The Virtue of Being a Fighter
The Virtue of Being a Fighter is the third of four stories in the line of Gaiman’s ‘Pet Sematary’ series.
After escaping a Garrison in a French fort, Naylor heads for the British frontier, where he soon begins to realise that his life is going to be very different than it was before. So, Naylor decides to take on a new form of warfare – the sport of military chess.
The Virtue of Being a Fighter is the third of four stories in the line of Gaiman’s ‘Pet Sematary’ series. It takes place in a fictional England somewhere during the Napoleonic Wars, and centres on John Naylor, a deserter from the British army.
After escaping a Garrison in a French fort, Naylor heads for the British frontier, where he soon begins to realise that his life is going to be very different than it was before. He goes from being a man without a country to a man with no country at all.
A river crossing means that Naylor’s career as a deserter will come to an end, but he still has another two years left as a deserter, which he can use to plot and plan his escape. So, Naylor decides to take on a new form of warfare – the sport of military chess.
The strategy of military chess seems simple enough, but Jones’ masterful writing makes it all seem so deadly serious. As with other Gaiman works, a nice touch comes in the early scenes, when Naylor plays his first game of military chess against his political rival (Viscount Benlow).
Gaiman turns the usual comic fantasy elements of the Gaimanverse into a more adult story, and that is where Jones’ work really shines. At first glance, it seems to have everything you could want in a military game – a lot of bloodshed, men risking their lives for their countries, and war after war being won by one side or the other.
But the real brilliance of The Virtue of Being a Fighter lies in how Jones connects all of these elements with the common threads that run through each chapter of The Luggage, a story that starts with the same premise as Jones’ game of military chess. That is, a story of a man who feels he has lost everything and wants to escape, only to find out that he has been sold into slavery and must serve as a slave.
As always, Gaiman is the main protagonist, but in this case, the former soldier feels lost in his previous campaign. His allegiance is torn between his duty to his nation and his duty to his friend. And as he considers these conflicting loyalties, the reader begins to realise just how much military chess is about chess.
In the second half of the book, Jones delves even deeper into Naylor’s mental state. He has done all the right things for his country – he has fought and died in battle, serving his country and his friends – but now he’s been bought over by a series of trades, each one far worse than the last.
Of course, there are characters like Pet Sematary, who Naylor never escapes from; but more interesting are the trades that Naylor’s mind has been tricked into. He has been tricked into thinking he’s free from his wife and child, but in fact he’s been sold into slavery, just as he imagines his wife and child, Pet Sematary and Miss Fingleton, are free.
Jones’ mastery of language is evident throughout the book, as his characters describe their feelings, their thoughts, and their memories with such finesse and beauty. You can almost see them sitting on their front porches, twirling a brogue and trying to give each one of them the perfect description.
The Gaimanverse has always been about fantasy and the genre’s obsession with military chess, but now that Gaiman is giving it an added dimension, it doesn’t feel like fantasy any more. It feels like what soldiers did in the era they lived in – they talked to each other, they strategised, they shared their secrets and their fears, they started wars.
If you’re a fan of military chess and military fantasy, you should definitely pick up a copy of The Virtue of Being a Fighter. Jones is one of the most talented writers working in the world today, and if you read this one, you’ll find out why.
