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The Black Guard

(The Long War #1)

A.J. Smith (Goodreads Author)

3.78 · Rating details · 1,780 ratings · 153 reviews

The launch of an heroic fantasy saga set in the lands of Ro, an epic landscape of mountain fortresses, vast grasslands, roiling ocean and slumbering gods.

The Black Guard is the first in a major new fantasy series, The Long War, set in an invented world somewhat similar to medieval Europe in terms of technology, heraldry and ethics. Magic features in the world, but is rare The launch of an heroic fantasy saga set in the lands of Ro, an epic landscape of mountain fortresses, vast grasslands, roiling ocean and slumbering gods.

The Black Guard is the first in a major new fantasy series, The Long War, set in an invented world somewhat similar to medieval Europe in terms of technology, heraldry and ethics. Magic features in the world, but is rare and mostly confined to the various priesthoods. The city of Ro Canarn has been assaulted by Knights of the Red. Amongst them is a Karesian Enchantress of the Seven Sisters, intent on manipulating the men of Ro to her ends. Her Sisters intend the assault to be the first move in a longer game, a war intended to destroy worship of the Gods of men and bring back the malevolent Forest Giant of pleasure and blood.

The young Lord of Canarn, and one of his closest friends, plan a desperate gambit to take back the city, whilst his sister journeys north and confronts more of the Sisters' schemes as they try to conquer the rest of the lands of men.

Divided by geography and surrounded by enemies, a disparate group of Clerics, Priests, Knights, criminals and warriors must defeat overwhelming odds to seize back the lands of men from those unknowingly under the sway of the Dead God and his Enchantresses.

The Duke of Canarn is dead, executed by the King's decree. The city lies in chaos, its people starving, sickening, and tyrannized by the ongoing presence of the King's mercenary army. But still hope remains: the Duke's children, the Lord Bromvy and Lady Bronwyn, have escaped their father's fate.

Separated by enemy territory, hunted by the warrior clerics of the One God, Bromvy undertakes to win back the city with the help of the secretive outcasts of the Darkwald forest, the Dokkalfar. The Lady Bronwyn makes for the sanctuary of the Grass Sea and the warriors of Ranen with the mass of the King's forces at her heels. And in the mountainous region of Fjorlan, the High Thain Algenon Teardrop launches his Dragon Fleet against the Red Army. Brother wars against brother in this, the epic first volume of the long war. ...more

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Hardcover, 640 pages

Published August 1st 2013 by Head of Zeus (first published July 1st 2013)

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Jul 25, 2013 Mpauli rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: genre_fantasy, rating_4-stars, genre_gritty-fantasy, setting_western-european, genre_epic-fantasy, orga_read-in-2014, topic_knights, topic_gods

The reviewer gazed through the large cavern. In front of him towered the Book Giant on his throne made up of book shelves. As the Giant leaned down to him the reviewer could see the mighty chain around his neck crafted of the ten tomes of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
On his left arm the creature had a tatoo of the One Ring, on his right turned the Wheel of Time. Further down the giant wore a Pandora bracelet consisting of 5 A Song of Ice and Fire books leaving two spots on the bracelet painful The reviewer gazed through the large cavern. In front of him towered the Book Giant on his throne made up of book shelves. As the Giant leaned down to him the reviewer could see the mighty chain around his neck crafted of the ten tomes of the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
On his left arm the creature had a tatoo of the One Ring, on his right turned the Wheel of Time. Further down the giant wore a Pandora bracelet consisting of 5 A Song of Ice and Fire books leaving two spots on the bracelet painfully empty. His voice sounded like a librarian scolding a kid for running around in a library, if said librarian would have been twelve feet tall that was.

"Is today the day I'm finally going to eat you, manling?", asked the giant.
"I hope not, cause I know there's something you crave even more than human flesh," answered the reviewer.
"So you found me another story?" The giant's eyes lit up for a moment.
"Indeed, I did. It's a giant tome," said the reviewer.
"I hope it's better than your puny attempt at humor," rebuked the giant, but the reviewer thought to glimpse a faint smile on the corner of his captor's mouth.

"It's a story on a large scale with a huge cast of characters and points of view, as you like it," began the reviewer.
"Promising, nobody likes self-important first person narrators going on for 1000 pages. A wise man would fear bringing such a book to me!" grumbled the giant.
"Of course not. I wouldn't dare. This story is more about the plot. The author manages to pass the story torch from character to character and although each character has only 2-3 chapters within the book the telling moves on smoothly," continued the reviewer.

"But are there cool characters in it?" inquired the book loving beast.
"Some, there is an albino cleric of death, who is really cool or a one-eyed kickass viking warrior woman," explained the grader of novels.
"Sounds interesting, but I'm still not convinced. What does this story have for me to devourer it rather than you?" asked the giant.
"Oh," the reviewer smiled, "it has old tentacled gods lurking in the deep to return. And all those gods were once...giants."
"Giant gods! Now that sounds like a story for me. Give me that book, now. You bought yourself more time," said the giant while grabbing for the novel.

The reviewer was relieved. He already had book 2 on hand, so he was sure to stall the giant once again. But he hoped that the Head of Zeus would release more books of the series more quickly. And maybe in later books there would even be some advice of how to slay a giant. ...more

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Feb 07, 2017 Liz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ancient-gods, war, fantasy

To give it to you short and sweet? I freaking loved The Black Guard.

Now, on to the ramblings...

Characters:
What a set we have here… we have the Clerics of various colors (Red, Purple, Black, Gold, Brown, Blue)- each with their own set of rules. Some live a life of abstinence, other drink and shag their way through life as much as they want. Gives for some entertaining dialogue in parts!

We have the assassins (Al Hasim, Rham Jas Rami) who are a joy, truly! Then there are the Seven Sisters (powerfu ...more

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Jul 02, 2013 Craig Slater rated it really liked it

The Black Guard is one of those books you pick up and know by the weight of it that it is a fantasy book, a proper one that you could kill a noisy redneck on the train with, and carry on quietly reading.

It is basically a clever, twisted tale of weak minded people in positions of power (a King for example) being manipulated by unsavory factions, that are not quite what they may appear to be. It’s a tale of how that will affect the lives of various people, and how they may react; perhaps causing ...more

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Dec 01, 2016 Bob/Sally rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-epic

Although it does suffer from some pacing issues (a great start, a bit of a slog, a fantastic middle, and a rushed finale), this delivered on everything it promised. The storytelling was strong, and the world-building both deep and thorough. This isn't grimdark in any sense, but it is a realistic world where people have needs, where they get hurt, and where they need the escape of illicit pleasures.

It's become increasingly rare to find admirable, likeable protagonists in the genre, so it was refr ...more

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Apr 07, 2014 Vaelin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was an exceptional fantasy read and given that this was his debut novel, Mr AJ Smith should be given a standing ovation!

The story flowed perfectly and there was not a single moment in this book that felt slow, boring or bogged down with dialogue. The characters were interesting and there was a nice interrelation between many of the POVs.

I can't wait to read the next book in this series and I would recommend it to all fantasy fans.

Forget GRRM and his lovechild Rothefuss, who cant seem to put ...more

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Aug 23, 2013 Paul Dunlop rated it liked it

Ah this has potential, but is a bit of a way off being a bona fide fantasy classic. Still for 99p I cant complain too much. Its sold as a grimdark novel but is actually pretty much a classic Fantasy novel with groups of disparate people coming together to fight a greater foe. The start doesn't show that but at the end, its what pretty much happens.

Its a bit rough round the edges. The language is a bit terse and functional in places. Short sentences that explain things as an aside in almost a te ...more

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Jul 03, 2013 Mihir rated it really liked it

The Black Guard by A. J. Smith is a debut that is perhaps the author's tribute to J.R.R. Tolkein & other paragons of world-building. That's the cornerstone of this wonderful debut, the world that's lushly described within: with gorgeous maps, glossaries & much more. The Black Guard doesn't just stop at world-building with a large POV cast & a story format that is very reminiscent of Tolkien's trilogy.

The characterization while focussing on most of the good guys also a bit characteristically si ...more

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Apr 11, 2019 kartik narayanan rated it it was amazing

Read the full review at Fantasy Faction

The Long War series is an epic fantasy/dark fantasy quadrilogy which deals with courtroom intrigue, politics, magic and gods in a world similar to ours but set during the medieval period. It consists of the following books: The Black Guard, The Dark Blood, The Red Prince and The World Raven. These four books have a complexity and style that is a mix of George R.R. Martin and Steven Eriksson with a dash of H. P. Lovecraft.

Read the full review at Fantasy Fact ...more

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Jul 07, 2017 Justyna added it

Another DNF...I really don't have any luck recently in picking up new books...

What's wrong with this book? Well, the writing style is bad. There is also plenty of swearing...while I am not really very sensitive about it usually, it just got on my nerves in this book, since it was bad writing plus swearing...oh, and for the first 15% of the book or so, the only characters I got to meet were male...again, normally that's not an issue with me too, I can wait...but it was just male characters talkin ...more

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May 19, 2019 Charles Bronson rated it it was amazing

4.5*. Hard to believe this is a debut! And a remarkable one at that! How did I not know the story had a Viking influence? Really enjoyed this. And to think this was one of my DNFs. Go figure...

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Sep 10, 2018 Elliott Austin rated it did not like it

Did not finish at 90 pages. Horrible writing combined with bad pacing and bad characters

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May 25, 2017 J.M. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, grimdark

An abrupt ending kept this from five stars, yet I highly recommend book #1 of this series by A.J. Smith. I'm looking forward to staying in his world and imagination some more. His characters are multi-faceted, especially Bronwyn, and I have a feeling this is just the beginning, as the Seven Sisters are only now starting to unfold their diabolical plans. Comparisons to Tolkien are not spot-on as those to Steve Erikson, Joe Abercrombie, and Gemmell-Award winner, John Gwynne (That Faithful and the ...more

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Jan 28, 2017 Fr. Jedidiah Tritle rated it really liked it

More and more, it seems to me that the ability to write beautiful prose while also telling a tremendous story is abandoned to authors like Tolkien or Hobb--in favor of one or the other. However, some few authors succeed at both (like Gwynne, Staveley, or Rothfuss). So, after recently finishing a great story with pathetically bad prose, The Black Guard was quite a welcomed surprise. The writing is quite good, even very good at its best, but never distracting at it's worst. The story, while certai More and more, it seems to me that the ability to write beautiful prose while also telling a tremendous story is abandoned to authors like Tolkien or Hobb--in favor of one or the other. However, some few authors succeed at both (like Gwynne, Staveley, or Rothfuss). So, after recently finishing a great story with pathetically bad prose, The Black Guard was quite a welcomed surprise. The writing is quite good, even very good at its best, but never distracting at it's worst. The story, while certainly borrowing some things from the corpus of fantasy literature (and weird fiction), was original and enjoyable throughout. Those two items alone (writing and story) merit four stars, in my opinion.

I love G.R.R. Martin's books; and, I've been reading H.P. Lovecraft since high school. So, the fact that A.J. Smith is influenced heavily by both of these authors bodes well for my enjoyment of his books. I specifically like the pace at which the plot unfolds. Rather than having each character get 10-20 POV chapters throughout the book, they only get 2 or 3 at most (long POV chapters, however). This keeps the plot from getting too convoluted or spread out, and keeps the focus sharply on each character during their chapters. I actually preferred this style to the standard "give that character 5 pages and then let's move on" way of writing multiple POVs. Fantasy has relatively stock characters. You're always going to have fighters, rogues, barbarians, wizards, etc. However, while the types of characters in The Black Guard are familiar, the characters themselves feel original and relatively well-differentiated personality-wise.

My only real complaint is that there are two occasions in which the Lovecraft homage is overly overt to the point of sounding like fan-fiction. The name of a certain god is "way" too close to one of Lovecraft's for my taste. And, one of the Sisters quotes a line directly from The Call of Chtulu. Granted, I've read most everything Lovecraft ever wrote, so perhaps I'm more sensitive to this than most. Regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and am excited to dive right into the sequel! Great job, A.J. Smith, and congrats (a very late congrats) on a very enjoyable debut!

Let's call it an easy 4.1 ...more

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Jan 16, 2020 Russell Brown rated it it was amazing

A brilliant start to what looks like it's going to turn out to be an amazing series. Already started the next one.

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Dec 28, 2016 Lyle rated it it was amazing

Unbelievably good .debut novel. Hopefully the next novel "The Dark Blood" continues at this high level. An amazingly crafted world

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Mar 31, 2018 Alex rated it it was amazing

#Wow

So ive finished this bundle of well interconnected words after weeks of hacking away at its pages.This was due not to a lack of interest but from having to be interrupted from the in depth journey i was clearly sharing by mundane task of everyday life.

As an aspiring writer, i must comment that this book should be used as a fine example of how third person limited should be utilized. It is flaunted about with skill akin to the assassin Rhas Jam who ive come to depend on about as much as the c ...more

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Jul 14, 2019 Ron rated it liked it

Shelves: ebook, maps, fantasy

“They’ll just assume we’ll go into the wilds and lie low. The idea of us going to Tiris is so stupid it won’t occur to them.” “So, our stupidity is what’s going to keep us alive?” “Precisely … I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Engaging epic fantasy. Good world building. Touted for being Lovecraftian, but I didn’t feel it. In fact, Smith’s supernatural dimension felt more organic to his world. Prose was easy to read. A little humor.

Numerous non sequiturs: “He was flabby, with little muscle, thoug ...more

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Aug 03, 2013 Robin Carter rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

2013 seems to be a year for Debut fantasy novels for me, and they have all been fantastic books so far (Luke Scull, Stella Gemmell, Nathan Hawke), so how does the Black Guard stand up against those other debuts?

Like The City by Stella Gemmell it took me a little while to get into this book, maybe its the risk of a debut author landing such a hefty tome in my lap, at 640 pages its a serious expression of trust from the publisher Head of Zeus, and an announcement that they think they have a real w 2013 seems to be a year for Debut fantasy novels for me, and they have all been fantastic books so far (Luke Scull, Stella Gemmell, Nathan Hawke), so how does the Black Guard stand up against those other debuts?

Like The City by Stella Gemmell it took me a little while to get into this book, maybe its the risk of a debut author landing such a hefty tome in my lap, at 640 pages its a serious expression of trust from the publisher Head of Zeus, and an announcement that they think they have a real winner on their hands, and for me a big time commitment with so many great books out there.

So how did it shape up? For me, I felt the style was on the epic fantasy scale, Brandon Sanderson, Tolkien style. Where my personal preference is more Gemmellesque. But at the same time the characters are very much to my liking, they are realistic, likeable and natural rather than the average OTT fantasy drone. So has AJ Smith hit his own niche part Gemmell part Sanderson? I'm not 100% sure, I don't think I read enough fantasy these days to be totally sure, I need more maybe when I see book 2?

The story however is very clever even though it takes a bit of time to get there, but when it does get going it keeps you turning the pages at a rapid pace, so much so that you will hardly realise the size of the book, and when the book ends it leaves you slightly bereft, needing more and knowing while there will be, its not going to be for at least a year.

There are clear signs in the book and writing of a true fantasy geek (not an insult) a man who has spent time becoming passionate with his genre and then building a world in his mind. Its that passion and desire to get his world down on paper I think that slows down the first third of the book, but it really is called for, that description pays off, that world building is key and I feel we will reap more rewards from it as this series continues.
In Summary read this book, you will find a book of subtle writing skill, with deep, careful world building and colourful real characters, written in a style all of his own.
I for one recommend this book and look forward to the next book in the series.

(Parm) ...more

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Jun 25, 2013 Paul Rossi rated it it was amazing

When a friend at HoZ sent me a review copy of this particular book; I was sceptical. Fantasy was rapidly becoming something that I had grown weary of and the allure of Dan Abnett's work in the thirty-first millennium of a certain other universe was pulling me hard into science-fiction again after the SW EU derailed. But what the hell, right? They were nice enough to send it to me so the least I could do was give it a whirl.

I won't copy and paste the preface of the book. You can turn it up with a ...more

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Aug 18, 2013 Stephen Ursell rated it it was amazing

The Black Guard is an excellent novel and a riveting first installment in The Long War fantasy series created by debut author AJ Smith. The book is set in the fatastical lands of Ro, Karesia and Ranen. I was plunged headlong into a believable, highly detailed world of thriving cities, sprawling landscapes, wars, politics, multi-ordered warrior priests, Kings, enchantresses, squires, knights, giants and gods.

The Black Guard starts off confidently and moves forward with real purpose. Smith clever ...more

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Sep 17, 2013 Ubiquitousbastard rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. It isn't from a major publisher, and I've never heard of it outside of a list on this site, but I have to say that I really liked it. It's actually the first book in a while where I was disappointed when I was within 25% of finishing it because I wanted more to read. I think that the viewpoint changes were well done, as the author tended not to switch to someone unless they had already been introduced, so it was easy to keep track of who they were ...more

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Feb 26, 2017 Ctgt rated it really liked it

So the cover blurb touted this book as a cross between GRR Martin and Lovecraft which I kind of snorted at when I read it, but hey I picked it up so you could say it worked. And if I had to pick a description of the book the blurb would be very apt.
Varying races of men/creatures, political machinations, some horror elements, plenty of action and adventure. While the Lovecraft angle isn't developed fully yet the method used to integrate the mythos into the story is interesting and the author did ...more

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Dec 11, 2016 Brenda rated it really liked it

I'm being very honest when I say this book puts Smith in the same league as George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss, with one exception...Smith has finished his series. After reading book one of four, I am completely hooked and I am so glad I already have book two, because waiting is not something I do.

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Jul 17, 2013 Barry Cosgrave rated it did not like it

Really disappointing.

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Jul 31, 2020 Anirudh rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

The Black Guard by A.J. Smith is a book one finds if he digs through Goodreads hours on end, searching for more fantasy books to be devoured. However, it is no hidden treasure.

The book constantly hovers between being a good one and a bad one, leaning more towards the latter than the former. Despite it's flaws however, it was still interesting enough to read till the end.

Plot: The story is about the long war of the Giants. Gods in their own right who have lived thousands of years and now have ret The Black Guard by A.J. Smith is a book one finds if he digs through Goodreads hours on end, searching for more fantasy books to be devoured. However, it is no hidden treasure.

The book constantly hovers between being a good one and a bad one, leaning more towards the latter than the former. Despite it's flaws however, it was still interesting enough to read till the end.

Plot: The story is about the long war of the Giants. Gods in their own right who have lived thousands of years and now have retreated from the World, choosing champions among mortals to fight in their stead. The concept is interesting and the story is the best feature of this book. While not entirely original, it maintains enough interest for the reader to read till the end.

Worldbuilding: The author has created a world which borrows heavily from real life. The followers of The Ice Giants, men called Ranen are clearly based on Vikings while the Men of Ro, followers of the Stone Giant are based on mediaeval Europe. The followers of the Fire giant are based on African/middle eastern civilizations of desert dwelling people. The world building though ambitious in it's attempt, fumbles and really does not appear as smooth as it could have been. Many things get mixed up and present a convoluted image of the world. For eg. Rham Jas Rami, the archer who is a deadly assassin also carries a Katana with him. Not really sure why he would considering the story doesn't indicate Japanese culture or civilization to be present anywhere in this world. Things like these make it look like wish fulfilment and disrupts whatever he is trying to build. The different orders of clerics seemed interesting at first but due bad narration choices fail to make an impact. There are also multiple cliches that come along with the setting, the men of Ranen are honourable, use axes, are free and simple folk. The knights are haughty etc etc.

Magic: There is little magic in the book and none of it particularly interesting.

Characters: Due to the poor narration, most of the characters come out as bland and never live up to their potential. The reader never really gets attached to any of the characters enough to be curious about their journey. Given that this is a plot driven book, there is hardly an arc for any of the character as the story progresses.
Utha the black priest was an interesting character but his plotline feels abruptly abandoned in the middle and the author chooses to move to other PoV.
Other characters such as Brom, Rham jas, Saara none of them really leave an impact on the reader.
The only decent character who shines above the rest is Halla Summer Wolf, the one eyed battle mistress.

Narration: The one thing that the book suffers extremely from is bad writing. Now I've read multiple reviews which indicated that the editors are responsible here and they should have caught the issues and fixed it. However it's true that collectively they should have seen this coming.
The writing is very average throughout and really fails to touch the reader on an emotional level. Despite multiple chances of creating epic or memorable scenes, the author fails to capture the moment. The dialogues are bland and the banter feels forced. Constantly referring to people as huge or true fighting men soon becomes tiresome.
Narrative choices also hamper the book and PoV shifts constantly and never focuses enough on a character for the readers to get attached. Few plotlines are abandoned abruptly and other fissle out and never deliver on the promises made. Early chapters focus much on the Order of clerics and how different they are from each other but that's abandoned in the second half of the book as focus shifts to the Ranen.

Overall, a very average read. ...more

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Oct 01, 2019 Wilma rated it liked it · review of another edition

This could have been a whole lot better if it had fewer points of view. The first seven chapters introduce seven (main) characters, some we don’t really get to know at all until they disappear from view (mostly because they are, in some cases thankfully, killed). And it doesn’t end there. Chapter eight brings you back to a character you already know, but (much) later on in the novel you are introduced to more pov’s. This is such a shame, because not many characters get enough “screen time” for m This could have been a whole lot better if it had fewer points of view. The first seven chapters introduce seven (main) characters, some we don’t really get to know at all until they disappear from view (mostly because they are, in some cases thankfully, killed). And it doesn’t end there. Chapter eight brings you back to a character you already know, but (much) later on in the novel you are introduced to more pov’s. This is such a shame, because not many characters get enough “screen time” for me to get to know them, see them developing, and start to care about them. If I had spent more pages with some characters, I think I would have cared a lot more for their fates. Now I was just wondering what the significance of the short pov’s and the events they go through had on the story. Sure, I understand that it is nice if a big cast of characters at some point get together and the whole story starts to fall into place, but I just really needed less pov’s and more in-depth character development.

The treatment that women receive in this novel is rather deplorable. If it hadn’t been for Bronwyn and Halla, I would have thrown this book into the mud, stamped on it a dozen times and then set it on fire. My god, how many times do we have to read about your fantastic genitals and the fact that you could totally get “paid women” (also, well done; any idiot with money could do that, but sure let’s emphasise the fact that you totally could about a thousand times....sigh). But that wasn’t the worst. The almost light-hearted way in which the (rape of) women as a war trophy is described and treated pisses me off. Some characters are obviously against it and say something like “well, that’s bad”. Well, that’s an understatement. One character even stops a band of mercenaries raping and decapitating women, because he frowns on it, because it isn’t “honorable behaviour”. Really? How about the honour of those women? They probably felt they had some before you assholes invaded. The same person also stops a few mercenaries preparing to rape a man, which in the words of the almost-victim brings a man “to the point of suicide”. I can imagine that in a society where same sex relationships are non-existent, not thought of or maybe even condemned, this instant of rape may seem more traumatising and horrible than rape of women. However, I think they are equally horrible. Apparantly, the characters in this book do not agree. I really wish the author had put a little more effort into addressing these issues that he seems to just glance over in this book. If you mention it (or in this case, if you mention it very often), address it. Otherwise it serves no purpose other than establish that the bad guys in this book are just really super bad, honestly. Also, it makes the antagonists extremely one-dimensional and not very interesting. I did hate them, though. Thankfully, this occurred predominantly in the first half of the story (seriously, after about a 100 pages, I was ready to give up on this novel) so I could enjoy the second half a bit more.

Aside from that, this story has a lot of interesting things, like some of the characters. The worldbuilding was really well done, with different peoples, religious orders, deities, different superstitions and prejudices of the different peoples towards the others, some fearsome monters, a bit of magic and a nice foundation story that lead to current events. The best thing, however, is that it doesn’t explain these things right off the bat, but you discover this throughout the story, which is as it should be, in my opinion. ...more

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Mar 16, 2018 Rose rated it really liked it

The Black Guard by A.J. Smith, is a book I picked up while browsing through John Gwynne’s social media. A fantasy novel that is possibly a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin. In this novel, the city of Ro Canarn has been invaded by the Knights of the Red. Influenced by the Karesian Witches of the Seven Sisters for The Long War designed to destroy worship of the Gods of Men.
The execution of the Duke of Canarn, commanded by the King, brought death, chaos and tyranny to its people. I ...more

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Aug 08, 2013 Mark rated it really liked it

As I type this, we’re past the midpoint of 2013, which is shaping up to be a great year for Epic Fantasy. When I started at the beginning of the year, like 2012, I had great hopes for the genre. There were some debut writers who I hoped would set a standard, but was generally disappointed by what I read.

I’m pleased to type that The Black Guard is an entertaining debut from an author I want to read more from. From the publicity blurb:

The Duke of Canarn is dead, executed by the King's decree. The ...more

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Jul 20, 2013 Sausageman rated it it was amazing

I was lucky enough to receive a preview copy of unknown author A.J.Smiths first novel, The Black Guard; the first part of the new fantasy saga 'The Long War'. The book was already garnering some buzz, and, as a lover of all things fantastical, I couldn't wait to delve into this new world.

The first thing that struck me was it is a weighty tome, weighing in at near 600 pages (though this includes world maps plus a gazetteer of notable characters and creatures). That being said, the novel is split I was lucky enough to receive a preview copy of unknown author A.J.Smiths first novel, The Black Guard; the first part of the new fantasy saga 'The Long War'. The book was already garnering some buzz, and, as a lover of all things fantastical, I couldn't wait to delve into this new world.

The first thing that struck me was it is a weighty tome, weighing in at near 600 pages (though this includes world maps plus a gazetteer of notable characters and creatures). That being said, the novel is split into two 'books' (The Black Guard and Daughter of the Wolf), each of these being further divided into two parts, which somehow makes it feel more approachable.

A.J.Smiths world feels extensive and well rounded, like so much is happening - and has happened - behind the scenes, in the same way that Tolkiens Middle Earth expanded way beyond the pages of The Lord of the Rings. It was apparent that Smith had indeed been working on the characters and world for over a decade, as the blurb on the cover boasted.

The story itself is told from the point of view of several different characters; just as we jump between intermingling stories in Tarantinos 'Pulp Fiction', 'The Black Guard' saw us hop between characters (and from location to location) who seemingly had no relationship with each other. Initially, I actually found it difficult to gauge who the 'hero' was in the whole thing, as many of the supposed 'good guys' had shady, criminal backgrounds, tussled with friends and swore like seasoned sailors, whereas the 'villains' were polite (for the most part) and honourable (ditto), and wore the veneer of 'just following orders'. However, by the end, I was left with no doubt who to root for, and who the arch-nemesis of 'The Long War' was. Though future instalments may prove me wrong of course ;)

I don't wish to spoil any of the story elements of 'The Black Guard', all I can really tease you with is Lovecraftian horrors, brutal violence, many deaths (seriously, don't get attached to anyone...) and some serious, adults only cursing. This is no childrens fantasy book we have here, this is an 'R' rated fantasy saga that pulls no punches.

I for one cannot wait to read the next part, to see where A.J.Smith will take me next.

'The Black Guard'.... Check it out. ...more

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Jul 01, 2015 Jawad Khan rated it really liked it

This debut book by A.J. Smith was clearly inspired by some of the known great like martine or tolkien with a healthy dash of abercmobie thrown in and in doing so the author created something that vies to reach their greatness and with great effort too.
The story is uniquely written with the whole book divided into 2 parts and with different events described in first person by different point of views so that in vein of a song of ice and fire their are no main protagonists or even a proper band o ...more

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About A.J. Smith

A.J. Smith

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Writing is the only thing I do that doesn't make me feel like I should be doing something else.

Fantasy author of The Long War. Owner of 24 goblins (one too many).