Customer Reviews

World's End (Age of Misrule, Book 1)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I didn't expect to be as impressed with this book as I was. It has a subtle intensity in descriptions, never slows down enough to get boring, but also never made me impatient to keep reading. I enjoyed the balance of descriptions, conversations, and action. It was a joy to read a book by an author I had never heard of, yet who seems to be taking the business of writing fantasy books seriously to invest admirable amount of research. Even though by the end it was really obvious the most popular description throughout is that everything tends to be "mediaeval" and every door is "oaken" :) Overall, a highly enjoyable read for anybody interested in the ancient fantasy resurging into a modern world presented with respect for everyone involved. Or just any fantasy fans in general, really. Highly recommended!

I have read many books that tackle this and similar themes...but none of them manage to present an intense, mystical, terrifying and magical reality as this one. Why? because Chadbourn's style is direct and thoughtful. His characters are deep, complex, very diverse, and very human. They don't know the right thing to do or say at every turn; they are not smooth and composed all the time; they are not Hollywood hopefuls blessed with the strength of Hercules. But they persevere, struggle, breakdown and rebuild themselves as all of us do. In conjunction with his developed characters, the folkloric elements that Chadbourn brings to life are just the right intensity to be believable...that's the key word here... He uses familiar archetypes in original contexts and easily weaves reality and fiction without leaving gaps in the levels between. He understands and loves England in every regard--and he breathes life into gods, demonds and other familiar creatures with a full mystical and terrifying essence. He gives his readers the uncut 'Grimms' treatment of folklore, highlighting the fear and uncertainty that drives part of human existence. He highlights the unintelligible and unknowable nature of the supernatural; Nothing is trite, meandering, exaggerated, minimized or overlooked; this is a brilliant brilliant novel that does not have the detacthed formulaic feeling of most other fantasy installments. It is a must-read for anyone who loves mythology, folklore, history and Celtic mythology in particular, as realizes the implications of the mythology... And, of course, its 413 page non-stop, whipping brain-dashing joy rides. It took me only two days to finish, and it was rivetting!

Imagine yourself walking home late one evening after a couple hours relaxing at the pub. You hear an argument close by and you make in its direction to investigate. What you end up seeing is a man being murdered by a creature so hideous it makes you vomit then completely lose consciousness. That's exactly what happened to Jack "Church" Churchill and Ruth Gallagher in Mark Chadbourn's World's End. The horrific experience has been permanently etched into their subconscious and it has changed their lives forever. Together they embark on a journey to find items that could save mankind from complete destruction by sinister forces.

World's End is quintessential contemporary dark fantasy. The story setting is a mix of modern day society and various elements from mythology. It's quite obvious Chadbourn has done his homework, given how well he links all these mythological pieces in with modern theological and philosophical concepts. Chadbourn creates a unique, believable, and complex tapestry of myth and folklore for this world. He pulls this off extremely well and authors-to-be should take note, because it's this kind of detail in world building that writers often miss in their stories.

The characters in World's End are many. There are at least six main characters that all get equal time. I'm usually wary when books have too many central characters; someone usually gets left undeveloped. That is not the case in this book. Each character is given the right amount of attention to make you feel for each of them and their unique situations. They have all come from different backgrounds and have very different personalities, but they are forced to rely on each other in deep and personal ways. I grew to love and respect each character as the story progressed. I even grew to like Laura, who at the beginning of the story made me cringe each time she spoke. The character development in World's End is some of the best I've read.

The plotting of the story is where World's End falters a bit, and was the only thing that kept it from getting 5 stars. The characters find themselves in predictable situations and are often saved in predictable ways. As Stefan said in his review (below), many of the plot twists are transparent. So much time and effort was put into building an amazing world filled with strong characters, that some of the actual plot devices were left wanting.

Don't let my quibbles about plotting stop you from reading the book, though. Complaining about predictable plotting in fantasy is like whining about there being dragons on the front cover. World's End is brilliant in almost every other aspect of its storytelling, and I'm amazed that Mr. Chadbourn's books don't get as much attention as they should. I see vampire/zombie trash all the time cluttering up shelves. THE AGE OF MISRULE series blows away a large portion of bestselling fantasy available today. I look forward to reading the next installment, and only regret I didn't read it sooner. --Justin at FantasyLiterature

The first book in his trilogy of trilogies, about the return of magic to our modern world. A quest where 5 flawed individuals are brought together to collect various artefacts and try to stop the return of the Nightwalkers. There is alot of Arthurian and Celtic legend within the story and the book gave me pause for thought more than once.

How would we cope if technology failed and the monsters and demons of our nightmares and childhood fairy tales really did exist? Chadbourn throws all of this into the melting pot and the result is a hugely enjoyable fast paced urban fantasy that takes you on a whistle stop tour of some of the UK's ancient sites, but also a multi-layered book that gets better and better the more you read it.

The flaws of the characters keep them very real, their reactions and actions in the bizarre situations they find themselves in kept me hooked. There is fear, anger, betrayal, love, sex and music all wrapped around a masterful plot of myth, legend and magic.

Being a fan of urban fantasy, and after reading all of the positive reviews on Amazon for this series, I was excited to read the first book in the series. As described, there's a great plot. All of the Celtic myths are returning to Earth, and technology is failing. A band of five are destined to take part in the upcoming battles. Unfortunately, the story is dragged down by flat characters and limp dialogue. Ultimately, the book was disappointing. I will not be reading the second and third book in the series, because although I'm interested to see how the author resolves the plot, I can't stand spending any more time with the characters.

Well, where do I start with this? What first attracted me to this book was the fact that it was the first book of a series. Which often tells me that the author is dedicated to writing a real `story' and not trying to make a simple `money spinner' one off book.

Mark Chadbourn in my mind has written a real story with characters to both hate and cheer, his characters are quite three dimensional and believable. Even though the story advances and the characters often overcome vast obstacles in their path, they do not come through unscathed. This is not a story of boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love, and then together they defeat the villain. This story and characters have twists and turns throughout the plot. There is no real black or white in this book, more often than not there is mostly grey. This is not that the story is bland, far from it; this story is quite often filled with a seat of your pants thriller type of affair. The plot and story are quite believable and quite within a credible scope of reality.

Both myself and my friends, who I recommended this book to, could not put it down once we had started reading it. I was constantly reading this book to find out what happened to the main characters. Would they survive the current predicament that they were in? Would Jack and Ruth get together or are they destined for other things?

Overall, the book is fantastic and I cannot wait for the second and further books on this story to be published. I only hope that Mark Chadbourn has not gone on holidays now that the second book has been published. I hope that he is now hard at work with any other books so that I can enjoy them as much as I have his first book.

WELL DONE MARK CHADBOURN!

Urban fantasy meets Celtic mythology. Or the Fellowship of The Ring adapted to modern day Britain.
Enjoyed this novel, found the characters believable and the story gripping at times.
I liked how the myths were represented as awe inspired and terrible. Not the cute, "Disney-esk" treatment of some romantic writers.
These were the stories as they've always been, warnings and characters you should be afraid of - be very afraid.
The group who form this fellowship have nothing in common, some are not sympathetic personalities and all are flawed.
In true epic fashion they embark on a journey and face all sorts of dangers along the way.
The author does an excellent job, showing how authorities in this day & age would handle a supernatural event that is too visible to cover up - the spin that is given to carnage as a "mass pile up" on a motor way - when infact a dragon let loose with firey breath among heavy traffic.
I look forward to the next installment in the Age of Misrule.

(BACK COVER OF BOOK)
"A dragon firebombs a freeway. Shapeshifters stalk the commercial district. The deadly Wild Hunt wreaks havoc on the highway.
The Age of Misrule has dawned.
Ancient gods of Celtic mythology are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. And following in their footsteps are all the creatures of folklore...
As science fails and society is turned on its head, five flawed people find themselves facing up to the challenge - but they are far from heroes. Only by uncovering a two-thousand-year-old mystery encoded in the stone circles and crumbling castles of Britain can they hope to turn back the tide.
Guided by a mysterious, legendary champion, the Five find they are bound together by an age-old mythic heritage. But can they step out of their mundane existence and learn the skills necessary to crack the ancient puzzles, beat lethal supernatural traps, and challenge the invading force?
Stonehenge, Tintagel Castle (the legendary birthplace of King Arthur), Glastonbury, and more provide the backdrop for an epic quest the like of which you have never seen before - where Frank Sinatra and Jim Morrison rub shoulders, counterculture clashes with spies and spirituality, and the true meaning of life is discovered if you only have the right eyes to see. But time draws short and humanity looks set to be swept away...
A pedal-to-the-floor, high-octane fantasy thriller that pitches magic and wonder into a pop culture mash-up of the modern world. Described as "One part Lord of the Rings, one part Illuminatus!, one part Harry Potter - 100% original!"

I ordered this book from my library along with book 2 and three of the trilogy. Reading the back above, it didn't talk much about the characters only mentioning there were five of them. I wondered if I was really going to like it, but I started reading and it pretty much drew me into the story by the second page.
When I was halfway through the book, I was totally hooked and thinking it was one of the best fantasy novel's I've read in quite some time. I love the way Chadbourn writes. He definitely has a gift for story telling. He doesn't use a lot of senseless filler in his books and his characters are interesting. This was a real fantastical adventure and I am so happy that I have books two and three waiting for me.

Age of Misrule is a series that's a more frustrating read to get into than it is to stop. Simply and squarely put, the author forgoes writing amusing yet predictable fluff in favor of telling a story. To that effect, the story starts slowly; the characters start slowly; and the reader spends quite a while confused, then shocked, then let down, before finally catching into the meat of the tale.

Age of Misrule starts with strongly undeveloped characters; that is to say, it starts with realistic characters. A man, with not so strange imaginings, wondering if the world is so bland and stale as it seems, but hopelessly caught in the mundane. A career woman, focused on her job, on daily life, completely unprepared for strange disaster. These are not people prepared to face the ultimate evil; they react exactly as you'd expect.

To that end, yes, the characters are dismal. They are not Beowulf; they do not enter the epic with the will of the Gods behind them and the guaranteed effortless success of a heroic battle. They are mortal; they can be killed, they can be cut, they can be hurt, they can bleed. They are human; they're scared, they understand what they've got to do and they go into it without the illusion that somehow they're immortal and immune to hurt. They're a bunch of men and women, just like you and I, stuffed into an impossible scenario.

And just like you and I, they're shaped by it. If your choices were fight or die, you'd quickly learn to fight, even though you're a weak coward. You'd learn to rely on things you never believed in before. You would live through things, again and again, until you learned where to put your trust and how to do what you need to do. You'd still be a gentle person, you'd still be frightened when you meet things you don't see how you can overcome; but you'd approach the unbelievably hopeless in a completely different way.

And that is what Age of Misrule: World's End does. It gives us a barely held together, flailing story following a couple characters that don't even vaguely have the ability to stand up to it. The author throws everything at them, gives them the full brunt of a well-developed scenario completely ready to be played out by the classic epic hero; but they're not ready for it, and they only survive by staggering through it, just barely, with no heroes among them. It drags on the reader; but once you're through the trial-by-fire, you've grown with them, you understand them, and you see them changing.

And then the real story unfolds....

In short, Age of Misrule: World's End is a story for a reader ready to plow through the second book. There are nine in this series; by the time you've gotten to the third, you should be ready to thoroughly enjoy the last seven. The second will give you no trouble; but the story isn't into full swing until partway into it.

World's End, by Mark Chadbourne, is the first book of the Age of Misrule trilogy, in which the old fairy tales are returning to Britain, bringing about the end of the Age of Reason.

In London, Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher witness a brutal murder that leaves them both unconscious and with no memory of the murderer. The come to realize that the perpetrator was unnatural, and that more instances of the supernatural are occurring all over Britain, along with intermittent failures of technology. The two of them leave London to look for answers. As they travel, they're pursued by the frightening Fomorii and their vile allies. They meet a few helpful people along the way and come to realize that they're two of five Brothers and Sisters of Dragons -- fated to stand against the horrors invading the world. Their task is to collect four items of great magical significance, hidden in ancient sites of power. Along the way, some beneficent creatures offer help, but of course, they're few and far between compared to the evil ones.

Chadbourne has clearly done a huge amount of research into Celtic mythology and Arthurian legend, weaving folklore into a secret history. The result is a layered, complex world invaded by gruesome terrors, but lit with occasional moments of awe and beauty. The protagonists, Church, Ruth, Laura, Shavi, and Veitch, are flawed people thrust into a position of responsibility, doing the best they can against overwhelming odds. Their acceptance of their situation builds at realistic pace, contrasting nicely to the descent of the world into supernatural terror and technological failure. The relationships between the five of them are shifting and not without tensions.

Another strength of the book is the atmosphere of desperation, as humanity becomes less and less able to stand against an invasion of powerful, frightening creatures with no regard for human life. The feeling is of an insidious cataclysm, creeping up despite their best efforts. The tension ratchets up throughout the book, the stakes increasing the more the protagonists know. I stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this, and it was worth being tired the next morning.