Christopher Fowler was an author of extraordinary talent with a unique voice. If you ever fancy reading a quirky crime series with excellent characters and intricate plots, check out his Bryant and May series. There’s a whole lot of wonderful reading there for you. Sadly, Christopher died two years ago, in March 2023. There was, however, one novel left unpublished. Not a Bryant and May, but something altogether stranger. A fantasy of sorts, The Foot on the Crown depicts a Dark Ages London reimagined.
What Is The Foot on the Crown?
This is a dense work of intense imagination. It’s weird in places and meandering. It took me a while to find my way into, but once I did, I became lost in its wonders.
The story takes place in a forgotten England, in and around the city of Londinium. The story mainly follows two characters Giniva, the 16-year-old daughter of a tyrant king, and Watborn, a peasant who has little keeping him in his village. He ends up travelling to Londinium for reasons more complicated than, but not wholly dissimilar to “to seek his fortune.”
The Londinium in The Foot on the Crown is nothing like the one we know from the history books. Its Royal Family sits aloof. The King is a tyrant; a military leader with little else going for him. He has two children from two wives. Giniva is coming of age and as the novel opens, her father is looking for a suitor. Giniva wishes only to escape the chattels of marriage. Her half-brother will do anything he can to assist.
When their audacious plan to escape goes awry, she meets Watborn for the first time. From there, their destinies are intertwined.
Why Read The Foot on the Crown?
The Foot on the Crown is a complex, irreverent read. It nods to history, particularly the Dark Ages, but it is also a fantasy—a grimy fairy tale. In tone and subject, it reminded me very much of two recent Lavie Tidhar novels that I reviewed on GeekDad.
The story is meandering and macabre. It has a host of picaresque characters, compelling and grotesque. The land has a crazy politics, with just about everyone being venal and duplicitous. Personal gain is the order of the day. Teasing out the story in the first half of the novel did take some effort, but it is effort that is rewarded.
I came to love the quirkiness of the characters, particularly Watborn, Giniva, and her brother Dando. They’re heroic in their own way, and we cannot help but root for them. Overall, Foot of the Crown reminded me of one of my favorite books, Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. Both invoke a chaotic London, both have seemingly random asides, both have frustrating threads that seem not to lead anywhere, before suddenly coalescing into a perfect whole.
The ending of The Foot on the Crown is majestic. It took me the best part of a week to work my way through the first half of the book, but I devoured the second half in a couple of days, reading late into the night. The effort needed to immerse myself in Fowler’s quixotic world paid out many times over.
The book has many layers and surprising depth. It satirizes power, and pokes at the underbelly of history’s forgotten times. Filled with superstition, magic, treachery, and quiet heroism, The Foot on the Crown is a riot of imagination.
I closed the pages of The Foot on the Crown happy that I had read something so entertaining. A fresh reworking of classic storytelling ideas. Yet, finishing the book I was tinged with sadness knowing that the talent that produced it is no longer with us. Fowler and his creativity will be sorely missed.
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I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
