![]() ![]() His tone, timbre, and cadence are notable, and his pacing is exemplary. I must say the reading from Marc Vietor is excellent, however. Cook doesn't play to his strengths in this book for some reason. The dialogue is gritty and interesting - but delivered without a goal (what, exactly, is the reader supposed to learn from those recurrent card games, Mr Cook?) and descriptions are mind's-eye vivid - but the author exhibits a disappointing dearth of effort on describing setting. Unfortunately, the execution on an innovative idea from Glen Cook is lacking: there is very little real characterization (soldiers & allies drop like flies) and the plot structure is incoherent (essentially a series of poorly-connected encounters). These characters are Chaotic Neutral -> Neutral Evil if you want to think of them in 'Alignment' terms. ![]() We get a first-person view of the invariably dubious frontline actions of these flawed "heroes" (treachery, torture, looting the dead, pillage). The premise behind this early entry in the Grimdark Fantasy genre is clever - the Protagonists are 'ordinary' mercenary soldiers - an effective story-telling device - but they are under the employ of the BAD guys (a cabal of infighting wizards known as "The 10 Who Were Taken" - themselves servants of an evil duplicitous once-banished Sauron-like Sorceress. 'Adequate' Dark Military Fantasy - With A Twist ![]()
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