Customer Reviews

Path of Revenge (Husk)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having not read the series before this book I had no real preconceptions about the writing style or the land in which it was set. From reading the reviews of the prequal triology it seems like I was lucky to avoid them, however without prior knowledge I dont think scenes held as much impact and a number slipped over my head until I read further. The novel is broken into three different areas with a seperate charcter in each. They all grow over the novel and each has thier own pecularities that seemed very human. From previous reviews it seems he has made the pacing a little quicker and has foccused on improving the charcter development, while amping down descriptions of the sorroundings. It is however important to note that Kirkpatrick is a geographer so it would be wise to expect a detailed description of areas and maps.

I found his realm very entertaining and it kept me enthralled until the end, I found the pacing very smooth and it definatley has an interesting syle of reading that I would recommend needs to be read in scenes and not haphazardly.

'Path of Revenge' is the first book in "The Broken Man' trilogy by Russell Kirkpatrick. It is a follow-up to the previous trilogy, "Fire of Heaven".

Seventy years of relative peace have ensued since the Falthan Wars with the 'Undying Man' ended, but King Leith is old and dying. With this knowledge, many malcontents, who have been biding their time are about to try to usurp the throne once his passing occurs. This tale (in western Faltha continent) is one of three main themes in this book, and Queen Stella (Leith's wife, and known as, 'the Destroyer's Consort' to her enemies), is the main focus in this section.

In addition, there are two other stories unfolding in other continents:

1.)In northern Bhrudwo continent: In Fossa, a small remote fishing village along the eastern coast, Noetos and his family are about to have their lives completely changed by unforeseen events.

2.)In southern Elamaq continent: In the capital of Talamq, the emperor, his servant Torve and cosmographer Lenares are also making decisions that will ultimately effect and change their circumstances...forever.

I found that I was hooked on this story right from the prologue and opening few pages in the first chapter. The style of writing and pace were, IMHO, even better than that of the first trilogy. I realize many readers had concerns regarding the pace of events (slowness) with the first three books, but I was not one of them. The author's skill in the use of prose and story-telling has improved with the passage of time between the two trilogies. Again, as with the first trilogy, there are several 'treks' involved with this second effort; none of which are remotely completed by the time this first book ended.

There is a host of interesting characters, with an appropriate amount of time and effort taken to develop each of them to some degree. Unlike book III of the last trilogy, Kirkpatrick has decided not to dwell on anyone's particular 'flaws' (Leith's immaturity issues), and I'm very thankful for this.

MAPS:
Lots of them; giving overall geographic layouts and several giving more intimate details. One even included some useful scale indicators that where needed to make sense of major elevation changes in one particular geographic locale.

Conclusion:
Another trilogy begins! If this first book is any indication, it should herald some great fantasy entertainment for all of us who love this genre. Easily 5 Stars.

Ray Nicholson

Path of Revenge introduces us to Husk, a mysterious prisoner with an unknown capacity of magical power. Knowing little of Husk and his immortal enemy we learn that Husk has three 'spikes' out in the world, three people who are expected to carry out his bidding to defeat the undying man.

Husk's origin, plan, and morality are all unknowns. While as the story is revealed there is plenty to hint that the immortal he seeks to destroy is evil, there is also much space for ambiguity. This is the true strenth of the novel, we read further because the world Russell creates is so full of mystery, and we MUST know what is going on.

The main characters of Path Of Revenage are strong and interesting, particularly the autistic savant Lenares, our only key to the theology that underlyies Husk's schemes.

Strangely Kirkpatrick gives a voice to secondary characters within each thread of his tale, which does provide perspective to the plot, but with so many voices in the mix some of the characters fall a little flat.

After starting with a bang the pace of the novel is a little slow, and suffers from 1st book of trilogy syndrome. I prefer individual books to have stronger resolutions even with sequals on the way, in saying that there is enough intrigue and unanswered questions to keep the interest up.

Highly recommended to fantasy buffs

I picked the first two books of this series up because I had run out of things to read and I had read all the latest stuff from my standard author list. Luckily, they were on sale, otherwise I would feel a little disgruntled right now.

To start with the positive, I thought the author did a good job of making his characters behave (more or less) like real, if severely neurotic, people. That deserves a gold star in my book, because it's a refreshing change from many other fantasy novels I've read where the characters behave like terribly predictable and angsty card-board cutouts being wheeled through the plot on a dolly. Kirkpatrick's characters, on the otherhand, display a pretty even balance of realistic flaws and strengths that translate into fairly natural character behavior, and, to be perfectly honest, that's the only reason I finished the book. A second plus to this book is that it handles the "brutal" aspects of fantasy fiction like a champ. Horrible things happen to people, and well they should, and the author neither downplays nor hypes up the "nasty, brutish, and short" aspect of life in a medieval-esque world with lots of bad stuff going on, which is also a refreshing change from other examples in the genre.

My strongest criticism is this: I've finished reading it, twice, and I still don't have a clue what the plot of the book was supposed to be. I can only guess that it was written to introduce the characters and the basic structure of the world and that when you read Book 2, you will suddenly understand what in God's name Book 1 was on about. Yes, epic storytelling and all that, but having your novel be part of a larger story is no excuse to leave out all but a tiny smidgen of plot. On that note, this book skips between lines of thought like a schizophrenic on speed. There are three main storylines, which felt to me a little bit like trying to keep up with three different tv shows at once and having the commercial breaks claim, inexplicably, that they're all connected somehow. It never failed that I finaly started to settle in and get interested in one when the story suddenly changed over to a completely different set of characters without warning. The only thing I can safely say at this time is that all the characters, for various reasons, are going to Mordor...oops, wrong story. But if you read it, you'll definately see how the mistake could be made. The only thing missing is a hobbit named Frido who has been tasked with returning the Ming to Dark Overlord #10384.

My last thought on the book is a criticism, but a lesser and more understandable one. Mr. Kirkpatrick is a geographer, so his worlds are likely to be heavily mired in maps and political boundaries and that sort of thing. This can be done well, and if the book had focused on one set of characters and geopolitical information, I would be singing its praises from the rooftops. But having to keep up with three sets of this stuff is confusing and lends itself to massive pages-long info dumps that makes you wonder if this is some sort of cosmic retribution for dozing off during social studies class as a child. I get it, Mr. Kirkpatrick, you worked very hard building this world and want to tell us all about it and I'm sure it's fascinating, but I bought the book in order to read a story so can we just get to the part where someone stabs someone else, please?

Overall, this is definately not the best novel I've ever read, but it's also far from the worst. Its good and bad points even out into a sort of vaguely interesting mediocrity, so if you, like me, are stuck with nothing new to read of a weekend and it's either this book or something with a broody teenage vampire on the cover, go for it.

Here's a copy of the email I sent the publishing company:

"I am currently reading "Path of Revenge" by Russell Kirkpatrick. I wish to complain of an exceptional number of typographical errors in this book. In any book, a certain number of "typos" is unavoidable, but the gross frequency of them in this book is not only distracting but detracts from my enjoyment of the novel. Orbit really ought to be ashamed of itself for allowing such an embarrassingly flawed product to be sold by any retailer. If this ridiculous book is typical of your standards, then I eagerly mock and chastise you and your idea of quality. For brevity's sake, I am not including a list of the "typos" I have encountered so far, but should you request this list I will gladly send it to you. I am not seeking any particular response, except that you make a better effort at decent editing with future publications."

Reader be warned: if you have a problem with bad editing, avoid this copy of the book. (I don't know about the editing quality of the other versions of this book --for all I know, they suffer the same problem.)

You may not agree with my review method, but based on story, characters, etc, I would rate the book three stars. I think the one star review is appropriate, however, as I cannot properly enjoy this novel due to the truly terrible editing.

Picked it up randomly ..was pleasantly surprised.
Characters interaction was written well as well as the descriptions that the author put of the land.

The plot itself was very interesting ... its set in three different areas (with different characters)who are potrayed very well.