How does it compare to audio works by the same author?
Advantages:
great fantasy read,gripping,thrilling,exciting
Disadvantages:
a bad first paragraph,difficault to get hold of
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
I love bargains. I love books. That is why I picked this chunky paperback up in Oxfam last week. It cost me a meagre 99p and from the back cover blurb it sounded just my kind of read. Apparently this guy Adam Nichols is being pushed as the new David Gemmell by his publishers and as Gemmell is possibly my favourite ever author I was hooked!
I wasn’t able to find much out about Adam Nichols all I know is he’s travelled a lot and he currently lives in Canada. He has written only a few books; the three that make u the Whiteblade saga and two other separate ones. They are all Fantasy stories and published by Millennium a division of Orion books.
The paperback copy I have of this book is brick red as its main colour with gold writing and a stylised illustration of a lady in armour with a shining sword surrounded by a battle scene. It is not an awe inspiring frontage but thankfully you can’t judge this book from its cover alone.
Actually I did think I’d thrown away 99p when I read the first paragraph of this novel. It stinks; to put it mildly. As a short story writer I know the utmost importance of a good first paragraph and so I groaned out loud as I read this disjointed and childlike first set of sentences. However I did read on and it got a lot better within a matter of pages so please don’t give up after the first few lines it does get much better!
Elinor is a teenage girl, 18 in fact and she has a bad case of Angst. Her mother and step father want her to marry a fat old merchant but she wants to marry the less than savoury tattooed pirate Annocky. Now as teenagers often are this girl is stubborn and she just will not acquiesce to her parents wishes and runs off to marry her precious Annocky. She ends up at the local witch’s home and then is given a potion which will make it seem like she is dead (very Shakespearian) for a few days and when she has been buried this woman will dig her up and she can start her life anew.
Now this all sounds a bit drastic to me but teenage hormones have their way and Elinor takes the potion and pays the witch’s price. She has the mark of The Lady invisibly seared into the skin of her left hand. Now the young girl drinks the potion and subsequently is buried alive. Upon her resurrection she runs off to find Annocky and marry him but things do not go to plan and the poor young thing ends up prisoner on a ship bound for exotic lands. When the boat is hit by a storm Elinor is swept away and washes up on the shore of a new and quite scary country.
I cannot tell you much more without spoiling the read for you but once Elinor reaches this new country a set of unusual happenings turn her into a peoples hero and herself, her sword (Whiteblade) and her company of humans and humanimals (a cruel genetically modified race of human like animals) set out to make a difference, to set the great balance of the world straight once more.
Adam Nichols has a very easy writing style, by this I mean you do not feel like you are reading because you are carried away into the story. The language is simple and poetic and you don’t have to strain too much to read this. It is a relaxing read, ideal for relaxing on the commute home or for reading whilst sunbathing on a sandy beach (or a rocky one come to that!) But (and here comes a warning) it does get a little bloody in places. So if you have a delicate disposition and guts and gore and nasty torture bothers you don’t bother picking this one up! I do think the blood and guts and gore is appropriate. It isn’t in anyway gratuitous; it serves a purpose and is part of the fabric of the story. It is mostly used to show how nasty the bad guys are and often explains why characters act and react the way that they do.
Elinor is a bit of a brat to start out I’m afraid and I didn’t much take to her at first but she does grow up rapidly and with that bit of maturity I began to like her and worry about her and wonder what would happen to the poor misfortunate girl next. I truly believe this is what Nichols set out to do as he wrote this saga. He wanted the lead character to grow and grow on you in those first few chapters so you would feel closer to her than if you were dumped with the matured Elinor. You know where she is coming from and this adds a lovely sense of depth to the story.
If you have read many of my book reviews you will know I am a very character driven reader. I love my characters to be created and retold in miniscule detail and this is something Adam Nicholls does impeccably well and I must applaud him for the seamless way he works in the character descriptions and personality traits into the plot of the story. You do not feel there is a break in the action whilst a new character is introduced; no it all interweaves together effortlessly.
Will I be seeking out the next book in the series? Too right! Infact I have ordered a copy form one of the sellers at Amazon for £6.70 including P&P.
Do I recommend this book to you? The answer is a resounding yes but only if you enjoy fantasy sagas or if you are a fan of David Gemmell or if you are not offended but guts and gore. And if you fill all these qualifications you will adore this story!
Where can you buy this wonderful fantasy tale?
Keep your eye out on eBay (great for bargain books!) or you can buy it from Amazon on the used market for only a few pounds. I would imagine it would be difficult to find anything by Adam Nichols in the high street bookstores as there is very little of his material online. I do recommend you look out for his name though and judge for yourself whether he is the next David Gemmell of the fantasy world or not.
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