Before you cast open the cover of one of the best books you'll ever read, you must do one thing. You must rid yourself of any notion of sweetness and light, of innocence and nobility. CThese are nothing but a bard's fictions, nice, little lies people tell each other to make the hard world seem softer. We all know better, don't we? That selfishness and cruelty don't even break a sweat as they stomp chivalry and beauty into the dust.
There you go. That feels better, doesn't it? Now you're ready to take a ride into darkness the likes of which you've not experienced. For Mr. Morgan gathers up every cliche of fantasy fiction and knifes them open just to see what might pour out. The result? A gloriously funny, exquisitely savage, and relentlessly confrontational piece of dark-as-sin, fantasy fiction that will have you scream in terror or elation, depending upon the strength of your stomach. All lyricism aside, Mr. Morgan has written the perfect book which even his considerable talents will find difficult to top. For we have here a combination of genre-busting characters tested by the tightest and darkest of plots rife with petty gods, zealot priests and indulgent emperors who, together, govern a corrupted world and its many beleaguered races.
Only an Englishman could write a book like this. Only he could bless it with the kind of dark humor that keeps the tale from tipping over into pure viciousness. And that is how this seductress charms, hilarity. Even in the thickness of battle, when the blood is splattering each page, there's a kind of maniac glee that cannot but infect the riveted reader. An unmatched tale of three antiheroes banding together for one, last kick at the can of glory, this time, against all odds, and all this in a land fit only for sadists. There are not enough stars in the sky for this book. (5/5 Stars)
PS: Please, blame me for ruining it for you if, on my recommendation you buy this and hate it. For I'm the one who skewed your expectations. I read this book cold, with only the vaguest idea of what it was about and the Prologue about blew the top of my head off. I couldn't help but slobber all over this review. My apologies if that messed up the bar for you. There was never a hope in Hell that this review would be even close to impartial.
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