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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
***Mild spoilers but honestly there is nothing to spoil***
Don't know what to say about this. First half is pure musket and marching action, last 20% There's zombies, demons, forcefields... None of it properly built up.
I don't know if I'm comparing this too much to Way of Kings and The Heroes, maybe I am, but this just was not working for me plotwise. It's not grimdark at all. It's not fun. Not creative. No humour... Very formulaic, (black and white movie type formulaic). Very optimistic, sunny, very "Oh boy, oh boy! Today is mighty fine for marching ain't it?" There are no real surprises, no real twists, no real villain, or even slightly bad shady person (except for Evil Meanie Murder-Plotting Bully Brute Rapist Misogynist Racist Transphobic Davis who is the only thing good in the book but hovers somewhere near being Bluto (from Popeye) who is the dumping ground for every single bad thing), nothing really at all aside from a kind of Cowboys and Indians type action. Or rather, that kind of civil war reenactment type action.
Character wise, it does marginally better.
Winter Ihernglass does the absolute worst job of pretending to be a man, and seeing the author is actually a man, it's weird to me that he made her so decidedly feminine, complete with fainting spells. Bobby, another girl in supposed hiding, is just as effeminate in disguise. I don't get how they could pass as men for a day for a less of years... At no point do these soldiers go through any kind of medical or fitness examination. It's the epitome of "don't ask don't tell". They find each other and along with the standard captive priestess of all these type of Arabian-ish stories, they just girl bond and look out for each other in a weird platonic girl roommate situation.
The Spy is obviously a spy so... Don't know why anyone would trust a person who introduces themselves "Hey, I'm from the Ministry of Spying, Lies and Backstabbing. But I'm cool. Mind if I lazily seduce you?" And as for the Colonel being enigmatic or charismatic or however they describe him in the synopsis? LIES. All I know about him is his eyes are grey and are always constantly "flashing with _____" and that he "smiles like summer lightning". Aside from that - Zzzzzzzz.
Marcus... I could literally eat a book (paperback), vomit it back up half digested, make a paper maché dummy from the vomit, leave the dummy to sun dry for a week, and THAT DRIED OUT HUSK WOULD HAVE MORE LIFE IN HIM THAN MARCUS.
The audiobook narrator reads it with all the vim and vigour he could muster, but the plot of this book is so tedious. It's like listening to a very dramatic person describe in vivid detail paint drying. Or like somebody narrating along to a child drawing a connect the dots puzzle. "She went from 2 to 5, ignoring 3 and 4 COMPLETELY! Only when her crayon had reached 5 did she see the wrongness of what she had done. But luckily she had not lost or broken her crayon. Her grip was firmer than ever! I will go back, she resolved grimly. I will go back to two, and go on to three and then four. And five will have to fend for itself until she could get back to it."
Don't know what to say about this. First half is pure musket and marching action, last 20% There's zombies, demons, forcefields... None of it properly built up.
I don't know if I'm comparing this too much to Way of Kings and The Heroes, maybe I am, but this just was not working for me plotwise. It's not grimdark at all. It's not fun. Not creative. No humour... Very formulaic, (black and white movie type formulaic). Very optimistic, sunny, very "Oh boy, oh boy! Today is mighty fine for marching ain't it?" There are no real surprises, no real twists, no real villain, or even slightly bad shady person (except for Evil Meanie Murder-Plotting Bully Brute Rapist Misogynist Racist Transphobic Davis who is the only thing good in the book but hovers somewhere near being Bluto (from Popeye) who is the dumping ground for every single bad thing), nothing really at all aside from a kind of Cowboys and Indians type action. Or rather, that kind of civil war reenactment type action.
Character wise, it does marginally better.
Winter Ihernglass does the absolute worst job of pretending to be a man, and seeing the author is actually a man, it's weird to me that he made her so decidedly feminine, complete with fainting spells. Bobby, another girl in supposed hiding, is just as effeminate in disguise. I don't get how they could pass as men for a day for a less of years... At no point do these soldiers go through any kind of medical or fitness examination. It's the epitome of "don't ask don't tell". They find each other and along with the standard captive priestess of all these type of Arabian-ish stories, they just girl bond and look out for each other in a weird platonic girl roommate situation.
The Spy is obviously a spy so... Don't know why anyone would trust a person who introduces themselves "Hey, I'm from the Ministry of Spying, Lies and Backstabbing. But I'm cool. Mind if I lazily seduce you?" And as for the Colonel being enigmatic or charismatic or however they describe him in the synopsis? LIES. All I know about him is his eyes are grey and are always constantly "flashing with _____" and that he "smiles like summer lightning". Aside from that - Zzzzzzzz.
Marcus... I could literally eat a book (paperback), vomit it back up half digested, make a paper maché dummy from the vomit, leave the dummy to sun dry for a week, and THAT DRIED OUT HUSK WOULD HAVE MORE LIFE IN HIM THAN MARCUS.
The audiobook narrator reads it with all the vim and vigour he could muster, but the plot of this book is so tedious. It's like listening to a very dramatic person describe in vivid detail paint drying. Or like somebody narrating along to a child drawing a connect the dots puzzle. "She went from 2 to 5, ignoring 3 and 4 COMPLETELY! Only when her crayon had reached 5 did she see the wrongness of what she had done. But luckily she had not lost or broken her crayon. Her grip was firmer than ever! I will go back, she resolved grimly. I will go back to two, and go on to three and then four. And five will have to fend for itself until she could get back to it."
3.5 out of 5 stars
After striking out with The Powder Mage series and not completely loving this series-starter, I’m not convinced that “flintlock fantasy” is the subgenre for me. Even so, there is a lot to like about this book -- interesting cultures, well-written characters, and unexpected twists to name a few. I learned more about military ranks, formations, and factions than I thought possible even when the overall story gets bogged down by long battle sequences that I struggled to follow.
It sounds like the second book improves upon many of the stumbling blocks I encountered within this first book (fewer battles, more focus on characters, better pacing/plotting, etc.), but I’m not going to rush out to devour it. Book 2 will likely fall to the bottom of my TBR pile, but I’m not ready to give up on the series just yet.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
After striking out with The Powder Mage series and not completely loving this series-starter, I’m not convinced that “flintlock fantasy” is the subgenre for me. Even so, there is a lot to like about this book -- interesting cultures, well-written characters, and unexpected twists to name a few. I learned more about military ranks, formations, and factions than I thought possible even when the overall story gets bogged down by long battle sequences that I struggled to follow.
It sounds like the second book improves upon many of the stumbling blocks I encountered within this first book (fewer battles, more focus on characters, better pacing/plotting, etc.), but I’m not going to rush out to devour it. Book 2 will likely fall to the bottom of my TBR pile, but I’m not ready to give up on the series just yet.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.5 out of 5
Recently, I was looking for a good fantasy book, and The Thousand Names happened to come onto my radar. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but when I learned that it featured a woman disguised as a male soldier, I immediately thought of the Alanna series by Tamora Pierce. Logically, I knew this book would be no where close to the same, but I thought it was a great premise that spoke to my past teenage reader brain. The Thousand Names was an interesting read, although it had a lot more military details than I was expecting, this kind of description isn't really my "thing" when reading. That said, I ended up quite liking this one, and I'm looking forward to book two, The Shadow Throne.
The Thousand Names is set in an alternate world. My impression was that it was a more Middle Eastern culture due to the desert setting. The Vordan have a military base in Khandar, and it's where the dregs of the Vordanai military are sent in punishment. However, this unimportant outpost is about to get a lot more notice when Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich arrives to take command following a rebellion. His stated plan is to win back the throne for the Khandarian prince; however, it soon becomes clear to the Vordanian captain that Janus just might have an alternative mission in the works.The Thousand Names is told mostly in two alternating viewpoints. The first is Captain Marcus d'Ivoire, the reluctant captain of the army in Khandar. He rose to captaincy following the rebellion in Khandar and now serves Colonel Janus. The second narrative is from Winter Ihernglass, a woman who's on the run from her past and made a patched together life for herself in the army. By happenstance, Winter finds herself promoted and leading a group of men. Both Marcus and Winter are not your typical leaders. They are more hesitant and questioning, but this is what makes them good leaders. Each of them come into their own by the end of the novel, and that self-actualization showed a level of depth that I wasn't expecting. However, learning to be a good leader is the least of their problems as they come to realize just exactly what they are up against.
For the most part, I enjoyed The Thousand Names, although I found the first half of the book to be rather slow moving. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the military descriptions; it felt a little like a war history book at times. In fact, I was reading The Black Count at the same time, and there were times that I confused fact and fiction. I consider that a compliment to the author for creating such a vivid, and realistic depiction of military life. While it's not my preference, I recognize how well thought out and well constructed this world was. Due to the time spent on the military campaign, I found that it took awhile for The Thousand Names to really get started, but by the time I got half way through, the action really picked up and I was invested in the outcome for Marcus and Winter.
What I would have liked more of was more time spent with the characters. Both Marcus and Winter were compelling in their own ways, but I felt that it took a long time before readers were able to really "get to know" both characters. I was also surprised that Marcus and Winter rarely interacted with each other. They were little better than acquaintances and I was expected them to have more of a friendship or at least a working relationship. This worked for The Thousand Names since each narrative offered a new lens to view the campaign, but I hope in book two that they have more of an opportunity to build a friendship. I'd also like to know how Marcus would react to finding out Winter is a woman. From what we learn about him, I don't think he'd be all that sanguine about the realization. I think there's potential for these to be quite the team, but to be clear, it's not a romantic partnership, which is a-okay by me.
With the ending of this book I can't wait for The Shadow Throne to come out in July. I have so many questions! And I hope some of them will be answered in book two. But what I'm really looking forward to is how the characters will grow and change in a new setting. The principle characters are heading back home to Vordan and I think it's going to open up a can of worms. Marcus and Winter are both going to have to face their past and it doesn't look rosy for either of them.
For similar reads, see my blog.
Recently, I was looking for a good fantasy book, and The Thousand Names happened to come onto my radar. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but when I learned that it featured a woman disguised as a male soldier, I immediately thought of the Alanna series by Tamora Pierce. Logically, I knew this book would be no where close to the same, but I thought it was a great premise that spoke to my past teenage reader brain. The Thousand Names was an interesting read, although it had a lot more military details than I was expecting, this kind of description isn't really my "thing" when reading. That said, I ended up quite liking this one, and I'm looking forward to book two, The Shadow Throne.
The Thousand Names is set in an alternate world. My impression was that it was a more Middle Eastern culture due to the desert setting. The Vordan have a military base in Khandar, and it's where the dregs of the Vordanai military are sent in punishment. However, this unimportant outpost is about to get a lot more notice when Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich arrives to take command following a rebellion. His stated plan is to win back the throne for the Khandarian prince; however, it soon becomes clear to the Vordanian captain that Janus just might have an alternative mission in the works.The Thousand Names is told mostly in two alternating viewpoints. The first is Captain Marcus d'Ivoire, the reluctant captain of the army in Khandar. He rose to captaincy following the rebellion in Khandar and now serves Colonel Janus. The second narrative is from Winter Ihernglass, a woman who's on the run from her past and made a patched together life for herself in the army. By happenstance, Winter finds herself promoted and leading a group of men. Both Marcus and Winter are not your typical leaders. They are more hesitant and questioning, but this is what makes them good leaders. Each of them come into their own by the end of the novel, and that self-actualization showed a level of depth that I wasn't expecting. However, learning to be a good leader is the least of their problems as they come to realize just exactly what they are up against.
For the most part, I enjoyed The Thousand Names, although I found the first half of the book to be rather slow moving. Personally, I wasn't a huge fan of the military descriptions; it felt a little like a war history book at times. In fact, I was reading The Black Count at the same time, and there were times that I confused fact and fiction. I consider that a compliment to the author for creating such a vivid, and realistic depiction of military life. While it's not my preference, I recognize how well thought out and well constructed this world was. Due to the time spent on the military campaign, I found that it took awhile for The Thousand Names to really get started, but by the time I got half way through, the action really picked up and I was invested in the outcome for Marcus and Winter.
What I would have liked more of was more time spent with the characters. Both Marcus and Winter were compelling in their own ways, but I felt that it took a long time before readers were able to really "get to know" both characters. I was also surprised that Marcus and Winter rarely interacted with each other. They were little better than acquaintances and I was expected them to have more of a friendship or at least a working relationship. This worked for The Thousand Names since each narrative offered a new lens to view the campaign, but I hope in book two that they have more of an opportunity to build a friendship. I'd also like to know how Marcus would react to finding out Winter is a woman. From what we learn about him, I don't think he'd be all that sanguine about the realization. I think there's potential for these to be quite the team, but to be clear, it's not a romantic partnership, which is a-okay by me.
With the ending of this book I can't wait for The Shadow Throne to come out in July. I have so many questions! And I hope some of them will be answered in book two. But what I'm really looking forward to is how the characters will grow and change in a new setting. The principle characters are heading back home to Vordan and I think it's going to open up a can of worms. Marcus and Winter are both going to have to face their past and it doesn't look rosy for either of them.
For similar reads, see my blog.
On the upside, interesting characters and cool world-building...on the downside, lots of military tactics and description. It's well written, and the plot held my attention and rushed forward with a pounding pulse at the end. I do hope the second novel fleshes out the world and main characters more - it's a good start, but I'd like them to go deeper and really feel like I know them as people, vs as roles in the plot.
Looking forward to the second (coming out in 2 days)!
Looking forward to the second (coming out in 2 days)!
What strikes most to me about this serie is the MC who is a woman. She is a great heroine because she is loving, brave, smart and she tries her best
I don't normally go for such battle-centric books (well, except Robert Jordan, you sneaky s.o.b…) but the characters and plot really kept me interested. I loved the fact that one of the main characters was a woman in disguise in the army--that helped balance out the military-ness, and I really enjoyed it.
The Thousand Names is a very good military, “flintlock fantasy” novel that I enjoyed more than I expected. My past attempts with military fantasy were not very successful, so it was with some trepidation I approached The Thousand Names. However, I needn’t have been worried, for The Thousand Names turned out to be a book that I had a hard time putting down.
The colonial garrison of the Vordanai empire is a dumping ground for the dregs of the army. They’re sent to an outpost in the desert where they support the rule of a local prince. They have relatively few duties until a religious rebellion overthrows the prince and pushes the troops to a small fort. Most of the troops believe that the sensible thing to do would be to get on boats and head back to Vordanai, but the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich has other ideas.
The Thousand Names is told through the perspective of two different characters: Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, the leader of the garrison prior to the Colonel’s arrival, and Winter Ihernglass, a woman who disguised herself to join the army and escape an unfortunate past. Both of these characters are well written, likable, and sympathetic, and I connected with both of them almost immediately.
Notably, The Thousand Names does well by it’s female characters, of which there are multiple of importance. These women felt like real people and not stereotypes and they actively engaged in the plot. Winter is a fantastic female lead – smart, a tactical thinker, clear headed, and capable. She actually reminded me of Polly Perks from Monstrous Regiment in some ways. Oh, and it’s also noteworthy that she’s constantly interacting with other female characters and that she’s either lesbian or bisexual. Both are rare for the epic fantasy genre.
Being military fantasy, battles and military life in general play a large role in The Thousand Names. I might have had trouble with this, but Wexler’s excellent writing kept me going through all the various attacks and ambushes. In general, the book’s very well written, and even has the occasional touches of humor.
The worldbuilding was serviceable but not anything noteworthy. The technology was early 1800s with muskets and cannons, so this was at least something different than the oh so common medieval setting. However, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly new going on with the culture of the Vordanai and not enough of the native culture is seen to be able to make any judgement of it.
Going in, I was sort of worried about how The Thousand Names would treat imperialism, given that it’s clearly based on or at least inspired by the European colonialism of the Middle East and North Africa. The Thousand Names seems to be largely ignoring it, which doesn’t work for me. If you’re using a problematic part of history, you need to acknowledge that it’s problematic. At least it’s not glorifying it, though.
Related to this, all the characters in The Thousand Names are either white or grey skinned. My best guess is that the author figured making the native population grey skinned would avoid some of the racial connotations this whole scenario brings up. Again, this doesn’t really work. The desert culture has vague “Middle Eastern” feelings while the Vordanai are white and seem European based, so the visual description of what the natives looks like means very little.
There’s a lot of questions here. For one, we’re never told why the colonials are there in the first place, besides that they’ve been sent to support the prince. Why does Vordanai care about this little desert country? We’re never given an answer. Similarly, there’s not a lot seen of the native side. However, there is at least one major, sympathetic native character, and it looks like she’ll be reappearing in the next book of the series.
While I won’t argue that The Thousand Names has a gritty aspect, I wouldn’t classify it as grimdark, mainly because the protagonists are more straight up heroes than anti-heroes. The level of magic is also fairly low, coming in mostly at the end, but it looks like they’ll be more magic in the sequels.
I’d recommend The Thousand Names to people looking for an entertaining fantasy novel with a fairly strong female presence. While I did have a few quibbles, I overall really enjoyed it and will be reading the sequel at the nearest opportunity.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
The colonial garrison of the Vordanai empire is a dumping ground for the dregs of the army. They’re sent to an outpost in the desert where they support the rule of a local prince. They have relatively few duties until a religious rebellion overthrows the prince and pushes the troops to a small fort. Most of the troops believe that the sensible thing to do would be to get on boats and head back to Vordanai, but the newly arrived Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich has other ideas.
The Thousand Names is told through the perspective of two different characters: Captain Marcus d’Ivoire, the leader of the garrison prior to the Colonel’s arrival, and Winter Ihernglass, a woman who disguised herself to join the army and escape an unfortunate past. Both of these characters are well written, likable, and sympathetic, and I connected with both of them almost immediately.
Notably, The Thousand Names does well by it’s female characters, of which there are multiple of importance. These women felt like real people and not stereotypes and they actively engaged in the plot. Winter is a fantastic female lead – smart, a tactical thinker, clear headed, and capable. She actually reminded me of Polly Perks from Monstrous Regiment in some ways. Oh, and it’s also noteworthy that she’s constantly interacting with other female characters and that she’s either lesbian or bisexual. Both are rare for the epic fantasy genre.
“You got rid of him?”
“For the moment,” Winter said. “Nothing confuses an officer like violently agreeing with him.”
Being military fantasy, battles and military life in general play a large role in The Thousand Names. I might have had trouble with this, but Wexler’s excellent writing kept me going through all the various attacks and ambushes. In general, the book’s very well written, and even has the occasional touches of humor.
The worldbuilding was serviceable but not anything noteworthy. The technology was early 1800s with muskets and cannons, so this was at least something different than the oh so common medieval setting. However, there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly new going on with the culture of the Vordanai and not enough of the native culture is seen to be able to make any judgement of it.
Going in, I was sort of worried about how The Thousand Names would treat imperialism, given that it’s clearly based on or at least inspired by the European colonialism of the Middle East and North Africa. The Thousand Names seems to be largely ignoring it, which doesn’t work for me. If you’re using a problematic part of history, you need to acknowledge that it’s problematic. At least it’s not glorifying it, though.
Related to this, all the characters in The Thousand Names are either white or grey skinned. My best guess is that the author figured making the native population grey skinned would avoid some of the racial connotations this whole scenario brings up. Again, this doesn’t really work. The desert culture has vague “Middle Eastern” feelings while the Vordanai are white and seem European based, so the visual description of what the natives looks like means very little.
There’s a lot of questions here. For one, we’re never told why the colonials are there in the first place, besides that they’ve been sent to support the prince. Why does Vordanai care about this little desert country? We’re never given an answer. Similarly, there’s not a lot seen of the native side. However, there is at least one major, sympathetic native character, and it looks like she’ll be reappearing in the next book of the series.
While I won’t argue that The Thousand Names has a gritty aspect, I wouldn’t classify it as grimdark, mainly because the protagonists are more straight up heroes than anti-heroes. The level of magic is also fairly low, coming in mostly at the end, but it looks like they’ll be more magic in the sequels.
I’d recommend The Thousand Names to people looking for an entertaining fantasy novel with a fairly strong female presence. While I did have a few quibbles, I overall really enjoyed it and will be reading the sequel at the nearest opportunity.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
A real snoozer of a military/fantasy novel. Intricately detailed writing for anyone who loves to read all the specs on howitzers in the desert and beautiful (repetitive) descriptions of the daily wear and tear of dark blue uniforms with shiny buttons. If you’re looking for a trudge-hack-kill battle epic fantasy series, you’re in the right place! The rest of us will keep looking.
This was SO amazing! I don't think I can stress this enough! The beginning was a little slow, mostly because this was the first military centered fantasy I have read, but it was so worth it. The characters were complex, relatable, strong, and real. Female characters, especially in fantasy are usually just love interests, but the female characters in this book proved the stereotypes wrong. They were some of the strongest characters I have ever read, and I really appreciated it. The plot took me by surprise (well most of it, I did guess one or two things). The action scenes especially took my breath away! Django Wexler knows how to write action scenes, especially keeping the suspense high during the whole thing. The military terminology only heightened my experience as well. I HIGHLY suggest this book.