DNF @25% which is about 156 pages considering this is 624 pages long.

I LOVE The Iron Druid Chronicles and I eagerly await each new installment, but this book suffered from too many POVs each with a different world. I counted seven just in the amount of pages I've read. It bogged the plot down, made it difficult to focus or become invested in any one character, because just as you'd were getting to "know" the character and world it would jump back into the present and then onto another POV.

Not even buying the audio book with the excellent Luke Daniels as narrator could save this story for me. I think it was even worse to listen, because it was harder to keep track of each person when you were switched around. I kept having to rewind to get my barrings. I've decided to throw in the towel.

A copy was kindly provided by Del Rey Books via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So this is a book outside of my normal wheelhouse - an epic fantasy sans romance. I think this review may be a bit hard to write because this is a very complex story with detailed world building and cast development. The book gave me a feel of The Hobbit and/or Lord of the Rings meets Game of Thrones. I commend Kevin Hearne on his imagination and ability to develop such a complex society with varied cultures, language and races/species.

So the basis of this society are the kennings - which are magical abilities. There are five well known kennings (air, water, fire, earth, plants) and lesser known sixth (animals) and seventh (unknown) kennings. The kennings are largely split by city (kindgom?) and/or culture. This is a western society where the people have mostly dark skin, and are further divided by their magical abilities. The western society is invaded by giants from the east who have pale skin that burns, and no magical abilities. We will be operating in the western society for this first installment of the series. That is a very basic and brief overview the society as a whole that certainly doesn't do justice to the complexity of the story.

(I apologize for any misspellings for character names, places, etc. in this review. As I listened in audio, I will be using my best guess for unfamiliar words and names.)

The story revolves around a bard, Fintan, who is telling about the plague of giants from various different points of view. The bard's magical ability is that he is able to take on the persona of each person while he tells their story. At first I was worried about this method of telling the story - but it turned out to be extremely interesting and I got sucked into the story fairly quickly. I was listening to this as I drove across the country and it kept me captivated for the entire time.

I really liked the various magical abilities and I was glad that Hearne delved into each ability and described not only how the people came by the special powers, but also the specifics of what each power allowed them to do, and the consequences of using those powers. The character races (species?) were also very interesting. There were tree people, mariners, fire giants, bone giants, and others both magical and mundane. There were corrupt political figures, sympathetic heroes, and "regular" people who faced more run-of-the-mill issues. There was really a character type for every type of interest and I loved the diversity. That being said... don't get too attached to anyone! I did mention this story had a Game of Thrones feel in that lots of people die. Of course that didn't stop me from getting attached to people, and you felt that gut wrenching moment of loss when their life was lost heroically or not.

I know I haven't said a ton about the plot or the story details... but I really don't want to give any of those away. I think fantasy fans will get more from the execution of the plot by finding out the details for themselves. I recommend this story to any fans of epic fantasy, urban fantasy, or complex stories in general.

At some time in the past of this fantasy world, the balance of trade and power has been overturned through not one but two invasions of oversized warriors; one race being known to the others, quasi-Viking fire-wielders driven from their lands by a volcanic eruption. The second, strangers from over the sea, are mysterious and even more lethal. How these upheavals came about and were responded to is related in the present time through a bardic storyteller who assumes the likeness of various participants along the time line. In the present, we know that the giants have been defeated at a terrible cost, yet wounds remain unhealed and intrigues abound, threatening chaos.

This is a long, slowly-paced book that incorporates the stories of a large cast of characters from different cultures, much of it channeled through the central storyteller, with past and present timelines looping back on themselves. The world-building is amazing in itself, rich and complex, with each culture possessing its own form of magical gift (“kenning”) acquired through near-lethal trials. The individual stories are marvelous, the characters clearly distinct. My favorite is Abhinava Khose, born into a clan of plains hunters and unable to tell his family that not only does he never want to kill animals, but he is gay. He’s sensitive, compassionate, and unexpectedly courageous. The inner conflicts reflect and intensify the outer drama in his tale.

Read at a leisurely pace to savor the adventures of each person, the book is a delight. It’s not a tale to skim for “what happens next.” The ending is already established. However, that slowness, when combined with the length and complexity of the timelines, means it’s easy to get lost in the story of the moment and forget the multitude of details that have come before, to keep track of the cast of thousands and the sheer number of place names, group names, and so forth. In the ebook version I read, there are no maps or helpful lists, but there are series of charming portraits of important characters. Add to this the revelation that A Plague of Giants is only the first in a series means either loving the world so much you never want to leave it, or not experiencing the satisfaction of a complete story arc.

Kevin Hearne is an immensely capable author. A Plague of Giants and its subsequent volumes represents a highly ambitious project that I have no doubt he will carry on in a brilliant fashion. Besides the difficulties presented by the length and complexity of the book, I would have liked to spend more consecutive time with my favorite characters, each of whom surely deserves an entire book of his or her own.

In this new epic fantasy, a disaster has come upon the lands. Bone Giants have invaded and are determined to take whatever they want. They can throw up a city in mere weeks, and their response when meeting with anyone from any of the surrounding countries is to kill everything they encounter. In this world, every country is the site of a Keening, an extraordinary talent that is given to some of its inhabitants. There are five known kennings. In a country near the sea, the keening is to control water; another country controls rock and earth while another controls all plant life. There is talk of seven kennings but only five have been discovered and used. All the other countries band together to fight the invasion and the death and destruction the giants bring.

Dervan is an academic. He grew up with the ruler of his country and many of the refugees from the giant's invasion have ended up in his country. The ruler asks Dervan to do two things. First, he must learn how to speak with a giant that has been captured and imprisoned in order to see what he can determine about their plans. Then he is to work with and report on a bard who has come to town.

Fintan is the bard. He is a shape shifter and uses his talent to take on the character and forms of those he tells tales about. He gathers an ever-growing crowd each day to tell them about what is happening; how the giants have come, what they have already done and plan to do and what the various countries plan to counter them. He talks of heroes and disasters, of tragedy and courage and disaster and hope. The crowds grow every day to hear him and the rulers want to have someone there to be sure what Fintan is saying, as there is also suspicion that he is a spy. Can the other countries pull together to defeat the greatest enemy any have encountered? There is a rumor that the Sixth Keening has been discovered and perhaps it will provide the answer.

This is the first novel of a planned trilogy by one of the masters of fantasy. Hearne's Iron Druid series is a masterpiece in the fantasy genre and this new series promises to be another one. The world building is epic and his ability to juggle myriad characters while advancing the story is amazing. The structure of having the bard tell the story in daily implements allows Herne to introduce all the characters in detail while filling in the story of how the giants are to be defeated. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

4, maybe 4.5 stars. While it took a little while to get into this book, I ended up really enjoying it. Hearne has created a complex world that contains many nations, each with a distinct people, and each having its own kind of magic. The story is told by way of a bard who has the ability to become the characters whose stories he is relating. So, essentially, we have numerous POVs and I think that's what made it hard at first: so many characters/nations/stories to keep up with. However, as I got to know the characters and see how their tales were related to each other and to the big picture, I got really caught up in it. Good world-building, good characters, interesting magic system, and an exciting plot all make for a good fantasy! Looking forward to #2.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a free e-ARC of this book.

A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne

This is a well laid out fantasy with an unusual narrator. Fintan is a bard of the Poet Goddess Kaelin. He essentially is the narrator of the story. The lands that are illustrated in the book take their Kennings or talents from either the land or the gods of the lands. It isn’t clear which. Those on the sea have talents of the sea, those in the forest have talents of the forest. Kennings are acquired through great sacrifice and there are not many in any country that has a Kenning.

The story is focused on the Bone Giants invasion but the intricacies are more focused on the individuals and their nations and how they respond to invasion. The Bone Giant invasion seems to be religion based but that is unclear as they are a mystery to the folks they are attacking.

Fintan starts the story by trying to explain the history of the war to a vast crowd of refugees. Fintan has a unique way to tell stories that provides a highly realistic story for the crowds.

Hearne does a nice job and allows his story teller to provide a lot of depth on characters with an explanation as to why he is doing so. He also points out the irascibility of both nation states and leaders and how that can lead to tragedies.

A good book, I recommend it.

Web: https://kevinhearne.com/

Although it is well written, I found it veeeeeery long and the characters seems to be mostly the same as usual. I think it has lot of staff that could have been cut before publishing.

Although this is different in style from the Iron Druid series, I love everything that Kevin Hearne writes. A Plague of Giants is harder fantasy than the Iron Druid books, and it was harder to get into. I received a free ebook copy for review, but let's be honest, I already had it on preorder. And I'll be buying the next book, too.

Dervan chose the life of an academician; he wasn't a spy, but when the pelenaut, the ruler of his city and a personal friend of his, needed help, he called on Dervan. You see, a visiting bard from Rael had been dispatched to perform and tell the people of Pelemyn the story of the war against the Bone Giants - up to this point at least. However, the government of Pelemyn was certain that the bard, Fintan, was also spying on them. The people of Pelemyn needed their own spy, so when Dervan was assigned by the pelenaut to chronicle the stories that Fintan tells, he was simultaneously thrown into the world of spies and intrigue. Dervan and Fintan met daily to put on paper the previous day's tale.

Performing daily for the people, Fintan bounced from place to place, all around the six nations [Forn, Brynt, Pelemyn, Ghurana Nent, Rael, and Hathrir], bringing to life, literally and figuratively, first-hand accounts of the days leading up to and following the Bone Giant's arrival. Using a gas encased in a hallow black rock, Fintan can take on the form of those who he has met or had described to him in great detail. His perfect memory then allows him to tell their story in first person, seeming to bring the character to life before everyone's eyes. This perfect memory and his ability to magically broadcast his voice is Fintan's kenning or blessing. In each of the six countries, the god or goddess of that country gives special powers to some seekers; unfortunately, those who seek a blessing, but remain unblessed, die in the process. Seeking those blessings is considered seeking a kenning, which look different in every country. To begin with, Fintan told the tale of Gorin Mogen, blessed by the first kenning - fire; he told the tale of Nel, a blessed to be a greensleeve from the country of Forn, a place of green and trees; he recounted the story of Pelemyn very own Tallynd, who had almost single-handedly saved the city from the Bone Giant's invasion. He recounted these stories and many more. He told stories of those who sacrificed themselves for the protection of others, of those who wanted (and still want) to use the invasion to gain more power, and those who lost everything because of the attacks. Each day, he gave the people of Pelemyn snippets of stories from across the six countries, moving the story forward slowly. By the end of the book, much has happened, but at the same time, the story is just getting started.

I like the book. It is interesting and the author has created a very unique world. The story has an appropriate amount of twists and turns, yet rings true with the age-old themes of love, courage, and the willingness to sacrifice for the greater good. I would have liked to jump around a little less, but that is a stylistic choice on my part. I wouldn't recommend the book for younger readers, because there is a lot of death, violence and rage, some of the characters are crass which is portrayed clearly in the book, and the world which the author has created is liberal in its philosophy. I'm not sure how I feel yet about the hopelessness which pervades many seeking a kenning or how many people die doing so, but I am rooting for many of the characters to succeed and to find what they are seeking, so I'll most likely pick up the next installment when it comes out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for an electronic copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions contained above are my own.

A Plague of Giants
by Kevin Hearne
A very long detailed story with a remarkable presentation, the story told through a orator that personifies his story tellers. I am amazed by the story presentation and remarkable nature.

So I received an eARC of this book from Netgalley, and then ended up with a(n annotated by the author) hardcover copy when I subscribed to PageHabit. The annotated copy was quite interesting, and I’m glad that I waited until after I finished the book before reading those.

I really don’t know what to say about this book except it was practically perfect. I’m only giving it 4.5 stars so that the series has some room to grow. It is a brutal book. It deals with an invasion and war, after all. I say war, but that war really begins with several massacres and while they’re not gratuitous, there is no guarantee in this novel that your favorite character(s) won’t end up dead. In fact, if this first volume is any indication, they probably will.

More than war, though, is that this book deals with the effects of war on ordinary people. You see all the different responses to horror and loss that one would see in real life – when one is so unlucky as to encounter it. The characters run the gamut in their responses to trauma and grief, and this book holds them up to the light and turns them about in interesting ways.

I think this book is a sign of the times. I think dealing with the aftereffects of horror and war and grieving for loved ones taken far too soon is something a lot of us are worrying about these days.

This isn’t a happy book. It’s not a depressing one either. Reading these characters’ stories gives me hope, and strength. I am very much looking forward to the next one.

This book is a phenomenal example of world building, intricate plotting, and full, real characters. It may be a little slow at the beginning, but it is well worth sticking with.

I cannot say that I am a fan of the fantasy genre but when Kevin Hearne announced this series I knew I had to give it a shot. I really love The Iron Druid Chronicles; there are eight books out right now (ninth and final is coming out this year) and each book is such a strong contribution to the series, which is unusual to have every book be great when you get above four or five books.

A Plague of Giants opens with a tidal mariner saving her city, Pelemyn, from an attack by Bone Giants. Other cities along the coast are not so lucky. A bard comes to Pelemyn to tell the events leading up to the attack from 10 points of view, plus we have narration from the historian tasked to write down the bard's tale. I took my time reading, consulting the map and mini bio's of each POV as needed, and was quickly sucked into the world of Teldwen. If you love a good story, I urge you to give this book a read. The second book is set to come out in 2019.

Kevin Hearne is literary magic. With the Iron Druid Chronicles coming to an end, I can't wait for the next book in this new series! 5/5 stars.

A Plague of Giants begins with a bang. A tidal mariner sees an invasion force, scuttles many ships and warns her country’s leaders in time to repel the invaders. Right away this gets us interested. What is a tidal mariner, who are these invaders, what is going on here? We get hints of the magic system with this tidal mariner’s story: She expends part of her life each time she uses her kenning (magical gift, in her case water-related), and large tasks cost her years. That sounds intriguing!

I settled in to read the rest…only the next section bogged down. And it got worse. Slower, and slower until the only things keeping me reading were a guilty sense of duty and a dim memory that thee Iron Druid novels have slow spots that are not too long.

By 25% of the way through (thank you Kindle for telling me how much more to endure) I thought seriously about skimming the rest and writing a short, negative review. By 30% through the book starts to pick up. Some of the disparate strands of story start to come together, book has more action than politics, we learn about a few new characters with interesting stories.

The Good Points
Hearne uses the device of a bard recreating and retelling first-person stories to show snippets from 10 characters in 6 countries. Not all the character have kennings and of those who do, they differ. This method gives us a plausible sense of in-person viewpoint.

Some of the characters are fascinating. We are supposed to dislike the viceroy Melishev Lohmet, although I find him quite interesting. He is conniving, sneaky, sly, dedicated to himself first, last and always. He is despicable – but interesting and I enjoy his sections. Gondel the scholar and Nel Kit ben Sah are also well done.

Plague of Giants has a plethora of plot, big, little, over-arching, tiny subs, enough that it is challenging to keep the characters and their plot involvements straight. I wasn’t sure at first whether the two giant invasions were connected, and if not, which was the main plot. Hearne hints at some plots; for example, one narrator’s house guest seems more than she appears on the surface. On the good side he wraps up the main subplot by the end.

The Not So Good Points
It seemed to take Hearne several iterations to get the bard-telling-the-story method working well. I wouldn’t say the first few viewpoints were confusing – it was always clear who was talking – but it wasn’t clear how they worked together, or even if they were supposed to connect.

After a few character sequences the bard starts each new session by introducing the character and sketching the background, how the little vignette fit in time compared to other events. This is helpful to keep us focused and helps the pacing.

Characterization is uneven. Some of the characters stari out as semi-reasonable folk, then slide down to nasty, murderous thugs, notably Garin Mogen. Mogen is lava-born, controls fire, leads his people to escape the volcano eruption that destroys their home. He is quick tempered and won’t let soft considerations stop him from settling where he wants. Mogen views things like ownership, permission, unauthorized forestry as soft, simply unimportant. That part makes sense. What doesn’t make much sense is that Mogen not only has no qualms about killing people with fire, he relishes it. He wants to kill, to burn everyone who stands in his way. At first Mogen was one of the most interesting people, but we readers quickly decide he needs to go, just as fast as someone can get him gone.

I don’t recall reading it in the novel, but it is as though one becomes the element one controls and it takes the kenning bearer over. If that’s the case then it’s hard to see how Mogen had kept his people together as long as he did.

We are supposed to like Abhinava Khose (Abi) but I find him tedious, overly dramatic, in fact a typical older teen who thinks they are important. This is not a flaw in the writer, but my reaction to a spoiled brat who later makes good, solely by accident. In fact I think it’s to Hearne’s credit that he creates characters that are so realistic.

Some of the plot points were hinted. Refugee Elynea lives with Dervan, the main POV character and a close friend of his country’s elected ruler. She wants a job but when Dervan finds her one she is angry. Supposedly she is angry because she didn’t need his help, but I feel her response to situations is slightly off all the way. No doubt we’ll see more of Elynea in sequels.

The book does not have an ending. Hearne stops telling the story at a point where a couple sub-plots finish and the main plot takes a breather, but it is clear that the story will continue in sequels. I prefer books like The Iron Druid novels that flow sequentially, but one can enjoy reading them out of order.

There is no map and we readers need one.

Did I mention pace? The excruciating slow start nearly swamps out the good points. I don’t know whether a little more editing would help, or staying with one character longer at the beginning would make it more readable.

The pacing problems make A Plague of Giants hard to rate. Do I base it on the last half, 4 stars? The first quarter, 1 star? Let’s say overall 3 stars. Good story, interesting characters but a pace that derails the reader.

DNF @ 20%

I really loved the first few installments of Hearne’s Iron Druid Chronicles but I called it quits after book four. The humor was still there, the great characters, but it started to feel very repetitive. I heard about a brand new series coming from him and was so ready for a fresh new story. And one about a fantasy world with giants and magic? Oh man, I’m so disappointed this wasn’t all I had hoped it to be. The opening was extremely promising, where a bard with magical abilities begins to tell the story of the Bone Giants. He’s able to take on the appearance and voice of individuals so most of the first chapters were voiced by a different individual with a different perspective of things ongoing. Around the time when Hearne attempts to merge their storylines together was when he lost me. There were too many characters with obscure names, too many points of view, and too much to keep track off right from the beginning to keep me invested.

I enjoyed the structure & conceit, it made 'bard' something less stupid & had an air of Homeric storytelling. However, I found myself less interested in the action and story arc. at times, many times, the prose felt labored and needlessly meandering

This is a book to savor. It’s very long and incredibly involved and left me with a marvelously horrible book hangover. And I loved every minute of it.

There’s no singular hero in A Plague of Giants, although there are plenty of people who do heroic things. But there’s no Frodo or Aragorn or Harry to lead the charge.

Instead, we have Fintan the bard, who may have participated in a few bits of the story, but who is not the hero. Fintan is the one telling the tale, using all of the powers at his command as a master of the bardic arts. But it is not his story that he tells. Instead, it is the story of every person in Teldwen whose life has been uprooted, or ended, by the invasion of not one but two armies of giants bent on conquest.

Even one army of giants is not enough to make this big of a mess of a the world.

At least one set of giants is known. And their motives are understandable, even if their methods are often brutal. The Hathrim are masters of fire, but even their cities can be overwhelmed when a dormant volcano wakes up. But they are masters enough of their element that they could see it coming in time to evacuate. Their plan is to use the tragedy as an opportunity to carve out new, resource-rich lands on the mainland.

But they lands they choose, while currently unoccupied, are not unowned. And border on the lands of their natural enemies. If the Hathrim are masters of fire, the Fornish are masters of woodcraft and forest lore. The trees that the Hathrim view as mere fuel for their fires, the Fornish see as sacred.

The Hathrim fire mastery and the Fornish command of all that grows in the land are merely two of the seven kennings of the series title. Three of the other kennings are the standard ones of so much fantasy and mythology; air, water and earth. Just as the Hathrim are fire masters, the Raelech are masters of the earth, the Brynts are water masters, and the Nentians have the mastery of the air.

But in the face of the invasion from both the known and feared Hathrim and the unknown and even more fearsome “Bone Giants” the sixth kenning finally appears. Just as the Fornish have power over all plants that grow, the first speakers of this new, sixth kenning have control over all animal life, from the smallest insect to the largest beast.

And the Bone Giants have invaded in search of the elusive seventh kenning, which no one has ever seen, heard of, or even speculated about. But whatever it may be, the Bone Giants are laying waste to vast swaths of Teldwen in order to locate it. Whatever and wherever it might be.

The story that Fintan the bard tells is the story of every person of every nation who becomes instrumental in the fight against both sets of terrible giants – and the story of the giants as well.

A Plague of Giants is an epic tale told by a master storyteller. And it is far from over.

Escape Rating A+: I absolutely loved A Plague of Giants. Which makes it very hard to write a review. Unless I just squee. A lot.

This both is and isn’t like a typical epic fantasy book. Yes, it’s long and has a huge cast of characters, so that part is very like. But it’s different in a couple of key aspects.

First, instead of being a narrative quasi-history, this is the story itself being told by its partipants, through the means of the bard’s magic. We’re not reading a history or quasi-history, instead Fintan is reciting events for his crowd of listeners in the words and images of the principal participant. It feels different.

The author Kevin Hearne said that he was trying to recreate the feeling of the old bardic tales as Homer used to tell them. I can’t say whether he succeeded, but he certainly has created something different. And compelling.

There’s something about the way that Fintan tells the story that reminds me of Kvothe in The Name of the Wind. I’m not sure why, but it just does.

Another difference in A Plague of Giants is that there are no clear heroes, and not really any clear villains, either. Not that one of the characters isn’t villainous, but he’s far from being a mover and shaker on either side.

We are able to see the story from the Hathrim point of view and it’s obvious that from their own perspective they are not evil. They think they are doing right by their own people, and don’t particularly care who they have to lie to or mow down to accomplish their goals. But it feels like real-politik, not evil.

Even the Bone Giants don’t think they are evil. Not that they don’t commit plenty of seemingly evil actions. But we don’t yet know enough to know what motivates them. So far, at least, it is not evil for evil’s sake. It looks like religious fanaticism, but even that isn’t certain. And we know that they think they have been provoked. (And there is something about their unknown nature and implacability that reminds me a bit of Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera. But I’m not certain of the why of that reminder either, just that it feels right.)

Fintan is not the hero, and does not intend to be. It’s his job to tell the story – not to fix it. Whether anyone else will emerge as the hero is anyone’s guess at this point.

Each of the individuals that Fintan portrays does an excellent job of both representing their people and illustrating their own portion of what has become a world-spanning story. Some of them stand out more than others. Some of them survive, where others do not. But their heroic acts are confined to their small piece of the puzzle.

At the same time, the flow from one character to another, and from one day to another of Fintan’s telling of the tale, is surprisingly compelling. With the end of each tale, the reader (or at least this reader) is incapable of resisting the compulsion to find out just a bit more.

I still feel compelled. The second book in the series will be titled A Blight of Blackwings, when it is published at some future unspecified date. And I want it now. Impatiently. Passionately. Desperately.

You all know how much I love Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles, so I went into this book very optimistic that I was going to love it. I don't hate it but I don't love it so far either. The narrative structure is really cool but it takes some getting used to. The way the story is told makes it more of a slow-paced epic which isn't bad but like with The Tiger's Daughter, I just wasn't in the mood for that type of story. Also, I struggle with books that have really long chapters and the ones in this book are really long. This is probably going to be one of those series that I'm going to collect until I have all the books and then I'll try reading it again.