Fire and Sword

Sword and Sorcery #1

by Dylan Doose

Three men condemned to die: Aldous Weaver, a lonely heretic monk turned sorcerer, is imprisoned for accidentally incinerating the leader of his order. Kendrick the Cold, an infamous crusader turned fugitive, is a villain who knows he can never be a hero. Theron Ward, an aristocrat with a penchant for slaughtering monsters, is a legend in his own mind.

A broken nation in need of a savior: Ravaged by plague, decimated by dark magic, Brynth is infiltrated by a foreign evil seeking to dominate from within.

An unlikely bond forged in the furnace of chaos: Three criminals become comrades when faced with the choice to escape the land that cries for their execution or, with fire and sword, march forth against the greater evil.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Amazon, Horror, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Dark Fantasy

330 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Dylan Doose is the author of the Legendary and Sword & Sorcery series. He writes full-time in his home by the lake in Southern Ontario.

When he's not writing, he's reading or watching his favorite science fiction, fantasy, or horror story (of which there are many) play out.

Inspired by classics like Conan the Barbarian and modern masterpieces like Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself, Dylan Doose delivers enjoyable, fast-paced, page-turning grimdark fantasy that is not for the faint of heart.

​

Reviews

[Laurens Schaberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fire and Sword is something novel in the dark fantasy genre. Doose does a solid job in creating a traditional D&D type world. Warrior: check. Mage: Check. That-little-bit-of-everything-middle-of-the-road-character: check. Evil counts & witches: double check. No surprises there.

Doose does different by filling his world with surprising characters. Yes, there is a highborn warrior but he is also the funniest pick-up artist you'd be raising your glass to in a bar. Of course there is a tormented mage but with the right pinches of lightheartedness, he is also a clueless 17 year-old. The book is filled with these paradoxes but it never annoys. It rather gives character depth to what would otherwise be cookie-cutter fantasy stereo types.

Another thing setting Doose apart is his over-the-top action writing. The gore, the terror, the overall grossness just splatters off the pages. Yet there is always this humorous, have-faith-in-humanity-while-we-chop-their-heads-off undertone. It's like Brandon Sanderson on aggro steroids. The scenes come close to Kentaro Miura's "Berserk" manga epos. Well if you enjoyed that, Fire & Sword is what you're looking for.

There is plenty of room to expand the world of Fire & Sword. Which is good, because the setting is compelling and I'm curious to see how Doose will grow as writer too.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received from Netgalley for honest review.

I didn't know what to expect from this book,but I was impressed with this.

Three unlikely heroes thrust together to make a great story and I was really immersed from the beginning.

The story revolves around a wizard,a Hunter and and a killer and this made for an interesting but brilliant book.

Very good.

[Dylan Doose]

This is Dylan Doose, the author of the Sword and Sorcery series. Thanks for checking out Fire and Sword. I appreciate it.

Just want to let people looking for the audiobook know that it is now available:

Apple iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/...

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Fire-and-S...

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Sword-Sor...

[Alyssia Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrative is strong and draws you in well, by and large the characterisations are well done as well although the author can steer a little far into cliche on occasion. The writing style was one of my biggest hurdles for the novel as it would go for pages being well drawn and immersive but then suddenly would become clunky and cumbersome. If this only happened a few times, I doubt it would have impacted on my rating, but it was too frequent to be ignored.

Oft or not the moments that caused the largest eye rolls were when the author fell into the trap of telling you something about a character rather than writing it so you could see it in the character themselves. More unfortunately this was also largely where the author fell into a pit of cliche and the two issues so often put together really difficult r mar my enjoyment of this novel.

All in all not a bad novel but could do with a sharp editor and less of a reliance on genre troupes and cliches... the author shows promise though.

[Tim Ruesch]

I am growing weary of writers who try to see how many F-bombs they can squeeze into a paragraph. I understand when profanity is used in context but Fire and Sword profanity was gratuitous.

[Seon Ji (Dawn) · Rating 3 out of 5]

++SPOILERS++

Pretty good!

I believe this is the authors debute novel, if so, I am quite impressed.

The writing is fantastic for I felt a deep understanding of the authors messages contained, but something was just missing.

I think it was my difficulty connecting to some of the characters. It seems they need to be fleshed out more, especially Theron, Kendrick and most importantly the antagonists. Aldous was the only one I felt was 3 dimensional, the only one I felt sorry for, the one I felt should have been the real hero and main focus.

The beginning had 3 separate character introductions, which was ok but didn't leave me with a real sense of them...except Aldous. The glimpse into Aldous's life was expertly crafted as the author seemed to "show" more and "tell" less. In contrst to Kendrick and Theron as they seemed thin and superficial.

I did however like Chayse and was very upset when she died. I think that ruined the rest of the book for me. After her death I no longer cared what happened, I skimmed not only because of Chayse's death, but also for my lack of caring about Theron.

Overall, the plot was interesting but could have been more developed. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm just used to fantasy reads going into to tremendous details with regards to magic, history etc..I wanted to know and understand more about the magic, how it works but most of all I wanted to know the motivations of the antagonist. What drives her? Why rats? Who are these blue eyed seers? why do they work for her?

I understand this is the first book in the series, and more of my questions may be answered in the following books, but unfortunately, I do not have the desire to continue.

I think we are going to see some really great books from this author, and I plan to watch for them.

I would recommend to those who like a lighter fantasy read.

[ThatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has been a bit of a rollercoaster. For one, there was superb writing amid its pages. ANd I do mean superb. Some passages were lyrical, beautiful, lulling me into a trance like disposition that plunged me right into the book. The first half of it was magnificent, and I was certain I'd come upon a four star read. Then we came to the 40% mark, and I was robbed off my feet. The writing changed, and for the rest of the book, it was like reading something written by two very different people, with two very different voices. WHile there were parts that kept up the lyrical prose and the magnificence of the narrative, others were stunted, confused, even the wording used was different, very crude and basic. It happened mostly on the action scenes, the battle scenes, where narrative was confused and confusing, descriptive but in a narrow sense, with no poetry to it, no magic to the writing. A crude account of a scene the author imagined and didn't quite know how to write. But then the superb writing came back, and I was happy for a little longer, thinking this was where it would pick up and return to being an amazing book.
It wasn't. It was entertaining, and readable, but it was not what I expected for the first 40% of it. The plot twists were vey basic, very contrived, the easiest route out of countless hints dropped along the narrative, the constant foreshadowing. But the answer to all the question the reader was left with felt feeble, foiled, hurried. THe characters could have done with a bit more fleshing out, there was no proper character development throughout the story, especially where it came to Theron. Some reviewers found the gore (??) and the violence too much, overbearing, disgusting and unnecessary. It didn't shock me, at all, but maybe my idea of shocking violence is more of the hinted at and not the detailed descriptions in this book. I was rather bored by those scenes, but where shock value comes, I've read far worse. All in all, I had so many hight hopes for this book when I started reading it, it's a shame it didn't live up to my expectations. I would really love to know if I was the only person feeling like this was written by two different persons, though.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this to read from Netgalley in return for an honest review.I really enjoyed this story. The characters were awesome and i love how they became friends and fought side by side and started to see the good in each other. My favourite quote from the book was "Uh, yes, Count Salvenius, your largleyness, i do swear i did not mean to fuck your daughter in the royal stables it was an accident do release me." I am looking forward to reading more from this Author.

[Heather Gadd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was a welcomed chance of synchronicity. I had been craving a good medieval read, it’s one of my favorite eras for stories. I’d checked out a few books and bought some online to read when all my scheduled reads and blog tours were over, and I couldn’t wait for my much deserved holiday. Once I began reading Fire and Sword I was so excited that I wasn’t going to have to wait for my medieval read at all.

From the first page, I was instantly transported to a time period of not only lords and ladies, kings and queens, but of mages and seekers, witches and enough horrendous creatures to cause a year’s worth of nightmares. Not for me, though, I love this stuff. Bulging, pestilent rat creatures controlled by an evil witch were the villains du jour. Fighting them off were a skilled brother and sister hunter duo, a repentant killer, and one wet behind the ears wizard who would eventually come into his own. Thrown together by violent happenstance, they soon become a tight knit band of compatriots that you come to know so well, cheering for their wins and feeling deeply their tragic losses.

This was a fun adventure that kept me completely immersed from beginning to end. It’s extremely graphic and gory but it just made it that much better to imagine the carnage and defeat of the Rata Plaga. How glad am I that I signed up for this blog tour, hesitantly volunteering for the first one, knowing that I may not have the time for an entire series, but little did I know that the minute I finished Fire and Sword, I would be purchasing the next in the series to begin reading right away. It wouldn’t be the first time I bought books intending to read them and only ignoring them for a different series that I just started.

Thank you Pump Up Your Books and Dylan Doose for my gifted copy of this book. The thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Debrac2014 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story line but too bloody for me!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book for free. I am voluntarily posting this review and any opinions expressed herein are my own.

This is the first book in the Sword and Sorcery series. It is basically a complete story without a cliffhanger ending but the journey by the characters is not over as this book covers only the meeting of the main characters and their joining together for an initial adventure/quest.

There are many, many quest adventure fantasy books and having read lots of them, I was hoping that there would be something new or interesting in this one to really hook me. The writing, in general, is pretty good, although some of the humor is a bit immature. The charaters are interesting but not really fleshed out. The antagonist is very one-dimensional - it would have been great to know more information such as how the Emerald Queen came about, how long this plague was occurring, why she started this plague, etc. There are lots of cliches - so you can fairly easily figure out what's coming. Perhaps, the author will be develop the characters/antagonists in the next book in the series. I liked it but not enough to continue with the series.

The narrator, Mike Carnes, did a nice job overall with the different voices for the characters and the emotionality of his voice helped carry some of the action sequences to a more intense level, which I quite liked.

[Nessa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very generic wannabe grimdark fantasy that did nothing original with the character tropes. The writing was okay, but inconsistent - better editing is needed.

Grimdark requires gritty characters, gritty settings, and gritty situations. I think this author thinks grimdark just needs asshole characters and lots of fighting. Noooope. Some parts of this read like a dudebro wrote them. One part that springs to mind is when Theron is described as looking “like a leader, like an Alpha”. I laughed at how stupid that was. The author should have left it at “leader” and saved us all the cringe. The terrible way the characters were depicted in the beginning made me think the author was doing it on purpose. Aldous is a whiny sheltered scholar, Theron is a narcissist, and Ken is a post-traumatic train wreck whose description of the “plain” woman he’s with was just strange if not done for the purpose of showing us something about Ken.

Terrible people can still make for great characters - Joe Abercrombie is a master at these. This author, however, doesn’t seem to understand how to do this. All of these things could have been interesting, especially thrown together, but the author doesn’t DO anything with them. The characters fight a bit, then they all decide to be hunters like Theron, so then they train together. We don’t see Aldous learning how to develop his power. The author didn’t show in Ken any realistic methods that people with PTSD can learn to cope. Theron just stops being described as admiring himself all the time. Chase’s character only exists as another trope for Aldous at the end. There is no character growth. As a result, I didn’t care about anything that they were doing.

Overall, this book showed SOME promise, but I overwhelmingly didn’t like it, didn’t care about the characters or plot, and wasn’t intrigued by any new ideas or worldbuilding.

[JustSomeGuy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn't sure I was up for yet another fantasy series, but I gave this one a shot as I wasn't ready to dig into anything deeper as I started my 2020 reading challenge. How much you enjoy this book will depend largely on the three protagonists: a clueless teenage wizard, a cocky monster hunter, and a retired killing machine. The three are cookie-cutter characters as the novel opens, but there are some elements that draw you in and for me it was the Rata Plaga, a lingering plague that turns people into monstrous rats. Our introduction to Theron as he hunts down one of the afflicted that displays the barest remnant of humanity is well done, providing me with just enough promise to stick with an otherwise generic opening. After finding themselves imprisoned for various reasons, the three are promptly provided the opportunity to bond as they carve out an escape and identify the cause of the plague. They are soon joined by Chayse, Theron's largely annoying younger sister who wants to be recognized as the badass huntress that she is while shrugging off the young mage's infatuation. There is a little character development and some mystery as to who were the parents of Theron and Chayse and their connection to the Emerald Witch who leads the swarm of rats. The final confrontation between the band and the Witch and her horde comes at a cost, and Aldous finally unleashes some sorcery that isn't a ball of flame. A perfectly fine fantasy novel, but one that did not stand out enough to continuing on with the series when my reading list grows by the day.

[Suzanne Garrison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong Bones

The bones of this series are good and solid, though the skin covering those bones is a little wanting.

Doose has started an epic series in the same vein as The Hobbit and the Narnia series. Where Tolkien and Lewis use their books as an analogy for Christianity, Doose uses his as an analogy for eastern mysticism. At least it does for part of it. By the end of this first book, the work isn’t so much a book highlighting Doose’s negative opinions of Christianity and his better opinion of Taoist and Buddhist teachings as it is a book that begins explaining the reasons behind the Protestant Reformation. Is it possible the series is reflective of Doose’s own spiritual journey? Entirely possible, but difficult to say with any certainty because it’s the first of an eight book series.

The characters, with the exception of Chayse, are extremely well developed with strong arcs. The world building...meh. Some country and character names are thinly veiled adaptations of real locations and people. I mean very thinly veiled. For this reason alone I gave the book three stars.

This doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book. I ignored course work and housework and devoured this book in close to one sitting. Like I said, the bones of this story are a really solid. I’m looking forward to checking my local libraries for the rest of the series.

[Nia Ireland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gritty fantasy novel with some of the most gloriously gory and visceral horror I’ve ever read.

The main characters are a merry band of misfits from different walks of life; Kendrick the Cold, former child soldier and misunderstood barbarian trying to redeem himself for his past crimes, Theron the hunter, debonair aristocrat and monster hunter who does everything with his own unique flair, Chayse, Theron’s sister and hunter in her own right and Aldous, confused and frightened teenager with more magic than anyone is allowed to have and live.

They find each other in a dungeon and team up to bring down the Emerald witch and her plague of zombie, pustule ridden wererats, among other supernatural beasties.

Though I wouldn’t say the characters are particularly complex, they’re all well written and have their own strengths and weaknesses which makes the story a pleasure to read, and gives more room for the author to describe the action and gore.

I both read the print and listened to the audiobook version of this book, so I can say with confidence that Mike Carnes knocks it out of the park – the battle scenes that were already action packed are elevated to something spectacular and the more emotional scenes almost broke my heart.

If you’re looking for a straightforward, violent fantasy novel to hit all the high notes – this is the series for you!

[Randy Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three men condemned to die: Aldous Weaver, a lonely heretic monk turned sorcerer, is imprisoned for accidentally incinerating the leader of his order. Kendrick the Cold, an infamous crusader turned fugitive, is a villain who knows he can never be a hero. Theron Ward, an aristocrat with a penchant for slaughtering monsters, is a legend in his own mind.
A broken nation in need of a savior: Ravaged by plague, decimated by dark magic, Brynth is infiltrated by a foreign evil seeking to dominate from within.
An unlikely bond forged in the furnace of chaos: Three criminals become comrades when faced with the choice to escape the land that cries for their execution or, with fire and sword, march forth against the greater evil.
An unlikely group coming together to fight against the evil in their world. Each was interesting and the storyline was good, just not enough to make me want to continue at this time. I may revisit this in the future.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m unfamiliar with this author’s work, but the blurb sounded good, so I gave this first installment in the Sword and Sorcery series a try and enjoyed it immensely. Dylan Doose has created an interesting world and great characters in the trio of sorcerer Aldous and hunters Theron and Kendrick.

In this story, cities are being overrun by the Rata Plaga plague, which are swarms of half human, half rat creatures that devour people, and who are controlled by the Emerald Queen. Not only are the heroes vastly outnumbered, but two of them are fugitives. Needless to say, there’s plenty of suspenseful action in this gripping, well-written page-turner.

The backstory is deftly woven into Fire and Sword, and the settings nicely described. There are several books in the series, so fans of dark fantasies series will have plenty of reading to look forward to.

[A.A. Abbott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent page turner, a high fantasy epic with echoes of Fritz Leiber. It's been brought up to date with plenty of 21st century swearing, though. Thrown together in the king's dungeons, a trio of desperate men seem to have nothing in common. But working together to escape, bookish Aldous, hardman Ken and swashbuckling Theron discover they make a great team.

There are some brilliantly comic moments, of which my favourite is when Aldous is given one of his late father's books to read. Theron is a superfan of the author, but to his horror, Aldous finds the writing dull. How can he admit this to his friend, who regards the tome as the ultimate self-help bible?

This first book in the series is a standalone adventure, and although I read it for free, it's good value at the full price.

[Theo Hendrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you begin Fire and Sword everything will be as you expect it to be. Here we have a fantasy world , mages and warriors, a bit of a rogue. But there are a few things that set it apart.

Largely this is Doose's writing style. It is dry and witty in places, strong and flowing in others but always a strong voice shines through and guides the reader through this world in a satirical manner that almost reminded me of a less experienced Pratchett.

The only thing that let this down was how hard it was to connect with most of the characters unfortunately despite some interesting backstories. If you prefer a plot driven novel this is definitely for you but if you read for the characters you can probably give this one a miss.

[Wayne McKinstry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fire and Sword is a tale of sword, sorcery and much more. There are knights who are brave and true and some that are not. Some kind of evil magic is turning people into horrible plague-infested rats. A young man discovers that he has a talent for magic and his life is forever changed.

There is lots of magic and epic battles. The story behind the story is how the characters grow and discover their place in life. The young man who discovers magic will no longer be working copying scripture for the Church, just for an example.

I should not tell any more spoilers, but the people in this story are well-rounded and believable. In really any tale, that is the most interesting part. I highly recommended this book.

[Ken Finlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A killing machine of a man, a mighty hunter, and a very novice sorcerer escape their execution and bond to fight against the threat posed to the kingdom of Brynth by the Emerald with and her army of abominations.
Kendrick the Cold, Theron Ward and Aldous Weaver become a lethal team as they fight their way through the kingdom.
With them is Ward's warrior sister, Chayse.
The author obviously had a ball writing “Fire & Sword” and pays homage to the Sword & Sorcery pulp classics every step of the way (including the use of long words when short ones would do just as well).
There is a lot of discussion, too much in my humble opinion, about various aspects of phiolosophy.
The final third is by far the best.
3 Stars.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this book. The characters were easy for me to get vested in. To pick a favorite of the three heroes would be difficult. They strive to be better, each with their own moral reason. It was interesting to see them change and develop. The Rata Plaga is disgusting and horrific; it does give some great fight scenes. I found Aldous' magic to be really awesome, and I liked the ravens and wolves too. The questions surrounding Theron's mother is another mystery related to the history and total abandonment of magic. This is a book that has me wanting to read the entire series!

[Scott Vout · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first time with this author.

I enjoyed this one. A good sword and sorcery tale.

The main characters are good, coming together after travelling their own paths. I nice way of setting the environment without spending half the book setting the environment. I truly dislike books that take the history lesson route without really advancing the story. This one paints the world by painting the characters. Well done from my perspective.

This one i compare to a van helsing story. Monster hunters in medieval times. Lots of quality action with a couple of twists to keep you on your toes.

I enjoyed this one enough to give book two a read after a get a few more off the pile.

[odedo1 Audio book worm. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Behead one two will grow.



Hypocrisy of man and evil.


The way that the imagination of the author Dylan Doose of using three sinners and turning them into conflicted heroes is beautifully done in this first book of the series.


The battle is won but the
war was still coming.


Excellent narration by Mike Carnes for each of the characters including accents when needed.


My full recommendations !!!


Oded Ostfeld.

[Tobyann Aparisi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my typical genre choice, it is a thoughtful story that ends with a definite feeling that there is more to come. The writer does do a fine job constructing some of the characters. The stories backdrop and periphery are a bit abstract. At times it was a bit difficult to follow at other times it ran very smooth. This story has plenty of adventure and swordplay if you are a visual reader you will see in your mind the battles and story laid out an entertaining read for those who like a bit of the medieval flair.

[Karen Mann]

There wasn't anything about this book that I didn't like. I really enjoyed it... I felt the fear, the sadness, the opportunity for a new beginning and forgiveness for one's past. Each of the characters have faced their own grief and sorrow. A chance to redeem themselves in such a horrible time. If you read, be prepared for a good read, good penmanship of this author. Be prepared to be pulled along with the story and feel the feelings of the characters in this book. I loved it so much and looking forward to reading the next book.

[MGB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a dark story where the heroes have evil in their history. However the church and the country which supports it has greater evil.

The heroes are united in prison and later joined by the 4th member of our group of champions. The fight evil to save people - but it is a lot of gore. The dark evil is really dark. There are interludes between chapters that sometimes fit, sometimes seem off or hard to put in context.

It was an interesting read, but you have to be ready for lots of gore and incredibly evil magic.

[Mike Carnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure - I'm the narrator of the audiobook. However, I read Fire and Sword prior to reaching out to Dylan to see if he'd be interested in creating the audio version, and was instantly hooked. I loved the characters, the story, action, adventure, and horror as it progressed.

If you're a fan of sword & sorcery fantasy or dark fantasy, this is a series you've got to pick up. The first book is free (or *ahem* a credit for the audiobook), so you've got nothing to lose, right? Give this one a chance, and I think you'll be happy you did!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would classify this as 'fantasy horror', and it's not my cup of tea. Not only is it graphically violent, there are plenty of horror aspects with the rat creatures that I found downright gross and disturbing. On top of all that, virtually all the few female characters are getting fridged left and right in both back stories and present circumstances. My overall impression was that this was a violent fantasy book written for men as the audience. I won't be continuing the series, this was all I could take.

[JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hooked from about page 30 onwards and I cant understand all the negativity in some people's reviews. Convincing , well thought out characters and a great setting , very warhammer-esque. I'm very picky with fantasy books in that I sometimes struggle to visualise the world in which the book is set or even just visualising characters however had absolutely no problems with this. Excited to finish this and continue the series.