Tag: Seventh Decimate

Book Review: Seventh Decimate – Stephen Donaldson

In today’s post, I’ll be sharing my review of Seventh Decimate by Stephen Donaldson. After receiving a copy of The War Within, the sequel from Gollancz, I picked up a copy of Seventh Decimate at my local library. I cannot read books out of a series out of order, so I grabbed my copy of this a month before I planned to read The War Within. Seventh Decimate and The War Within have turned out to be on totally different levels of fantasy… but more on that below!

 

Seventh Decimate – Stephen Donaldson

Goodreads – Seventh Decimate

The acclaimed author of the Thomas Covenant Chronicles launches a powerful new trilogy about a prince’s desperate quest for a sorcerous library to save his people.

Fire. Wind. Pestilence. Earthquake. Drought. Lightning. These are the six Decimates, wielded by sorcerers for both good and evil.

But a seventh Decimate exists–the most devastating one of all…

For centuries, the realms of Belleger and Amika have been at war, with sorcerers from both sides brandishing the Decimates to rain blood and pain upon their enemy. But somehow, in some way, the Amikans have discovered and invoked a seventh Decimate, one that strips all lesser sorcery of its power. And now the Bellegerins stand defenseless.

Prince Bifalt, eldest son of the Bellegerin King, would like to see the world wiped free of sorcerers. But it is he who is charged with finding the repository of all of their knowledge, to find the book of the seventh Decimate–and reverse the fate of his land.

All hope rests with Bifalt. But the legendary library, which may or may not exist, lies beyond an unforgiving desert and treacherous mountains–and beyond the borders of his own experience. Wracked by hunger and fatigue, sacrificing loyal men along the way, Bifalt will discover that there is a game being played by those far more powerful than he could ever imagine. And that he is nothing but a pawn…

 

My Thoughts…

Seventh Decimate is a classic coming-of-age tale and an intriguing introduction to what will be an epic fantasy series. Prince Bifalt has lived within the threatened borders of Belleger all his life. Constant skirmishes with their neighbours in Amika have been ongoing for generations, sapping all their resources. That is, until one day their magic is gone. Convinced Amika are responsible for their plight, Prince Bifalt sets out on a journey to restore their magic and learns just how small a world he has been living in. There are larger forces at play…

Prince Bifalt himself is far from perfect. As eldest son, he feels the pressure to perform his role and not fail his mission keenly. As the adventure unfolds the prince is filled with even more self doubt and a stubborn arrogance accompanying his birthright. He is ruled by honour and public perception dictates his behaviour a lot – and not always in a good way. I feel Seventh Decimate has set him up in a way that we can expect a lot of personal development from him in future books.

In addition to Bifalt a number of colourful characters are met along the way, which introduces the wider plot for us as the reader.

Seventh Decimate is an enjoyable tale in its own right, however compared to The War Within it’s a mere drop in the ocean. An introduction, really. I feel it deliberately mirrors the main character, Prince Bifalt and his experiences. Up until the end of book one, he is very small-minded about the world and his priorities. In book two he has a far larger weight on his shoulders… but I’ll save the details for my review on The War Within. I only mention it in passing to give an idea of how simplistic his character and plight is by comparison.

I think of Seventh Decimate as the prologue of the series, if I’m honest. Whilst the main action of the series will follow in later books, Seventh Decimate is the opening narrative to introducing the wider world and more complex plot of book two, and hopefully beyond.

 

 

 

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Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary – 19th May 2019

It’s time for another Sunday Summary post again… already! It barely feels like I finish one weekly wrap-up post before I am starting the next one, seriously. It’s great though! Writing and sharing my progress/thoughts on something I love is a total pleasure. It’s not something that everyone understands, but that’s okay! That’s precisely why I reach out to an awesome community like you! Knowing that even a handful of people take the time to read what I have to say is really humbling.

Whilst a lot of this weekend (okay, yesterday) has been dedicated to playing Minecraft, I have managed a good amount of reading throughout the week! The end of last week/beginning of the week was a busy one! After I concluded last week’s Sunday Summary post, I jumped immediately into finishing drafting my Blog Tour post for Son of the Moon by Jennifer Macaire. After a few days breather on the blog post front, I committed myself to another Throwback Thursday review of The Rag Nymph by Catherine Cookson. I particularly enjoy those posts as it gives me the chance to review the books that I read even before starting my blog over two years ago now.

 

Books Read

I’m pleased with the amount of reading I have done this week. Even taking out a good few hours yesterday to scratch my Minecraft itch, I managed to get plenty done!

As of last week’s Sunday Summary post, I was halfway through my current read, Seventh Decimate by Stephen Donaldson. I have kindly been sent the second book of The Great God’s War series, so I wanted to pick up the first book before I get stuck into that. I can guarantee reading the second book will not be as speedy as the first, on account of it being almost twice as long! Seventh Decimate only took three days in all though, so it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge!

Immediately after concluding Seventh Decimate, I picked up one of my current reads, Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell. I’m 83% through the book as of now, with about an hour left of reading time required to finish it. Sounds like a challenge to me! I totally love this series so far. I first watched the BBC series when it aired in 2015, although I hadn’t realised it was based on a book series until later. After I started a new job, a Danish colleague of mine, also a fan, loaned the first book to me. I read and returned it within a week. That’s how much I loved it! I’ve been hooked since. I’m a little miffed that the series has been relegated to Netflix.

I confess that I have also dipped into a book I was intending to save until last. I’m confident in my current reading progress though, so I don’t think it’s an issue. I am too excited for the last episode of A Game of Thrones. Of course, once this is published I am going to have to go on an internet ban until I can watch it tomorrow night. I can’t wait to see how it ends; equally, I don’t want it to end and I’m nervous about how satisfied I’ll be about the ending. It’s not really the end though, as we still have the books to look forward to! I’ll have to content myself with reading A Feast for Crows, won’t I?

On the audiobook front, I have also been trundling through The Painted Man by Peter Brett. It’s definitely picked up since the beginning and I am really intrigued to see where the tale is going. I usually listen to it in the car commuting to and from work. This is going to be cut back as I have just started giving a colleague a lift to work in the morning, but I don’t think I’ll suffer too much as a result. I’ll have to start listening to it as I am getting ready in the morning instead.

 

Books Discovered

 

I have behaved this week – no additions or purchases!

Friday this week is payday though… and I feel a purchase or two coming on!

 

Coming Up…

 

Tomorrow night… I have plans. Plain and simple! Nothing is coming between me and the last episode of A Game of Thrones, that’s for sure! I’m also due to be out on Thursday evening for a catch up with friends. Therefore, I think I’ll be going back to posting on Tuesday and Friday for this week.

Since it’s been about a month since my last post of this kind, I’d quite like to post a Top Ten Tuesday list. I don’t always pick the subject matter at the time. However, given that it’s the final of A Game of Thrones, I feel like writing a topical post. I’ve already written a Quintessential Quotes post in this vein, so I am going to talk about my Top Ten characters of the series!

On Friday I am going to write my review of a book I borrowed from the library and read back in February this year. Mythos by Stephen Fry, as you may well guess from the title, is a history and re-telling of various tales within Greek Mythology. It was my first venture into non-fiction for the year and to be honest, I am overdue to read another one. I set myself the challenge of reading five this year, so I’m behind on that front. I picked up the book after reading The Road to Alexander by Jennifer Macaire, as that book touches on Greek Mythology. It piqued my interest and I’m glad I went the extra step.

 

Top Ten Blog Posts of the Week

 

The Library Looter – Six for Sunday 19.05.2019

A Book. A Thought. – Down the TBR Hole

The Cat with A Book – Book Review: The Book Thief

 

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Sunday Summary

Sunday Summary – 12th May 2019

The weekend has come and gone in a flash, as it always does anyway! How are we all friends? Did you have a good one?

I’ve done surprisingly well in terms of the amount of reading I have done, but more on that later. In addition to that, I have also attempted to write a few thoughts down about my recent re-read of A Clash of Kings. Let’s face it, what can I possibly say to such an epic? I tried, I really did! I had more success in reviewing my TBR on Friday – far less pressure on that post. I may only have removed one book from the list, but I’ve psyched myself up for reading the rest!

 

Books Read

I made light work of The Drawing of the Three after last week’s post! I left it too long between picking up books, but I can assure you it won’t be too long until I pick up number three. I found the second book a little easier to read than the first. Maybe having got the first under my belt made a difference.

I promptly moved on to Son of the Moon by Jennifer Macaire. I am taking part in a blog tour for the book tomorrow and I wanted to get this read in good time. I finished reading the book yesterday and have started my post. Finishing it for tomorrow is my job after this post goes live!

Since last night, I have read half of Seventh Decimate by Stephen Donaldson. I’m not quite sure how I have managed to read so much so quickly, but I have! I’m reading Seventh Decimate ahead of taking on The War Within, book two, next month. That has a lot more pages, so I won’t be so quick getting through that book!

As usual, I’ve been plodding through my latest audiobook, The Painted Man by Peter Brett. The beginning felt a little repetitive, but it’s picked up somewhat in the past couple of days. I can’t wait to see how the characters come together, if at all.

 

Books Discovered

I was quite lucky this week because I received an email from Amazon about a book I’m interested in being on sale. Admittedly, it’s a way down the line since I am only on book four of the series now. Might as well take advantage of the sale though, right? That’s what I told myself anyway!

 

Coming Up…

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’m taking part in a blog tour post for Son of the Moon – tomorrow. I need to get on and finish drafting that pretty damn quickly!

After that, my next post is planned for Thursday. As part of Throwback Thursday, I’ll be looking back at a book or series I have read previously and want to feature on my blog! I hope you can join me for that!

So, that’s all from me in this Sunday Summary! What have you been reading?

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