A Time of Dread: 1 (Of Blood & Bone)

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Horrible circumstances reveal to Drem that his life, and his family, are not what he thought they were and drive him to find Sig and the members of Dun Seren to help with the situation unfolding in Drem’s town. One of my favorite characters we follow is Bleda, prince of the Sirak, who was taken as a captive by the Ben-Elim – resulting from his clan the Sirak going to war with the Cheren clan. I live on the south coast of the UK with my beautiful wife, three sons and my daughter, and an assortment of animals (at the moment three dogs, a horse and a lamb who thinks she's a dog). The novel starts slowly as the characters, their allegiances and the history of the world are gently and cleverly massaged into the reader's mind.

John Gwynne has stated that the creatures introduced in A Time of Dread were his spin on the horror elements we have seen over the years. Set in the same world as the Faithful and the Fallen quartet, the first novel in John Gwynne's Of Blood and Bone series, A Time of Dread , takes place one hundred years after the end of Wrath . Gwynne delivers adrenaline-filled fight scenes with characters you care about, and the outcome never feels certain, that aforementioned dread is convincing, you feel that characters you care about really might not make it. I especially enjoyed the non-stereotypical female characters of Riv (a well-meaning but overly tempestuous warrior) and Sig (a highly competent warrior-giant with a good heart). John Gwynne is one of the modern masters of heroic fantasy' – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Ruin .The story is well paced, not rushing, but also leaving you eager to see how it is all going to play out. I would however, strongly encourage everyone to read the Faithful and the Fallen at some point because the series is just amazing! New characters are introduced, and a totally new threat carries on that thematic subtext of good versus evil that was always present in the earlier books.

The quality of writing, the plot, the characters, and the development of the world were all so so good and I am so happy that I was able to read more John Gwynne books.

I feel like there are very few gaps in my knowledge about what happened to the individual characters we followed in the first series after they separated from the Ben Elim – that was something I really appreciated.

PS: An honourable mention for that breathtakingly gorgeous cover and bonus points for the Old Norse runes on the hilt that spell DREAD!The Ben Elim have gone so far as to even lie and say that Corban, their Bright Star, the rallying force that brought many countries and people together to take down the Dread Kadoshim, had little to no part in actually taking them down. His is a good contrast as he sees the things that just aren't quite right there, compared to Riv who is a solid believer.

He'll throw a group of righteous winged saviours your way one minute only to have you questioning their puritanical devotion the next.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. There was quite a bit of inference, at the end of the Faithful and the Fallen series, that the Ben Elim planned to set themselves up as the saviors – they wanted to rule all the lands after taking down the Kadoshim forces with Corban. One final note: though set in the same world as Gwynne's previous series, you don't need to have read it to enjoy this one. Corban knew what they planned to do long before they did it, and so he separated himself from the Ben Elim and created Dun Seren – a home for everyone who wanted to learn magic, healing, and war from the Bright Star himself.