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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Marmell is best known for RPG manuals and related novels (like for Magic: The Gathering) and this is his first original novel. It’s an action fantasy on the sword and sorcery side of the spectrum and it has many traditional elements (ogres, gnomes, named magical swords, demon-infused pendants) without totally feeling like a retread. Sometimes Marmell avoids cliché just by making fun, like Corvis’ reaction when he puts on his old armor for the first time in 17 years: the armor he used to think was awesomely frightening suddenly seems ridiculous and embarrassing, kind of like when you look back on old photos of yourself in junior high and cringe, and his wife laughs at him. I really like that scene. Other times, Marmell dives right in to cliché, like the special weapons with silly fantasy names that change shape depending on the inner character of the wielder.
One of the things I liked about this book was how all of the characters are working a different angle, biding their time until each can bring his or her plans to fruition. Most of them are self-serving to some degree and few of them are loyal because they choose to be. On Corvis’ side, his powerful allies are being blackmailed or coerced and his grunts are being lied to. While Audriss’ powerful allies seem more loyal, I think it’s only because they joined him to gain something (in the case of his supernatural allies, that’s mostly violence, blood, or bodies) and Audriss is delivering what they want. Still, it’s clear that he has a tenuous hold on them at best. Corvis and Audriss, of course, are the shiftiest; in fact, they both even have fake identities. The plot becomes increasingly twisty and chaotic as various characters’ machinations succeed or fail, and the mix of political intrigue, warfare, black humor, and magic keeps the story interesting and fast-paced.
However, one of the problems with this shiftiness is that none of the characters are likable, especially Corvis, who is deceitful and disloyal and self-serving and, worst of all, believes that everything terrible he does is in service to his well-intentioned plan to protect his family. I bought this for the first half of the book, but he grows increasingly Machiavellian and, while I do believe he cares for his family, I don’t think that’s really his motivation by the end. I’m not sure it was at the beginning, either. Though it makes him intriguing, it was hard for me to care about him. It was hard to care about anyone actually, because they’re all shades of the same person: terribly witty, opportunistic, despicable, and violent. After so many biting conversations and backstabbing, they all start to blend together.
My other big problem is the prologue. Prologues are one of those things you either love or hate, see the necessity of or think are pointless. I mostly think they are pointless, though I have read some good ones, and this one seems especially unnecessary. It covers the final events of Corvis’ first war, his search for the spellbook, and his desertion of his army. These are all things that are rehashed later, but that’s not my main problem with it. My main problem is it’s written differently from the rest of the book, and by differently I mean badly. It’s full of grandstanding, overblown prose, with way too many adjectives and adverbs and one cliché after another. The rest of the book is written in a more modern tone, much less high fantasy and much less purple. I don’t know what happened. I can’t decide if it’s supposed to be an ironic contrast or if it’s written that way in earnest. I can see it as a send-up of genre conventions, because of scenes like the one I mentioned earlier, where Corvis realizes how dumb his old armor is, but if so, it’s not done well enough to be effective. It’s still painful to read. If the whole book had been written that way, I never would have finished it.
I did not see the ending coming, however, and it was a perfect heist movie finish (such as, the criminal gets away with a big score, tricking his enemies, allies, and even the audience), so I will definitely have to read the sequel to see what Corvis does next. He makes for a very dark trickster figure, and that’s enough to keep me interested in him, even if I also despise him a little.
One of the things I liked about this book was how all of the characters are working a different angle, biding their time until each can bring his or her plans to fruition. Most of them are self-serving to some degree and few of them are loyal because they choose to be. On Corvis’ side, his powerful allies are being blackmailed or coerced and his grunts are being lied to. While Audriss’ powerful allies seem more loyal, I think it’s only because they joined him to gain something (in the case of his supernatural allies, that’s mostly violence, blood, or bodies) and Audriss is delivering what they want. Still, it’s clear that he has a tenuous hold on them at best. Corvis and Audriss, of course, are the shiftiest; in fact, they both even have fake identities. The plot becomes increasingly twisty and chaotic as various characters’ machinations succeed or fail, and the mix of political intrigue, warfare, black humor, and magic keeps the story interesting and fast-paced.
However, one of the problems with this shiftiness is that none of the characters are likable, especially Corvis, who is deceitful and disloyal and self-serving and, worst of all, believes that everything terrible he does is in service to his well-intentioned plan to protect his family. I bought this for the first half of the book, but he grows increasingly Machiavellian and, while I do believe he cares for his family, I don’t think that’s really his motivation by the end. I’m not sure it was at the beginning, either. Though it makes him intriguing, it was hard for me to care about him. It was hard to care about anyone actually, because they’re all shades of the same person: terribly witty, opportunistic, despicable, and violent. After so many biting conversations and backstabbing, they all start to blend together.
My other big problem is the prologue. Prologues are one of those things you either love or hate, see the necessity of or think are pointless. I mostly think they are pointless, though I have read some good ones, and this one seems especially unnecessary. It covers the final events of Corvis’ first war, his search for the spellbook, and his desertion of his army. These are all things that are rehashed later, but that’s not my main problem with it. My main problem is it’s written differently from the rest of the book, and by differently I mean badly. It’s full of grandstanding, overblown prose, with way too many adjectives and adverbs and one cliché after another. The rest of the book is written in a more modern tone, much less high fantasy and much less purple. I don’t know what happened. I can’t decide if it’s supposed to be an ironic contrast or if it’s written that way in earnest. I can see it as a send-up of genre conventions, because of scenes like the one I mentioned earlier, where Corvis realizes how dumb his old armor is, but if so, it’s not done well enough to be effective. It’s still painful to read. If the whole book had been written that way, I never would have finished it.
I did not see the ending coming, however, and it was a perfect heist movie finish (such as, the criminal gets away with a big score, tricking his enemies, allies, and even the audience), so I will definitely have to read the sequel to see what Corvis does next. He makes for a very dark trickster figure, and that’s enough to keep me interested in him, even if I also despise him a little.
This is one of those books that's been sitting in the pile for a while at Hobbit Towers. I’ve not been avoiding it, just haven’t managed to get to it. Whilst it was lurking there, Youngest Hobbit looked at the cover of this one (portraying a huge axe), and says to me, “Dad, some of the books you read have great covers!”
The cover actually does sum this one up fairly well – a large, no, LARGE, axe with strange symbols on it, outlined in red – could be blood, could be something else. You know that this one is going to involve violence and gore and..... well, it won’t be pretty.
But: hold on. What Ari tries to do here is something interesting, to tell the tale of a Conqueror – Corvis Rebaine, Terror of the East – but by what happens twenty years later, when the Conqueror has conquered and gone away to hide in seclusion with his wife and family.
Of course, his opponents are not going to let him get away with being hidden and his home and family are discovered, with the consequence that he has to don the old armour of ‘the Terror’ and then go off to collect his former allies, the demon Khanda (held captive in a magic token), the ogre Davro and the wood-witch Seilloah, in order to take on his nemesis, Audriss.
So, we have witches, ogres and magic. Not to mention nasty goblins. Nothing particularly new there, either. The plot is really a rewritten The Magnificent Seven re-imagined as Fantasy. The main plot idea - that of the ‘old warrior returning’ is not really new, and goes back to Gemmell’s Druss for example. There are touches of black magic, possessed weaponry (hello, Elric?) and vampirism to riff off also.
Such obvious tropes might be a tad repetitive to some. However, there’s a lot to like here. The tale is told is very entertaining. Its strength is in its witty dialogue and a sense of dry amusement along the journey. There’s some nice characterisation, especially in the character of Corvis, and the tale is, in turns, both creepy and amusing.
As a result, it wasn’t long before I wanted to keep turning the pages, even though I could see what was coming. The fight scenes are suitably gory and bloody, the ending quite impressive. There are some nice little twists along the way, that Ari manages to use which make the tale a little less sturm und drang and a little more thoughtful. I particularly liked the fact that each chapter starts with a moment of backstory before continuing the plot of the present. It is how we get an idea of how Corvis became the respected and feared man he was, and it does highlight the point that some leaders are there not by choice but by means of responsibility.
And in the end, the conclusion is perhaps inevitable. Such matters rarely end well for someone.
In summary, this is a great page turner which also raises questions – can a man whose life has involved nasty, horrific things ever be something else? Can they, or should they, ever try to recoup past glories?
This revenge tale is worth the telling.
The cover actually does sum this one up fairly well – a large, no, LARGE, axe with strange symbols on it, outlined in red – could be blood, could be something else. You know that this one is going to involve violence and gore and..... well, it won’t be pretty.
But: hold on. What Ari tries to do here is something interesting, to tell the tale of a Conqueror – Corvis Rebaine, Terror of the East – but by what happens twenty years later, when the Conqueror has conquered and gone away to hide in seclusion with his wife and family.
Of course, his opponents are not going to let him get away with being hidden and his home and family are discovered, with the consequence that he has to don the old armour of ‘the Terror’ and then go off to collect his former allies, the demon Khanda (held captive in a magic token), the ogre Davro and the wood-witch Seilloah, in order to take on his nemesis, Audriss.
So, we have witches, ogres and magic. Not to mention nasty goblins. Nothing particularly new there, either. The plot is really a rewritten The Magnificent Seven re-imagined as Fantasy. The main plot idea - that of the ‘old warrior returning’ is not really new, and goes back to Gemmell’s Druss for example. There are touches of black magic, possessed weaponry (hello, Elric?) and vampirism to riff off also.
Such obvious tropes might be a tad repetitive to some. However, there’s a lot to like here. The tale is told is very entertaining. Its strength is in its witty dialogue and a sense of dry amusement along the journey. There’s some nice characterisation, especially in the character of Corvis, and the tale is, in turns, both creepy and amusing.
As a result, it wasn’t long before I wanted to keep turning the pages, even though I could see what was coming. The fight scenes are suitably gory and bloody, the ending quite impressive. There are some nice little twists along the way, that Ari manages to use which make the tale a little less sturm und drang and a little more thoughtful. I particularly liked the fact that each chapter starts with a moment of backstory before continuing the plot of the present. It is how we get an idea of how Corvis became the respected and feared man he was, and it does highlight the point that some leaders are there not by choice but by means of responsibility.
And in the end, the conclusion is perhaps inevitable. Such matters rarely end well for someone.
In summary, this is a great page turner which also raises questions – can a man whose life has involved nasty, horrific things ever be something else? Can they, or should they, ever try to recoup past glories?
This revenge tale is worth the telling.
I always liked anti-hero stories...
And this is one of the better ones I have read. While it could use some more fleshing out of Corvis's history so we could get a better grasp of why he chose to try and take over the kingdom, the flashbacks do an adequate job of giving a framework.
And this is one of the better ones I have read. While it could use some more fleshing out of Corvis's history so we could get a better grasp of why he chose to try and take over the kingdom, the flashbacks do an adequate job of giving a framework.
Can't quite bring myself to give this one 3 stars. It's not bad; it's fast-paced, exciting reading that draws you in and zips by (good airplane reading). But it doesn't do anything more: all the characters are paper thin, with actually zero effort devoted to exploring the motivations of the female characters in particular. The story gestures at some interesting questions but ultimately prefers to go the way of monsters and explosions rather than explore them. And finally, the way violence is treated in the book is a little weird: things are described in sometimes gruesome detail, we're told the characters are horrified, even traumatized, and then three pages later the characters have forgotten anything happened and are back to cracking (corny) jokes.
I'd heard good things about Marmell, and perhaps he's just a little rusty in his debut, but I left this one disappointed.
I'd heard good things about Marmell, and perhaps he's just a little rusty in his debut, but I left this one disappointed.
My thoughts:
I liked it, a lot. There was something light over the whole book, even in the darkness. Corvis is not someone you should like, but how could I not like him. At the beginning of the book he does his name credit, he is not a nice person, quite the opposite. The he disappears and marries, haves children, only to see the world break again. And again he shows that he truly is The Terror of The East. But sometimes you just have to love the evil guy, because at least this time he wants to protect his wife and children. Marmell sure does a great job creating this character you just fall for.
There is humour and a streak of light through out the book. Much come from Khanda, his "pet" demon. That demon has a tongue on him and says what he wants. To my horror I like him too, even when he is feasting on souls. There is also his once trusted friends, great sidekicks there.
The book does what fantasy should do. It sweeps you into a new world and make you feel right at home there. A kingdom that can not stand together, the guilds wants one thing, the nobles another thing, and a new enemy that wants to have it all. There are battles, death, destruction, and one good plot that had me guessing.
But the thing I did like the best was how much I liked these characters, and how I wanted to read more about them. The book ends where it ends. A nice conclusion and that is it. But it leaves an opening and there will be another book, and I want that book.
Recommendation and final thoughts:
Of course I am recommending this book, I could not put it down, and I did not want to put it down either. It was fun, it was light, it was dark, it was a great ride. I have to give it a 4 and I hope he keeps up the good work.
So go read it, and I promise you will like Corvis too.
I liked it, a lot. There was something light over the whole book, even in the darkness. Corvis is not someone you should like, but how could I not like him. At the beginning of the book he does his name credit, he is not a nice person, quite the opposite. The he disappears and marries, haves children, only to see the world break again. And again he shows that he truly is The Terror of The East. But sometimes you just have to love the evil guy, because at least this time he wants to protect his wife and children. Marmell sure does a great job creating this character you just fall for.
There is humour and a streak of light through out the book. Much come from Khanda, his "pet" demon. That demon has a tongue on him and says what he wants. To my horror I like him too, even when he is feasting on souls. There is also his once trusted friends, great sidekicks there.
The book does what fantasy should do. It sweeps you into a new world and make you feel right at home there. A kingdom that can not stand together, the guilds wants one thing, the nobles another thing, and a new enemy that wants to have it all. There are battles, death, destruction, and one good plot that had me guessing.
But the thing I did like the best was how much I liked these characters, and how I wanted to read more about them. The book ends where it ends. A nice conclusion and that is it. But it leaves an opening and there will be another book, and I want that book.
Recommendation and final thoughts:
Of course I am recommending this book, I could not put it down, and I did not want to put it down either. It was fun, it was light, it was dark, it was a great ride. I have to give it a 4 and I hope he keeps up the good work.
So go read it, and I promise you will like Corvis too.
Great fantasy novel with some surprising twists. Well worth it.
Great stuff, this. Marmell does really good fantasy.
I absolutely loved the concept behind this book. A ruthless conqueror redeemed by the power of love? Be still my heart. The author did an incredible job of balancing Corvis’ devotion to his family with the inner warlord that will always be a part of him. I really liked Corvis despite (or maybe because of) his moral ambiguity, but I also loved the secondary characters. Khanda was a particular favorite, as was Davro. Each secondary character had a distinct personality, and I really loved getting to know all of them in turn. I even liked the twist at the end when Audriss’ real identity was revealed. I—along with Corvis—though I was so smart and had it all figured out long before then, but I enjoyed being proven wrong. The action was fast-paced, the writing witty and descriptive without getting bogged down in its own brilliance, and the overall feel of the book was very much a fantasy one. I’m delighted to know there’s a sequel to this fabulous book.
This is one of those books that's been sitting in the pile for a while at Hobbit Towers. I’ve not been avoiding it, just haven’t managed to get to it. Whilst it was lurking there, Youngest Hobbit looked at the cover of this one (portraying a huge axe), and says to me, “Dad, some of the books you read have great covers!”
The cover actually does sum this one up fairly well – a large, no, LARGE, axe with strange symbols on it, outlined in red – could be blood, could be something else. You know that this one is going to involve violence and gore and..... well, it won’t be pretty.
But: hold on. What Ari tries to do here is something interesting, to tell the tale of a Conqueror – Corvis Rebaine, Terror of the East – but by what happens twenty years later, when the Conqueror has conquered and gone away to hide in seclusion with his wife and family.
Of course, his opponents are not going to let him get away with being hidden and his home and family are discovered, with the consequence that he has to don the old armour of ‘the Terror’ and then go off to collect his former allies, the demon Khanda (held captive in a magic token), the ogre Davro and the wood-witch Seilloah, in order to take on his nemesis, Audriss.
So, we have witches, ogres and magic. Not to mention nasty goblins. Nothing particularly new there, either. The plot is really a rewritten The Magnificent Seven re-imagined as Fantasy. The main plot idea - that of the ‘old warrior returning’ is not really new, and goes back to Gemmell’s Druss for example. There are touches of black magic, possessed weaponry (hello, Elric?) and vampirism to riff off also.
Such obvious tropes might be a tad repetitive to some. However, there’s a lot to like here. The tale is told is very entertaining. Its strength is in its witty dialogue and a sense of dry amusement along the journey. There’s some nice characterisation, especially in the character of Corvis, and the tale is, in turns, both creepy and amusing.
As a result, it wasn’t long before I wanted to keep turning the pages, even though I could see what was coming. The fight scenes are suitably gory and bloody, the ending quite impressive. There are some nice little twists along the way, that Ari manages to use which make the tale a little less sturm und drang and a little more thoughtful. I particularly liked the fact that each chapter starts with a moment of backstory before continuing the plot of the present. It is how we get an idea of how Corvis became the respected and feared man he was, and it does highlight the point that some leaders are there not by choice but by means of responsibility.
And in the end, the conclusion is perhaps inevitable. Such matters rarely end well for someone.
In summary, this is a great page turner which also raises questions – can a man whose life has involved nasty, horrific things ever be something else? Can they, or should they, ever try to recoup past glories?
This revenge tale is worth the telling.
The cover actually does sum this one up fairly well – a large, no, LARGE, axe with strange symbols on it, outlined in red – could be blood, could be something else. You know that this one is going to involve violence and gore and..... well, it won’t be pretty.
But: hold on. What Ari tries to do here is something interesting, to tell the tale of a Conqueror – Corvis Rebaine, Terror of the East – but by what happens twenty years later, when the Conqueror has conquered and gone away to hide in seclusion with his wife and family.
Of course, his opponents are not going to let him get away with being hidden and his home and family are discovered, with the consequence that he has to don the old armour of ‘the Terror’ and then go off to collect his former allies, the demon Khanda (held captive in a magic token), the ogre Davro and the wood-witch Seilloah, in order to take on his nemesis, Audriss.
So, we have witches, ogres and magic. Not to mention nasty goblins. Nothing particularly new there, either. The plot is really a rewritten The Magnificent Seven re-imagined as Fantasy. The main plot idea - that of the ‘old warrior returning’ is not really new, and goes back to Gemmell’s Druss for example. There are touches of black magic, possessed weaponry (hello, Elric?) and vampirism to riff off also.
Such obvious tropes might be a tad repetitive to some. However, there’s a lot to like here. The tale is told is very entertaining. Its strength is in its witty dialogue and a sense of dry amusement along the journey. There’s some nice characterisation, especially in the character of Corvis, and the tale is, in turns, both creepy and amusing.
As a result, it wasn’t long before I wanted to keep turning the pages, even though I could see what was coming. The fight scenes are suitably gory and bloody, the ending quite impressive. There are some nice little twists along the way, that Ari manages to use which make the tale a little less sturm und drang and a little more thoughtful. I particularly liked the fact that each chapter starts with a moment of backstory before continuing the plot of the present. It is how we get an idea of how Corvis became the respected and feared man he was, and it does highlight the point that some leaders are there not by choice but by means of responsibility.
And in the end, the conclusion is perhaps inevitable. Such matters rarely end well for someone.
In summary, this is a great page turner which also raises questions – can a man whose life has involved nasty, horrific things ever be something else? Can they, or should they, ever try to recoup past glories?
This revenge tale is worth the telling.
Great stuff, this. Marmell does really good fantasy.