Magnus Baikie’s The First Law Is Survival (We Have a Few More) is a sprawling historical fantasy novel that drops Roman-inspired military culture, Celtic kingdoms, Huns, dwarves, winged Anemoi, witches, assassins, and powerful wizards into one deliberately remixed ancient world. Baikie openly embraces the historical liberties, using the familiar framework to get straight to the people, politics, battles, and schemes. At the center is Marcus d’ Ostia, an orphanage-trained young officer whose talent for engineering and strategy keeps putting him in situations where the odds are terrible and somebody has to come up with a plan. Around him grows a large cast whose loyalties, promises, rivalries, and friendships eventually connect military campaigns, Imperial succession, organized crime, assassination, and the return of the Hun threat.

What gives this historical fantasy its personality is the rotating first-person narration. Baikie moves among soldiers, criminals, royalty, dwarves, Anemoi, Celts, Magyars, Huns, and others, sometimes changing narrators inside a chapter, so major events are often seen from several very different angles. That structure turns what could have been a straightforward military adventure into something much more character-driven, which was also the author’s stated intention. Marcus’s dry practicality plays especially well against Septimus’s criminal charm, Timolen’s unsettling competence, Mistral’s temper and loyalty, and the ruthless ambition of Krekka. The humor comes naturally from those personalities. Even when armies are being destroyed or someone is plotting a murder, there’s usually a sarcastic observation, an argument over rank, or a character quietly realizing that another supposedly brilliant plan is probably going to get everyone killed.

The novel is also very much military historical fantasy, with sieges, battlefield tactics, Legion politics, engineering, logistics, magic, and command decisions forming a huge part of the story. Fort Edge establishes that approach early, but the scale keeps increasing through the Celtic campaign, the struggle over the Imperial succession, the siege of Ynys, and the Hun invasion. By the later chapters, political intrigue and warfare are tightly intertwined, so victories on the battlefield matter just as much as what happens in the Senate, the Palace, or the back streets of Subura. The book’s strongest recurring idea is contained in those COB Laws introduced near the beginning: survival matters, but so do loyalty, family, promises, and protecting the people you’ve decided are yours. Those rules start as the rough code of abandoned boys and gradually become a moral framework for decisions that affect an entire empire.

The First Law Is Survival (We Have a Few More) has the scope of epic historical fantasy, but its voice stays informal and quick on its feet. Baikie favors conversation, tactical problem-solving, and character interaction over long scenic description, so the story keeps moving even as the cast and stakes expand. The ending pays off relationships and promises that have been developing since the early chapters, while the epilogue keeps the book’s mischievous streak alive and suggests that power, ambition, and trouble will continue in this world. Readers who enjoy historical fantasy novels with large casts, Roman-style Legions, military strategy, political maneuvering, magic, dark humor, and found-family bonds will find plenty to dig into here. It’s an ambitious, energetic story that treats empires and wars seriously while still letting its characters be funny, stubborn, dangerous, affectionate, and wonderfully human.

Pages: 474 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0HB5XT2VL