Malice: Award-winning epic fantasy inspired by the Iron Age

John Gwynne

Dec 2012 · The Faithful and the Fallen Book 1 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

'Hell of a debut: Highly recommended' – Conn Iggulden, author of Empire

An epic coming-of-age fantasy inspired by mythology and the Iron Age, Malice by John Gwynne is the first in The Faithful and the Fallen series.

Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. But that day will come all too soon.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, the earth running dark with their heartsblood. Although the giant-clans were broken in ages past, their ruined fortresses still scar the land.

But now giants stir anew, the very stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars.

Sorrow will darken the world, as angels and demons make it their battlefield.

Then there will be a war to end all wars.

Continue the epic fantasy series with Valour.

Praise for John Gwynne:

'Reminds me of why I became a fantasy enthusiast in the first place' – Robin Hobb, author of Assassin's Apprentice

'One of the modern masters of heroic fantasy' – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Memory

'Exciting, well-written swords and sorcery. Try it on for size' – Mark Lawrence, author of The Broken Empire

Ratings and reviews

If David Gemmell and George R R Martin had ever collaborated, this would have been the result. A world where destiny, good, evil, loyalty and betrayal play massive parts and the author isn't afraid to kill people you like off. You will be miffed at him for killing some of the characters off, but you'll forgive him by the end of the book, almost.

I had to grind my teeth to finish this book. It is horrible with character development and plot development. The flipping from one character to another is annoying because nothing significant happens. You would think that the reason to do something like changing from one character to another would be to show the development of characters in their own places towards the point purpose plot of the book. No. Everytime it is insignificant and doesn't add at all to the story being told it doesn't even give insight or development of character it's as if you are reading pointless side episodes that add nothing. I kept expecting this to get better it didn't. Every character is 2 dimensional. Then the author will use a side characters name like they were introduced already when there was no build up or precursor to this spontaneous friendship. And every piece of ground you walk on is called the floor whether your on a road or in a forest. This is young adult or worse.

So average it could be the guy from Idiocracy. Shallow predictable characters and coarse plot development. Kept me mildly interested, but book 2 got worse.

About the author

John Gwynne studied and lectured at Brighton University. He’s been in a rock ’n’ roll band, playing the double bass, travelled the USA and lived in Canada for a time. He is married with four children and lives in Eastbourne, running a small family business rejuvenating vintage furniture. Malice is his debut novel.