| $@%&! level: High “Bedroom” level: Low (Some talk about it, is all.) Violence level: High (and pretty detailed.) Back Cover: “Whom the gods would recruit, they first tick off. Our hero: the unlikely paladin. Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer Hradani is no knight in shining armor. He's a hradani, a race known for their uncontrollable rages, bloodthirsty tendencies, and inability to maintain civilized conduct. None of the other Five Races of man like the hradani. Besides his ethnic burden, Bahzell has problems of his own to deal with: a violated hostage bond, a vengeful prince, a price on his head. He doesn't want to mess with anybody else's problems, let alone a god's. Let alone the War God's. So how does he end up a thousand leagues from home, neckdeep in political intrigue, assassins, demons, psionicists, evil sorcery, white sorcery, dark gods, good gods, bad poets, greedy landlords, and most of Bortalik Bay? Well, it's all the War God's fault....” |
And then you throw in Bahzell's best friend and travelling companion, Brandark, and things get even better. Actually, that's where most of the humor comes in, with the friendly insulting banter between the two. They are absolutely priceless, especially once Brandark comes up with his song. You'd think in some of the really extreme situations the two of them find themselves in, there wouldn't be time for humor, but as long as those two are together, they're going to banter and nothing can stop it. It may not be the healthiest way of dealing with traumatic situations, but it does make for some really entertaining reading.
So aside from the characters, and the way they interact (which I believe carries the story even through the “boring” parts), there's also the violence to look forward to! I know, I rated it with a High violence level, and I can't even say it's just “fantasy” violence, or not much described. No, it's full on violence, with broken vertebra and sprays of gore included. And for some reason I just really get a kick out of it. Perhaps it's because Bahzell, being a hradani, is capable of taking on anywhere from six to a dozen attackers and winning easily. More if he has Brandark there with him. (Brandark might not be a giant, and he might be a bit of a fop, but he still knows how to fight.) It's a useful skill for him to have in his line of work, of course. I find it satisfying because—let's face it—if you're going to have a gods-touched hero, you might as well make him good at it.