The Wounded Guardian

The Dragon Sword Histories #1

by Duncan Lay

A beautiful action adventure ... a fallen war hero fights the demons of his past, and in the process finds that family is not all about blood ... A debut novel from a brilliant new fantasy author

Martil is a haunted man - a war hero, now derided as the 'Butcher of Bellic'. Leaving his beloved homeland he is set upon by bandits and tricked into taking a small child, Karia, to her uncle. But they only find one ex-bandit in the town, along with the Dragon Sword, a magical relic belonging to the rulers of Norstalos. Norstalos's first-ever queen is trying to keep her crown. Her cousin, Duke Gello, wants it and is prepared to do anything to get it. Martil can find no way out of caring for a child, fighting for a queen and discovering that even a magical sword is no guarantee of victory ...

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy

626 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

Duncan Lay is a layout designer and headline writer at the Sunday Telegraph (Australia). He has always worked in journalism and has worked for a number of different newspapers and media outlets. He lives on the Central Coast of NSW with his wife and two young children.

Reviews

[Ely · Rating 5 out of 5]

SECOND READING:

This is still just as good as the first time I read it. Maybe even better.

FIRST READING:

Originally published at http://abooksofathomless.blogspot.com...

This review is going to be quite long, so I suggest maybe getting yourself a cup of tea or coffee and some popcorn or something while you sit back and read it.

The Wounded Guardian first came into my hands in May of 2012 at Supanova, which is a sort of much, much smaller version of Comic Con here in Australia. The Dymocks stand was giving away one of two free books with every purchase- the first choice was some robot book which my friend chose and the second was this. That was all great but then I got home and the book joined my dreaded TBR pile. I promptly forgot about it...for two years.

Flash-forward to now, and during one of my many stalking sessions of the Dymocks events page, I found out that Duncan Lay was going to be at my local Dymocks store. So I dragged my lovely friend, Hannah, down to meet him. Can I just say that Duncan Lay is one of the most amazing authors I’ve ever met? I don’t think I can ever put into words how lovely he was. One thing I can say for sure is that neither Hannah nor I had ever seen an author talk so passionately about their book. His pitch for his two series were amazing, it was like listening to one of those really dramatic actors read out this amazing, mind-blowing blurb of the book. I wish all of you could get the chance to listen to him talk about it, because I’m sure you’d pick up the book.

Anyway, enough about that- it’s time for the actual review. I’m going to start this out with two admissions. One, I don’t really have that much experience with fantasy novels. Or rather, I didn’t before I read this book and went on a fantasy frenzy. Two, I probably never would have picked this book up if it was not for this event. This wasn’t due to the book at all, but more because I had no idea what the book was about, and that sucks, because I would have missed out. I’ll just say it now, this book is amazing. It’s definitely up there with my favourite books of all time (and I literally just finished it last week).

The cast of characters in The Wounded Guardian is amazing. Two of the biggest characters are Martil- a war hero who is tortured by his crimes and Karia- a little girl. In order to avoid spoilers, I won’t tell you how these two come together but I will tell that they are amazing characters. The two of them play off each other really well because they are so different, but also quite similar. I will totally admit, there are some unexpected ‘aw’ moments between those two. The queen of this kingdom is another one of my favourite characters. Her name is Merren and she is badass, not in the fighting/assassin sort of way but in a strong female lead kind of way but more than that, she’s intelligent and determined but still a little bit vulnerable at times. I think she is well on the way to becoming one of my favourite characters of all time.

The story itself is wonderful. I was a little bit hesitant going into this, because it is quite a thick book (626 pages in total). I was worried it might be a little bit too heavy and dense, especially being a fantasy novel but once I started it was a different story. I found it incredibly easy to read, so much so that I read the first 130 pages in the one sitting. I’m not going to lie, it did take me quite a while to get through the book, over a month in fact. This had nothing to do with the book itself, but rather the fact that I was stuck for time and so usually I could only read a couple of pages at a time. It was definitely the perfect book to read in a nice little corner of the library during my first two weeks of University ever.

One of the reasons I wanted to write such a long review for this book (other than this book being seriously amazing) was because this really doesn’t have that many ratings on Goodreads and I really think it should. This is an amazing start to a trilogy and I can’t wait to read the other two books which currently tease me from their place on the shelf. If somehow, my gushing about this book hasn’t made you want to read then let me try and convince you one more time...PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!! PLEASE! I NEED SOMEONE TO DISCUSS THE AMAZINGNESS WITH!

[Chris Mills]

First read this book after meeting Duncan at a book signing many years ago when this was just being published, have read it a couple more times since and it seems to get better each time.
A great easy to follow story

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable read for my book club. I don't normally read epic fantasy and usually struggle to get into it (partly because it's so epic), but the straightforward narrative following Martil and Karia made it easy to follow. When Martil, a former War Captain involved in a brutal massacre, is forced to become guardian to a young girl, Karia, it changes his destiny. No longer running from his past, his care of Karia forces him onto the path that Aroaril (the good god) has set for him to save the nation.

I can tell that the author has had some experience with looking after six-year old girls, because Karia is probably the most authentic character in the story. She complains all the time about being hungry, she wants attention, she nags for Martil to play dolls with her (which he does so with growing enthusiasm throughout the story). There were some gold moments in Martil's growing paternal relationship with her - I couldn't help laughing at "squirmy wormy magic" or "square words". I liked the way each of the characters had their own demons and they weren't just one sided.

The story hits all the right notes in terms of fantasy - there's dark assassins in hoods, damsels in distress, jealous magicians and epic battles. Just get past the introduction to the first chapter, because when I read it there was more "BWAHAHAHING" than a super-villains convention.

If you enjoy epic fantasy and are looking for a summer holiday read, The Wounded Guardian is for you.

[Andrew]

It feels good to immerse myself in a fantasy trilogy again. Lay is developing some strong and original characters, however there is a general predictability about their actions. Having siad that, there have been some great "didn't see that coming" moments to inspire me to keep reading. I like the way the author has made clear the depravities of the more unpleasant characters without going into explicit detail, it helps to keep the reading light, which is what I'm looking for. Now that the scene is set, I'm looking forward to the next installment.

[The Bookshop Umina]

A worthy fantasy debut. I really enjoyed this - the archetypes were all there but there were also interesting additions - having the warrior hero take on a small child was a nice touch!



I recommend checking this one out - proud to add that he is a new Australian fantasy author - from the Central Coast no less!

[Adrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very slow start. It took me a while to get into this and relate to any of the characters. By the end of it all, the action picks up and the characters grow on you. The problem is, it takes quite a while to get there. In saying that though, it holds a lot of promise and hopefully this carries through to the second instalment and works on me a lot faster because I do like the idea.

[Bernard Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining read, I hesitated with 3 stars as I think it really only deserves 2.5 - it's not that well written and seems a little simple in parts. The storyline is very basic and most fantasy readers will pick the theme immediately.
Still it is nice to see an Australian Author and while the premise is simple the story is entertaining and it was a quick read.

[Chris Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit I struggled to connect with the two main characters, and therefore struggled with the story.

Still, the premise is pretty darn good - I like the concept and how the story progressed - there just wasn't enough 'edge of your seat' action for me.

[Missiemanniemoo]

met thias author at a book signing in BRISBANE last friday going to give this series a go see how we handle it being written for young adults

[Krissy S. Dodman]

so far you can tell that this is a first novel. the plot is a little formulaic but the characters are original.

[Cara]

Won as a prize in raffle at Newcon5 10/10/2010

[Rob]

Nice to read some good old fashioned (well maybe Gemmell fashion)sword and sorcery, from a Aussie too.

[Sadie · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you have not read fantasy before you would probably enjoy this - but I found it lame and predictable and have no inclination to read the rest of the series.

[Dave Brassington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fantastic, don't miss this book