The Devil in Green (Dark Age) [Hardcover]

Mark Chadbourn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2002 | Series: Dark Age

Humanity has emerged, blinking, from the Age of Misrule into a world substantially changed: cities lie devasted, communications are limited, anarchy rages across the land. Society has been thrown into a new Dark Age where superstition holds sway. The Tuatha De Danaan roam the land once more, their terrible powers dwarfing anything mortals have to offer. And in their wake come all the creatures of myth and legend, no longer confined to the shadows. Fighting to find their place in this new world, the last remnants of the Christian Church call for a group of heroes: a new Knights Templar to guard the priesthood as they set out on their quest for souls. But as everything begin to fall apart, the Knights begin to realise their only hope is to call on the pagan gods of Celtic myth for help

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

British Fantasy Award–winner Chadbourn (The Silver Skull) returns to a contemporary England overrun by magic, first presented in his Age of Misrule novels. Fabulous beasts fly over the countryside, while humans huddle together and struggle to comprehend the new world. Cynical atheist Mallory joins the newly reformed Knights Templar for the promise of food, drink, and shelter and meets supernaturally gifted Sophie Tallent, whose nomadic Wiccan group is uneasily allied with the Christians. Sophie and Mallory soon discover their own greater destiny as Brother and Sister of Dragons, the core of a new group of five heroes who must join to thwart a threat against reality itself. Despite some cinematic scenes, much of the material feels like setup for the rest of the series, and the central mystery of Mallory's past remains frustratingly intact through the muddled conclusion. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

We launched Mark Chadbourn's book at the Fantasy convention which took placeover the last weekend in September. Here he read an extract from the book and had a chance to meet book buyers, fans and journalists. FEATURES A feature on Mark's research should be appearing in The Times. I am waiting for confirmation on the date. Mark will be interviewed in the next issue of TTA. OutlandMagazine will be running a feature on Mark. Whilst The Edge will be running a competition and an interview. An interview has also appeared on The Alien on Line. EXTRACT An extract will be posted on The Alien On Line. REVIEWS Reviews will be appearing in: StarburstSFXThe Alien on LineEnigmaThe EdgeSFSite Mention of the book has already appeared in 'Look Out For' section of The Mirror --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Gollancz (October 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0575072733
• ISBN-13: 978-0575072732
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,940,334 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A two-time winner of the prestigious British Fantasy Award, Mark has published his epic, imaginative novels in many countries around the world. He grew up in the mining community of the English Midlands, and was the first person in his family to go to university. After studying Economic History at Leeds, he became a successful journalist, writing for several of the UK's renowned national newspapers as well as contributing to magazines and TV.

When his first short story won Fear magazine's Best New Author award, he was snapped up by an agent and subsequently published his first novel, Underground, a supernatural thriller set in the coalfields of his youth. Quitting journalism to become a full-time author, he has written stories which have transcended genre boundaries, but is perhaps best known in the fantasy field.

Mark has also forged a parallel career as a screenwriter with many hours of produced work for British television. He is a senior writer for BBC Drama, and is also developing new shows for the UK and US.

An expert on British folklore and mythology, he has held several varied and colourful jobs, including independent record company boss, band manager, production line worker, engineer's 'mate', and media consultant.

Having travelled extensively around the world, he has now settled in a rambling house in the middle of a forest not far from where he was born.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting new take on old fantasy cliche's, January 23, 2011

By 

Bill Boozer (Portland,OR) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Devil in Green (Dark Age, Book 1) (Paperback)

This book, in my opinion, was much better than any of its predecessors from the Age of Misrule trilogy. The characters are more likable and are far less annoying than the group from Misrule. Yes, there are a couple of lame fantasy book cliche's in here, but the mixture of old world mythology and new age mentality works fairly well. Chadbourn does, unfortunately, draw certain things out WAY too long such as the main character's deep dark secret and the identity of the main villain(That one never does get adequately explained. Something to push you into reading the next volume, I guess), but overall it was a solid story. It really digs deep into the way religion can be both empowering in times of crisis and also how too much power can corrupt even those with good intentions. In a world full of returned Celtic gods and lethal fairy tale monsters, is there any room for a religion where your prayers aren't instantly answered and there's no evidence that your God is even listening? This book asks that question and asks how far simple faith can take you. The author manages to balance the weighty religious subject material with some good old fashioned fantasy carnage. A terrible un-killable phantasm that haunts an ancient cathedral, an all out assault on a group of knights by a fire breathing dragon, and a siege by an unholy army of beasts from the ancient world are all here for your reading pleasure. To sum this review up...this may not be the best fantasy book around, but it should rank right up there with some of the better books to come down the road in recent years. Give it a look. You might be pleasantly surprised.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Edge of your seat story - until the ending, August 6, 2010

By 

Stefan "Stefan" (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Devil in Green (Dark Age, Book 1) (Paperback)

The Devil in Green takes place shortly after the end of Always Forever, the final book in Mark Chadbourn's Age of Misrule trilogy, which described the return to our lands of legendary creatures and gods, so old and powerful that their memories became the basis for many of our myths. Now the final battles are (seemingly) over, and humanity slowly tries to come to terms with the realities of the new Dark Age, society as we know it is practically gone: electricity, fuel and communication are virtually non-existent, and the Tuathe De Danaan are still abroad.

In this fractured version of more or less present-day U.K., the old faiths have lost much of their allure and power, but remnants of Christianity have banded together to provide a bastion of light, with a reformed Knights Templar serving as the muscle to protect the brethren and help spread the word across the land. It's towards this military-religious group that two of the novel's protagonists, Miller and Mallory, are both running, each for their own individual reasons that are revealed later in the novel.

Aside from a few info-dumps here and there (e.g. a quick lecture-summary of the history of the Knights Templar), The Devil in Green is a well-paced and enjoyable story. We're thrown right into the action from page one with a truly hectic chase scene, and as soon as the characters get a chance to catch their breaths, Mark Chadbourn does a good job illustrating their distinct personalities and styles with a few deft strokes. As they enter the military-style training of the Knights, we get a good bit of soldierly camaraderie between Mallory, Miller and their new mates Gardener and Daniels -- including an unauthorized excursion to a nearby Travellers' camp, where we meet Sophie, the novel's spiritual parallel to the Age of Misrule's Ruth. Mallory quickly emerges as an authority-averse cynic in the vein of Bill Murray's character in the movie Stripes (with the Knights' captain Blaine being a much less good-natured version of the movie's Sergeant "Big Toe" Hulka).

While this first novel in the Dark Age trilogy can technically be read independently from the Age of Misrule books, readers who are familiar with that earlier trilogy will have a decidedly different perspective on the activities of the Knights and their leadership early on. To get the full experience of The Devil in Green, I recommend picking up World's End, Darkest Hour, and Always Forever first. This way, you'll also be treated to John Picacio's gorgeous cover illustrations for those novels, which seem to be echoed, book by book, in the new Dark Age trilogy, with the cover of The Devil in Green thematically connected to World's End. If only all fantasy novels were published in such handsome, thoughtful editions.

Mark Chadbourn initially does an excellent job balancing the different faces and facets of religion, from simple, heartfelt spirituality to the unbalanced prejudice of strict dogma, but as the novel progresses, the latter comes more and more to the forefront. With all the brethren and knights trapped inside their compound, almost as if stuck on an island, the novel increasingly reminded me of Lord of the Flies with adult Christians. Let's just say that, if you took offense to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, The Devil in Green is probably not for you.

Regardless of your (or Chadbourn's) feelings about organized religion, The Devil in Green, like the Age of Misrule trilogy, is an enjoyable and fun (if dark) read, once again filled with realistic, current, eternally bickering characters, interesting mythological and historical tidbits, and a gripping, edge-of-your-seat story. Unfortunately the final few chapters take a turn for the worse, with a couple of deus ex machina escapes and a chaotic and rushed resolution. Despite the ending, which mars what would otherwise be an excellent read, I definitely look forward to the second book in the Dark Age trilogy, The Queen of Sinister.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars In danger of being the Next Generation, August 2, 2004

By 

ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Devil in Green (Dark Age) (Hardcover)

The opener in Mark Chadbourn second trilogy of a New Britain (though not quite what Blair had in mind), `The Devil in Green' is set couple of decades beyond the initial adventures of the Age of Misrule. Science is gone, the old ways have returned and the Five Brothers and Sisters of the Dragons are spoken of as mythical heroes. Here, Chadbourn focuses his `further adventures' down to Salisbury (with the odd appearance by Old Sarum) and specifically its Cathedral. Where as the `Age of Misrule' covered most of Britain, now we get a darker novel created through a sense of claustrophobia.

The plot concerns one Mallory, a maverick mercenary who helps the fleeing Miller on his way into Salisbury to join the newly created Knights Templar. After being attacked en route they arrive and are drawn into a cloistered world of Inqusition renaissance and bishopric powermongers as a militant group set up a fortress in the Cathedral and its grounds. The ever sceptical Mallory finds his own brand of cyncism frowned upon by the likes of Stefan and Cornelius and the thuggish militia captains, Hipgrave, Broderick and Blaine.

A couple of excusions to the plain brings Mallory into contact with some Travellers, led by Sophie, and the Otherworld where he discovers he is a Brother of Dragons. There he is bequeathed the Sword Llyrwyn and after surviving another deadly attackd gets back to the grotesquely altered Cathedral with his compatriots, Miller, Daniels, and Gardner. Hipgrave laters turns up.

The tardis-like Cathedral allows Mallory to come into contact with the Caretaker and eventually Cuernuos who has been attacking the Cathedral to regain the object that the evil Stefan has stolen. Two brutal murders later and Mallory and Sophie end up being rescued by a Fabulous beast and the truth behind the St Cuthbert relic is finally revealed.

This new Chadbourn effort isn't bad, but it's not as good as the Age of Misrule opener.