The Malice
("Malice" #2)
by Peter Newman
fantasy
copyright 2016
read in May 2018
rated 8/10: really quite good
It's an old cliche: young innocent finds magic sword, takes sword to defeat major evil, uses sword to become super-warrior. The sword, of course has a name. In this case, it is suitably menacing: "The Malice". All so tried and true.
So why does our sweet and innocent heroine take a young goat on her adventures?!
This book is no cliche sword-and-sorcery fantasy. Coming of age... learning about the reality of the world... avoiding the cliche of becoming what she is not. This is a delightful -- yet unavoidably violent -- adventure with a heroine who remains as sweet as the girl next door.
The world itself is near enough to unique. A science fiction world being slowly destroyed by a fantasy evil. Being slowly rebuilt by the possibilities of fantasy. Fascinating :-)
This is a follow-on book; I have not read the first (The Vagrant). I have the suspicion that Vagrant was more cliched, with the hero using the sword to become a monster-killing warrior... or perhaps not. There are certainly revelations that -- I believe -- shed new light on events from book one. Perhaps (to extend my guessing), to show that battle and death is not as simple as portrayed in book one.
So Malice is book two -- with clear leads into book three -- yet it is easy to read alone. Perhaps some characters would be familiar from Vagrant? It doesn't matter. This world is just asking for more adventures; yet this adventure has absolute closure.
Oh, and the goat plays an essential role. Throughout the book.
This is a really good book -- a continuation which is well able to be read as a standalone novel. I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Malice.
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20 Jan 20: I've just reread The Malice... and enjoyed it again. Just as much. Possibly more.
First I read Malice, book two. Then I read Vagrant, did not recognise it as book one to Malice but did recognise similarities. Plagiarism? I thought... silly me!
Now -- with a clearer mind -- I think that Malice is a better book than Vagrant. I have no plan to confirm that by rereading Vagrant... though... Vagrant may be better -- or clearer -- after Malice... interesting thought. I shall try to resist :-)
First I read Malice, book two. Then I read Vagrant, did not recognise it as book one to Malice but did recognise similarities. Plagiarism? I thought... silly me!
Now -- with a clearer mind -- I think that Malice is a better book than Vagrant. I have no plan to confirm that by rereading Vagrant... though... Vagrant may be better -- or clearer -- after Malice... interesting thought. I shall try to resist :-)
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"I know so little that it astonishes me how many people know even less." … per Ginger Meggs
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