For hundreds of years, the bestial Grol have clawed at the walls of
Lathah without success. Now armed with O’hra, mystical weapons of great
power, they have returned, to conquer.
Witness to the Grol advance, Arrin can abide his exile no longer. He
returns to Lathah, in defiance of death, with hopes to save his beloved
princess and the child born of their illicit affair. He finds her
unwilling to abandon her people. At her behest, Arrin searches for a
sanctuary for them only to be confronted by the Sha’ree, a powerful race
long thought gone from the world. Through them, he learns it is not
just the Grol that threaten the land.
Empowered by a magic never before seen, the savage nations spread
chaos and ruin across the realm. With Lathah under siege, and the world
on the brink of cataclysmic war, Arrin must strike a deal with the
Sha’ree to take the fight to the Grol, or forever lose his one true
love: his family.
Ryan approached me late last year and asked if I would be willing to
take a look at the books by Tim Marquitz, starting with Dawn of War. I
must say that it has not slipped my attention that Ryan is a huge fan of
Tim Marquitz’s works and that his reviews have been really positive. I
have already had some great reads based on other reviews posted on
Fantasy Book Review so immediately I said yes.
Dawn of War is a really fitting title for this book, and from the
first pages you see that every action is aimed towards gearing up for
the impending war. You are quickly introduced to several of the
key-characters in the story – there are actually quite to meet. The most
pronounced voice in Dawn of War is that of Arrin, exiled from the
kingdom of Lathah. He witnesses the destruction of Fhenahe people by the
advancing Grol army (vicious wolf-like warriors). Arrin, though exiled,
throws every rule aside and rushes to warn the Lathah Empire about the
advancing Grol army. This is a key element in the storyline that sets a
lot of events in motion, but it did seem to fall it bit short in the
early chapters of the book – there was at first not enough reasoning
behind Arrin’s actions, but thankfully later we learn much more about
Arrin and the reasons why he risked his life for the people who outcast
him.
Next to Arrin there are many other characters that make an
appearance. The introduction of these characters and giving each
character a viewpoint added more depth to the story – it was good to
read on how each individual character perceived the advancing of the
Grol army, and actions these characters would take towards stopping
them. One small issue was that due to the amount of characters with
viewpoints, they were only shown at a superficial level. I hope to learn
more and more about each character as the story continues.
When I started reading Dawn of War the chapters just flew by. The
pacing is great but there is really a lot of information to digest in
the beginning. It did feel overwhelming for me at the start, but that
could have been due to the book I read before being focused only on a
single character. It felt like the book struggled to get going – the
switching from character to character felt a bit rough and also the time
spent with each character felt at times to be a bit to lengthy. I was
wondering when I would revisit my favourite characters again. Halfway
into Dawn of War there is a nice shift in the storyline – several
storylines coalesce into one and this provides a greater reading
experience. When I really got into the story I found it easier to recall
what happened prior and was able to link everything together.
Dawn of War directly places you in the action, which is fun, but for
me a bit more background information about several aspects of the book
could have been provided. For example I really want to know more about
the O’hra and the other ancients. That said, what we get to know about
the world within Dawn of War is very interesting. There are several
races, going from standard humans to felines and wolves. The races have
alliances or are at war with each other. In this small volume you do
learn a lot about several of the races like the Velen, Grol, Korme and
the Sha’ree, though again, similar to the characters, it really is a lot
to digest. These 200 pages could have easily been turned into double
that amount with just a tad more building up of everything.
Dawn of War is a great start to a new series, showing a very
dedicated and eager author who is willing to share his own creativeness.
Though some parts of the book felt a bit short and could use a bit
polishing (like the characters and the history of the world itself), it
does not take away from the large universe and the sheer amount of ideas
that Tim Marquitz wanted to fit into this book. Dawn of War is a fairly
short read that you can finish in an afternoon, so why wait?