Malice cover art

Malice

Award-winning epic fantasy inspired by the Iron Age

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About this listen

'It gets faster and more fascinating' – Conn Iggulden, author of Empire

An epic coming-of-age fantasy inspired by mythology and the Iron Age, Malice by John Gwynne is the first in The Faithful and the Fallen series.


Young Corban watches enviously as boys become warriors, learning the art of war. He yearns to wield his sword and spear to protect his king’s realm. But that day will come all too soon.

The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, the earth running dark with their heartsblood. Although the giant-clans were broken in ages past, their ruined fortresses still scar the land.

But now giants stir anew, the very stones weep blood and there are sightings of giant wyrms. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars.

Sorrow will darken the world, as angels and demons make it their battlefield.

Then there will be a war to end all wars.

Continue the epic fantasy series with Valour.

Praise for John Gwynne:

'Reminds me of why I became a fantasy enthusiast in the first place' – Robin Hobb, author of Assassin's Apprentice

'One of the modern masters of heroic fantasy' – Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Memory

'Exciting, well-written swords and sorcery. Try it on for size' – Mark Lawrence, author of The Broken Empire

Dystopian Epic Fantasy Science Fiction War Heartfelt Royalty

Critic reviews

Influenced by Gemmell's Rigante and GRR Martin's Game of Thrones - two good strands of DNA. Great characters and plot - it gets faster and more fascinating by the page. All I want now is for the author to put everything else aside, including his health - and write two or three more as fast as humanly possible. Hell of a debut: Highly recommended (Conn Iggulden)
With all manner of battles, betrayals and revelations. I particularly enjoyed the battle scenes and duels ... If it sounds like your thing, then it probably is (Mark Lawrence)
With its warring clans, sleeping giants, Banished Lands and omens and portents . . . is a strong contender for the “if you like Game of Thrones, why not try this?” award.
It’s exciting when you find a strong new voice ringing out through the halls of fantasy, and John Gwynne hits all the right spots in his epic tale of good vs evil, the first in the Faithful & The Fallen series . . . there’s a lot of pleasure to be had in this debut novel; Gwynne is definitely one to watch.
Malice is easily one of the best fantasy novels I read this year, and one which will appeal to most fans of the genre.
With three-dimensional characters, a gripping plot, and a world that became real to me, John Gwynne’s Malice is a great debut. In short, this is the kind of fantasy I love to read and I truly can’t wait for the next volume in The Faithful and the Fallen!
All stars
Most relevant
The story is decent. The stuff involving Corbyn is much more interesting than the other, passive, characters. The narration doesn’t help.

While it’s mostly fine the narrator uses inconsistent voices for characters which makes it hard to track which character is which. This isn’t helped by the fact that some characters are mentioned and not heard of again for hours. I found that when they came back up I had no idea who they were. It wasn’t until I re-listened to some parts that I realised who some characters later in the story were.

I came from the Bloodsworn Saga with high hopes. I’ve heard the rest of this series is good so I’m pushing through.

Decent story, narration makes it hard to follow

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The narrator needs to learn how to seperate narration from character voices.. It's very distracting at times and at others causes him to unintentionally reach the end of his breath. So what he's saying isn't clear.

The narrator needs to learn how to seperate narration from character voices..

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A little slow paced, a little generic och a lot of names to keep track of.
I'm glad It picked up some pace the last third and I really enjoyed the action scenes.
over all a pretty good listening.

Love the action!

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A perfect book. A lot of great characters. And the author has a great way to build in new characters. In the beginning it feels slow and overwhelming, but it is all worth it. An amazing world and a lot of chess moves and deceiving. Really love this book

Great and deep characters, super intriguing

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narator was ok. A little annoying at times. many characters in this book shout and when he does these characters shouting it's annoying .the main issue is the premise is a little too familiar with tropes we have seen too many times. too many character arcs making the overall story chug. many of whom are so similar I just couldn't care about them. I like what John gwynn is trying to do but it's taking to long for me.

a little slow for me. to many arcs and too few stand out characters

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