Thursday, August 7, 2014

The Thousand Names by Django Wexler

4.5 STARS

The Shadow Campaigns - Book 1

I loved this book. :) I actually surprised myself by how much I enjoyed it. I had it on my Christmas list because I'd read in numerous places that people had enjoyed it and the blurb appealed to me, so on the list it went. My son bought it for me and I finally cracked it open last week. And couldn't put it down. Sadly, most of my reading is done before dropping off to sleep, so I never seemed able to read as much of it as I would have liked in one sitting. *LOL*

Anyway... it was the characters that caught hold of me from the beginning. Marcus d'Ivoire, Winter Ihernglass, Colonel Janus and the trio of corporals, Bobby, Graff and Folsom, Lieutenant Fitz; they drew me into the story from the get-go. And the world-building and scene-setting was thorough without being boringly over-whelming - a trap many fantasy authors fall into. And there are no elves, trolls, dwarves, unicorns or wild wizards on mountain tops. *LOL* The fantasy here is more of a Game of Thrones type than a Lord of the Rings.

It's a military fantasy and made me think of the Sharpe books by Bernard Cornwell, books by Larry Bond without the techno, books by Harold Coyle and even the Richard Bolitho books by Alexander Kent. The action takes place in a setting I thought of as being similar to Northern Africa and into the desert. There's some magic, but not a whole lot, just enough for the important bits. The Thousand Names are seldom mentioned even though they become a very pivotal plot point and then it's like... OH OF COURSE! :) I said that to myself a few times during the book when certain reveals came.

The adventure wraps up quite neatly, but the story is by no means finished. There's a cliff-hanger, but it's not one where you scream and throw the book across the room. It feels natural. *LOL* Actually, it's kind of like a movie in the Marvel series of films.

Django Wexler has written a juicy, enthralling, action/adventure thrill-ride with some wonderful characters and I can't wait to get a hold of book 2!

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