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lundos's review against another edition
3.0
Characters heavily influenced by Abercrombie with a pinch of Erikson, and a plot that could have beeen inspired by the old Dark Sun quintet. The Davarus Cole chapters were fun. Smug good-for-nothing 'anti-hero' with delusions and childish mannerisms. Overall enjoyable and a good setup for the next one in the series.
joeri81's review against another edition
3.0
I've been in a bit of a reading slump of lately so it took me a long time to finish this book (about 3,5 months). It's not that it was a bad book, I enjoyed it good enough, I was just focused on other stuff and didn't find the time to read. Once I really started, I finished the remainder of the book in a short time. It's got fluid writing so it is easy to read, it's got a multiple interesting characters, suspense, intruigue, lots of action and a lot of blood and gore ... a lot of things I'm looking for in a good fantasy book. It's probably the fantasy book I enjoyed the most in the last couple of months ... but still I've given it only 3 stars.
The books tells the story about the Trine, consisting mainly of three major cities: Shadowport, Thelassa and Dorminia. Each of them is controlled by a Magelord, one of the few remaining mages who took part in bringing down the Gods 500 years ago. The focus is in the first place on Dorminia and the Magelord Salazar who rules like a tyran over his citizens. It's not unexpecting that there have been plots against him in the past and others are still plotting against him now. One of the groups that want to bring him down are the Shards with their leader Garett, an influencial merchant in the city. Other important characters within the Shards are Davarus Cole, a youngster who thinks too much of himself. There is also Sasha, the love interest of Davarus Cole.
When Cole stumbles into a highlander on one night he triggers a lot of events, bringing him finally to the other side of the Trine, into Thelassa and into the service of the White Lady. The Highlander; Brodar Kayne aka Sword of the North, sets out to destroy the mining business for raw magic with the other Shards. All of this will lead to a great climax at the end with the war between Dorminia and Thelassa.
I can understand the critics that Luke Scull isn't writing one of the most original stories, there are indeed paralells with other books I've read. One of the most cited books are those of Joe Abercrombie and his First Law trilogie. Personnally I'm not a fan of this series, especially the first book is a huge letdown. It gets better from there, but it never gets amazing. In comparison to that trilogy I already liked the first book of the Grim Company better. I'm curious how this will continue in the coming books.
Conclusion:.
The problem with the book is that it doesn't excel in anything. It's enjoyable and it has a lot of good aspects but it lacks the true 4 or 5 star quality I expect from such books. In the end I've given it it only 3,5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars.
Rating: 7.1/10
The books tells the story about the Trine, consisting mainly of three major cities: Shadowport, Thelassa and Dorminia. Each of them is controlled by a Magelord, one of the few remaining mages who took part in bringing down the Gods 500 years ago. The focus is in the first place on Dorminia and the Magelord Salazar who rules like a tyran over his citizens. It's not unexpecting that there have been plots against him in the past and others are still plotting against him now. One of the groups that want to bring him down are the Shards with their leader Garett, an influencial merchant in the city. Other important characters within the Shards are Davarus Cole, a youngster who thinks too much of himself. There is also Sasha, the love interest of Davarus Cole.
When Cole stumbles into a highlander on one night he triggers a lot of events, bringing him finally to the other side of the Trine, into Thelassa and into the service of the White Lady. The Highlander; Brodar Kayne aka Sword of the North, sets out to destroy the mining business for raw magic with the other Shards. All of this will lead to a great climax at the end with the war between Dorminia and Thelassa.
I can understand the critics that Luke Scull isn't writing one of the most original stories, there are indeed paralells with other books I've read. One of the most cited books are those of Joe Abercrombie and his First Law trilogie. Personnally I'm not a fan of this series, especially the first book is a huge letdown. It gets better from there, but it never gets amazing. In comparison to that trilogy I already liked the first book of the Grim Company better. I'm curious how this will continue in the coming books.
Conclusion:.
The problem with the book is that it doesn't excel in anything. It's enjoyable and it has a lot of good aspects but it lacks the true 4 or 5 star quality I expect from such books. In the end I've given it it only 3,5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars.
Rating: 7.1/10
highlanderajax's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Solidly fine, unspectacular. The plot is a fairly standard paint-by-numbers fantasy one, which is fine - there's no reason to mess with something that works. The characters are generally fairly well-written, the action is better than expected, and the world is well-constructed.
However, the book can't really seem to decide what it wants to be. Does it want to be a fantasy world with blood and gore, does it want to poke fun at aspects of those stories, does it want to play things tongue-in-cheek or straight? It's an awkward mix at times, and it leaves the overall tone feeling a little bit jumbled. It occasionally comes across as a slightly watered-down First Law series. There's explosions of that type of bloody, upsetting violence here and there, but then the tone will slide back a bit, only for another scene 20 pages later to revert to the same thing. It's not bad, but it's uneven, and it changes the feeling of the book significantly.
This is a decent enough book. Nice pacing, it's a quick read, and it's fairly entertaining. I probably wouldn't recommend it that much - I feel that most of what it does can be done better by other novels - but it's not bad, and there are interesting enough threads left that I could see myself, at some point, potentially picking up a sequel - if I was looking for another short, not too tough read.
However, the book can't really seem to decide what it wants to be. Does it want to be a fantasy world with blood and gore, does it want to poke fun at aspects of those stories, does it want to play things tongue-in-cheek or straight? It's an awkward mix at times, and it leaves the overall tone feeling a little bit jumbled. It occasionally comes across as a slightly watered-down First Law series. There's explosions of that type of bloody, upsetting violence here and there, but then the tone will slide back a bit, only for another scene 20 pages later to revert to the same thing. It's not bad, but it's uneven, and it changes the feeling of the book significantly.
This is a decent enough book. Nice pacing, it's a quick read, and it's fairly entertaining. I probably wouldn't recommend it that much - I feel that most of what it does can be done better by other novels - but it's not bad, and there are interesting enough threads left that I could see myself, at some point, potentially picking up a sequel - if I was looking for another short, not too tough read.
lubos's review against another edition
3.0
3 / 5
Okej nakoniec dávam 3*
Ono ma to vlastne aj bavilo , len to šlo trochu tažšie...
No zápletka je taká no o ničom (vlastne je to o tom, že je nejaká skupinka,ktorá sa chce zbaviť krutého vládcu a blá blá blá) to tu už bolo nespočetné krát
Ale myšlienka sveta bola fakt dobrá...jop
Okej nakoniec dávam 3*
Ono ma to vlastne aj bavilo , len to šlo trochu tažšie...
No zápletka je taká no o ničom (vlastne je to o tom, že je nejaká skupinka,ktorá sa chce zbaviť krutého vládcu a blá blá blá) to tu už bolo nespočetné krát
Ale myšlienka sveta bola fakt dobrá...jop
dabrit's review against another edition
4.0
Not a bad read, though follows the current trend of being a bit "earthy" and gritty with a bit of swearing. Wouldn't recommend for the younger reader but rolls along. Would be a 3.5 rather than 4 if I could do that!
shane_tiernan's review against another edition
4.0
This book was definitely a pleasant surprise or maybe I should say unpleasant since it's supposed to be in the "grimdark" genre. The good thing about it is that it's not only dark and gritty, there's humor in there but it doesn't feel forced or campy like a lot of fantasy humor. All of the humor centers around Davarus Cole, a brilliant creation of a character type I haven't seen in fantasy before.
This is epic fantasy that's contained in under 500 pages, has plenty of action, really cool magic, an interesting back story and extremely likable characters. It's really brutal, occasionally a little over the top in the believability department, but didn't feel like it was forced. There's a second book but the first one does NOT end with a cliffhanger.
I did this on audio and the narrator was good but one strange thing is that he alternated between calling Davarus' dagger "Mage Bane" and "Mega Bane". The first time he said "Mega Bane" I was worried the story was really going to suck, I almost stopped because it sounded like something from a video game.
In the end I'm really glad I picked up this unknown (to me) author's work and I can't wait for the next book to come out.
This is epic fantasy that's contained in under 500 pages, has plenty of action, really cool magic, an interesting back story and extremely likable characters. It's really brutal, occasionally a little over the top in the believability department, but didn't feel like it was forced. There's a second book but the first one does NOT end with a cliffhanger.
I did this on audio and the narrator was good but one strange thing is that he alternated between calling Davarus' dagger "Mage Bane" and "Mega Bane". The first time he said "Mega Bane" I was worried the story was really going to suck, I almost stopped because it sounded like something from a video game.
In the end I'm really glad I picked up this unknown (to me) author's work and I can't wait for the next book to come out.
zachswain's review against another edition
5.0
Grim dark, a little difficult to follow probably due to how grim dark fantasy is written now. Very reminiscent of other fantasy at the time. Good read, well done, the whole trilogy is worthwhile.
warriorlotdk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
kurt_v's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5