First things first, let me just say I was offered a copy of this book (by Tickety Boo Press) in exchange for a fair and honest review.
The book is a re-issue (originally published in 1991) but has aged well and does not feel out of place in today's market. The actual writing style (and believe me, Ms. Edgerton has a very sumptuous prose style) means the story reads like one of the classics. Imagine, if you will, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Terry Pratchett writing together (with possibly a hint of Stan Lee) and you will have an idea of what to expect.
The setting is a 'Regency-esque' one with what I tend to think of as an Upstairs/Downstairs cast of characters. You have the upper classes (the sickly Elsie, her companion Sera, the foppish Lord Skelbrooke - who may be more than he seems), and the lower classes (represented by the likes of Caleb Braun and his grand-nephew Jedidiah). Add to this Dwarves, Gnomes, Goblins, Trolls etc. and you have a varied and colourful assembly.
The story starts with Caleb and Jedidiah working as river scavengers (as the name implies they make their living scavaging what they can from the river). What they find when they open a coffin they have 'retrieved' as it floats downriver sets up one strand of the story. There is plenty going on though besides this, but not enough to make it over complicated. What keeps the story tied together nicely is that most of the main characters know each other, even though they move in different circles most of the time (Jenk, the antiquarian book dealer is Grandfather to Sera, Caleb ends up working for Jenk, Sera and Jedidiah have known each other for years...so on and so forth)
As a fantasy novel it is quite unlike most other stories in the genre - and that is a good thing. There are no sprawling quests or epic journeys here, just a dark brooding city that feels not unlike Pratchett's Ankh Morpork at times. A city with more than its' fair share of undesirables, a city with places you don't want to be after dark (to be honest, places you don't want to be in broad daylight!), a city in need of...........A HERO!!
There were moments I found myself holding my breath as I read, and moments I felt like giving a rousing "Hurrah!" A thoroughly enjoyable read and a book I think will be just right now that the nights are drawing in. If I did find a downside, my only real gripe (and it is a tiny one really) was that there seemed to be a lot of clothing terms I didn't know and had to look up - but that's just me and will not stop me from giving a rating of 4.5 out of 5. I look forward to reading the next in the series when it comes out.
Monday, 20 October 2014
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Betrayal's Shadow (Mahaelian Chronicle, Book 1) by Dave-Brendon de Burgh (a review)
Just for perspective, I have been reading and loving epic fantasy novels ever since I picked up a copy of Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad book 1)in 1983. That's 30 years ago, and since that fateful day I have read a lot...and I mean A LOT! Most new series that came out, I was there. With the dawn of the kindle/e-reader age the field got bigger, and, to be fair, the quality wasn't always there.
The main problem, for me, was variety. Realistically there are only so many times you can join the farmboy/villager/baker/general low-born person destined to be king in a quest for the sword of destiny/magic ring/family heirloom that will save the world. What I want is someone to raise the bar a little, tell me a new story. There are authors out there who do - Sanderson, Rothfuss, Abercrombie and now Dave-Brendon de Burgh (DBdB).
DBdB tells a story full of momentous WOW! moments. There is a cast of characters that walk that grey line between good people and bad. Not everything is clear, right up to the very last page you will be wondering at motives. I do not want to drop spoilers, so what I am going to do is tell you what made this stand out for me (you can get the story synopsis from the amazon kindle page)
First off is the world - from our first meeting with High General Brice Serholm on an island populated by babarian tribesmen to the markets and on to the Palace where lives a king who has ruled for 500 years the whole world comes to life. You don't just read the story, you are left with a sense of actually being there as events unfold.
Secondly, the characters. As I said earlier, many of the characters occupy the grey area between truly good and truly bad people, often doing what they have to whether they want to or not. These charaters do not have an easy time and, revelations (which I never saw coming) later in the book only continue to make things tougher for them - and books 2 and 3 are only going to make their problems grow.
Finally, the magic systems. For me this is where DBdB really ups the stakes. Magic can be a very difficult thing to do differently but believe me when I say DBdB really does pull it off. There is a scene early on, at a place called Shorwin's Hold, where a battle takes place and the first real use of magic occurred. Suffice to say I was amazed, a brilliant and, clever way of using magic - beat that I thought. And he did....... In a later scene a man is taken for execution - reading the scene I thought "oh, probably get his head chopped off or something along those lines". I was wrong....very wrong. I can honestly say, hand on heart, I never expected the method. It was stunning, mind-numbing in a way and will live with me for a very long time. Bravo Sir.
As for the story itself - I said earlier on that it was epic fantasy, and, while this is true, it is so much more than that as well. There is a hint of sci-fi in there also. And the monsters (and to be fair, there has to be monsters) are straight from horror fiction with more than a hint of the zombie apocalypse. In lesser hands this could be an awkward mix to get right but, like a master baker DBdB has got the ingredients just right. The ending, indeed the whole story, sets things up nicely for book 2, which I wait for with baited breath (until then, there is also a prequel novella - A Song of Sacrifice, also available on amazon).
Fantasy fiction needs authors with new ideas, authors that will surprise you with revelations and bombshells you never saw coming, authors that can say "step into my world and prepare to be challenged". Dave-Brendon de Burgh does all of these things. As a first novel, this is probably the best I have read since Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. Big boots to fill but this author, in my eyes will do it.
The purchase links (Amazon USA and UK) are available in the comment under this post
The main problem, for me, was variety. Realistically there are only so many times you can join the farmboy/villager/baker/general low-born person destined to be king in a quest for the sword of destiny/magic ring/family heirloom that will save the world. What I want is someone to raise the bar a little, tell me a new story. There are authors out there who do - Sanderson, Rothfuss, Abercrombie and now Dave-Brendon de Burgh (DBdB).
DBdB tells a story full of momentous WOW! moments. There is a cast of characters that walk that grey line between good people and bad. Not everything is clear, right up to the very last page you will be wondering at motives. I do not want to drop spoilers, so what I am going to do is tell you what made this stand out for me (you can get the story synopsis from the amazon kindle page)
First off is the world - from our first meeting with High General Brice Serholm on an island populated by babarian tribesmen to the markets and on to the Palace where lives a king who has ruled for 500 years the whole world comes to life. You don't just read the story, you are left with a sense of actually being there as events unfold.
Secondly, the characters. As I said earlier, many of the characters occupy the grey area between truly good and truly bad people, often doing what they have to whether they want to or not. These charaters do not have an easy time and, revelations (which I never saw coming) later in the book only continue to make things tougher for them - and books 2 and 3 are only going to make their problems grow.
Finally, the magic systems. For me this is where DBdB really ups the stakes. Magic can be a very difficult thing to do differently but believe me when I say DBdB really does pull it off. There is a scene early on, at a place called Shorwin's Hold, where a battle takes place and the first real use of magic occurred. Suffice to say I was amazed, a brilliant and, clever way of using magic - beat that I thought. And he did....... In a later scene a man is taken for execution - reading the scene I thought "oh, probably get his head chopped off or something along those lines". I was wrong....very wrong. I can honestly say, hand on heart, I never expected the method. It was stunning, mind-numbing in a way and will live with me for a very long time. Bravo Sir.
As for the story itself - I said earlier on that it was epic fantasy, and, while this is true, it is so much more than that as well. There is a hint of sci-fi in there also. And the monsters (and to be fair, there has to be monsters) are straight from horror fiction with more than a hint of the zombie apocalypse. In lesser hands this could be an awkward mix to get right but, like a master baker DBdB has got the ingredients just right. The ending, indeed the whole story, sets things up nicely for book 2, which I wait for with baited breath (until then, there is also a prequel novella - A Song of Sacrifice, also available on amazon).
Fantasy fiction needs authors with new ideas, authors that will surprise you with revelations and bombshells you never saw coming, authors that can say "step into my world and prepare to be challenged". Dave-Brendon de Burgh does all of these things. As a first novel, this is probably the best I have read since Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series. Big boots to fill but this author, in my eyes will do it.
The purchase links (Amazon USA and UK) are available in the comment under this post
Thursday, 2 October 2014
Betrayal's Shadow by Dave-Brendon de Burgh - some thoughts
As you may be aware, I read a lot and always have done for as long as I can remember. Although I read most genres my main area has always been fantasy, and more particularly Epic Fantasy. I guess it's the whole "new worlds, New creatures, new quests, journeys, magic etc".
The downside to being a fantasy reader though is repetition, repetition, repetition. There are only so many tales of humble farm boys becoming the King you can realistically get through before tedium sets in.
Over the last few years a few author's have stepped up the game with new magic systems, story ideas etc, the fore runners here being the likes of Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss and Joe Abercrombie. Well, to this list you can now add the name of Dave-Brendon de Burgh the South African author of Betrayal's Shadow (book 1 of the Mahaelian Chronicle).
I am only about half way through this and a review will appear on here when I've finished it but I had to post so I could share his world with you. It is a world painted with a broad brush, where the buildings, the scenery, the knights, and other citizens step off the page and into your imagination fully formed and raring to go. Imagine a scene, set in a market, which is so vividly written you can smell the wares on the stalls - that's what you get here. What really got me itching to post though was the magic. A magic so potent and so powerful it actually left me stunned at what I had just read......and this is in the first half of a book that just keeps getting better and better. This is, I believe, the most exciting new fantasy novel /world for me since Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.
As I said, a review will be posted on here when I have finished but until then, if fantasy is your thing, do whatever you have to do to get your hands on a copy, you won't be sorry. And remember the name - Dave-Brendon de Burgh - you'll be hearing a lot of him in the future.