Review: A Thumping Good Read
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 13, 2012
With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the author starts off with a bang and never looks back.  This is one of a series of stories about a Nameless Dwarf and you cant help but fall in love with him.  The characterization of the dwarf and his companions is lush and complex, the wordsmithing beautifully targeted to achieve the proper feel and tone for each sentence, paragraph and scene.  The plot is tight, the pacing never lets up and the vocabulary is spot on for each circumstance.  There is humor here too - a black kind of humor that makes you laugh and smile and shake your head and sometimes groan, but it is definitely funny.I can't decide whether my favorite parts were the battle scenes or the scenes other bits in between the battles.  No one can write a battle scene like Prior - especially with blades and edged weapons. With limbs flying, blood spraying, blades stabbing and noses crunching, you also get your everyday, run-of-the-mill bites, kicks, punches, cuts, scrapes, abrasions and contusions.  Ambercrombie comes close, K. J. Parker too.  The Nameless Dwarf wreaks havoc on uncounted enemies with his double-bladed axe and a randy tavern song on his lips, be they interfering thugs, arrogant wizards, beautiful assassins, gigantic ant-men and even just gigantic ants.  He's always happy to be startin' somethin'.  He'll taunt them 'til they attack.  No matter how big, no matter how tall everyone is fair meat for taking.  His partners in crime help out sometimes, but Nameless is the star attraction.In between those times when Nameless is killing everything that breaths, you get some lush worldbuilding and character development of Nameless and his ever increasing set of companions who are in the world of Aethir - the world of dreaming.  Nameless has done unspeakable things in the past under influence of an evil axe.  Now to atone, all he wants is to save his people,  the dwarves , from the fate they are running to, the fate that will kill them.  He is a changed man.  So he follows the dwarves to Qlippoth, the land of nightmares to save them and send them back home once again.  Qlippoth, of course, can kill him too, but not caring he charges ahead to atone for his deeds.  Prior makes you not only love Nameless, but feel protective over him and deeply sympathetic to his plight - there are many scheming characters here who crossover from Prior's other series - like Aristideus - who is up to his neck in this evil axe business.  No telling what his real motivation was at this point, he's just back there pulling strings as usual.Even though it has a silly title, the Ant-man of Malfen is so excellent, so Fafhrd and the Mouser type good - you remember those stories by Fritz Lieber, that you have to read at least three of these Nameless Dwarf stories to appreciate how absolutely fantastic they are.  I would recommend these stories to people who like adventure and a thumping good read.  You don't even have to appreciate fantasy, just appreciate a well written story by a storyteller of the first degree.  You can't go wrong here!