Berserk
by Tim Lebbon

Published by Leisure Books
337 pages
January, 2006
Paperback
ISBN: 0843954302

In Viking history, berserkers were warriors who worked themselves into a frenzy before battles in order to give themselves greater strength, courage and resistance to pain and wounds. The state of frenzy was so intense that they would revert to an animalistic state, froth at the mouth, speak in tongues, and even bite through their own metal shields in their impatience for the battle to begin. The term berserker comes from joining of bjorn, the Norse word for bear, and sark meaning shirt because the warriors went into battle without armor or wearing only a bear skin. The word may have also come from berserkergang which means possessed behavior, but that term may have developed out of the other.

In either case, the berserker highlights the importance of shapeshifting in Norse culture and the ability to shrug of the limits of being a human and take on the appearance or power of other animals. In his new novel Berserk , Tim Lebbon reimagines this Dark Age warrior in a modern military setting. And in doing so, he deftly weaves together many other elements of the shapeshifting, or werewolf mythology, as it has developed in Europe since the age of the Vikings.

A native Londoner who now lives in a small village in rural England , Lebbon has in a few short years since publishing his first novel Mesmer in 1997 become one of the most praised authors of horror fiction. He has already published about a dozen books including novels and collections of shorter works and has won a Bram Stoker award, 2 British Fantasy awards and a Tombstone award. Much of his work, including the just published Dusk , actually falls under the dark fantasy category rather than horror. But if his deft prose style in Berserk is any indication, Lebbon could succeed in almost any genre.

Interestingly, Lebbon states in the Journal on his own website, “I'd never really thought of Berserk as a werewolf and/or vampire story, but I guess in some ways it is.” In fact, the novel seems quite deliberate about leaving the possibilities open for its central characters. In the opening lines, we learn that Tom Roberts and his wife Jo lost their son and only child Steven ten years earlier in a military training accident. Their grief is still very present and made more so by the fact that they never quite believed the official explanation given by the army for the death of their son and several other soldiers that day. While in a pub, drinking away his pain and contemplating the grandchildren he will never have, Tom overhears two men who look like soldiers discussing the accident, a cover-up, and, the phrase that launches his obsessive search for the truth: “They kept monsters.”

Tom breaks through the fence surrounding Salisbury Plain where his son was killed and finds his way to a mass grave where he hopes to find his son or what is left of him. Instead he finds a set of skeletons that are chained together and seem to be not fully human. The skulls are elongated, the teeth too long, the jaws canine. And there are bullet holes at the backs of the skulls. Then he finds that one of the corpses is not a skeleton but a mummified corpse of a small girl…that reaches out and grabs his arm.

The girl, Natasha, who hovers somewhere between life and death despite having been in the mass grave for a decade, takes hold of Tom's mind telepathically, convincing him she can take him to Steven if only Tom will help her escape. Because, she tells him, Mr. Wolf is coming. Mr. Wolf is Cole, a former soldier from the Salisbury Plain base who is in pursuit first of Tom, and when he realizes she is missing, of Natasha to prevent the truth and the danger of getting out.

As the subsequent chase gives structure to the remainder of the novel, the mysteries behind each of the three characters' involvement in the chase give the novel its depth and drive. Is Cole “a good man” as he keeps telling himself? He kills innocent people in his determination to stop Natasha, but he says he must do it in order to protect more innocents from Natasha. And is Natasha evil, a monster bent on regaining her powers in order to kill? Is she manipulating Tom and his painful need to be a father again, if not to Steven, at least to Natasha herself? Or were she and those other creatures in the grave victims of some terrible army experiment. And as for Tom, he seems to have no alternative but to keep moving. Cole will surely kill him even if he gives Natasha up. But Natasha seems malevolent as well and may be leading him not to Steven but to some terrible end. Will he find Steven or at least the truth of what happened to him?

These questions never slow the plot but instead develop naturally out of it, and this is part of Lebbon's great skill as a writer. The action is tightly paced and the tension keeps up through the whole novel. There is a sense of dread, requisite in a true horror novel, that is maintained throughout. Lebbon is able to make Natasha frightening while withholding the full truth about her. In fact by withholding her full nature, she is made more threatening. While we do finally learn how the army was using berserkers, Lebbon delicately balances to the end the question of who is victim and who victimizer, who is evil and who complicit. And even at the end, Lebbon emphasizes that there are no easy answers, that “Nature should be enigmatic.”

We have expectations of the werewolf and vampire myths. The werewolf is more sympathetic. Since he becomes an animal, we accept that he is unaware of his actions. He reverts to a state of innocence, of being before good and evil. The vampire is instead almost a higher step in evolution. He becomes a predator of humans who is beyond good and evil. By not making the berserkers adhere to specific myths, Lebbon is able to tap into their dynamics without being limited by their constraints. So as he says, in a way , this is a vampire or werewolf story. As readers we stand on the fence wondering whether these berserkers are before good and evil or beyond it.

But ultimately, this is Tom's story, and it is a novel about fatherhood. Much more than any mere emotion, the drive to give paternal care and protection is an instinct as deep as any animal's drive to hunt and survive. Motherhood is often given its due as being deep, powerful, and mysterious. Tim Lebbon here has given us a rare literary excursion into just how sacramental fatherhood can be. A father will make any sacrifice to protect his child. The humanity of Tom's quest pulls us in and bares us to horrors from which we would ordinarily flee. And the quest rewards us with every page.

by Nemo Swift
reprinted from BOFFM #2