The Jackal of Nar: Book One of Tyrants and Kings: 1 - Softcover

Marco, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553578871 ISBN 13: 9780553578874

Publisher: Bantam USA, 2000

Synopsis

A nation's fate rests one one man's struggle between loyalty and desire.

His enemies call Prince Richius "the Jackal," but he is merely a reluctant warrior for the Emperor in the fight for the strife-ridden borderland of Lucel-Lor. And though the empire's war machines are deadly, when the leader of a fanatical sect sweeps the battlefield with potent magic, Richius's forces are routed. He returns home defeated--but the Emperor will not accept the loss. Soon Richius is given one last chance to pit the empire's science against the enemy's devastating magic, and this time he fights for more than a ruler's mad whim. This time Richius has his own obsessive quest--and where he hesitated to go for an emperor's greed, for love he will plunge headlong into the grasp of the deadliest enemy he has ever encountered. . . .

About this title

Review:

The first volume of a fantasy sequence collectively called Tyrants and Kings, The Jackal of Nar starts off with a gruelling account of what is still trench warfare even if its weaponry are magic flame cannons and trained wolves. His hero Richius is fighting a war he does not believe in for an emperor he loathes. Quite minor incidents come back to haunt him--he prevents a rape and makes a mortal enemy of a rival commander; the almost casual decision to stay in a tavern with whores produces an obsession which will dominate his life. Marco's frequent clumsinesses of style and plotting are almost irrelevant; Richius is a flawed hero whose sense of his own righteousness costs those around him even more than it does him and there is a real power to his story. This is a book with some splendidly corrupt villains--the Emperor Arkus, obsessed with the pursuit of longevity and the manipulation of everyone around him; Biaggio, his smoothly vicious chief of police--and with opponents of whom we learn more when Richius is forced to change sides, Tharn, the fundamentalist wizard and war-lord and his ageing servant Voris. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"A well-crafted military fantasy, fast-paced, and underscored with believable characters and politics."
--J.V. Jones

"The Jackal of Nar introduces us to a world full of intrigue, villainy, magic and technology, producing a unique fantasy tale.... I can't wait to see how the rest of the tale unfolds."
--Michael A. Stackpole

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam USA
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0553578871
• ISBN 13: 9780553578874
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 768