Malice cover art

Malice

The Faithful and the Fallen, Book 1

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Malice

By: John Gwynne
Narrated by: Damian Lynch
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About this listen

'It gets faster and more fascinating by the page' – Conn Iggulden, author of Empire

An epic coming-of-age fantasy inspired by mythology and the Iron Age, Malice by John Gwynne is the first in The Faithful and the Fallen series.

Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. But that day will come all too soon.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, the earth running dark with their heartsblood. Although the giant-clans were broken in ages past, their ruined fortresses still scar the land.

But now giants stir anew, the very stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars.

Sorrow will darken the world, as angels and demons make it their battlefield.

Then there will be a war to end all wars.

Continue the epic fantasy series with Valour.

©2012 John Gwynne (P)2024 Macmillan Publishers International Limited Dystopian Epic Fantasy Science Fiction War Heartfelt Royalty

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Critic reviews

'Influenced by Gemmell's Rigante and GRR Martin's Game of Thrones - two good strands of DNA. Great characters and plot - it gets faster and more fascinating by the page. All I want now is for the author to put everything else aside, including his health - and write two or three more as fast as humanly possible. Hell of a debut: Highly recommended' (Conn Iggulden)

'With all manner of battles, betrayals and revelations. I particularly enjoyed the battle scenes and duels ... If it sounds like your thing, then it probably is' (Mark Lawrence)
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A little slow paced, a little generic och a lot of names to keep track of.
I'm glad It picked up some pace the last third and I really enjoyed the action scenes.
over all a pretty good listening.

Love the action!

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I'm so glad I stumbled into these books, kept me very much entertained. I'm a HGV Driver and listen to an average of 120 hours a month of Audiobooks, and usually only listen to it I'm my truck, but I've found with these books, I put my buds in when I'm driving home in my non-bluetooth car. Narration is good, not brilliant but good. Without spoilers, once the main character ventures forth from his village, the story absorbs you in.

Starts slow, but we'll worth the wait.

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The narrator needs to learn how to seperate narration from character voices.. It's very distracting at times and at others causes him to unintentionally reach the end of his breath. So what he's saying isn't clear.

The narrator needs to learn how to seperate narration from character voices..

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Names were easily confused. I had to reread some chapters to untangle the story. I enjoyed the theme.

Good pace to the story, but names were easily confused

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The story is decent. The stuff involving Corbyn is much more interesting than the other, passive, characters. The narration doesn’t help.

While it’s mostly fine the narrator uses inconsistent voices for characters which makes it hard to track which character is which. This isn’t helped by the fact that some characters are mentioned and not heard of again for hours. I found that when they came back up I had no idea who they were. It wasn’t until I re-listened to some parts that I realised who some characters later in the story were.

I came from the Bloodsworn Saga with high hopes. I’ve heard the rest of this series is good so I’m pushing through.

Decent story, narration makes it hard to follow

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A slow start but stuck with it as it really sets the characters up for which is a great story through the rest of the series

Great introduction to the series

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The deeper the story got the characters personal growth and maturity just got better and better and thus I started to like the books even more

It took a while be I love the characters

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I have no words - get past chapter 30 and it’s non stop!!! The first 30 chapters are slow but necessary stick with it and you won’t be disappointed

Just wow

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narator was ok. A little annoying at times. many characters in this book shout and when he does these characters shouting it's annoying .the main issue is the premise is a little too familiar with tropes we have seen too many times. too many character arcs making the overall story chug. many of whom are so similar I just couldn't care about them. I like what John gwynn is trying to do but it's taking to long for me.

a little slow for me. to many arcs and too few stand out characters

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Getting into john gwynne and the narrator brings the story alive. Good story lines just up my street.

Good action packed story well narrated

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