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Title: The Fire in His Hands
Title: The Fire in His Hands
Series:
The Dread Empire: A Fortress in Shadow #1
Author:
Glen Cook
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages:
212
Format:
Digital Edition
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Synopsis: |
Micah * insert really long family moniker that nobody cares about * is visited by an “Angel” riding a winged horse carrying a cornucopiea. Micah changes his name to El Murid and begins proselytizing all the tribes that have fallen away from the True Faith. This of course sets him on a collision course with the powers that be. He marries a girl and her brother becomes his general. The powers that be don't take him seriously and so things progress to the point where the whole area is torn apart.
The powers that be end up hiring mercenaries. In one of those mercenary troops is a guy named Braki Ragnarson. We met him in the previous trilogy. We find out how he left his land and joined the mercenaries.
More fighting, El Murid appears to have won the day and Haroun, a younger son, inherits the Crown and begins a guerilla warfare to take back the kindgom.
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My Thoughts: |
El Murid and Haroun
were both mentioned in the previous trilogy but weren't a big part.
So I wasn't sure how to place them at first. But with the
introduction of Ragnarson, it all clicked. This A Fortress in
Shadow sub-series is a prequel to A Cruel Wind trilogy.
What confused me right off was that there didn't appear to be
anything to do with the Dread Empire. I am wondering if perhaps the
Dread Empire is the empire that fell hundreds of years ago and not
the Eastern Empire we are introduced to in A Cruel Wind. But
that contradicts everything I know from those books. Whatever.
I knew things were
going to be bad once that blasted Star Rider gave Micah a mission.
That guy is bad news and I hate him even more now. What an
illegitimate offspring of a donkey's backside!
The overall story
took years and we'd skip years or months inbetween paragraphs. It
wasn't always clear that time had elapsed or it felt very rough. I
just held on for the ride. This was as much political machinations
and maneuvering between factions as it was about actual battles.
The story ends with
Haroun taking up the Invisible Crown and becoming the King without a
Kingdom that we know. We actually are introduced to his son in the A
Cruel Wind series so we already know that Haroun has a lifetime
of fighting ahead of him with no success. Not sure how the next book,
or two, will deal with that. I don't actually know how many books are
in the A Fortress in Shadow series. I just don't care enough
to go look for it.
★★★☆ ½
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