This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s
Exalted Permission
Title: Malice
Series: The
Faithful and the Fallen #1
Author: John Gwynne
Rating:
2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
641
Format: Digital Edition
A thousand years
ago there was a god-war between the Creator and his highest created
being, Asroth. Asroth and his allies came to the physical world to
destroy what they could. In the god-war Asroth and his minions were
banished to the realm of the spirit. Not content to exist, Asroth
sent a star from heaven to the earth from which both giants and men
fashioned items. Being from Asroth, such items corrupted their
bearers. Eventually, giant warred against giant and man against man
and each against the other. The Creator finally had enough and sent a
cataclysm that destroyed much of the world.
The remnant of
humanity that survived washed up on the shores of the Banished Lands
and started the 7 kingdoms. Now, 1000 years later, a prophecy is
found that foretells of another god-war in which the Creator will
have his champion of Light and Asroth his Dark Champion. It also
reveals that Asroth will try to return to the physical realm to
completely destroy it to simply spite the Creator.
One of the Princes'
of the land is convinced he is the Champion of Light and determines
to unite the various kingdoms into an Empire, the better to fight
Asroth. We also follow a young village boy who is growing up and his
challenges as he works toward becoming a warrior.
Eventually the
Prince murders his father, attacks the giants and takes one of the
objects of power and the readers realize, even while the Prince does
not, that he is the Dark Champion. The young boy saves a small
company from treachery by the Prince and it is obvious that he is the
Champion of Light.
This book went all over the place in terms of rating from me. I
enjoyed parts tremendously and would think “Oh, 4 stars easily”
then I'd consider dnf'ing and at other points I thought “Not even
Robert Jordan and Sanderson were this arrogant in their books”. So
this might turn into something a bit longer than I intended.
I deliberately cut the synopsis down to it's absolute minimum because
Gwynne doesn't. Gwynne makes things as complicated as possible in
several ways. First off, he introduces over 35 named characters
within the first 10% of the book. I counted and listed them on
Librarything because it was NEVER obvious who was a main character
and who was just somebody that Gwynne gave a name and backstory to.
The second part of the complication was Gwynne's shifting of Point of
View every chapter. Sometimes a chapter would be 2 pages and at
others 20. But it was always from somebody else than the previous
POV. Finally, Gwynne had no problem with worldbuilding. He'd give as
much character time to some one who we'd never see again as to some
of the more central characters.
I found all of these authorial choices frustrating and incredibly
anger inducing. The thread of the story was obscured by all the loose
ends and dead ends, etc. I WILL NOT pay attention to 45 characters
(that was my rough count by the end of the book) just because the
author wants to be clever. It was overwhelming and even now, writing
this, I'm getting steamed all over again. Even the Malazan books were
easier to keep track of than this and that is not any sort of praise
if you've read my Malazan Re-read reviews. I felt like I was juggling
45 balls never knowing which one had the live grenade inside that I
needed to pay attention to. Juggling 45 live grenades is very stress
inducing, let me tell you! I also felt like Gwynne was wasting my
time as this book was almost 700 pages. Why did I need to know about
Jack the boy farmer and his whole family when he dies 3 chapters
later? It just came across as the author telling me that every idea
he had was more important than the time I was spending on reading
about them.
On the positive side, I absolutely loved the story. Two Chosen Ones
is awesome. It is obvious to the reader that the Prince is the dark
champion but to those around the Prince it seems like he truly is the
Champion of Light. He is trying to unite the humans, comes up with
new fighting tactics, achieves goals no one thought possible and
wants to protect the land from Asroth. Knowing that Asroth is the
arch-deceiver, it is no surprise that no one thinks they're the bad
guy. I like Epic Fantasy and this is definitely Epic Fantasy. The
politics going on between the kingdoms is great and adds a real depth
to the story too.
A few final negative thoughts though. I'd been warned that Gwynne
takes his time and that reviewer wasn't kidding. This meanders, but
once again that is a product of Gwynne placing world building above
all else. Secondly, this book doesn't have a beginning, middle and
end plot point. There is no goal. Even Robert Jordan and his first
Wheel of Time book, The Eye of the World, told a complete
story. This was just 1/4th of a story artificially cut
into a separate book.
I do plan on reading the next book. I am desperately hoping that
there is not another list of 40 new characters to juggle. If there
is, then I'll be parting ways from Gwynne after that. All of the
before mentioned issues might not bother you, but they bother me
immensely.
★★☆☆½
