Customer Reviews

The Heretic of the North

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Timothy Brommer has created a vivd fantasy world, filled with a host of compelling characters. Orius Candell is a heretic priest who begins his quest from scratch to gain his rightful place on the throne of Soriazar. To do this, he has to rein in a nation of scattered and warring tribes, who hate each other as much as they hate their common enemy, the Syts.

But it doesn't end there. There are other factors working against Orius' success. The Church of Ghyo, who hunts for him, and his real family, the Mendios, who seem to be the definition of dysfunction.

Mr. Brommer's multi-layered plot kept the pages turning for me, with his awesome grasp of political intrigue, family strife, and one of the most spectacular battle scenes I have EVER read. He must be a reenactor or something.

This new writer definitely shows off his knack for high fantasy in his debut novel. I can't wait for book two.

On the back cover Heretic of the North is described as Orius Candell's fight/quest to fight against a new threat to the world. This is true, but there is so much more going on in this story. In addition to Orius Candell there is Pendros the lechorous iron merchant, Tarik the royal messenger, Jurdana the high priestess, and Rodrigo the King. All of these 'supporting' characters are so well developed that they might as well be described as co-main characters.

The fantasy world that Brommer has developed is detailed, realistic, and complex. The above characters are interspersed throughout the world and it is interesting to watch as seemingly unrelated events start to effect each other.

Due to the complexity the book started out slow (for me). All these characters to remember. All these details about the world. It was hard for me to keep it all straight. Once I got past the first couple chapters, however, I realized why all of it was necessary. The 'final' battle was very detailed and it was obvious that Brommer had done a ton of research on medieval/age of discovery combat. It didn't descend into a text book description of battle either. I was on the edge of my seat. I didn't know if the army was going to be routed!

If you like political intrigue in a fantasy world mixed with plenty of action and adventure then Heretic of the North is for you.

I gave this book a chance, and I tried, valiantly, to find some worthwhile content while trudging through its meandering verse. I found none. Worse, I was misdirected by the first chapter or two into expecting something substantial which was never delivered. This book is a meandering cavalcade of horrors, but not of the literary kind.

Please, if you value your time and sanity, stay far away from this book. The publisher has since gone out of business, so the expected cliffhanger will never be resolved, and while reading, you'll likely be banging your head against a nearby wall, expecting the quality to improve, or the plot to embrace some semblance of coherence. Neither, unfortunately, is in the cards. Sadly, the second half of the book actually picks up rather well, but few will likely read that far.

The plot is frustratingly obtuse, the motivations maddeningly absent or otherwise obscured by needlessly lengthy pacing, and many events early in the work seemingly relate not at all to the main thread. I can only assume further works meant to rectify this, but that's not likely to happen anymore, and that leaves this book all the more pointless. I've got a signed copy, if anyone wants it...