The Pariah
Ratings62
Average rating4.2
15
Ratings62
Average rating4.2
Alwyn is a thief and experienced brawler with few friends and an appetite for revenge. Few would call him handsome, and even his enemies will admit he knows how to survive. Unfortunately, Alwyn does have a knack for chasing near-death experiences.
Alwyn's biggest fault is a near-fanatical following of charismatic leaders, especially those whose plans involve violence on a grand scale. Lady Evadine Courlain is one such leader, whose visions tell of a chaotic future. One that can only be avoided by destroying the False King's rebellion. Alwyn is caught in a war, in which he wants no part. Fate has other plans.
Featured Series
3 primary booksCovenant of Steel is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Anthony Ryan.
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Reviews with the most likes.
Pov from the perspective of a thief. I hate thieves, can never empathise with one, so I cannot read this.
As my first book by Anthony Ryan, I never know what to expect and if I'm going to jive with their writing style. But I am pleased to say we jive very well. He finds a balance between grim, brutal battles, and sly humour. Much like his main character, I found myself grinning a lot through this book. It's a bit of a slow burn, but has fantastic pay offs. As someone who's halfway through the second book in this trilogy, I can look back and see just how much The Pariah sets the stage. So if you like stories with underdog's, gruesome battles, political intrigue and a smart ass hero (anti-hero?), then this is your jam.
I started reading in the library while the kids were doing a crafting thing, and 55 pages in I knew that I had to take the book out and finish it. Halfway in and it's even better.
Finished. Can't wait to read the next one - an absolute blast (and I love the way Ryan has taken real events and people from history and myth and mixed them together into a kind of fantasy stew).
I received an ARC for this in June. It took me an extremely long time to read and I ended up buying it on audio as a deal and finishing it that way. My biggest problem with it is that you absolutely should NOT read the summary of the book. Everything that is mentioned in the summary doesn't happen until 45% through the book and it just crushes momentum. I've seen other reviews say the same thing, so it's definitely not just me that was affected by this. It felt like the entire first 20% felt like it could have been reduced to a prologue or just been done through exposition.
I kept waiting for the actual story to begin. Even after the 45% mark, I never felt like the MC takes an active role in his own story. It's just things that happen to him. The battle/fight scenes were well done, but mostly this book just failed to make any impact on me. I'm reading Bloodsong next month and I'm pretty hopeful that it will be better! 5/10
