The Prodigal Troll

by Charles Coleman Finlay

The Prodigal Troll is a tale of a human child raised by a band of mythological creatures that is both hysterical and moving. When Lord Gruethrist's castle is laid under siege by an invading baron, he sends a trusted knight and nursemaid off with his infant son. Their escape across a wilderness landscape populated by fantastic creatures and torn by war takes unexpected turns until the baby is finally adopted by a mother troll grieving for her own lost child. Christened "Maggot" by a hostile stepfather, the human boy grows up amid the crude but democratic trolls until he leaves the band to rediscover the world of humankind. But the world of man is a complex and capricious place. Maggot must master its strange ways if he is to survive... let alone win the heart and hand of the Lady Portia. Finlay's society of trolls are unlike any you've ever read before, and his matriarchal medieval world, pitted as they are against an analog of Native American tribesmen, provides a rich setting for many poignant social and political insights.

Genres: Fantasy

374 pages, Paperback

First published May 19, 2005

Reviews

[Wealhtheow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great twist on the usual Tarzan trope, and a fun story in its own right.

[M.J. Marsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of mud is slung at this book by critics bogged down in socio-political analysis... Plucking themes out of thin air...American Indians versus Indian Indians... Aggressive agrarian settlers/colonials versus plain ol' nomadic tribes....
Why?

It's a book about bloody Trolls? They're make believe. Maybe they should pay attention to real world problems such as the rise of Trump? A real life troll....

But I digress.... As the author is prone to do, too. Our young Mr Finlay loves a wicked twist, time after time setting up expectations only skewer them. It makes for a strange haphazard journey. A transposed Tarzan tale. A fishy book full of red herrings.

SPOILER ALERTS:

Things that get skewered. First quarter of book is largely useless. A set up of a world and romance that is never fulfilled or re-visited...
Baby Claye seems destined to be moulded/brought up by the honourable old knight and the buxom nursemaid... but no.
Destined to dominate and lead the trolls... but no.
Destined to save his adopted Indian tribe... but no.
Destined to learn wizardry from weird old mage... but no.
Destined to depose the despot who overthrew and slew his parents... but no.
Destined to tie up the loose ends happily and neatly... but no.

Overall, a rollercoaster of a read, well written with constant twists and turns. The heart of the book however is the sweet mother-son relationship, without which it would be slightly smarmy. The loose ending(s) screams out for a sequel - though probably written by someone more straight forward, someone prepared satisfy and gratify the reader... But no, this is a one-off in all senses of the term.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a world not of our own, the babe of a Baron is whisked away into the night by his nursemaid and a knight. As they flee, the castle they called home burns, over run with soldiers of the enemy. Nothing matters anymore but the safety of the child.
They fail and succeed a the same time.

Both adults meet their demise, however the baby is taken up by a female troll who has just lost her own infant. It is here Claye, known by trolls as Maggot, is suckled, then raised as a troll. Throughout his entire childhood he is painfully reminded how different his is and how weak. It gives him a deep determination which carries him the rest of his life.

Eventually he leaves his troll clan to encounter the strange and confusing ways of man. Caught in the midst of war, he tries to learn the ways of men. Time and again, cruelty and death drive him away. Having spent time with both sides of the war, he learns first hand how false and treacherous his kind are.

The one thing which keeps him returning is the pursuit of a beautiful woman. His determination wins him the chance to meet her and find his birth mother. Part Tarzan of the Apes and part Mogley of Jungle Book, Maggot’s tale is a charming one. At times the story is gritty, other times fast paced action but always, always it is entertaining.

I’m not fond of the ending. It’s not one I would’ve chosen. But then, in our real lives, things seldom turn out how we expect them. Read The Prodigal Troll and see what you think.

I enjoyed this book. Think "Tarzan of the Trolls".

[Korynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book deserves its comparisons to Kipling's Mowgli or Burroughs' Tarzan. The plot is familiar is that sense: baby lost in the wilderness, against nature is raised by animals. In this case, the boy is raised by trolls who act a lot like lowland gorillas. The trolls are fascinating, their society intriguing and really they are the whole are a lot more interesting than the humans, whose machinations are utterly confusing. The beginning with the intermarriage/named heirs/empress/eunuchs who are women is really not well explained. And when that world eventually coming crashing back in in the last thirty or so pages, it still makes no sense. It's really a relief when the entirely abrupt ending occurs and our protagonist announces that humanity is a load of hooey and he's going home. Truly, the book is beautiful at points but badly paced. There are loads of characters thrown at you, but really they are just gnats on the readers' windshield. It's a shame that a story as traditional as this, the prodigal son, gets thrashed out into this awful ending - which may or may not lead into another book.

[Ben. Newland · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I had to read this book no matter what simply because the title is so utterly fantastic. Turns out it was a good book too, so I lucked out.

The story is essentially a Tarzan variation. A baby is abandoned at a very young age and adopted by a troll mother who has just lost her own baby. The kid is raised by trolls, who in this novel are primitive but not unintelligent, though certainly not as smart as humans. They're brutal, but it's an understandable brutality--a kind of natural state rough-and-tumble.

Eventually the now-grown boy tries to work his way back into human society and look at all the terrible things that can happen. Maybe it's not the trolls who are brutal after all. I liked it a lot, but I will warn fans of traditional fantasy that this isn't it: both plot and climax might be disappointing if you're expecting traditional victory. If there was a genre for literary fiction in a fantasy setting, this book would fit on that shelf. If that sounds intriguing to you, enjoy!

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 2 out of 5]

The central character is a boy brought up by trolls, à la Tarzan or Mowgli, who then seeks his destiny among his own kind; he wanders into a human war between subsistence pastoralists and settled agriculturalists (Native Americans vs European feudal settlers seeming to be the paradigm) and eventually, in an ending that came rather abruptly though did at least fit with what we had seen before, chooses his own way.

I was a bit dubious about the sexual politics of the book. The story is all about how Maggot (né Claye) becomes a Man; the only thoroughly evil character is a eunuch who was born male and is addressed by female pronouns; and Maggot's crucial decisions are about rejecting the women who might care for him. That may not have been what the author intended but that was what came across to me.

A more minor snark: "prodigal" does not mean "long-lost", it means "wastefully extravagant".

[Normalene · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt a lot like The Sharing Knife series by Bujold. Great characters on a journey of discovery, great interactions with other characters and enough history thrown in in small chunks to make it interesting yet it didn't overwhelm. There may or may not be a sequel because this one had a really upbeat ending but a sequel is possible because our character is still learning about himself.

[Cassandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some really charming and moving passages, and I love the trolls, but between the creepy queercoding of the villain and the "noble white dude sees through society's bullshit—society, man, am I right?" I was left feeling pretty meh.

I do really, really love the trolls, though.

[Peter Fiske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, except for it seems more ERB influenced. But then, it seems others have noticed this.