Fire and Sword (Sword and Sorcery)

This has been the most filthy and disgusting story filled with great evil and villainy. Yet, it is balanced unevenly with immense wrath, determination, and goodness. Great sacrifices have been made. Some innocents have been saved, but a great plan of terror has been launched to the detriment of a very small force of resistance. Here, fear and terror have been employed as always with great style and cowardice. Thank goodness they will not succeed.

I have a feeling that the writing style could be better, and Ken gave up on his brooding too easily, but all in all, this is a great adventure. The characters are changing and things are happening, so it's always interesting. Can't wait to get to the second part.

A well deserved 5 stars for this new author! This is my first review on Amazon, but Mr. Doose deserves all the praise I can give him. Fire & Sword was very enjoyable. I agree with others who have left reviews: this is a thought provoking read. The author does not try to whack you over the head with a straight line take on good vs. evil as can happen in some fantasy novels. He allows you to come to your own morale conclusions through the voices of the characters and how they evolve in the course of the narrative. Mr. Doose does this by not devolving into typical fantasy tropes (believe me, because I love me a good taciturn dwarf trope fantasy book any day). Lots of action and great visual descriptions. The big fight scene at the fort, especially when Aldous casts his spell, would be absolutely stunning on screen all due to Mr. Doose’s keen use of prose. The only constructive criticism I would give is this: where is my damn map? How can you have a fantasy novel without a map? (insert winky emoticon here…Honestly, I only have the Kindle version of Fire & Sword.)One more thing Mr. Doose: you better figure out a couple of letters to put between Dylan and Doose. I hope you will get that popular very soon!

The plot was OK and the book was quick to read once it got past the slow beginning. Needs some editing here and there for repetition but it wasn't terrible. Lots and lots of pus, blood, gore, rape and other violence and the F word was on almost every page (OK maybe that is a slight exaggeration but not much). The characters are interesting if a bit predictable at times. Not sure if I will read the rest of the series.

Great story that kept me turning pages. Can’t wait to read the next one! If like quick action, humor, and anti-hero’s, I would definitely recommend this one.

This was a free book, looked interesting, and I am always looking for new authors, so I read it. It is well written and held my interest all the way through. Even through the often disturbing, detailed gore! Mainly because of the strength of the characters and the intriguing storyline. I loved the main protagonists, and wanted to know what would come next. Little was predictable. It was a little too much on the dark side for my tastes, but still a fascinating book. Possibly it would be most appealing to male readers. I would still recommend it to anyone interested in this magical world.

So the first story is a world building take to explain where the evil is coming from and give a little bit of fear. Our unlikely heroes start out in a dungeon for crimes committed. However this is only the beginning of the legend of Theron Ward and his band of hunters.Can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

What a great experience to read this book! The characters are well developed and so fantastic. The vocabulary author Dylan Doose uses is mesmerizing. He really creates a mood for each scene, even though a lot of them are gory and disgusting. The battle scenes are particularly detailed and amazing. The friendship between Theron, Ken, Aldous, and Chayse is poignant and heartwarming. It’s probably the best thing about the book. Loved it all!

Great read, I’m not a book reader but I got a sample 3 chapters and I was hooked and had to get the book. Now on to the next :)

Makes you want to keep reading!!!I really enjoyed this book, not too complicated yet intriguing, no reinventing the wheel while not telling the same old story. Looking forward to Book 2 in the Series

This is a gritty fantasy novel with some of the most gloriously gory and visceral horror I’ve ever read.The main characters are a merry band of misfits from different walks of life; Kendrick the Cold, former child soldier and misunderstood barbarian trying to redeem himself for his past crimes, Theron the hunter, debonair aristocrat and monster hunter who does everything with his own unique flair, Chayse, Theron’s sister and hunter in her own right and Aldous, confused and frightened teenager with more magic than anyone is allowed to have and live.They find each other in a dungeon and team up to bring down the Emerald witch and her plague of zombie, pustule ridden wererats, among other supernatural beasties.Though I wouldn’t say the characters are particularly complex, they’re all well written and have their own strengths and weaknesses which makes the story a pleasure to read, and gives more room for the author to describe the action and gore.I both read the print and listened to the audiobook version of this book, so I can say with confidence that Mike Carnes knocks it out of the park – the battle scenes that were already action packed are elevated to something spectacular and the more emotional scenes almost broke my heart.If you’re looking for a straightforward, violent fantasy novel to hit all the high notes – this is the series for you!

This book started slowly until about half way through them it got more to my taste good action and the characters got more likable could be the makings of a good series.

A very easy and pleasant read, and looking forward to discovering the rest of this author’s efforts.A huge number of North American writers could really aid their efforts in story writing by reading some of this North American writers books, in order to grasp how the narration style sets the tone of the read and in turn can make or break books. The characters, if not North American should not speak North American.I find it is so, so distracting as a reader when a North American writer decides to write a story based either outside the shores of North America, or in an era that is “pre Columbian” like this one based in the age of sword and shield and royal houses and then writes it in American slang. So using a style of speech and word-use that did not exist in the period and place of the story.Admittedly there were a few occasions when I was kicked out of the fantasy by words/phrases that did not fit but certainly not overly so. The use of abbreviations like isn’t, doesn’t couldn’t etc which did not exist in that age, and the use of “bring” when it should be “take” fortunately were not really deal breakers. All in all a very pleasant read.Fortunately this author has bothered to do their homework and but for the very occasional Americanism the books read well from start to finish.Decent storyline furnished with quite well rounded characters, narrated in a speech style that matched the era it is set in.Better than a three for me so happy to give it a four.