Jackal of Nar, The by John Marco

THE PLOT:

Richius Vantran was the prince of the tiny country of Aramoor, which is part of the Empire of Nar. While fighting in the neighboring continent of Lucel-Lor, Richius meets and falls in love with a local woman named Dyana while on a scouting mission. There's a problem, though: Dyana is the betrothed of the revolutionary priest, Tharn, and Tharn will stop at nothing to make Dyana his wife.

After Tharn forcibly takes Dyana from him, Richius returns to Aramoor and learns that his father has died and the Emperor wants him to conquer Lucel-Lor. Richius finds out that Dyana is alive, and goes to Lucel-Lor to find her and bring her back to Aramoor. However, while he is there, the Emperor declares Richius an outlaw. Richius throws his lot in with Tharn and his followers--the same people he was fighting against--in an attempt to keep Nar from absorbing the people of Lucel-Lor.

MY THOUGHTS:

This book is fairly decent. I really have enjoyed reading it, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series, but there is really a definite "first book" feel to _The Jackal of Nar_. I really, really like the combat scenes; they are Marco's strong suit. The technology that was used in the warfare was interesting, and I would have liked to have seen Marco amplify the role of the militaristic aspects. However, sadly, that's not the focus of the book.

The real focus of the story is on the characters of Richius. And while he is a fairly likeable character, he's really not strong enough to carry the plot. Let me give you some spoiler-laden examples.

Dyana is desperate for money, and so she begins to work as a prostitute in a bar. Richius' subordinate officer, Dinadin, notices her, but Richius tells him not to hire her because Richius wants his troops to respect the people of Lucel-Lor. However, as soon as Dinadin leaves to seek amusement elsewhere, Richius gets deep into his cups and then hires Dyana. Thus begins her infatuation with her.

When he returns to Aramoor, Richius marries a girl he doesn't love for good, but misguided, reasons because he thinks that Dyana is dead. When he finds out that she is alive, he leaves his new wife in order to go to Dyana with his wife's blessings. The way that it is handled is very unrealistically.

And that is pretty much how the rest of the book goes. Richius will do just about anything to be with or near Dyana, and everyone around them, even Tharn, facilitates their relationship. Granted, this is fantasy, but there comes a point where art imitates life, and even fantasy writers should at least adhere to the bare-bones minimum imitations. I think it's great that Richius is fallible, but I just wish that he learned from his errors. However, he's basically at the same point in the book as he was when he started, which is rather disappointing.

Up to the middle of the book I was captivated by the exciting plot and likeable characters. The first few skirmishes were elaborately described and the motivation behind each character's actions were believable and realistic.
But unfortunately story line fell flat somewhere after the middle of the book. The main character started to become compulsive, obsessive and his motivations behind actions were merely in response to other things happening, rather than doing something clever and resourceful.
The squabbling and irrelevant dialog between characters became laborious to read and annoyed me thoroughly. Characters hardly took the time to persuade each other with clever ploys or ruses - but were mostly silenced and never got the chance to enlighten (or entertain) the reader - the story just dragged on.
The author had a good idea for the book (and started off great) but the book lost momentum and lacks finesse to make it a classic.

I have had this book for about 2 years and have only just read it. Sadly I picked it up in a $2.00 bin.
I was very impressed that the characters are seen from many sides not just the usual goody versus baddie. My allegence was to Ritchus but even more so the the Lucylerand the Trinn. Even the 'evil' Tharn and Voris swung things around in their favour at various times - the only characters that never won you over were the "Good Guys" from the empire - now they were truly evil.
This book was a Mum's comfort food in what can be often be the tastless gruel of fantasy. I really enjoyed it and am currently searching Brisbane's book stores of a copy. If you enjoyed the Riftwar series and the like you will the Jackal of Nar.
I had a frightening reflection of myself, glimpsed in many of the characters of this multi-faceted story

In short - it's a beaudy!.