“Both the brave man and the coward feel the same. The only difference between them is that the brave man faces his fear, does not run.”
THE WORLD IS BROKEN…
CORBAN wants nothing more than to be a warrior under King Brenin’s rule—to protect and serve. But that day will come all too soon. And the price he pays will be in blood.
EVNIS has sacrificed—too much it seems. But he wants—the power to rule—will soon be in his grasp. And nothing will stop him once he has started on his path.
VERADIS is the newest member of the warband for the High Prince, Nathair. He is one of the most skilled swordsmen to come out of his homeland, yet he is always under the shadow of his older brother.
NATHAIR has ideas—and a lot of plans. Many of them don’t involve his father, the High King Aquilus. Nor does he agree with his father’s idea to summon his fellow kings to council.
The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, but now giants stir anew, stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. For if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust…
…AND IT CAN NEVER BE MADE WHOLE AGAIN.
Malice is the debut fantasy novel of author John Gwynne that is the first in a four-book series. Malice has the classic theme of good vs. evil coupled with a coming-of-age story. We follow seven different points of view in the story with most of the focus landing on our “main” character Corban.
First, we can start off by talking about the “bad” stuff. Something I began to see as I read this book is that there was a whole lot of set up going on. Almost the entire first half of the book is spent establishing all of the characters and their background and histories. Now I know I said this is the “bad” stuff but while this might annoy some other people, I really didn’t mind it. I had heard that this was an epic fantasy series from a lot of people who were suggesting it and it’s not surprising that such an expansive world needs some set up so that you can understand where everyone and everything is starting from. Because of this initial set up all the character arcs were moving along but in a way that seems like the prelude to something more. Things started to move along more during the second half of the book, but it still seemed like it was in preparation for things to kick off later in the series. I am not very discouraged by this amount of set up and if anything, all this build up just leads me to believe that the next three books will be full of good story progression and movement since they have already laid a lot of the groundwork.
The second thing that is part of the “bad” stuff was the twists/characters paths. I don’t know if it’s because they were easy to see or if I have just read so much fantasy that I can easily pick out those familiar tropes, if that’s what you want to call them. I won’t mention any of them because I want to try and keep this spoiler freeish, but a lot of the time when a twist was revealed I would be like oh was that supposed to be a secret till now. Once again like with the pervious “bad” thing this didn’t really bother me at all. I have read so much fantasy and there is a reason for that. I love all those familiar tropes and tricks that authors use in their stories. Just because I am able to spot them earlier doesn’t take away from the story, in fact a lot of the time I’m excited when its finally revealed and I realize I was right all along. Now I’m looking at this from the point of view that the author was trying to keep those motives or twists a secret, but that could be the totally wrong assumption. Maybe he is setting it up that way to subvert your expectation of that character that you thought you knew and completely change your perspective later on. We can only keep reading and see what he has in store for us.
Ok, enough of the “bad” stuff let’s get on to some of the stuff that I loved. First and foremost on the list is animal companions. I love when a character has a loyal animal companion that sticks by their side and fights with them. Now, I am always worried when I see that the main character has an animal companion that I love because I’m just waiting for the author to decide that the animal’s death would be good motivation for the character or that the animal sacrificing itself for the character would make a good moment. I’m hoping that that doesn’t happen with Corban’s companion, but I am always suspicious that it might. Now, even though I feel like having an animal companion has been overused in fantasy books, whether it be a wolf, dragon, cat, dog, etc., I am always delighted when a book does it right. So far Malice is definitely one of those books. I don’t think I am alone when I say that it would be amazing to have some kind of wolf creature as my animal companion.
Second thing I love is the pacing of the chapters. I know this is probably different for everyone, but I never felt like a certain chapter or point of view was dragging on or taking me out of the action. Every point of view in Malice flowed very smoothly into each other and never left you wishing you were back in the previous pov. I have read so many books where a pov that I am really enjoying just ends very abruptly and moves on to the next. Now I know that it is a good way to build tension and making you wonder what is going on in the cliffhanger pov you were just pulled away from, but there is an art to making that transition feel smooth and not like you are being ripped away from that moment. Another thing is that there is nothing worse than being stuck in a boring characters pov. I know this comes down to personal preference and taste, but I always hate when I am reading a book and I get to a new pov and I feel like I have to slog through a pov that I don’t like to get back to the other characters. John Gwynne does an amazing job of making every pov feel like part of the larger story. I never felt myself wishing for the current pov to be over so I could get back to the others and I feel like that is a rare thing in books. That mixed with the easy flow from one to the other made Malice such an easy smooth read.
I can’t wait to jump into the rest of this series and see what John has cooked up for us. I have heard that Valor has a whole lot of action, and I can’t wait.
The Shadow Library 