to established canon like Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos; the adventure novels of the various worlds of D&D and other roleplaying games. You can get some remarkably good world-building in these environments (you can get some remarkably bad continuity, too, as the Dragonlance books proved).
That's kind of why I'm ambivalent about this title. The real verdict in these cases is whether it's a good standalone novel, or is it only good if you're also invested in the other associated content.
Death's Heretic is a straightforward fantasy romp through a handful of key environments: the fantasy desert nation of Thuvia, loosely inspired by North African desert empires; the weird extra-planar land of death, the Boneyard; the infinite city of the weird, Axis; the verdant draft-version world of the primeval fey, the First World.
The plot itself is forgettable: someone stole this guy's soul so it can neither be resurrected nor be at peace, and semi-immortal bounty hunter of the gods Salim teams up with dude's hot young daughter to embark on this fantasy romp to figure out whodunit.
It's decent. Not the worst stuff I've read. James L. Sutter is (was) the fiction editor at Paizo, so the whole Pathfinder shared-world fiction experiment is (was) his editorial domain. I think this is his first novel, but his writing credits include lots of short fiction and RPG books.
Sutter gives us a hard PG-13 story with some tasteful sex and violence and even handles some metaphysical questions like -- "What does death matter in a world where resurrection magic exists?" and "What, exactly, does 'atheism' mean in a world where the gods obviously exist?" -- so, there are some more "adult" themes than you'd usually expect from shovel-ware.
It's just a little too on-the-nose about being a world-building exercise for the Pathfinder world, specifically the metaphysical realms through which the characters venture. It feels more about teaching the reader about the planes of existence than generating a good story.
But remember, that's exactly the primary goal of this and the other books under the Pathfinder Tales banner. It's just that some of the other ones I've read did a better job of burying that exposition a little deeper.
The "problem," as I call it, is that fiction in support of something else (be it a tabletop or computer game, a movie, or a religion) runs a very good chance of being shovelware. Look at the Forgotten Realms -- over 300 books before finally succumbing to whatever vagaries of the market causes these things to peter out (Paizo has also put its Pathfinder novels on hold for something like 18 months at this point while looking for a new publisher since they don't want to do it themselves). That's very near a book a month for 30 years straight (the first Forgotten Realms book came out in 1987). There are some real stinkers in there.
I mention this stuff in prologue because I've always enjoyed shared-world fantasy: the mosaic anthologies of Thieves' World and Wild Cards; the tribute additions to established canon like Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos; the adventure novels of the various worlds of D&D and other roleplaying games. You can get some remarkably good world-building in these environments (you can get some remarkably bad continuity, too, as the Dragonlance books proved).
That's kind of why I'm ambivalent about this title. The real verdict in these cases is whether it's a good standalone novel, or is it only good if you're also invested in the other associated content.
Death's Heretic is a straightforward fantasy romp through a handful of key environments: the fantasy desert nation of Thuvia, loosely inspired by North African desert empires; the weird extra-planar land of death, the Boneyard; the infinite city of the weird, Axis; the verdant draft-version world of the primeval fey, the First World.
The plot itself is forgettable: someone stole this guy's soul so it can neither be resurrected nor be at peace, and semi-immortal bounty hunter of the gods Salim teams up with dude's hot young daughter to embark on this fantasy romp to figure out whodunit.
It's decent. Not the worst stuff I've read. James L. Sutter is (was) the fiction editor at Paizo, so the whole Pathfinder shared-world fiction experiment is (was) his editorial domain. I think this is his first novel, but his writing credits include lots of short fiction and RPG books.
Sutter gives us a hard PG-13 story with some tasteful sex and violence and even handles some metaphysical questions like -- "What does death matter in a world where resurrection magic exists?" and "What, exactly, does 'atheism' mean in a world where the gods obviously exist?" -- so, there are some more "adult" themes than you'd usually expect from shovel-ware.
It's just a little too on-the-nose about being a world-building exercise for the Pathfinder world, specifically the metaphysical realms through which the characters venture. It feels more about teaching the reader about the planes of existence than generating a good story.
But remember, that's exactly the primary goal of this and the other books under the Pathfinder Tales banner. It's just that some of the other ones I've read did a better job of burying that exposition a little deeper.
February 27, 2025
I only read this sexist turd to get a feeling of how necromancy, the afterlife and particularly the church of Pharasma work in the Pathfinder universe. The alignment system has always been a silly, reductive thing in DnD and all of its derivates, along with the utter ignorance on how a Polytheistic religion/culture would actually operate but since I’m playing a campaign there I wanted to understand more of the world. I know I shouldn’t expect much from a game that can’t even define what “order” and “law” are, but here we are.
”But please, Ceyanan, don’t keep me in suspense—pray tell me what the bitch-goddess wants from me now.”
Our “edgy” hero talking about the goddess of death and rebirth. A goddess he works for. He’s so tortured and has a mysterious past. He can only think with his groin when he’s in the company of any woman.
Look, there are good reasons to dislike the Pathfinder gods, Pharasma included, and the published rules even have an option for your character to be an “atheist” (rather, a distheist) but Salim’s reasoning and attitude just come across as childish. He’s written like a Nu-atheist.
“This morning, I would have told you I could handle myself, and treated you like little better than hired help. Yet you were right—I’ve added nothing to this trip, and nearly gotten us both killed.”
Our only female character of importance, who is there just to serve as a love interest, serve as an exposition sounding board, get lectured by Salim and give him funny feelings that “tug at his groin”.
[…] while the walls held more spaces for bodies, unlit lanterns, and fine tapestries showing the glory of various gods, from stag-headed Erastil to the Lady of Graves herself. Clearly, these villagers worshiped an array of divine beings, pooling their resources into a single church. And hedging their bets, Salim thought.
This is nonsense. In a world where Gods objectively exist and they deal with different “portfolios”/aspects of life this would be how everyone, outside of priests (clerics) of a particular one would act. It’s just the practical thing to do. Erastil is the god of farming, hunting and family, while Pharasma it’s the goddess of births and death. It’s just natural that a small village of mostly farmers would worship both of them.
This is a very good analysis of what these type of games get wrong regarding polytheism (https://acoup.blog/2019/10/25/collect...). But these are criticisms of the setting itself and, honestly, this dumb book doesn’t deserve my full rant.
”While the inherent instability of existence and the finite capacity for understanding, combined with the influence of the observer on both events and his/her/its perception of them, make tautological proof inherently impossible, I believe that you were instead asking about the relative probability of the event in question, which is so great as to render the other possibilities statistically insignificant.”
I mean, look at that nonsense that it’s supposed to be a being “made of pure mathematics and logic” replying to the “Are you sure? [his soul made it to this place]” question. Yet it has no idea what a tautology (or probability for that matter) actually is, or that it has two meanings (a verbal and a mathematical one). The word has no place there, since it is a very specific concept. This being is basically answering with a non sequitur.
Creatures of “perfect reason and logic” indeed.
So yeah, I read this for research purposes only. And it wasn’t even worth it. Avoid this juvenile trash with cardboard characters and not-so-subtle misogyny.
”But please, Ceyanan, don’t keep me in suspense—pray tell me what the bitch-goddess wants from me now.”
Our “edgy” hero talking about the goddess of death and rebirth. A goddess he works for. He’s so tortured and has a mysterious past. He can only think with his groin when he’s in the company of any woman.
Look, there are good reasons to dislike the Pathfinder gods, Pharasma included, and the published rules even have an option for your character to be an “atheist” (rather, a distheist) but Salim’s reasoning and attitude just come across as childish. He’s written like a Nu-atheist.
“This morning, I would have told you I could handle myself, and treated you like little better than hired help. Yet you were right—I’ve added nothing to this trip, and nearly gotten us both killed.”
Our only female character of importance, who is there just to serve as a love interest, serve as an exposition sounding board, get lectured by Salim and give him funny feelings that “tug at his groin”.
[…] while the walls held more spaces for bodies, unlit lanterns, and fine tapestries showing the glory of various gods, from stag-headed Erastil to the Lady of Graves herself. Clearly, these villagers worshiped an array of divine beings, pooling their resources into a single church. And hedging their bets, Salim thought.
This is nonsense. In a world where Gods objectively exist and they deal with different “portfolios”/aspects of life this would be how everyone, outside of priests (clerics) of a particular one would act. It’s just the practical thing to do. Erastil is the god of farming, hunting and family, while Pharasma it’s the goddess of births and death. It’s just natural that a small village of mostly farmers would worship both of them.
This is a very good analysis of what these type of games get wrong regarding polytheism (https://acoup.blog/2019/10/25/collect...). But these are criticisms of the setting itself and, honestly, this dumb book doesn’t deserve my full rant.
”While the inherent instability of existence and the finite capacity for understanding, combined with the influence of the observer on both events and his/her/its perception of them, make tautological proof inherently impossible, I believe that you were instead asking about the relative probability of the event in question, which is so great as to render the other possibilities statistically insignificant.”
I mean, look at that nonsense that it’s supposed to be a being “made of pure mathematics and logic” replying to the “Are you sure? [his soul made it to this place]” question. Yet it has no idea what a tautology (or probability for that matter) actually is, or that it has two meanings (a verbal and a mathematical one). The word has no place there, since it is a very specific concept. This being is basically answering with a non sequitur.
Creatures of “perfect reason and logic” indeed.
So yeah, I read this for research purposes only. And it wasn’t even worth it. Avoid this juvenile trash with cardboard characters and not-so-subtle misogyny.
July 22, 2018
A murder/kidnapping mystery in a Pathfinder world. A good mix of Pathfinder-y elements (spells, creatures, cosmology) with the plot and mystery. It seemed that the author had to really make an effort to make a murder mystery stick in a world where resurrection is available and it felt like most of the book's effort went into showing off cool stuff in Golarion (the world of Pathfinder RPG), but I liked the cool stuff, and the characters weren't too bad. It was interesting to see how "atheists" exist in a world of proven gods - these are not true atheists as they don't deny the existence of gods, only refuse to worship them.
The audio narrator, Ray Porter, does a very good job with most voices, if not all.
The audio narrator, Ray Porter, does a very good job with most voices, if not all.
December 24, 2023
Biggest draw of this book is the plane-hopping adventure. Seeing the Boneyard, among other planes, is real cool. The way they're portrayed, the characters inhabiting them, it's a really cool adventure. Salim is a fun hero, his "atheism" and struggles with religion are fascinating to see in the context of a world like Pathfinder. I think, as a Pathfinder book, I really enjoyed it. As a fantasy fan... it falls into some tropes and the story wouldn't have been as engaging. I wish the female characters were better. I wish the 'mystery' was an actual mystery.
It's a good Pathfinder story, mediocre fantasy story.
It's a good Pathfinder story, mediocre fantasy story.
June 5, 2018
Sutter takes all the standard toys of the Pathfinder setting and puts them to creative and capable use, giving us a lead character that is more rounded and interesting than the your generic tortured fantasy swordsman. While the plot contains few surprises, it delivers on its promises, and takes the reader on an imaginative tour of the Pathfinder multiverse, breathing life into what would normally be two-dimensional stat-blocks-in-disguise. I look forward to seeing what he can do with a work unconstrained by a shared, licensed universe.
June 21, 2022
Having a Planescape background before switching to Pathfinder, James Sutter is the author suited for me.
The paradox/antithesis of the atheist Rahadoumi being a servant of the goddess Pharasma is outstandingly original. I really enjoy that and the other planes exploration since few author and material in Pathfinder 2e dare to deepen that aspect.
I also enjoyed the mystery behind the crime, but have to remove one star because the final confrontation was a little hasty and Neila feels more the stereotype female shoulder character of the movies of the past than a main character.
The paradox/antithesis of the atheist Rahadoumi being a servant of the goddess Pharasma is outstandingly original. I really enjoy that and the other planes exploration since few author and material in Pathfinder 2e dare to deepen that aspect.
I also enjoyed the mystery behind the crime, but have to remove one star because the final confrontation was a little hasty and Neila feels more the stereotype female shoulder character of the movies of the past than a main character.
October 12, 2017
I just really enjoyed listening to this. Intrigued by the main character and his backstory. I'm sure I'd have gotten more out of the various world-building nods, especially in the various city crowd scenes, if I played Pathfinder, but that didn't detract from my interest in the characters nor my enjoyment of the central mystery and its resolution.
January 26, 2020
I love coming back to this book. It's a murder/kidnaping mystery while also an adventure, all in a fantasy world. Church of death, underworld bosses, Fey attacks, trips to alternate planes, and a fight for ones soul; it's all in there. I also play Pathfinder so I get many of the references.
Ray Porter also does an amazing job as always.
Ray Porter also does an amazing job as always.
April 3, 2020
Solid book--way more planer travel then I was expecting. Good characters. Solid structure. Exciting combat.
But overall mostly forgettable--the Pathfinder Tales just never seem to capture some of the real magic of D&D for me for some reason.
I will keep trying but I have yet to find my Pathfinder Dark Elf, if you know what I mean.
But overall mostly forgettable--the Pathfinder Tales just never seem to capture some of the real magic of D&D for me for some reason.
I will keep trying but I have yet to find my Pathfinder Dark Elf, if you know what I mean.
October 5, 2020
I liked similar things in this one as in the Hellknight - seeing how murder investigation would work in a magic-rich world, like Golarion. The characters were quite nice though while Salim's concept is interesting, the whole nation he comes from is in my opinion one of the more absurd pieces of Golarion lore. Still, it was a nice, light read.
February 28, 2023
Absolutely loved this book. Salim is a very interesting character with well fleshed out explanations for his beliefs and motivations. The main story is exceptional and keeps the reader wanting more. The ending was phenomenal. Have this on audiobook as well and find myself going back to listen to it at least once a year.
December 15, 2018
I don't really know what I was expecting from this book. maybe some sort of crazy party quest. it actually turned out to be a good solid story.
I definitely will be looking into other Pathfinder books.
I definitely will be looking into other Pathfinder books.
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