Product Description

In THE CRY OF THE NEWBORN we were introduced to four teenagers, each of whom had nature at their command. They became the pawns in the struggle of the Estorean empire to survive. Through them their world discovered magic and we were drawn into a superb new epic fantasy that, for the first time, told the story of what happens when magic arrives in a previously non-magical world. Now ten years have passed and Estorea is consumed by war and the four ascendents have chosen different sides in the conflict. As the armies muster and the final conflict draws close the ascendents are only now coming to their full power and soon summoned armies of the dead will march against the living. This is epic fantasy full of fallible characters, political machinations, betrayal and bloody battles. It combines vivid storytelling with an original theme in a popular sub-genre and shows Barclay to be a writer who is getting better with every book and who is truly comfortable with epic scale.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #385908 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Customer Reviews

gripping
After a fairly sedate start to this story in cry of the newborn, shout for the dead really does up the ante. The characters are now fully developed and much more interesting, the pace of the book is almost frantic at times and the whole thing was a pleasure to read.
after finishing this though and knowing how well barkay writes it does still surprise me that the first book took so long to get going. Overall though as a complete work it was very good indeed

Disappointing
Ten years have passed since the events of the first book. The Estorean Conquord is riven with discontent as the Advocate sponsors the development of the Ascendents, whilst the Order is implacably opposed to them. With religious strife threatening the Conquord with dissolution, the Tsardons launch a renewed invasion, this time with the 'fallen' Ascendant Gorian providing them with vast armies of undead warriors. The Conquord is forced into a military confrontation it cannot win whilst the only people who can stop Gorian are also the most feared and reviled people in the empire...

I was disappointed by Shout for the Dead. Cry of the Newborn set up an interesting premise with impressive, exciting battle sequences and fast-paced storytelling (despite its mammoth size) which more than made up for its lack of in-depth characterisation and its sometimes workmanlike prose. That book was basically an action blockbuster with some interesting ideas on the introduction of magic into a nonmagical world and on that level it worked well.

Shout for the Dead feels somewhat laboured. I get the impression from comments in interviews and on his website that Barclay struggled with the book, and that comes through here. Characters vanish with no explanation (whatever happened to the King of Atreska and Megan, the politician who replaced him?) and Barclay fails to make the battles as compelling as in the first book, perhaps because they almost entirely consist of vast hordes of zombies marching over the opposition. The only bits where the book explodes into life are when the Ocetanas turn up and start kicking some serious ass. The scene where Iliev takes on a bunch of undead single-handed is superb ("Gentleman, I'll be needing my papers,"). The naivete and stupidity of certain characters is also incredibly annoying, and the ending is rather unsatisfying.

Shout for the Dead (**) is a disappointing and lacklustre conclusion to what promised to be an entertaining action series. However, there was plenty of promise in the book, and I really enjoyed the adventures of the Ocetanas. Hopefully they will be front and centre if Barclay ever chooses to return to this world.

solid but slightly lacking characterisation
The second and final book in his Ascendants series. I enjoyed the first once I got into it and this one was okay, but for some reason it did not engage me as much as the first. Very dark at times and the author is prepared to kill off any character if it helps the story or provides shocks at the right moments.

Following on from the previous book (which you do need to read first) the Ascendants have grown up but the outcast Gorian has a plan to raise the dead to fight for him and set himself up as God and ruler of a dead world. While the good guys deal with panic, insurrection and religious fanaticism, an army of the dead is approaching, and of course anyone killed joins their mass.

This is gory and dark, but I felt the fighting scenes took something away from the characters and I did not engage with them as much as I would have expected. Having said that, although this is not for the faint hearted, this is solid stuff from a very good author who now has a significant presence in British fantasy.