The Winter King

A gritty historical fantasy tale, more concerned with describing the geopolitical scene then with story or characters.

After having read The Skystone, the beginning of this book gave me a breath of fresh air. Its is much better written, there is more characterization and the elements of the Arthurian Fantasy were actually present here. Arthur, Merlin, Morgan, Uther and many others. The characters introduced were very different from what you would expect. Merlin is a vicious old men, who enjoys raping and torturing children for his experiments. There is no real magic in the world, but the magical wielders are able to fake it, so that most people believe in them. All of this contribute to an air of realism to the story.

However, the book pacing is atrociously slow, the author spends most of the time naming and and describing all of Britain's kingdoms and rulers, and how they relate to each other.

Read 3:21 / 19:55 41%