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  • Malice

  • Written by: John Gwynne
  • Narrated by: Damian Lynch
  • Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (135 ratings)

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Malice

Written by: John Gwynne
Narrated by: Damian Lynch
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Publisher's Summary

The world is broken....

Corban wants nothing more than to be a warrior under King Brenin's rule - to protect and serve. But that day will come all too soon. And the price he pays will be in blood. 

Evnis has sacrificed - too much it seems. But what he wants - the power to rule - will soon be in his grasp. And nothing will stop him once he has started on his path. 

Veradis is the newest member of the warband for the High Prince, Nathair. He is one of the most skilled swordsman to come out of his homeland, yet he is always under the shadow of his older brother. 

Nathair has ideas - and a lot of plans. Many of them don't involve his father, the High King Aquilus. Nor does he agree with his father's idea to summon his fellow kings to council. 

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, but now giants are seen, the stones weep blood, and giant wyrms are stirring. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. For if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind's hopes and dreams will fall to dust....

...and it can never be made whole again.

Malice is a dark epic fantasy tale of blind greed, ambition, and betrayal.

©2012 John Gwynne (P)2019 Hachette Audio

What the critics say

"John Gwynne hits all the right spots in his epic tale of good vs evil...there's a lot of pleasure to be had in this debut novel; Gwynne is definitely one to watch." (SFX)

"Middle Earth-ish extravaganza with all the usual thrills, chills, spills and frills...there's plenty of action." (Kirkus)

"A series that promises the same degree of complexity and depth found in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books and George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series." (Library Journal, starred review)

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What listeners say about Malice

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Great narrator in the fight scenes.

The narrator manages to make each major fight all the more exciting with his great tone and pitch control. some of the conversations are read a bit too haltingly, but all in all not bad. the story itself, well, the names are all too similar. lots of main characters have very similar sounding names, which makes things quite confusing when you are only half listening while driving or doing something else. Aside from that it wasn't as dark as I was expecting, nor do I really care about most of the characters besides the main family. Just didn't completely jive with me. I know there's a lot more to this story now that it's over, but I just don't know if I liked it enough to read the rest, or even the next instalment.

3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Good Story

Classic story of young boy destined for greater things. I found it a little confusing in the beginning with so many characters being introduced and switching between them but by the end I was hooked. Really wasn’t fond of the narration. Some of the accents were just strange. Why is there suddenly one character who sounds Australian?! But aside from that it was good.

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Great story, great narrator

It was great, I can’t wait to finish the faithful and the fallen series. I loved The Bloodsworn saga

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  • W
  • 2022-11-07

Epic tale

Absolutely love John Gwynne’s world and character building. Great first book and starting the second straight away.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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too many pov's

Excellent world building. The performance is a bit mixed, the narrator does many voices well but some ppl have an odd pause during there speech that sounds unusual. There are some good characters, tho some aren't very distinctive. I'm not a fan of authors who give u whiplash with the constant point of view swap and this book has like 8 different view points.

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Absolutely phenomenal!

I bought all 4 of The Faithful and The Fallen books on a friend's recommendation and I am not at all let down. This first book was absolutely amazing! The characters, the story, the writing, it's all absolutely phenomenal! HIGHLY recommend!!

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Amazing listen!

I love the voices the narrator does for each character in the book, it adds that extra level of depth

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A great start

I found this very accessible. This isn’t breaking new ground , it’s just very well done . Engaging characters and great action sequences. The narration is really impressive…. one of the best I’ve heard.

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It has potential

I've seen this book pop up as a recommended title for some time and decided to give it a shot knowing ahead of time that the intro might be a little slow. I did find the first half of the book to be slow and considered returning the book more than once for a few reasons (the story didn't grab me, it was difficult to follow so many characters, the narration at times was jarring).
The narration was difficult for me mainly due to the cadence of the narrator (it was very halting with many unnecessary pauses and that took me out of the scene on many occasions). Some people say his voices are too similar but I found enough difference between them for the majority of the time. I could tell the passion was there and I think over time he will develop into a fantastic narrator (I also think a few of my issues could have been smoothed with a bit more editing).
I enjoyed the development of the main character Corban but didn't gain much of a connection with the other main characters. The book definitely picks up towards the end and it did enough that I'll give the second book a try.
Overall, prepare yourself for more actively listening to really enjoy this book.

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pretty good

I liked the story quite a bit. It takes some time to get going, but once it does its pretty good. I just wish the author didn't have everyone's names so similar. The narrator isn't good though. His voices are all over the place and I just did not enjoy his telling of the story. The narrator should help engross you in the story, but I felt this narrator did the opposite. Even when the story was really good the narrator brought me out of it. I just did not enjoy him.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2020-03-21

This Book...

Wonderful story. This book is definitely worth READING but not worth listening to... Terrible Narration.

30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Zarkov
  • 2020-06-29

Where's John Keating?

This review mostly concerns itself with the recording by Damian Lynch, which supplants that of John Keating. The story itself is solid and workmanlike, and I've no complaints in that regard, but I can't say the same for the new audiobook.
Ugh. I'm sorry, but this new recording is just terrible- John Keating had a good ear for Celtic and British regional accents, and read in a way that imparted some weight to the narrative. In contrast, Damian Lynch's plummy gabble narrates in diarrhetic fits and starts, like the disclaimers at the end of a pharmaceutical advert. The accents are all over the place and almost inexplicable.
Deeply disappointed by this, and probably won't waste any more credits- I'll finish it on paper.

26 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Jecir
  • 2020-02-09

This Is Only The Beginning...

Malice surprised me. I stumbled upon the Faithful and the Fallen series while pursuing Good Reads for something new. I had recently realized that my library was lacking in diversity (aka, a lot of Brandon Sanderson and little else). I was reluctant to pick up new books due to a run of bad luck in my choices. Introduction made, I really enjoyed Malice.

John Gwynne brings you into a vast and diverse world filled with war, strife, tradition, love, and adventure. Malice sweeps you up fairly quickly into 4 story lines that seem separate through most of the book. We follow a young boy trying to grow into a man, a prince seeking fulfillment in an ancient prophesy, an estranged warrior running from his hateful family, and a traitorous adviser working to undermine everything that these people hold dear. Through it all, the people of this world are holding their breaths to see if the God War is finally come.

I do not want to spoil anything in this series, so I will say that the end left me completely blown away and was well worth the wait. The last few chapters were, by far, the best part of this book.

I give Malice 4 Stars because, though the emotional response to this story was high, there was a single down point: the sheer amount of characters. I lost track multiple times listening to this book of who was who and found myself saying more than once, "Wait, who is this?" I recommend reading/listening to this book with a notepad so you can keep track. The plethora of characters gave the world depth and variety, but, again, I had to remind myself who was who each chapter and still got it wrong 1 out of 3 times.

John Gwynne handles the realities of a warrior society very well. There is a lot of death in this book, but it comes as a matter of course instead of a gore-filed bloodbath. He writes in the old style of the glories of war and battle and the honor of a warrior's death; in contract, he shows the deep sorrow of loss and the consequences of meaningless slaughter. He made it clear that people were dying by allowing us to watch the coming war unfold through the eyes of a young man only old enough now to call himself a warrior.

I am very excited to see how the God War unfolds. Book two is in my queue, and I cannot wait for what happens next.

26 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Daniel
  • 2020-08-20

Amazing

The narrator is not bad trust me. He does a very good job. Great book!!

11 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Par Saver
  • 2021-07-11

a 22-hour prologue

The story us in depth, I'll give it that much, but the entire first book just seems like a prologue to set the stage. An act one if you will.

there were a couple times when I wanted to listen to something else because I was getting bored with this but didn't have a strong enough signal to download something else so I stuck with it. So I guess if you can get through the first 18 hours the last six or so pick up a little bit. but hopefully the second book moves along a little bit

9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Eli
  • 2021-05-13

3.5 stars, some notes on the narrator

3.5 stars, largely since the book took a while to get my interest. I felt the many character view points and switching hindered rather then helped push along the momentum of the story more times then not. I did really like many aspects of this book, it had strong characters and a typical but well constructed fantasy scenario full of intrigue and plot twists. I found the giants interesting and look forward to finding out more about them. A note on the narrator though, he pronounces Cywen as Kowhen, or Kahwhen. Also he doesn’t do angry or shouting voices well, in fact he kinda suspends the belief by biting it on a couple scenes where characters raise their voices. He does very well with combat scenes and I like the voices he does for most characters although he’s definitely better at the male characters. Overall though, I won’t but upset if he narrates the sequel after getting used to his performance, and even if I’m not exactly at the edge of my seat upon finish the book I look forward to hearing what happens next.

8 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Eric
  • 2019-09-23

Different than the standard

I have been struggling to find quality fantasy for a while. The formula is set, and the narrative predictable. This book was different in presentation and enjoyable. Not the same level as Jordan, but a great read.

8 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Dawn
  • 2020-08-09

Surpassed my expectations!

If you enjoyed Robert Jordan’s ‘Wheel of Time’ series then this is an excellent choice for you. Interesting and well developed characters without the saccharin sweet protagonists or fully vile antagonist makes this tale an enjoyable experience.

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Garrett
  • 2021-02-27

This will probably be better on the second read

If I could give a perfect example of how to write a predictable story well, this would be it; I guess a lot of fantasy fits into that category though. The author is obviously a talented writer. When he described a scene, I could see it in my head pretty well, but a lot of the content was boring.

I think my main gripe with this book is that names, locations, and even the time in which events are taking place tend to be confusing. I found myself losing focus throughout this book; probably because the author focused a lot on characters I didnt find interesting to move the plot forward. Also, as a side note, there's not much physical description of characters which may be why I had a hard time placing a name to a face.

The narrator did a serviceable job, but if you find whisper screams annoying like I do, then buckle up, there's a lot of that.

I think that a second listen may help me like this book more because I can finally picture everyone after finishing it, but it's a very different kind of enjoyable then reading a book like The Name of The Wind for the second time.

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Tayboobear
  • 2021-01-14

Narrator

The narrator has a nice reading voice but he reads it weirdly. Lots of long pauses at simple commas and between sentences, and sometime just between two words. It makes this hard to immerse in. You can’t even really speed it up because then the words sound fast then the pauses regular. Idk. Maybe he needed the money so gave himself an extra hour by adding in a lot of dead space

5 people found this helpful