I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience. Note: I ended up purchasing a final copy to read in the future.

If you are looking for a low fantasy with little magic and the characters depending more on their wits and skills to survive this fantasy world this might be a good read for you. Or if you're looking for a story about a young man trying to figure out who he is and survive the outlaw, religious and nobility world, again this might be right up your alley!
Full review on YouTube.

The Pariah (Covenant of Steel, #1)
by Anthony Ryan
A dynamic new RPG series that allow political science to be commented on. The book looks into the role of a hero, how he sees himself and how the world sees him. The main character faces hard conflicting situations that allows him to find villainy and heroism in each choice. the sad commentary of how politics can color perceptions of individual actions.

Alwyn is born to a prostitute, his father unknown. Cared for by no one, he runs away and joins a group of outlaws in the forest who teach him to fight and provide him with a sort of family. He proves to have exceptional talent as a warrior. But things rarely stay the same in a war torn country. When his band of outlaws is betrayed and most killed, he ends up sent to the mines as a slave.

After working several years there, his intelligence is noted and he is brought into the house of the noble running the mines. He is taught to read and write and is thereafter known as Alwyn Scribe. He is given the task of writing the story and message of Lady Evadine Courtain, who believes that they are all cursed and will be facing the end of the world. Alwyn and his friend escape and live on their own for a while but as the wars progress, they end up back in the king's army. As he fights the battles, he wonders if this will forever be his lot. When Courtain is in danger, he can leave her to die or risk everything trying to save her. Which will he do?

Anthony Ryan is known as one of those in the top league of epic fantasy writers. His career was in the British Civil Service which he gave up once his first novel in the series Raven's Shadow was published to great success. This novel is the start of another series. Ryan is adept at creating characters the reader cares about. Alwyn Scribe is brusque and rude but contains a core of loyalty towards the few people he lets inside his circle. I listened to this novel and the narrator was exceptional for this type of novel. This book is recommended for epic fantasy readers.

Thank you Netgalley and Hachette Audio for this advance listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

DNF at 30%. I just couldn't get into the story itself. The writing was good and I'm sure that there is a huge audience for this novel, but it didn't appeal to me. It moved too slowly and the characters and plot didn't excite me.

I will not be reviewing on Goodreads or any other platform as I didn't finish the book.

The narrator wasnt working for me! Going to try to physically read. I think I’ll really enjoy it but need to read it myself.

This is the first instalment in The Covenant of the Steel series.

Alwyn is the son of a whore and was raised as an outlaw. His early teachings were in bloodshed and treachery and he became a product of his beloved surroundings. All that changed when betrayal severed apart his rule-breaking family and he swapped the forests for the pits, where a new education began. As Alwyn learnt new skills there he never forgot one of the first he was taught - to never forget those who had wronged you and to repay them in kind for their treachery.

At the point of reading this book, I owned six Anthony Ryan books and had not previously opened one of them. Despite the two complete series of his that adorn my shelves, I could not pass the opportunity to discover what his latest release contained. I am so pleased that it lived up to the captivating brilliance that I believed this author to possess.

This contained all the trappings of a great fantasy story and definitely veered towards the 'classic fantasy' side of the genre. This isn't to say it is a simpler story or one I feel I have read before. It merely means that the bones that structured tit felt familiar and that this was a book, despite its hefty page length, that felt easy to navigate.

Each quarter had its own distinct geographical setting and focus. As Alwyn aged and learned to navigate them all, more particulars about the world surrounding him were also revealed. The early sections revolved around solely Alwyn and those in his vicinity but they soon began to incorporate more political and far-reaching facets which has me excited for the sequel and the endless possibilities of the direction it could take.

Rarely do I quit a book when I am this far along, but I just can't give it any more of my time. I am at 72% and there is still 5 1/2 hours left. I do listen to a lot of audio books, some of which are very long, so it is not the length that has put me off, but rather, the book is long and boring. I do think the narrator does a fabulous job, so kudos to him, but I just keep waiting for something interesting to happen, and it never does. Now there is a new character called the sack witch, who sounds like she could be interesting, but we haven't been given enough detail to make her the interesting character that she could be. I won't post a negative review online, but I am posting it here. I wish that the book was more interesting, but it isn't. Thank you

First off, big thanks to the publisher, Orbit, and Netgalley for letting me have the audiobook early. Apologies if I spell any names incorrectly, I don't have any physical reference.

This was my first Anthony Ryan book, so I've no idea if this is separate from his other series or set in the same world.

I struggled the whole time to connect and can't help think the only reason I finished it was because it was an audiobook, and also an arc, so I had an obligation to at least try to finish it.
That's not to say this is a bad book -- there're dozens of five stars reviews -- however, I don't think I was the right audience for this one.

Characters
We follow the life of Alwyn Scribe in an autobiographical narrative. Not my favourite, as I often feel that the characters delivering the story of their life oftentimes have pretty unexciting lives. Alwyn is no exception.

And yes, sure, there are certain interesting events that happen in Alwyn's life, but too often I felt that the interesting events were buffered by long stretches of mundanity. It almost lessens the impact of the more important events.
I mean at least, thank god, we skip over those years in the pit mine. I don't think I could have suffered an indeterminate amount of chapters of him learning to read while a zealot preaches at him.

I really liked Toria though. She was awesome and ballsy but not without fear. She felt well thought out and wasn't just another typical cookie-cutter female character. She was probably the only stand out character for me.

Plot
All that being said, I was willing to give Alwyn the benefit of the doubt and try to throw myself into his story. And to be fair, in the beginning, I was interested to see where things would lead him. I enjoyed his time with the outlaw band. Then things happened that I didn't expect and my interest doubled, thinking this would be some kind of brutal revenge plot, and I was totally here for it.

But then the whole pit mine arc happened and it felt like the brakes had been thrown on. It was around the 50% mark that I realised my focus on the story was slipping. For a time I blamed the fact that I was listening to an audiobook, so that must have been why I couldn't concentrate. Then I realised, maybe I'm just not finding the book engaging enough to keep my focus. Maybe I'm just finding it all a little...boring.

This feeling continued until the 60% mark, however after this point, the pacing improved. I found the introduction of the sack witch and any involving story arcs fascinating, but wished she'd been used a bit more.

Plot-wise, it's a bit too religious for my tastes. I actually really enjoy made-up religions in fantasy, but I'm not a fan when it's such a prominent part of the plot. Nothing wrong with it, and it's actually very well done in this book and shows real character growth. But for my own personal tastes, it dominated the story far too much.

The battle scene was also brilliant. Detailed and fast and fluid in pace. I love a well-written battle that doesn't hold back on the brutality and horrors of war, and this battle scene was truly great. However, as Alwyn is narrating his own story in past tense, I never felt the drama or anxieties that I would normally feel when reading a battle scene. I already knew Alwyn would survive it, he's narrating this story after all. Same in his final single combat battle. I just couldn't bring myself to invest because I knew he'd survive.

Setting
This is a vast, rich world populated by many different cultures. I could really feel how developed this world was. Great care has been taken to make this distinctive against other fantasy worlds.

I've noticed a lot of reviews and such branding this as high fantasy. But by definition, this is very much low fantasy in my book. Of course, it's not urban fantasy, it's still set in a secondary world, but it's a secondary world very reminiscent of our own, even down to the 'fantasy Scandinavian' culture in which an execution practice called 'Crimson Hawk' is performed, AKA, Blood Eagle. The magic in this world, if we can even call it such, is minimal. Besides the sack witch and the few mysterious things she does, there're no magical elements in the story. This isn't me complaining at all, just mentioning that I'd personally categorise this as low fantasy rather than high.

Writing Style
The writing is fantastic and feels very natural and comfortable within the genre. I feel like a fantasy pro has written this, so from the very start, I felt assured the storytelling was in safe, capable hands, even if it wasn't to my taste. Descriptions are vivid without being over-written. There's no denying this is excellently written with deliberate word choices that create strong imagery.

Because this autobiographical style is not my taste in narrative style, I think it inhibits my enjoyment somewhat. A narrator telling me what is happening, eluding to things that will happen in the future, whilst also calling me 'dear reader,' does nothing for me except slap a great big wall between me and immersion. It immediately reminds me that all I'm doing is reading a book, and I don't want to feel like I'm reading a book, I want to feel like I'm there, running alongside the characters in an unknown world.

I don't know what it is, but I struggle to fully connect myself to a character or world when it feels like the story is being told to me rather than me experiencing it first-hand with the character. I think it's cause the character themselves already knows what will happen, while I'm left in the dark. I much prefer to live in the moment with the characters and not be delivered a story second-hand.

So for this reason, due to my own very personal taste in narrative style, I couldn't connect to Alwyn as a character and therefore found myself investing very little into his tale. But despite everything, this was still a more compelling autobiography than Kvothe's.

Final Impression
Admittedly, not for me. But I can see this will be loved by many, many readers and I hope that's so.

3.5 ⭐

I was in a mood for a nice, long epic fantasy, and The Pariah seemed like the exact kind of book I needed. But I ended up having mixed feelings about it.

I listened to this book as an audiobook. I really liked the narrator. But, as most epic fantasies, this one would probably be easier to read at least partially physically. Just because it really helps when I can see all the long, strange names on the paper, plus the maps…

Anyways, there were several things I really liked about The Pariah. The writing style was really good. And I loved the characters (though, ironically, I feel like I didn’t get to know the main character all that well). And the setting was exactly what I wanted to see.

But, unfortunately, I had a problem with the story itself.

Apart from religion, the fantasy part of this book was very subtle. Practically no magic at all. Which –I mean, I was counting on at least a dragon or two, but oh well.

As typical for epic fantasies, the beginning was kind of slow. Though a lot was going on, what we really got were small bursts of action that were barely, if at all, connected. For the longest time I had the feeling that the main thread of the story hasn't started yet.

The whole book felt like an introduction to the story, or a prequel. Here's what was going on before the things you actually want to hear about. I can’t say I was thrilled about it, but I’m willing to let it slide, just barely, and only because it is the first book in the series.

Luckily, it was all well written and pretty interesting, so it didn't bother me as much as it normally would. But, yes – the book could definitely use a stronger overarching story. The lack of it made everything that happened seem a bit random and chopped up.

Thank you to Hachette Audio and NetGalley for providing me with an audiobook version of The Pariah by Anthony Ryan in exchange for an honest review.

I found this audiobook to be well done! The story was gritty and engaging, and I thought the narration was well done for the young character in the story.

The Pariah is an epic fantasy filled with action and intrigue. Alwyn is raised an outlaw, spends years in captivity, and becomes a soldier. He has to decide in the end if his own vengeance is worth deserting the role he has grown into.

I thought this book was so well done. It goes through years of his life but never really feels like it's waxing on too poetically for an extended period of time. Alwyn as a character is great because he is such a normal person. He isn't some amazing swordsman or have some noble personality. You can see how each stage of his life has changed his decision making and the relationships he has with the people around him are so important. The ending left me worried for what comes next for him. There are nice splashes of magic without it being full blown fantasy world with all manner of beings. The audiobook is very well done. I loved the narrator and will never be able to hear Alwyn's voice as anything else.

If you like epic battles where the outcome is not guaranteed, outlaw troops, or betrayals from trusted allies, then this is the one for you.

I received a copy of this audiobook free from NetGalley and Hachette Audio in exchange for an honest review.

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 for this audiobook. All opinions expressed are my own.

Audio ARC provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review



Audio review - narrator was very engaging and had a good range of character voices. His voice suited the style of the book and was easy to listen to.





Book review: The Pariah is the opening book in Anthony Ryan's new trilogy. It follows abandoned prostitute's son, Alwyn Scribe, who chances to be adopted by the outlaws in the forest where he was abandoned. From there, his young life is a chequered career of cons, thievery and avoiding the hangman's rope. The book is set like many fantasy novels, in a European-esque, medieval-esque world complete with feudal lords and knights. However, female characters are restricted far less on what their allowed to do in the plot based on gender, which is always a nice touch. Alwyn himself starts off as an not especially likeable character - at least to me. What kept me interested in him was the fact that he was observant, clever and cunning. I always enjoy characters who are competent and survive based on their wits.



I didn't really get invested until Toria showed up at around 40% of the way through, and then I really started actively enjoying the book when we meet Everdene - the female holy knight/ prophetess who leads Covenant company. You can argue that I wasn't hooked until a female character was sharing the spotlight but I think it's more complicated than that. I can - and for 40 yrs have - read many male characters who resonated with me and enjoyed the books no less for the fact that until about 10 yrs ago, fantasy and sci-fi were a bit of a sausage fest. Alwyn changes subtly via his interactions with other characters and his most interesting and enduring changes happen, IMO, with Toria, Everdene, Orfeia and the female priest in the pit. He has some great interactions with male characters but he is shaped far more by the female ones. I have no idea if this is deliberate or it just came out that way. I might have been tempted not to finish if it hadn't been an audio arc and if his character journey hadn't become so much more engrossing when Toria shows up. This is a slow burn start and coupled with a character I didn't initially click with, it could have been a DNF.



That said, I'm glad it picked up and I finished the book. I really enjoyed the story. I came to love the characters and I'm interested to see where the trilogy goes. It's a chonker of a book at 600 pages but the slow start and Alwyn's gradually unfolding character are paid off in full by the time you reach the end. Looking forward to more.

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.

Rating: 9.25/10

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advance listening copy of The Pariah (The Covenant of Steel #1) for review consideration. This did not influence my thoughts or opinions.

The Pariah is a sharp, brutal tale and a brilliant introduction to the Covenant of Steel series. While the story itself is grim and bloody, Ryan’s prose and characterization are a beacon in the darkness. A remarkable story that I did not want to end.

Before killing a man, I always found it calming to regard the trees.

First lines such as this sell me so quickly on a read. Takes me back to Sam Hawke’s City of Lies (The Poison Wars #1):

I was seven years old the first time my uncle poisoned me.

It is unfortunate that I don’t come across nearly enough of those gripping lines, but I freaking live for them if they are out there.

So…

Per Dictonary.com, the term pariah means ‘an outcast, or any person or animal that is generally despised or avoided.

Well, our protagonist, Alwyn, certainly fits that bill. The odd thing is, even though his lifestyle conveys the ‘outcast’ persona, there is just something about him that is endearing to others. Endearing may be the wrong word, but there is just… I don’t know; something that keeps him alive and in the company of others. His cunningness seems to be the main hand he plays, but his ability to pick up new skills in a short amount of time (among other things) shows why he is continually “employed” as it were.

It is rare that I come across a character that I am so intrigued by and want to know so much more about. All praise goes to Ryan’s unquestionable ability to write, especially when it comes to characterization and setting. Every turn of the page had me completely immersed, combing through all the details to ensure I didn’t miss a beat. I definitely liken his writing to that of, say, a Mark Lawrence. There is just something so poetic in the words put to the page that tug on your emotions at a more sensory level.

The world-building is crisp and lends itself well as a backdrop to the storyline. Descriptive without being overshare, at least until you get into the thick of the battle scenes. I have come across some amazing fight scenes and battles over the few years since I started reading fantasy, ala Joe Abercrombie and John Gwynne as examples, but I have to say: Ryan definitely deserves to be in that same tier. I felt every draw, parry, riposte, you name it. When it came right down to the gritty, bloody thick of it, you felt like you were sitting in the front row of a Gallagher show (you know, except it was brains instead of watermelons)

If you are a fan of Ryan’s, you have probably already preordered this title. For those who aren’t familiar with his writing, I’d definitely recommend checking this one out if you enjoy some of the usual fantasy recommendations: George R. R. Martin, Bernard Cornwell, Mark Lawrence, or Michael J. Sullivan to name a few.