[Rob B]

Has anybody ready the two John Marco Books?
1. The Jackal of Nar
2. The Grand Design

I have been seeing good reviews about them on SFSITE.com, Kirkus Reviews, amazon.com, bn.com, locus.

Seems like a pretty good storyline, with a mix of magic and technology. He won some kind of new writer award for SFF from Barnes and Noble.

Thanks in advance http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Rob B]

Posted this a while ago, and finally getting to The Jackal of Nar on my to read list.

Well, I am about 300 pages into this 750+ book and I am very impressed. If the book progresses this well, John Marco is DEFINITELY a writer to watch.

Gotta go out and by book #2 now, The Grand Design.

[Sell Sword]

John Marco is my favorite author. Not too many people seem to know about him :(

[strygwyrblood]

John Marco was one of my favourite writer. I like his "Lukien Trilogy", tought i Haven't finish ti read it yet. Does anybody can give me a review about The Jackal of Nar?

[Ajax12]

I finished reading the books. They are pretty good on the whole. Some characters are really amazing ,especially the way they are fleshed out.
The plot follows how Richius, the prince of Aramoor falls in love with a woman who is one of the Lucel-Lor , the racial enemy of our protagonist and Nar,the empire he is part of. There a series of events which force him to abandon his home and live among the Lucel-Lor. Now coming to the empire of Nar, we have some amazing villains there waiting for us. The internal ploitics is very well handled, with the Count Biago in the middle of it all. The next two books follow the same plot lines with some deft characterization and introduction of new foes and allies alike. By no means is this a drag.
The books start out very slowly and you will be surprised once the books pick up. The antagonist will be a total mystery until the last book.. They are never what they seem :)
The term military fantasy totally suits this book as the fights , large scale or small are superbly handled and executed. They really do speed up the books.
But yes, the start out slow, really slow. But its worth it.
Hope it helps.

[Rilzik]

Thanks for pulling up this old post. Another few books on the pile.

[Seak]

I really really like this series. Saints of the Sword was my favorite. It was interesting to see a blend of technology and magic in the same world and it worked really well. The characters are also realistic and some are just insane.

[Obtuse]

I'm not usually a fan of mixing tech with magic, but yeah, Marco pulled it off pretty well here. This series put him in my "buy on sight" category of authors.

[Heather Myst]

I registered just to respond to this thread. I loved the entire trilogy. I also read Marco's Eye's of God trilogy but Tyrants and Kings is a must read in my opinion. Eye's of God is good but Tyrants is great. If you enjoy lots of action, great characters and plot twists than do yourself a favor and checkout book one The Jackel of Nar. You might want to really do yourself a favor and order all three books so you don't have to suffer the withdraws I did in waiting for the final two books to show up.

[Werthead]

I read The Jackal of Nar. It was generic, formulaic, middle-of-the-road guff of the sort we've seen far too many times before. It wasn't atrocious (better than the Newcombe/Goodkind level of writing, for example), but it just felt tired, derivative and uninspired. I was not moved to pick up the sequel.