The Axe and the Throne: Bounds of Redemption, Volume 1

To paraphrase Ireman's dedication in the front of the book: it's refreshing to read a story that isn't about an orphan who saves the kingdom, kills the king, and that doesn't have a long-beard wizard following the protagonist everywhere to help him/her escape sticky situations the novelist irresponsibly wrote them into. This is a wonderful read and you shouldn't waste more time reading reviews when you could already be enjoying The Axe and the Throne.I want to give this book four stars because I'm a stickler, but I think the MD Ireman deserves five for an extraordinarily well-written novel and a bold first effort. This review will contain character names but no spoilers. I've tried to get away from the GRRM comparisons but it's sort of impossible, so instead I've included them where pertinent.I don't know how many Fantasy novels I've read, but let's just say it's my favorite genre and I've been reading them for 20 years. I honestly cannot think of a better written fantasy novel, including GRRM (my read immediately before this was everything Rothfuss has written). Rothfuss' major failing is that his writing reads like something a writing professor would do, so it feels a bit stale and like the novel thinks it's smarter than the reader. Ireman is focused on the story and the characters and nothing else, it seems, except creating situations in which every character faces certainty of death more or less constantly. I completely disagree with the other reviews who say that the violence isn't "graphic" because it's as gritty as anything you'll ever read. I also disagree with the people who say that the sexual violence was hackneyed: it wasn't, not only because of Ireman's exceptional writing, but because the violence changes both victim and perpetrator in surprising/human ways. There is nothing especially lusty about the violence or the sex, but if you're a puritanical pacifist, well, you're probably going to have a bad time with this book.The people who complain about pacing in this novel must have been bored to death in GRRM's third/fourth/fifth books or in anything (everything?) Tolkien wrote. The pacing is extremely fast after about 40% of the way through and before that, it moves along at a very pleasant clip. This is epic fantasy, not a horse race.Some criticism:My major reason for wanting to give this book four stars is that I found some of the characters too closely analogous to those in GRRM's ASOIAF, namely I saw much of Eddard, Varys and Joffrey in this book. In the first 80% of the story, I was able to predict several outcomes just based on familiarity with the genre. That being said, there are enough twists and turns in the last 20% that I trust MD Ireman to play with Fantasy conventions instead of capitulate to them. In fact, I get the sense that this book is an open challenge to GRRM to write better and I think that Ireman brings the heat. The fact that so many reviewers compare this to GRRM should be a selling point, not a detractor, and for my money I think this series has more potential to delight readers than future ASOIAF books.Other than that, the only negative thing I can say about this book is that it wasn't long enough. I want more!!!

The other reviews for this book had me expecting something quite different than what it turned out to be. In short, I would say it's not too bad as the author's first novel, but I do have my issues and frustrations with it and ultimately have to recommend against it. If you're just skimming reviews, however, I will warn you quickly; there is no point buying this if you're not willing to commit to its sequel. More on that at the end of my review.Firstly I'll just address the comparison to A Game of Thrones that's been made in a lot of reviews. I've seen some comments that the character of Cassen the eunuch is overly similar to A Game of Thrones' Varys. I can wholeheartedly dismiss that - Cassen is a wholly different character, and by far this book's most complex and intriguing denizen. But on the whole I can classify this novel as a kind of "A Game of Thrones Lite" - the same kind of bloody intrigues and family dynamics, but overall not quite so well put together.Between the author's foreword and many of the reviews here, I was expecting the book to be quite dark and edgy. Having finished it, I'm not sure that all that fuss was necessary. The story does involve some instances of rape, but it's mostly told rather than shown. In terms of what the author was describing on the page, I never felt uncomfortable with what I was reading; sad for the characters involved, certainly, but never quite so uneasy as I expected to given all the warnings about how dark this book was going to be.The major thing to discuss about this book is that there are just too many point of view characters, and the story skips so erratically between them that the narrative becomes very unfocused and unsatisfying. While I had no problem following all the threads of the story, and certainly appreciate many of the author's characters (some of whom are less complex and interesting that others, but there are certainly a few gems in the cast) there's definitely a problem with the structure here. It's not just that being pulled back and forth between the perspectives of whole cast of (mostly unrelated) characters has the effect of stealing my momentum and snapping me out of it just as soon as I've become invested in a particular thread. The point of view skips also jump around in time (early in the book at least, these shenanigans stop later on), leaving you to try to patch a timeline together. The book starts with an obvious ramp up towards a specific initial dramatic event which just about any reader will see coming from a mile away, but the narrative hops about around it for so long that this early dramatic moment isn't over and done with until halfway through the book. The threads tying all the different characters and arcs together only begin to connect towards the end of the book - for most of it you're just dealing with two core casts of characters whose intrigues have no connection to each other. Furthermore, the opening point of view character, Talos, could just be lifted straight out of the book with virtually no consequence - he appears rarely and has no interaction with anything of importance.My final criticism, and the reason why I knocked a star off this review, is that the book does not have a proper ending. This is sequel bait. The book builds up its intrigues and works itself towards a climax, but delivers on exactly none of it, ending in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely nothing is resolved - I cannot overstate this. If you want any satisfaction whatsoever, you have to resign yourself to committing to the sequel. I can appreciate an ambitious author who is building towards a long series, but you have to sell me a finished book. Each volume has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You need to resolve SOMETHING so that I feel satisfied having invested the time to finish the book. The author didn't do that in this case. It leaves you hanging in the middle of nowhere, everything you've been anticipating out of your reach, with no closure whatsoever. That is a very bitter pill to swallow, and it ruins an otherwise muddled-but-decent novel.

This novel certainly follows in the successful wake of Game of Thrones. Embracing the intricate, cruel and conniving political aspects of a fictional Middle ages historical setting, Ireman masterfully manipulates an intricate narrative. With a large array of characters, it takes some time to remember each of them and their place within the novel, however once this knowledge is attained what follows is an exciting variety of narratives, each as compelling as the last.As the readers note states at the beginning to the novel, there are no heroes in this story. In a brutally truthful portrayal of the cruel nature of man, the novel's characters either bear witness to or share in horrifying acts against their fellow man. With the added variety of beliefs and historically accurate degrees of knowledge and technology, The Axe and the Throne lends a fast paced insight into another world.In a chaotic collaboration of the good and the bad, The Axe and the Throne will have you rooting for the murderer, questioning the righteous and ultimately wondering if justice even truly exists

This author can write and yet here I found myself becoming irritated very quickly. This was not like reading a complete book at all. The narrative jumps around from different times and after reaching nearly halfway I felt I had to give up. A couple of days later I decided to persevere and gradually I found myself becoming much more engaged with the characters. There are no clear heroes and all the major characters appear to have flaws in some form or another. This a reading experience with a difference where the strong and devious seem to hold sway over the good. Against all my earlier expectations I have become hooked.

The synopsis looked interesting, the reviews were good and it was even compared to some other successful fantasy series. I was looking forward to reading this.......But no, I can't even finish this which is a very rare event. I will read most books to the end no matter how bad I find them. Not this one though.It starts well enough, but then it changes character or focus too quickly. GOT flits about between characters a lot, but the chapters are far longer. I am used to flicking back to character appendixes. But some of the chapters in Axe and Throne introducing new characters or going back to some are very short. To me, it seems to be all over the place. It never seems to hit its stride.And some of the characters do not appear to just be a nodding reference or similar to others from other series, to me they seem to be lifted straight out of those series with just a name change. Nope, I'm afraid it defeated me. Shame.

Avoid save your moneyIt is rare that I do not finish a book but this defeated me hard to follow as it jumps time lines characters and story lines there might be a good story in there needs a great editor to simplify and fix itThere much better out there try George r Martian , Mark Lawrence, etc

I really enjoyed this book and was pleasantly surprised as I only picked it up after it was suggested to me by amazon after finishing another fantasy genre book. The story was gripping and original, after getting to know a lot of characters the story really begins to develop. I will look forward to future works from this author.