The book’s world-building is also top-notch, in the sense that the detail and history of it grows and deepens chapter by chapter – the prologue sets the scene in terms of the encompassing conflict, and gains flavour and texture as the book continues. The first strength of the book is the easy-to-read writing style – John keeps things simple, giving out information about the characters and the world in a way that doesn’t bog down the narrative, and even keeps the chapters short and sharp, titling these chapters with character-names so that the reader knows who he’ll be reading about next. We meet Corban, not yet a man, struggling against bullies, terrified of his anger, and keenly sensitive his sister, Cywen, apprenticed to a stable-master the stable-master himself Veradis, brother to a respected and valued warrior and son to a very difficult man Evnis, advisor to King Brenin Kastell, whose family was killed by giants Nathair, a prince who keenly feels the weight of his destiny – and plenty of others, connected or not. Among the humans and giants, forces are at work that seek to tip the difficult peace into all-out war, and when the novel opens, various characters find themselves at the beginning of journeys that will force them to choose sides in the conflict.

Humans are spread across The Banished Lands, living uneasily with each other and constantly defending against attacks and raids by the remaining giants, who were once united but are now fractured into various clans. The Banished Lands has been witness to war (between humankind, giant-kind and vastly powerful supernatural entities) of such ferocity that even the principal creator-god of human- and giant-kind has turned his back on his creations. I agree with John – Malice (the first book in The Faithful and the Fallen) is definitely an epic that fans of A Song of Ice and Fire will enjoy! So I managed to secure an ARC for myself through Julie Crisp and Laura Hammond, and settled in to read it. Martin, I thought the claim was bold and perhaps a bit too much, but considering John Jarrold’s stature in Genre Fiction I knew that he hadn’t meant it literally. I heard about ‘Malice’ from John Jarrold – he let me know that this novel was the closest thing he’d ever read to A Song of Ice and Fire, so I was intently interested as soon as I heard that.

The faithful and the fallen review