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Oathbreaker: The Knight's Tale (Oathbreaker #1)

by Colin McComb (Goodreads Author)

3.78 of 5 stars 3.78 · rating details · 45 ratings · 13 reviews

A young knight, surgically augmented by the secretive Council of Magi, discovers a highly placed conspiracy aimed at the heart of the Empire of Terona. Foresworn and forced to choose between his oath and his duty, he flees the capital with the king's infant daughter, the last surviving member of the dynasty. Called a traitor, and with the might of the Empire pursuing him,...more

ebook, 128 pages

Published December 2011

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Dec 10, 2011 Colin rated it 5 of 5 stars · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

I realize it is probably in poor taste to add one's own book, but I'm fairly proud of this.

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Dec 12, 2011 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knights Tale by Colin McComb, is a riveting debut fantasy from an author who knows what fantasy fans love (he wrote adventures for TSR, after all) – visceral prose; logically sound and creative world-building; and fascinating characters that do not follow genre conventions.

Sir Pelagir, a Knight Elite in the Empire of Terona, faces a terrible choice – serve the Empire or serve the King. There is no middle ground. Either choice means he will break an oath and be hunted fo...more Oathbreaker, Book 1: The Knights Tale by Colin McComb, is a riveting debut fantasy from an author who knows what fantasy fans love (he wrote adventures for TSR, after all) – visceral prose; logically sound and creative world-building; and fascinating characters that do not follow genre conventions.

Sir Pelagir, a Knight Elite in the Empire of Terona, faces a terrible choice – serve the Empire or serve the King. There is no middle ground. Either choice means he will break an oath and be hunted for the rest of his life. But a choice he makes, and it is one that makes him a marked man and sets the Empire on a destructive path from which it may never recover.

Right from the beginning, we know we're reading an author who knows what the heck he's doing. From the Prologue:

He rode, his proud face bleeding and grim in the light of the setting sun. He cradled a sleeping baby in the crook of his left arm, the reins of the metal horse in his right fist. With a few swift kicks, he urged the steed ever faster westward. His eyes squinted into the setting sun, and beads of perspiration—or were they tears?—coursed down his unlined cheeks. The gleaming hooves of the steed tore great clumps of sod from the grassy hills as it sped through the spring dusk.

Miles behind him, the city burned on its mountain. Steel-clad knights thundered from the great city’s gates into the dying day on their own metal stallions or took to the air with mechanical wings. The military dirigibles Retaliator and Heaven’s Will rose slowly from the heart of the city, flames spitting from their engines, and turned their massive noses to the west.

The knights sought the oathbreaker, the thief of their princess, the betrayer of their king. They swore bloody vengeance on Pelagir of the King’s Chosen, son of Pelgram, and raced to be the first to have his head. He had betrayed the most sacred of their oaths, and their rage burned as brightly as the flames in the capital city.

I dare any fantasy fan to stop reading at this point. I mean, the whole book is like this. And don't worry, McComb's prose serves the story, and not the other way around like so many first-time authors. Not a word is wasted.

The dialogue is unique to each character – you'd know who was speaking even without attribution. Some of the characters even tell their own tales in first person narration, giving the reader better insight into their goals and desires.

The settings are not overly described, but given one or two descriptive elements that lock them firmly into your mind, enabling your imagination to fill in the rest. While Oathbreaker was a short book – around 40,000 words – I did not feel like it was a “thin” book. McComb gave me a thorough introduction to his Empire of Terona, yet left enough mystery for me to look forward to the next book.

The only nitpick I had was that the ending felt more like the end of the first act rather than the climax of a complete story. I know, this is only Book 1 and, yes, that Tolkien fellow did the same thing, but it's never been one of my favorite novel structures. Plus, I had to find some nit to pick in this otherwise spectacular fantasy novel. My credibility as a reviewer demanded it. :-)

Highly recommended.(less)

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Nov 02, 2012 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jen by: Blog: Pixel of Ink

They say to never judge a book by its cover, but judge I did. I got Oathbreaker: The Knight's Tale (Oathbreaker #1) from the Kindle store because it was offered for free, and because it was offered as a recommendation by the blog Pixel of Ink.

I happen to be a big fan of fantasy and science fiction novels, and don't mind a hint of political intrigue here and there; this novel did not disappoint!

Author Colin McComb wrote a fantastic tale about the immediate decline of an empire, as seen from the p...more They say to never judge a book by its cover, but judge I did. I got Oathbreaker: The Knight's Tale (Oathbreaker #1) from the Kindle store because it was offered for free, and because it was offered as a recommendation by the blog Pixel of Ink.

I happen to be a big fan of fantasy and science fiction novels, and don't mind a hint of political intrigue here and there; this novel did not disappoint!

Author Colin McComb wrote a fantastic tale about the immediate decline of an empire, as seen from the perspective of those who would be framed for its fall, and those who were damaged by interactions with the aforementioned innocents.

For those wishing to pick up the book, I feel the need to warn you that this isn't mindless reading. It requires a sharp mind, the ability to focus and remember, and a dedicated reading effort. If you don't provide that, you will find yourself flipping back and forth between the pages to keep track of important details {I did}, as the are only mentioned once and the onus is put on the reader to keep them in mind. To that end, I recommend not the eBook, but a paper book, as flipping pages in a paper copy is always easier than electronically turning pages in an eBook. I do note that the Kindle copy is still free and that the paper copy costs money, but there is always Paperbackswap (dot com) to get a paper copy for free if your finances are truly stressed, or the knowledge that you are giving book royalties to a very deserving author.

Some reviews I have read show complaints over the way the story is told, so I'm going to be upfront and say that the story is told through letters, recorded testimony, and diary entries that recall events of the past. There is very little that is direct and present action. This writing style reminds me a lot of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and The Foundation ; both heralded as good works of fiction.

The world that is created by Colin McComb is rich in detail and one can almost imagine living in it. The world, as is true in so much of fantasy, is set in a vaguely-medieval, feudal society, where all modern technology has disappeared ... well, not entirely. There is a knighthood, chivalry, honor, caste of magicians, courtiers, parties, dandies, shepherds, and sailors. What truly sets this world apart from other fantasy that I have read is the fact that it is a truly gender-egalitarian society where women and men work in the same jobs and people are referred to by their trade title {example: sailor, shepherd, doctor} and the gender is revealed almost as an afterthought and certainly not in the initial introduction to the character. I was pleasantly surprised many times to run in to a female smith or sailor whose narrative sounded male-normative. If this means that Colin McComb cannot write women, then I'll be sorely disappointed, as I took it to be a glorious fresh breath of air of feminism in the women-so-sexy-in-corsets-and-popping-out-babies laden world of fantasy novels.

My only complaint on finishing this book is that I didn't feel that it is a complete story in itself. The climax is yet to be reached and there has certainly been no resolution. So here I sit, having finished the book, trying so hard to turn the page and read on, though I am on the back cover. Luckily, book number 2 is available, but only in Kindle format for my electronic page-flipping (dis)pleasure. {Hint: Colin McComb, please release a paperback version, too. With POD services, it shouldn't cost you anything and it would make at least one fan - me - very happy.}(less)

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Oct 26, 2012 Tim rated it 2 of 5 stars

Meh. "Oathbreaker: The Knight's Tale" was an OK read. It is the first in a series of books, but I'll be honest, I have no clue where the story is going. This particular installment of the series tells the story of a member of the Knights Elite, Pelagir, who escapes the capital city of his realm with the youngest child of the king during a coup. Most of this book is told from the perspective of other people who have encountered Pelagir, either during his time growing up or after he takes the prin...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Scott Gray rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first volume of Colin McComb's Oathbreaker fantasy series is memorable not just for what it does, but for how well it does it. This is old-school epic fantasy at its best, complete with dark magic, bloody history, archetypal heroes and villains, treasonous plots that might undo an empire, and on and on. But even as McComb has crafted a tale incorporating a lot of familiar fantasy touchstones, he imbues that story with a kind of literary and philosophical energy that too much contemporary fan...more The first volume of Colin McComb's Oathbreaker fantasy series is memorable not just for what it does, but for how well it does it. This is old-school epic fantasy at its best, complete with dark magic, bloody history, archetypal heroes and villains, treasonous plots that might undo an empire, and on and on. But even as McComb has crafted a tale incorporating a lot of familiar fantasy touchstones, he imbues that story with a kind of literary and philosophical energy that too much contemporary fantasy is reluctant to embrace.

The world that McComb creates here is no less marvelous in terms of its history and magic than the best worlds of contemporary fantasy. (I would compare it favorably to Martin and Mieville, but your mileage may vary.) This is a world in which imperial political intrigue is infused with the plots of mysterious magi, whose power defines the empire by creating its most potent weapon -- the Knights Elite. These deadliest warriors in the world have their humanity stripped from them by the same magical-surgical process that augments their strength and power to superhuman levels. And all of these individual elements are great, and it won't be a surprise to anyone who knows McComb's pedigree as a fantasist and professional imagineer that his world-building skill is second to none. In the end, though, what's more important is that this world comes to life not through endless pages of expository detail and dramatic window dressing, but through the shifting point-of-view of a complex but never confusing narrative.

As that narrative passes from character to character, it also shifts through time -- creating a tapestry of event and emotion so much stronger than a straightforward story would have been. Those events are first filtered through the darkness of experience that makes up the life of Pelagir, the titular knight who has his humanity scraped away during an impressively stomach-turning ritual of dark magic. Pelagir's broken oath anchors the story, bringing to a head the political events that will either save the Empire of Terona or tear it apart. However, "A Knight's Tale" is ultimately a rich and nuanced multiprotagonist story, whose different viewpoints act like multiple lenses to keep the tension finely focused.

The only even remotely negative thing i might feel compelled to say about this book is that it's far too short (which is a criticism i wish i could level at a lot of contemporary fantasy). Thankfully, the release of McComb's follow-up "The Magus's Tale" makes that concern largely moot. There's a lot of great fantasy at large in the literary world right now. There are a lot of great fantasy novels that rise to the level of great character stories. But there are few authors who succeed in bringing character story to life in fantasy as well as McComb does here.(less)

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Oct 20, 2012 Doug rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone

If you are the type that enjoy science fiction set in a medieval type setting, this book may be just up your alley. I found this book to be a very entertaining, but also a somewhat fractured, read. That's not to say that it was a hard read or that it was hard to follow ... rather, because the book is a collection of viewpoints or perspectives from characters that are not really central to the story, it tends to force the reader to maintain focus on the overall storyline or become (temporarily) l...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Colleen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

The beginning of this book really sucked me in - a short preface of a knight heading out to capture this other knight who has gone traitor and done something horrible. Then we cut back in time to the childhood of that traitorous knight and his relations with his abusive father. I was really settling in to what looked like a well written, introspective tale of the development of this particular person and their trials in life. I was seriously disappointed when the book then cut to the journal of...more

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Aug 14, 2012 James Christie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book appeared on my radar because of the author's career as a writer for video games. He was part of the team that made one of the most engrossing cRPG games of all time, Planescape: Torment. So when I saw he had some fiction out, and that it was free, I had to pick it up.

What it is: a grim, but not too grim, fantasy novel that leans more toward the "realism" setting than most (the occasional wizard aside. A tightly executed plot and believable characterization. An entertaining afternoon's...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy-sci-fi

I am very glad I timed my reading of this book so that I'm able to immediately plunge into Book 2. I was a bit slow to start but the story gathered momentum with every page. I can't wait to dig into these characters and the world they inhabit as this story continues. Well done, Colin!

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Oct 01, 2012 Dustin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent writing and great backdrop/history that precludes the storyline. The detail of the society that is created and the upheaval experienced by the citizens and key characters is excellent.

The author does an excellent job with generating a certain mood of the story.

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Jun 24, 2012 Kelly is currently reading it

Sounds good. Two recommendations in two days.

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May 18, 2012 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, booksbyfriends, pulps

While I was slow in starting this book, the story took hold of me by the second tale. Seeing the story play out among a broader variety of viewpoints and point-of-view characters made this an intriguing read for me (though a touch frustrating as well, since the changing POV meant changing what was of interest to and focused on by said character(s)).

Even with that, I really enjoyed the story and look forward to the next book/installment. Great job, Colin & company!

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Aug 24, 2012 Meghan Doidge marked it as to-read

June 22 - free on goodreads right now!!

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May 21, 2013 Eric Snell rated it 4 of 5 stars

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May 20, 2013 Ali Stith marked it as to-read

Shelves: maybe

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Shelves: want-to-read, goodreads-ebook

May 04, 2013 Jenn marked it as to-read

May 03, 2013 Adriana marked it as purchased · review of another edition

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Shelves: kindle

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