The Errantry of Bantam Flyn
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Average rating5
15
Ratings1
Average rating5
The Coburn. Rooster-Men of the Tin Isles. Proud and combative by nature, the coburn are an imposing race. The males, ever protective of their mates, fight to the death if threatened, especially against their own kind. Some, however, pursue a chaste life of chivalry and join the Valiant Spur, an order of coburn knights. Hopeful recruits must replace their drive to breed and covet with a will to serve, allowing only the most resolute to join the ranks of the Knights Errant. Bantam Flyn, hot-headed squire and wielder of the renowned sword Coalspur, yearns to be one of them. When Flyn returns to the ancestral stronghold of the Valiant Spur, he finds the castle under siege from within. Malevolent skin-changers, the gruagach, ruthlessly hunt a secret Flyn would die to keep. The swaggering warrior seeks unlikely allies, reinforcing his sharp steel with the keen mind of the castle's awkward chronicler, Ingelbert Crane, and the incisive tongue of gnome herbalist, Deglan Loamtoes. Fleeing the reach of the gruagach, the trio become ensnared by a dwarven prophet who believes Flyn to be the foretold slayer of a primordial evil known as the Corpse Eater. Venturing into the unforgiving cold of Middangeard, the companions find themselves far from the Tin Isles and close to the history that shaped the very world. Hindered by giants, trolls, bands of berserkers, throngs of restless dead, and haunted by the howling phantoms of his own barbaric past, Flyn must face an ancient horror that threatens not only his life, but the fate of his entire race.
Featured Series
2 primary booksAutumn's Fall Saga is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2012 with contributions by Jonathan French.
Reviews with the most likes.
Some ideas are so stupid they might actually just work. That's the case with this one. The protagonist is a gigantic rooster person. We have met them in the previous book, Bantam Flyn and many others, but this goes into more detail about the gigantic anthropomorphic chicken. Aaaand I freaking loved it.
The world needs saving and a legendary monster needs slaying yet again, so Bantam Flyn, a weirdo chronicler, a giantess and Deglan team up this time to do what needs to be done. This time living dead dwarfs are involved as well, which, again, should not work. It does.
Jonathan French can sell absolutely anything to you. The creatures he uses are mostly pretty much standard fantasy and mythological ones. Seriously, you can't go more basic than giants and fairies and such, they are standard since forever. Then he does something I still can't figure out and creates the lore specific to his world around them that brings new life to borderline boring ideas. (Yes, the coburn are freaking hilariously different and at first I wasn't sure what to make of them, but the rest is really nothing that groundbreakingly original.) He has such a special touch with creating a well-populated, interesting world with all the connections and history and it really works.
Jim Butcher had an anecdote where he wrote his Codex Alera series because a dude dared him to combine Roman legions and Pokemon into an actually enjoyable and fun story that works. Mr. French could freaking do the same with anything and part of the fucked up bran I have wants him to do more and more weird stuff. Go ahead. Do it. I am curious to see what sorts of twists and turns he can create around stuff.
Because I want more. I want him to wrote more Autumn's Fall, more Grey Bastards, new stories, a million books a year because I'm already missing his creativity until his new book comes out.
He is really an author to follow. Someone you should keep your eyes on as I have no doubt he will do ridiculously interesting stuff. He has it in him.
The story here is just kind of complicated and I refuse to discuss it. You need to discover it for yourself, because I can't talk about it without making it sound a lot less amazing than it is. That's the thing about it, everything I would say sounds convoluted and stupid. Trust me, I tried explaining this book to people at work and they all just looked at me like I'm mental. But this is GOOOOOOOD.
So yeah, I'm done fangirling.
Good night and don't be a chicken, pick this up!
