This is a tale of a society that has plunged into a dark age of battle, politics, fallen heroes and troubled heroines.
Marcus Wester, a leader of armies, is now a modest captain of a small band of bravos when he loses all but his sidekick in a city’s impressments program. Bereft of his men, he contracts with a highly unlikely source to guard the caravan he is contracted to see safely to Carse.
Cithrin, a naive orphan, is thrust into an area so far beyond her comfort zone that she spends months in a daze trying to deal with the changes.
Geder, a reader of books in a society that honors sword play and bravado, finds himself seeking revenge for a lifetime of insult.
Daniel Abraham’s first novel is exceptionally good. I really enjoyed his characterizations. He provides sufficient detail to identify and sympathize with them. The variety of characters is almost daunting but allows a rich melange of reading. The various sub-plots are clear and there is no difficulty following them.
I think Abraham captures the feelings and emotions of people thrust into untenable situations and help them find their way through them.
The plots were great, the color and diversity of the characters and landscape were great, the vividness of descriptions were outstanding. (Ya think I liked the book?)
My only negative remark is that I was reading a DRM version on my Augen ebook and occasionally the last few lines on a page were lost. I had to open Adobe digital editions on my desktop to see what they were. I don’t know if it is the Augen or DRM or what but I found that annoying. I have not had that problem with any non-DRM books that I have downloaded from places like the Baen Free Library. That does not in any way detract from this book, it is just an aside on eBooks and DRM.
I highly recommend the book.
Body of work of Daniel Abraham
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