Customer Reviews

Warrior King

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A surprisingly decent end to the series, going against the standard law of fantasy trilogies (in which the author has generally stopped caring by halfway through the second book) as well as the less-than-promising "hang on, it's not over after all" last page of The Demon King.

Probably the book's greatest strength lies in the fact that it charts one long drawn-out battle campaign from start to finish, always the strongest aspect of the series. All the other strengths (and weaknesses - though thankfully the sex scenes haven't gotten any worse since last time out) are here too, so you can expect to see some of the major players killed off without a second thought, more emphasis on characters and relationships than a tedious parade of ugly monsters from the fantasy gene pool, and even a fair old helping of allegory (Russian inflections of the word 'Tovieti' aren't likely to be coincidental). Maybe the final confrontation between Damastes and Tenedos is a bit perfunctory after the enormous build-up, but it's nowhere near disappointing enough to sabotage the entire book, let alone the whole trilogy. Credit due for the interestingly ambiguous (and realistic) ending, too, where it would have been easy to paste in the usual happy-ever-after inanities and leave it at that...

Not entirely without its faults, then, but it's not often you come across a trilogy so consistent, thorough and downright entertaining which also has something to say beyond "kill the nasty wizard".

Welp. Where to begin?

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, began to get distracted by the end of the second, and wished I hadn't read the series by the third.

Bunch likes to write about sex. A lot. In lurid detail. In romance novel fashion. That's not a problem for me, personally, but it gets really repetitive.

Worse than that, however, toward the end, I started seeing the characters as their function. Yonge was replaced by "Stereotypical unkillable thief guy", and Tenedos by "Evil Crazy Wizard muhahaha". Only Damastes remained somewhat three dimensional. Perhaps this is simply a failing of the first person narrative, or perhaps the series should have ended after two books. That will have to be left as an exercise for the reader.

The last part of Bunch's 'King'-trilogy. Again, Numantia is threatened by war, but this time three sides are struggling for power. Tenedos has created an army of his own, after having risen from the dead; Damastes is the leader of his rebel army; and the Grand Council (previously known as the Rule of Ten) represents Numantia's own 'legal' army. This again spawns various battle scenes, Bunch's speciality. Damastes is also engaged in guerilla warfare (in Cimabue), a welcome change from the enormous army battles. Of course, sex also plays a part in this book, though it used less often than in the previous 2. Honour is an important issue as well, and Damastes is a paragon when it comes to this. I especially liked a particular scene in which Damastes has a dream about the 'origin of man'. This is the kind of philosophical pondering I would like to see more often in fantasy novels. Overall, I would say it is a satisfying round-up of the trilogy, although the ending suggests that the adventures in Numantia may one day be expanded by Chris Bunch... I will definitely read his next fantasy novel (I read something on the Internet that it will star a dwarf this time!).

Unwilling to summarize the plot or critique the story, I hope to
share with you the visceral joy of this book:

-Applying the discipline of not reading the last 1/3 of the book normally and spreading that portion of the book over 1 month to make it last longer demonstrates how much I enjoyed this final installment.

-Another reward of this book, though painful, is that finishing this story, and the trilogy it is a part of, leaves you uneasy about the finite number of books that only remain from this author for you to read.

-An environment is created that allows you to shed your occupational and daily stress and go on an adenture with a well crafted and likable protagonist. The environment is interestingly isolated and floating with no definitive references that allow you to peg it as of this world or not. This is a nutrient for the "Escape" quality of the story.

Don't hesitate. Start with the first of this series and fasten your reading chair seatbelt for a colorful and thrilling adventure.

Just a bad book. Nothing else really to say except this series stinks.