This review contains minor spoilers.

I received a free advanced review copy of "The Pariah" from NetGalley and Orbit in exchange for an honest review. And, to be honest, I didn't like it as much as I thought I would.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into the story at first, but after Chapter 2 or 3, I was in the groove, and I was really enjoying it: it was fast-paced and had some great action. I love the main character, Alwyn, a snarky 17-year-old outlaw. There were fights, battles and a bit of politics with a heavy dose of betrayal.

What's not to love?

But, at about the 40% or 50% mark, the tone & the pace changed. The pace slowed and the focus shifted from politics to religion. Perhaps if I were a religious person, I might find that more interesting or engaging, but heavy religious themes are unlikely to hold my interest. So, as a result, while I stayed up late to finish the first half, I had a hard time sticking with the book in the second half.

Pros:
• Excellent action: Ryan writes some of the best fights and battles I've read
• Awesome world-building with great backstories/histories for the characters, factions, countries & religions
• Beautifully written
• Some great characters like Alwyn & the King of the Outlaws

Cons:
• Uneven pacing
• To paraphrase one of the characters, "why use one word when ten will do"?
• It's not an easy read, with frequent use of more uncommon, even archaic vocabulary words like the verb "to gull" (same root as 'gullible') and "parlous" (treacherous/dangerous)
• The religious theme is too heavy for my tastes (your mileage may vary)
• It was very long: weighing in at about 600 pages

I did enjoy the book, but not as much as I thought I would. Most people will probably appreciate the flowery prose more than I did. I love the main character, but I didn't get really invested in the other characters in the second half of the book. Like I said, I don't really like religious themes in novels.

So, I give this a 3.3/5 stars (rounding down to 3).

The Pariah
Anthony Ryan
Out August 24, 2021
⭐️⭐️⭐️.75

Thank you so much @orbitbooks_us for sending me an early copy of this book! Also, thank you @netgalley for a digital copy.

The Pariah follows Alwyn, a young man who has been taken in to an outlaw group after being abandoned as a child. Through an unfortunate turn of events, Alwyn is forced onto a path far different than what he ever hoped for himself, and sets out on a bloody path of vengeance and adventure, had he starts to grow into the warrior he will become.

This book was a lot of fun, but it definitely felt like the start of a series! Alwyn was an interesting, while not entirely likeable character to follow, and I found his first person narration to be very engaging. I also was very interested in the cultural/religious systems at play here, and found that the way that these things interacted with the characters and plot was very well executed. This story is bloody, unpredictable, and gritty in a lot of ways that I really enjoyed!

I think my main issue with this book is that it was too long. It could have been cut down a pretty significant amount and would have been better off for it, in my opinion. The writing and narration was engaging, but I found that the plot dragged at times. There were some really exciting moment, but there were also some long lulls that could have been abbreviated.

I liked the characters here, for the most part, but aside from Alwyn and a couple of his closest companions, I had a hard time connecting to some of them. Part of this is because a lot of characters that I feel were very important to the story weren’t introduced until over halfway through the book. I am very interested to see where things go next, and look forward to getting to know the characters better!

If you enjoy grim-dark fantasy, morally grey characters, or coming-of-age fantasy stories, I think you will like this! It could have been a bit more polished, but overall, I found this read to be enjoyable!

________________________

#thepariah#anthonyryan#bookish#booklove#bookstagram#bookreview#fantasy#fantasyreview#fantasybook#fantasybookreview#orbitbooks#booksofinstagram#arc#arcreview#arcreviewer

An epic adult fantasy. This first installment is action packed, edge of your seat good. Well written with rich world building and characters. An immersive and captivating story.

This just wasn't the book for me. It's not written badly or anything, I was just bored for quite a bit of it. I didn't find the main character that interesting which made this a bit of a slog for me. I'm giving this 3 stars because I think this was a matter of personal taste and some people will love this. I'd like to give the author another try at some point!

Things to Know:
-Book release date August 24, 2021
-Action/Violence
-First in series
-Epic Fantasy
-500+ pages
-Slow Burn

The first installment of a new series from fantasy author Anthony Ryan, The Pariah is an extraordinary tale of a teenage boy fighting to survive in the ducheries of Albermaine. Hardships at every turn Alwyn rises to meet every new challenge. You feel for him because of his unfortunate start to life and you find yourself rooting for him no matter his goals. The battle scenes give Braveheart a run for its money.

I really enjoyed The Pariah. My only complaint is how long it was. Some of it really felt like filler, but nonetheless I loved it. This is absolutely the longest book I’ve read though. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy series such as Lord of the Rings, The Witcher, and Game of Thrones. I do really hope HBO or STARZ picks this up and makes a series! I would love to watch it almost as much as I loved reading it! I would rate The Pariah a solid 4/5 stars.

Favorite Quotes:

“Every battle is a forge, and every soul that survives the flames is made stronger.”

I received an ARC of The Pariah from Orbit Books in exchange for an honest review.

I am a relative newcomer to Ryan’s work, prior to The Pariah having only read (and mostly disliked) his Seven Swords novellas, although I have purchased many of his other books given their generally positive reputation in the fantasy community. After The Pariah, I am eager to catch up on Ryan’s earlier titles, because this is a flawed but highly accomplished work of fiction that was a truly a pleasure to read. The next entry in The Covenant of Steel series can’t come soon enough.

The Pariah follows Alwyn, an outlaw in what is clearly a fictionalized version of Great Britain in roughly the 13th or 14th century (some elements of earlier or later time periods bleed in, but that’s loosely the era in question—Robin Hood vibes are all over this book). If you enjoyed reading from the perspective of Kvothe in The Kingkiller Chronicle, Alwyn will appeal to you: his first-person narration is reflective and unreliable. This allows Ryan to flavor the text with delicious bits of foreshadowing, hinting at the fates of certain characters, and in-world epigraphs which appear at the beginning of the book’s three parts promise a tantalizingly bloody future for Alwyn himself.

I found myself a bit frustrated by how blatantly the world of The Pariah is painted over real peoples and real locations—The Covenant of Steel skews far closer to historical fiction than fantasy, at least at this point in the series; I expect that will change in successive entries—and almost would have preferred Ryan play with actual history and infuse it with fantastical elements rather than adopt this unconvincing façade. I did appreciate, though, how The Pariah is so utterly grounded. I like my fantasy with a minimum of magic because it feels all the more momentous when it does arise, and I can’t recall reading another fantasy novel since A Game of Thrones which contains such a striking lack of magic. There really isn’t any fantastical element in this book which couldn’t plausibly be explained by the fallibility of the human mind and how it perceives the world, and I enjoyed that aspect of The Pariah immensely.

(I also want to note that The Pariah, for the most part, does not engage with issues of race or sexuality, which I bring up not as a criticism—the locations and time periods from which this novel is derived makes it more forgivable; the fact that it is not actually those locations and time periods makes it less forgivable—but because there are opportunities to do so and my interest as a reader diminishes when those opportunities are not taken. The one major exception is handled by Ryan with such grace that it throws the absence of engagement with sexuality throughout the rest of the book into sharp relief. If The Covenant of Steel continues to center around a thematic core of Christianity-inspired religious zealotry, engagement with these issues is unavoidable.)

Ryan’s commitment to realism extends to the structure of the story itself. The Pariah doesn’t shy away from traditional tropes, but it also disregards the ebb and flow of conventional (a word which I am using here without its derogatory connotation) storytelling; its episodic nature unravels anything resembling a strong narrative thread, creating a slow-burn plot in which I was never on sure footing. This won’t work for everyone, but it did for me (to an extent—more on that in a moment). I love the feeling of not having a good grasp on the thrust of a story, and it’s especially effective in the early chapters of The Pariah, which are suffused with a sense of encroaching dread. This approach also allows characters to disappear from and return to the narrative with a casualness the resembles real life more than fiction, and Ryan is so good at making those characters pop off the page than it becomes pleasantly difficult to distinguish who will be a major player and who will have an arrow through the eye before the end of the chapter.

The Pariah’s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. It defies the rhythm of storytelling through the last line of the last page; it doesn’t build to anything, characters don’t have satisfying arcs, and then it ends so abruptly that, if the closing image weren’t such an obvious mirror to the image which opens the book, I would have thought my copy was missing several chapters at the very least. It just…stops. I realize The Pariah is the first of a trilogy, but this is a level of serialization I find hard to swallow—especially with a work of this length. You may want to wait until the series is complete if you want any measure of resolution, because you won’t find it here.

One other detail about The Pariah which brought me a great deal of delight: this is a novel saturated with a love of books, of libraries, and of writing, but unlike most authors, Ryan manages to highlight that love without patronizing his audience. His characters don’t wax poetic about how books are the Best Thing Ever™ in an insulting attempt to make me feel good about being a reader—he simply showcases the value of writing within the world of The Pariah, and he does so via the creation of it, the possession of it, and the destruction of it (there’s a scene in which books go up in flames, and I doubt I will be the only one who finds that sequence far more distressing than the many ways in which characters are brutally murdered throughout the novel).

The Pariah starts a series which I suspect will be greater than the sum of its parts; this is a book which feels like it was sliced off from a more fully-realized work and thus artificially truncated, and I would have preferred something resembling a climatic sequence or meaningful growth for Alwyn as a character, something—anything!—which would have mitigated the deep sense of bafflement and dissatisfaction I experienced when I finished this fairly substantial tome. That said, The Pariah exhibits excellent writing and high-class storytelling from beginning to end. I enjoyed every page, and I will be snatching up the sequel the instant I can get my hands on it.

I hadn’t read any other books from this author and now that I have, it’s probably going to stay that way.

This is one of those books where I debated the entire time whether or not to finish it, and I wouldn’t blame anyone for giving up. I probably would have quit, except it’s an ARC from a respectable fantasy publisher and a veteran author, so I feel like it deserves a full review.

The story follows Alwyn, a thieving outlaw who quickly loses all his allies and is forced into an altogether different life full of battles, both physical and spiritual. He soon takes on the mantle of a scribe, a task destined to change his path more than he thought possible.

The plot’s pacing is not so slow that it goes backwards, but it’s pretty close. I don’t mind a slow story if it keeps me entranced. I wouldn’t say I was entranced with this book, more like slightly curious. But as I look back on what happened, I realize that not much did. Aside from the engaging bursts of action, it’s kinda boring to hear about Alwyn’s life, especially since it’s mostly backstory and setup. At the very least it could’ve been shorter.

There isn’t much urgency or intensity due to the use of retrospective first person. Whenever Alwyn enters into a dangerous situation, I know he survives it and therefore I don’t see much of a reason to care what happens to him. This narration type does add some interest—as he hints at what’s to come—but it also sounds like what he’s saying isn’t necessarily the truth (I’m not a fan of unreliable narrators). There are even some bits that spoil his future and I can’t decide if it’s good to wonder how that thing comes about, or if it’s preferable to never see it coming. What could’ve helped was if he told his story as if to a person right in front of him, thus giving him the option to write more lively, and not as a memoir.

One thing I like is that the world isn’t hard to understand. This is the first fantasy world I’ve seen in a while that is completely foreign to me and it’s nice that I didn’t struggle to keep up. This is helped by the map and list of characters.

Religion plays a big part in the world. One of the main conflicts in the story centers around a crusade of sorts. I don’t have a problem with that; it’s certainly easier to understand than a complex magic system. But it does seem like everyone is either a zealot or heathen and I think it’d be more realistic to see nuances across the people.

Speaking of magic…it is in here, but I think it’s akin to the mystical/voodoo side, and it’s on the fringe of society so most look down on it or shun it completely. I don’t know what the limits are but it seems to fit the feel of the world and there’s just enough to add intrigue without making it the centerpiece.

Even though it’s first person, Alwyn seems closed off. I don’t feel like I really know him. Sure, I see him be cunning, cheeky, loyal, scared, vengeful, and studious, but it fails to strike any chords within me. Maybe it’s by design and he doesn’t want you to care about him. He could be categorized as one of those morally gray characters and I don’t like that. Be good or be bad.

The rest of the characters are okay. I don’t have any new favorites. They fill the world but aren’t memorable to me.

The dialogue isn’t bad or particularly witty. It does have modern swearing, which is a pet peeve of mine, but other than that it doesn’t sound like the 21st century, something I always appreciate in fantasy.

One of the strong parts of the description are the fight scenes. I could see the battles and the tone became quick and concise. The prose isn’t flowery to begin with, but I can tell that battles and duels are where this author shines.

The overall description is fine.

As to the title, I know why it’s called that, but to me, “pariah” has a strong connotation and I think that outcast would work better. It’s a personal preference; I just think the title doesn’t completely reflect the story.

As of right now, I’m not invested enough to continue the series.

This is just another great book from Mr. Ryan. I wasn't expecting anything really as his books for me have never disappointed in entertaining me. I can't say I love the story itself or the characters totally but together they are rather good because of his ability to write and tell a good story. The story itself kept going in ways I didn't see and was expecting Alwyn to be focused on his revenge mostly. Life does seem to get in his way but he gets revenge when he least expects. The other characters leave me wondering what some will do in the story and how they will change as the story goes on. Magic is not some grand system of where lighting and fire is being use to kill their enemies. It's of the sort that is rather unknown and seems the rather subtle type of mystical mumbo jumbo type. There is some sort of magic happening which hopefully will be explained more in the future. The combat is brutal at times and is very descriptive. That also goes for some of the language the characters use. That he is telling you every thing from the prospective of reading a book to an audience is not my favorite way to read but he does it in a way that I can enjoy at least. I don't know if this will be a re read for me as I feel that I been so fully engrossed in this one that it maybe unnecessary to read it again but I will probably will before the next one comes out. I will be eagerly awaiting for that happen as well. For those who have never read one his books I think this book will make you a fan. I am writing this now after just finishing reading it so these are just some of my first thoughts. I can already see that I will be thinking about this book long after the first though. My thanks to netgalley and the publishers.

A superb beginning to a new fantasy series!! I was immediately drawn to Alwyn's story right from the beginning and that interest never waned and now I just want the next book to continue his journey!! The world of Albermaine and the characters found within the story along with the pace with which events moved along really make this a book that is hard to put down. Alwyn Scribe is a bastard orphan who at a young age is brought into the outlaw band of Deckin Scarl. Forced by circumstance into committing acts that others might deem monstrous, what other choice does he have other than to lose his life? He is put in the path of three strong and passionate women who change his life in remarkable ways and send him on a journey that nearly breaks him, redeems him, all while finding a few friends along the way.

I was thoroughly entertained by the world of Albermaine and the various factions that are battling to be in power along with the Covenant and its beliefs. The outlaw band is quite the cast of characters and the addition of some gallows humor never hurts. Just when you think the story is going in one direction, an event forces everything into a new path for Alwyn and everything changes. The stakes just keep getting higher for him as he learns his letters and becomes a scribe and then comes into the company of Evadine Courlain, and life gets even more dangerous than you might have believed possible for Alwyn. The Pariah is fantasy at its best and a story with characters that will stay with beyond finishing the book!!

4.5*
For those that loved Blood Song, this is the book for you!!! This is a solid and timeless coming of age tale filled with tropes that I love!

This book is single POV first person and follows the journey of Alwyn, a young orphan in service to an outlaw king as he faces betrayal and loss and much much more.

I feel like Anthony Ryan is really in his element here. Can't recommend enough for those that like coming of age stories.

“The Pariah: The Covenant of Steel #1” by Anthony Ryan
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
I’m going to be brief, for once. This was a good story with interesting characters for anyone who prefers more swords than sorcery in their medieval fantasy fiction. The pacing was my least favorite part of the book, because I prefer my lulls to be more compact. That was not a major detractor, however, because it felt right for this tale. 
The protagonist was very well developed and was easy to like despite his moral shortcomings. The supporting cast was full of three dimensional personalities who were complex enough to make them all interesting. Ryan did a great job with them all.
I highly recommend this 4.5 star read if, like me, you want characters with depth. 
My thanks to Orbit via Netgalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Fantastic book! This was the first Anthony Ryan book I've read, although I've started and stopped a few others. After reading this book I realize I need to go back and give those books another chance. This book mixed together some of my favorite fantasy and storytelling elements, one being the Robin Hood legend, another with the narrator occasionally giving a glimpse of what's to come, and understated magic. Mix all that together with interesting characters and character progression in a grimdark world and I'm hooked! I can't wait until the next book!

*Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.*
I really enjoyed this book. It was the first book by Anthony Ryan that I've read and I am definitely adding more of his books to my list. I thought the setting and medieval vibe was fresh and not something I have seen too often before. The character in this book were so good and I feel that Ryan really worked hard to develop details and a story arc for each one. I also enjoyed that the female characters were characters of power and not lowly minor additions to the plot. The way the book started and ended was interesting as well and I really enjoyed seeing recurring characters pop up throughout the entire story, even though time had passed. Alwyn was an incredible narrator and I liked his first person thoughts and reading the story from his head basically. There was also cursing in this book and I actually think it added to the characters and the narrative, it didn't feel harsh or unnecessary. Overall, this was a thick fantasy adventure that I enjoyed and would definitely recommend.

4.5 stars. At the beginning of this epic fantasy I wasn’t sure if this was the right book for me, but now that I’ve finished it I can’t wait for the next one to come out!

This one has it all: politics, religion, battle scenes, doomsayer, outlaws, and a main character who you will continuously root for.

After being kicked out of the only home he knew, Alwyn Scribe was raised as an outlaw in the kingdom of Albermaine. Now, as a young man, his life is upended again when someone betrays his group of outlaws, and he is forced to fight constantly for his freedom. From outlaw to soldier, Alwyn embarks on a fair amount of journeys with vengeance on his mind for those that harmed the people closest to him.

This first novel, in what will eventually be a trilogy, is intricately plotted and full of characters to both love and hate. Next to Alwyn, my favourite character is Toria, she is a fierce and loyal friend to Alwyn and helps to keep him grounded. Alwyn is an interesting character himself; he is sharp and capable with a weapon, but not infallible. His experience as an outlaw serves him well in many other scenarios.

It took me about 75 pages before I fully became invested in this story. The beginning is kind of dense with a whole host of characters introduced, so many that there is a character list preceding the story, as well as a lot of political intrigue that I found confusing at first. When things finally got rolling, I was totally immersed in the goings on of Alwyn Scribe’s life.

Now, I will anxiously wait for the second novel.

Thank you to Orbit Books for providing me with an arc via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinions.

Anthony Ryan is a very hit or miss author for me. Sometimes I really love his writing style, such as this time. But the characters fell so flat for me that it’s hard to write a full review.

I feel like I say this an awful lot, but this was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021! I mean, I had quite a list of anticipated releases but I knew this was going to be a Big Deal since it was by Anthony Ryan and that synopsis was just fabulous. 

Alwyn was born in a whorehouse and then raised by outlaws in the forest. These weren’t the “take from the rich and give to the poor” kind either. They were straight up killers and they would steal from anyone that had something they wanted. That being said, this band of outlaws and their Outlaw King were the only family Alwyn had, dysfunctional though they were.  Until the Outlaw King ends up with his head on one side of an axe and his body on the other. Alwyn’s journey only gets more and more interesting from there, his occupations running the gamut from scribe to soldier and everything in between. The one constant is that he’s always a follower.

That may be one of the most interesting parts about this story since so many books focus on someone who becomes a leader, a savior, or other elevated figure. Alwyn is never this - he followed the Outlaw king, he followed the Ascendant Sihlda, he followed Evadine Courlain. Alwyn plays a supporting role and he does it well. The Pariah is like a Guy Gavriel Kay book in that it illustrates how seemingly unimportant people are important and small acts can twist fates. It's honestly a fantastic change of pace from the main character being the savior of the whole world.

I loved this book and all it’s highly dysfunctional characters. There are almost too many to count and many come and go but all are memorable. The plot… well, I’m not precisely sure I could tell you what the end goal is, but I’m loving the journey. It’s a meandering path and this first book seems to be a very long introduction and how Alwyn ultimately came to be in Evadine Courlain’s service. I could be totally wrong - we’ll just have to see how the next book plays out.

This was a fantastic read and I couldn’t have possibly picked a better one to read on a really long flight. I couldn’t put it down! Literally, since I had NOTHING else to do but it was a great book since I also really didn’t want to put it down. I’m looking forward to the sequel, which will hopefully be out in 2022.

DNF -15%

I'm not tracking with this. I recently gave up a similar book, and I think the outlaw fantasy setting just isn't my thing. The writing is "thicker" than I typically like. The wordy style mixed with the political and religious themes couldn't hold my attention for long enough. It was my first Anthony Ryan book, so I did not have any prior knowledge of his style going into it.

It's definitely going to stay on my "try again someday" list, and I would still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy, especially people who like to be challenged as they read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit books for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book is not my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish it only to give it a poor review.

I enjoyed this book.
I had been craving actual adult fantasy and had never read anything by this author, which seemed odd to me. I look forward to delving more into his stuff :)

I was very impressed with this book. This was the first novel from Anthony Ryan that I've read before, and I will probably have to go back and read some of his other work. The writing felt like Joe Abercrombie or John Gwynne, fans of grim dark will like this. While reading you can tell that there was a lot of time and work put into all the character's voices, and the personalities are vibrant and full of life. The story is a decent size at 600 pages and that can be beyond some reader's scope, with that said it is a great and fulfilling read. My one critique was that the story did start off a bit slow and I can see why some other reviews DNF, I personally didn't get sucked in like some reviewed, but the characters are strong and colorful. This sort of felt like a mix of Robin Hood meets Joan of Arc with an edge.