Murel Al Harten — Lady to the Queen. Snowdance — A war—cat. Allern Varesh — Guardsman to House Mustor. Dendrish Hendrahl — Aspect of the Third Order. Mirvek Korvin — Commander Volarian Garrison. Twenty-Seven — Kuritai, guard to Alucius. Cresia — Sister of the Seventh Order. Inehla — Sister of the Seventh Order. Rhelkin — Brother of the Seventh Order. Rensial — Horsemaster and Brother of the Sixth Order.
Slasher — Faith-Hound and friend to Frentis. Blacktooth — Faith-Hound and friend to Illian. Belorath — Meldenean Captain of the Sea Sabre. Iveles Maxtor Seliesen — son to Emeren. Lieza — a slave. Hirkan of the Red Axe — Champion to the Othra mountain tribe. Anthony Ryan Facebook Author Page. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! I will keep reading this series because it is so unique. It is a good mix of good and evil. I like that it is clean This series would be good for middle schoolers on up. Good teenagers in this book. This book will really keep your interest A pastor's daughter would certainly not be unsupervised as much as Lily is.
And she is kind of wild for a PK. Nothing is ever said about her behavior as being unChrist-like especially for a stop called"prophet". That said, I'm still going to read the next one. But I did love that they put God's love and respect first in their lives. As I read this second book in this series, I am more and more amazed at the author's ability to bring out how God works in our daily lives to keep us safe and to bring our hearts to Him.
I give this book a The cliff hanger ending got me immediately into the next book. I just couldn't put this series down til the last page and part of me really didn't want it to end. Shadow of the High King I finished this book a few weeks ago. However… Scars of the Sand is shorter and faster by being a novella but also its prose is so sharp that it leaves you lacerated and bleeding. SOTHK is not quite as polished. Whereas the novella literally left me gasping for more, the novel leaves me planning to read more by Mr Dorrian but not quite with the same breathless anticipation.
The story is very much character-driven but with plenty of action and excitement. The prose is well-honed but not as razor-sharp as the prequel novella. Most important of all for me is that the author conjured the setting so that I felt I was there and the characters so I felt they were real. I hope a sequel is out soon and that it carries on with the skill shown in SoS. Particularly, if you like gritty and realistic characters and mostly tight prose. Still bloody brilliant but we've seen what beautiful work he's capable of.
Nov 26, Rebekah rated it really liked it. I had heard some good things about Frank Dorrian's work, and I had a few preconceived notions about this book. I expected battle, knights, mercenaries, and some amount of ass. But I have to say, there was way more to this book than I expected. The worldbuilding is incredible. Original races, varied cultures, and unique religions.
The magic system is druidic in feel. Dorrian's work has an uncanny way of bei I had heard some good things about Frank Dorrian's work, and I had a few preconceived notions about this book. Dorrian's work has an uncanny way of being crass and poetic, bold enough to handle scenes with rape or slavery, yet capable of waxing philosophical in the calm before the storm. Pacing struggles in the first third of the book, as the chapters are long and rife with backstory.
Just when I felt like things were about to get moving, the narrative would switch point of view and back up in time considerably.
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But that works itself out further into the book and the plot hits its stride as the characters regroup and become more active in their plans. The main POV characters in this book are hard to like. They are all SOBs, each with an agenda of his own. Whether their actions are justified is up to the reader to decide. Their complex personalities echo their complex fates.
In a war where loyalty can be bought with coin or blood, none are sure to come out with everything they desire. The Shadow of the High King is an entertaining grimdark adventure for readers who enjoy battle, politics, religion, history, and a clash of cultures that threatens to destroy the very land they fight over.
Nov 17, Stanislas Sodonon rated it really liked it.
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Ok, ok, let's do this properly. So what do we have? Welcome to Caermark, land of a long bloody history, continuous upheaval, and innumerable grudges. The first chapter I don't know what happened in my copy of the book I got from Kobo, but the first chapter it opens with is actually the 18th.
So I think that the quickly departed sergeant's chapter was the first. And it gets us right into the whole mood of this book. The Bad Frank, dear man, it seems you let the pleasure of writing prose take the better of you.
So full of repetitions, 3 or 4 phrase to say the same thing, so many times. I found myself so many times going "alright! I get it; can you please move on?! I also had some annoyance with the whole Magic System. It was very confusing to determine it's potency. We see evidence that Weavers can do a lot of physical damage, yet the power is scarcely used for battle.
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This made little sense to me, considering the number of weavers there are. Harlin may seem overpowered at times. It was all the more confusing when he forsook that power entirely in his last attack. But then again, Harlin is that kind of guy, I guess I'm still unsure of who got to Caermark first. There also a recurring issue I have with Frank's books: Time suddenly jumps forwards so fast and without a pause. It can get disorientating.
And that's basically all the bad I can say about this book. The Good The story: I loved Every Minute of it, every event, every turn, every character. The plot was great, full of surprising twists at every drop. It kept me on my toes: Personally, I never really look much at the world-building. It's but a backdrop to the story, and we only see of the world what is relevant to the story.
But I really "felt" this world, it was so real.
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It's not a typical GD wasteland, nor a handful of ominous landmarks. It's simply a land, with history. It does not distract us. That's where this book probably takes the crown. No good or evil. Just people, greed, grudge, ambition and choices. Every single one of them. You want to start taking sides early, root for someone.
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I ended up not being able to. I raged at Harlin's single-minded obsession. I encouraged Arnulf, even in the midst of treachery, I admired the ruthlessness and cunning of Aenwald. Although we mostly follow Harlin, all the side characters are deliciously deep. I was like a freaking ping-pong ball Frank kept bouncing from camp to camp. Jan 24, Damien Black rated it it was amazing.
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I posted on Facebook recently saying I would be a bit harsher with ratings in future, but Frank Dorrian has proved a spanner in the works — because The Shadow of the High King is a darkly poetic fantasy novel that impressed me no end. Yes, there are a few flaws, but overall this book is so damned good I just had to give it five stars in spite of them. Caermark, having long thrown off the shackles of the Eastern Empire, has itself become an oppressor, plundering and raping the forlorn island realm of Luah Fail while fighting an internecine border war with Gausslandt to the south.
Clearly not just a pretty face writing-wise, Dorrian has done his research and tapped real-life history with diligence, giving his milieu a gritty and authentic feel. Arms and armour are detailed in such as way as not to detract from the story; the battle scenes vividly drawn to seem very believable and realistic. I was always engaged by what the characters were saying, and wanted to hear more from them. In keeping with the epic scale of this tale of betrayal, slavery, war and magic, there are several protagonists and quite a few support characters, all of them etched in my mind by some k words of fiercely evocative writing.
Foremost among them is Harlin, an islander who is captured and enslaved by knights in service to the King of Caermark and sold to the eastern fighting pits at the tender age of eight. As such, he grows up violent and brutalised, nursing a serious grudge against King Aenwald, the tyrant who ruined his life and destroyed his family.
Trust me it was badly needed, because most of these characters are not nice people; Arnulf himself is well drawn as an honourable but ruthless nobleman embittered by past betrayal, all too willing to play the same game that disinherited him. Ceatha was my only problematic character, in terms of her back story.
However, I was left unsure whether the author wanted us to trust or like Ceatha: Is it so wrong to want to reunite your people so they can fight their oppressors, in this case the cruel and arrogant Marchers of Caermark? I believe that if her back story had been better thought through, this issue might have resolved itself. At any rate I liked her as a character, but felt that more could have been made of her. This gripe aside, I thought the characterisation was very good overall: Yes, there are blood and guts aplenty for the hard-core grimdark fans, but the consequences of perpetrating such violence are also explored, making it even more resonant.
The backdrop also references ancient civilizations who dabbled in powers no mortal should, and there are some decidedly creepy moments with undead warriors, nameless monstrosities, and shadowy cultists just past the point of being human… at times the narrative had a hint of HP Lovecraft to it.
I should mention that there were a few grammatical howlers: My advice to him would be to shoot his editor and find a professional who can do justice to his talented writing; my advice to readers would be to dive in and pick up a copy of The Shadow of the High King regardless.
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If you like your Fantasy dark and filled with gore, then this is the book for you Well written with great characters and excellent world building Totally recommend this. Mar 14, Gordon rated it it was amazing. I am a friend of the author's, and offered him some advice on eBook publishing as this book was written and redrafted, as noted on the acknowledgements page. The opinions expressed in this review are however my own: Dorrian's artistic integrity if I wasn't honest about his first published novel. The Shadow of the High King is a bold, smoothly flowing, and action-packed debut which combines believable characters in a grim, early Medieval setting that brims Disclaimer: The Shadow of the High King is a bold, smoothly flowing, and action-packed debut which combines believable characters in a grim, early Medieval setting that brims with dark threats and human wrongdoing.
The writing is never flowery and seldom turns long winded, only rarely straying into the verbose. Instead we have descriptions which are blunt but intense, and dialogue likewise: The language is coarse, sometimes gratuitously so, but generally lends colour to the scenes rather than cheapening the plot.
The protagonist, Harlin, is a thorough brute of a man; a mercenary for whom murder is sport. His horrific childhood and adolescence have warped his conscience and personality. Yet we are given reason to sympathise with his tortured soul - I found myself willing glimmers of warmth or humanity after just a few chapters, which is testament to the author's ability to construct a character with depth.