Malice Book Review

The entire series of The Faithful And The Fallen by John Gwynne is in essence a story of opposites, this theme is prominent from the very start of the series and over the course of this four part review (one for each book) we will explore both the obvious and the many enigmas in John Gwynne’s epic debut of good and evil.

Before we get into the meat of the review for the book itself we first have to cover the author’s writing style and the common tropes of John’s writing as a whole. Gwynne immediately stood out in the writing community for his brilliantly detailed and of course bloody fight scenes, the way he writes these detailed and expressive scenes is nothing short of amazing. I really can’t stress this enough, the way he writes makes you feel as if his hand is guiding you as you draw a picture in your head to create a portrait that feels so intimately real that you blink and find yourself disappointed to be back on Earth after a brief trip to the Banished Lands. What is amazing is that this fact has been consistent since Gwynne began writing in 2002 as merely a hobby to the release of Malice now and most say that he has improved his skills even further. Of course he is not perfect, his writing style has a little to be desired but these instances are few and far between. My only major problem is that (especially near the start of his career) the plot seems rather bare bones and seems to steadfastly follow the generic theme of adventure books. While this avoids any major plot holes it lets the reader predict many of the key aspects of the books and avoid a lot of intrigue. This is not the rule as there are many plot twists and shocking moments that caught me by surprise, and you see Gwynne trying to break away from the theme in later series and even in books 3 and 4 of The Faithful And The Fallen. Still as an overview I have to count this as a point against the series. Don’t let this discourage you from reading the books far from it, the books are detailed, exciting, carry that unique Gwynne charm and are simply a joy to read. No matter the faults the witty, charming characters and the deep heavy pressure that builds as you read keep making you turn that page.

Well now that the writing style and all that fluff is done and over with lets get started on the actual review shall we? Malice is the first book in the series and it serves as a build up to the epic sagas that are to come. Not to say that it doesn't have its own action scenes, there are plenty of those. But it is a book built to introduce characters and give a backstory of the world to its readers. Think of it as the equivalent of The Philosopher's Stone in Harry Potter (minus the plot holes!) with its own story to tell it still serves as a foundation for most of the nail biting moments of the later books. As it is the first book John has ever written you can clearly see the most raw form of his signature writing style in all its glory and faults. It is in the book you can see most of the bare bones plot but also witness the charm and detail that Gwynne dedicates into all his works. The book also is the origin for many of the powerful themes in the series. As stated in earlier the series is a tale of good and evil, this reflects the theme of opposites and shows up everywhere, to the characters, plot line, and deities Gwynne heavily emphasizes this and even goes far enough to throw a hint of this theme in the title of the entire series. The book also tries to emphasize many life lessons, the line “Truth and Courage” are mentioned several times throughout the book and it is only by striving for these ideals that many of the characters truly become the leaders that they are.