Stephen Aryan

Who will take up the mantle and slay the evil in the Frozen North, saving all from death and destruction? Not Kell Kressida, he's done his part... Kell Kressia is a legend, a celebrity, a hero. Aged just seventeen he set out on an epic quest with a band of wizened fighters to slay the Ice Lich and save the world, but only he returned victorious. The Lich was dead, the ice receded and the Five Kingdoms were safe. Ten years have passed Kell lives a quiet farmer's life, while stories about his heroism are told in every tavern across the length and breadth of the land. But now a new terror has arisen in the north. Beyond the frozen circle, north of the Frostrunner clans, something has taken up residence in the Lich's abandoned castle. And the ice is beginning to creep south once more. For the second time, Kell is called upon to take up his famous sword, Slayer, and battle the forces of darkness. But he has a terrible secret that nobody knows. He's not a hero - he was just lucky. Everyone puts their faith in Kell the Legend, but he's a coward who has no intention of risking his life for anyone...

Quest for Heroes #1

The Coward

I think the book is underrated. There’s a lot to enjoy here. It’s a bit generic in terms of fantasy but I’m hoping future books will make it better. Not much to say about it though. 

Noah Cross

Hannah DCamp

1.5 stars, because I don't hate it I guess. The second half picked up, so I'm probably going to check out the sequel because if you look up the word masochist in the dictionary there'd be a picture of me reading books that make me mad.

It is a well-known fact among people who read books that the prettiest covers are often attached to the most disappointing books. I didn't just judge it by its cover though - I also read the synopsis (sounded interesting), and opened it up to read the first few lines. It very much gave me The Blacktongue Thief vibes, which I have been absolutely desperate for ever since I read it.

Needless to say I was disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, the vibes are persistent. There was a quest to the freezing, barren north that was reminiscent of Kinch's journey. Brownwyn was very Galva-esque I suppose. The idea that Kell wasn't a traditional "hero" type was the biggest similarity. There was some romance. ...That's where the similarities end, so I'm going to stop comparing and try not to make this entire review into something that could be titled "Why "The Coward" wasn't like "The Blacktongue Thief," by A Rabid Kinch Fan.

The characters were weirdly one-note; I had the lingering impression that they were going to be filled out, but those moments never came. The sketches that existed were definitely interesting, but I wish more had been done with them. Vahli ended up being my favorite (view spoiler)[RIP Vahli 🙄 I'll come back to this (hide spoiler)] because he had so many unresolved questions (sort of). For most of the story he gave the impression of being multilayered and complex. When they did finally reveal some of those layers, I found myself a little let down. The rest of them were bland and that made me sad. I wanted to know more about Gerren! I wanted to get more insight into Malomir's homeland and backstory! I wanted to know absolutely anything about Bronwyn other than she's big and bored!! There's a lot of emphasis put on the character's motivations for making the journey, and Aryan tries to make some of them kind of mysterious, but I didn't feel like that was how it played out.

(view spoiler)[I feel kind of cheated by the two character deaths we get too. I was expecting either more than we got, or for none of them to die, but what I got instead were two "gotcha!" deaths that felt like the author was pranking me. Gerren's death was marginally more successful (mostly because it made me sadder?), but I'm at a loss to explain what purpose it served. Vahli's was even worse - it was aaalmost a whump, which are always a good idea in my book, but instead it was more Olaf "haha I've been impaled," which is only a good idea in some very specific situations. This wasn't one of those situations. I mentioned above how Vahli became one of my favorite characters, but his death felt so pointless that I was just kind of annoyed instead of being sad. The characters didn't really react to his death either, so there's that. (hide spoiler)]

Malomir and Bronwyn develop this weird romance that I didn't entirely understand. Maybe it's because their characters were so shallow, but I was having trouble figuring out why they were suddenly so madly in love. It didn't make sense as far as my image of Bronwyn was concerned either. Our one private interaction between them that we're shown is that Bronwyn is closed off, and Malomir backs off to avoid pushing her away; it felt uncomfortable. (view spoiler)[When they up and get married, I'm left wondering how it's ever going to work out. Bronwyn is suddenly supposed to drop her warrior lifestyle and become a queen, working with Malomir to peacefully dissaude the Summer Isles from their antiquated (read: violent) traditions. I can't imagine her being happy with that when he himself was bored enough to join Kell. (hide spoiler)]

The world-building was another disappointment. There were some really interesting things that Aryan did that really got my attention, but just like the characters I wish more depth had gone into it. In particular I was really captivated by Willow, and when she showed up I was eager to learn more. I think I like that most of our questions were left unanswered, because it leaves her with a sense of mystery (and also because I wasn't satisfied with most of the other explanations Aryan offered for the other characters/settings). I was also intrigued by the Seith traditions surrounding their clothes. Other than this, I felt like everything was a little vague. There was little that was distinct about most of the places they went, which was disappointing, because they went to a lot of distinct places. There was some mention of traditional greetings, which Kell seemed to know all of (presumably because he'd passed this way before?), and when they reached the "Frozen North"* and interacted with the Frostrunners there were some unique choices made, but they still felt one-note. I wish more had been done here, because there was a lot of what smacked of wasted potential.

This brings me to one of my biggest technical complaints. I could honestly not tell if this had been looked at by an editor, or even a discerning beta reader. There were so many mistakes in my copy - I'm talking words or phrases repeated, nonsensical words left in from rewriting a sentence, words missing entirely. There weren't any misspellings that I noticed, aside from a side character's name being spelled differently a couple of times (rather unfortunate, not to mention confusing since he'd just been introduced). Aside from this, I felt like there were frequent repetitions in the character's inner monologues. It was sometimes frequent enough that if a character narrated two sections with another character narrating a section between (think Kell-Gerren-Kell, or something similar), the exact same thought processes would be highlighted in both of their sections. It felt like being talked down to - I was just in the narrator's head a second ago, I didn't forget the deep-dark thoughts they were having. Instead of strengthening the notion of the feelings and fears the characters were struggling with, it ended up cheapening them through repetition. I think this didn't help the characterization either; because they were hung up on a couple of inner problems, it made me feel that they didn't have any others to think about.

All of this to say that I think the author has serious potential, but I feel was done a disservice by his editing team (or whatever he had in lieu of one - this doesn't seem to be independently published, but I may be wrong). His pacing is mostly there - Kell's journey, once it really got going, was captivating and interesting. I'm going to do a whole rant about Britak, but that plotline was the only part of the story that dragged a bit. The world-building has a really interesting start; the character's are engaging starts, but could benefit from some depth. I'd like to see what Aryan could do with some better support.

ALRIGHT this is unrelated to Kell and his quest (mostly), and unrelated to my technical qualms about the book, but Reverend Mother Britak made me almost dnf this book (which is something I have never done, even with freaking Iron Widow. From a basic technical standpoint, I didn't care so much about her plotline, and honestly think it could've been axed without doing any harm to the rest of the story. Maybe I'm missing something, but it didn't end up being that important anyway. But the real issue I had with this (compounded because it seemed unnecessary from a storytelling standpoint) was the blatant villainization of Christianity.

Reverend Mother Britak is essentially a bishop (more specifically a pope figure) despite her title.** She is the leader of a religion - peaceful, gentle, and loving, as we're always reminded - that worships a deity referred to as The Shepherd. She carries a crozier and wears a hat. She thinks constantly about the importance of the Twelve Pillars, denounces any kind of excess (be it food, clothing, or decoration), and laments the secularization of her world (secularization is my word, but that is essentially what she's complaining about). And then she freaking takes part in the Spanish Inquisition. In between being disgusted by the random mish-mosh of details she was combining, this is what I kept thinking of:

She is an obnoxious caricature. The fact that the god's name is The Shepherd makes me want to roll my eyes. In case it wasn't obvious enough, at one point she refers to him as God (with the capital G), which never happens in fiction. It's possible this was a typo, but it felt intentional given the context.

If someone wants to have a conversation about the issues in the Catholic church, I'd be more than willing. The Church has been around for over 2000 years, and on Earth is comprised of human persons; no Catholic who's being honest with themselves should have any trouble admitting that sometimes individuals and church leaders mess up, because they should be able to think of a half-dozen examples just off the top of their head. But a conversation isn't what's happening here. Aryan takes long-standing stereotypes about Catholic Christianity and simply inserts them into his fantasy without making any adjustments. For all intents and purposes, the Catholic Church is the villain of this story, period. It's almost boring how blatantly stereotypical this depiction is - it's the same handful of problems detractors always try to throw at the Church. It's always frustrating that so much of the anti-Catholic sentiment I encounter in the world is rooted in ignorance of the Church as it truly exists, especially in a world that so vehemently demands kindness and understanding. I get that it comes with the territory (John 15:19 and all that), but I wanted to bring it up. It definitely affected my reading experience, and I'm sure it would affect others as well.

The ending of the story of course takes an interesting turn. (view spoiler)[Kell and the others discover that the Ice Lich's castle was actually the Shepherd's tomb - he was a real person who actually existed, and he had magic powers, and united the continent into the five kingdoms that exist today. This somehow positively effects Kell's faith? If I found the body of Jesus Christ and had reasonable evidence to support His identity, that would seriously rock my faith. I'd probably consider converting to Judaism. Instead they say prayers over their dead friends and feel greater emotion knowing a magical, dead giant is the being they're praying to. I couldn't tell what I was supposed to feel about this, so I mostly felt conflicted. (hide spoiler)]

As I said before, I hear there's a sequel, and I'll probably check it out. I checked out a few books on the Spanish Inquisition, because that's an issue that's been plaguing me since I was a child. I suppose that's one positive thing to come out of this. 🙄


*The Frozen North is what I always sarcastically call where I'm from - mostly because it's not, but also because apparently if you're from anywhere south of Port Washington, anything above you geographically is all just a kind of vague, icy blur. This equal parts hilarious and annoying.
**As a side rant, this is one of those things that always bugs me. Terminology like "reverend mother" and "priest" (especially priest) is used interchangeably. It always feels pointed, or like the author is trying to make a point about something, but it always kind of goes over my head. My best guess is that it's meant to be a jibe about the Catholic church's prohibition on female "priests," but then why in these situations is she always super evil? I don't understandddd.

debre

"Kell Kressia is a legend, a celebrity, a hero. Aged just seventeen he set out on an epic quest with a band of grizzled fighters to slay the Ice Lich and save the world, but only he returned victorious. The Lich was dead, the ice receded and the Five Kingdoms were safe."

The promise of the book sounded really interesting, but as I started reading it and got to know the MC more, I found it him to be a bit bland, and I couldn't get into his motivations nor root for him. 

Not an enjoyable time for me, unfortunately.

Thanks to publisher and Netgalley for sending me an e-arc of this book!!

It's a very mid book. Basic story lines and random POVs that don't matter. Reads like a first draft. It has a ton of grammatical and spelling errors.

Jami Musshafen 

altlovesbooks

I mostly enjoyed this book! I had a few hangups that stopped me from giving it a full five stars, but overall I enjoyed my time with my first book by Stephen Aryan. I was concerned when I started this ARC that it would be full of ball jokes and edgy humor, but once things started moving, I was really interested to see what was going to happen.

Kell, Ice Lich-slayer of 10 years ago, suffers from, basically, PTSD from his trip to the frozen north, and a hefty dose of imposter syndrome. His inclusion on the original venture was unplanned, and despite his realization that heroes aren't necessarily the best of people still sees himself as being unequal to the company he kept. They went north, everyone died on the trip except him, he came back the sole survivor and victor after slaying the Ice Lich. Now, 10 years later, some signs are emerging that the Ice Lich may have returned, and the kings turn to Kell to save them all again -- only he doesn't particularly want to go there again, thanks. 

I thought Kell was an interesting anti-hero in the beginning. He makes it clear he doesn't want to go, is basically bribed into going, and drags his feet the entire first part of the book before him and his recruited group of fellow adventurers actually go north. I think I would have enjoyed it more if the author had stuck with this anti-hero characterization, but once north, it seems like Kell changed into a father figure, an advisor, and a jaded hero who just wants to help everybody out. I can understand wanting to put old ghosts to rest, so to speak, but it really felt a bit like he changed from how Kell was set up in the beginning.

Another hangup I had involved the second viewpoint that we get to see periodically throughout the book. Britak, who I didn't mention in my writeup above, is the head religious figure for a large chunk of the kingdoms. Her POV doesn't really overlap with Kell's at all, which makes the book not really work as a standalone book in my opinion. You have two separate stories being told, one a compelling adventure to (re-)slay the Ice Lich, and the other a religious zealot's memoir as she checks in on her religious empire periodically. I can see where the author is setting up for something in later books, but I honestly felt a little bored reading through Britak's parts. 

The bones of a really great story are here, though! I really liked Kell's story of his band of new heroes retracing his steps north, and the various problems they face along the way. I thought the writing style was a little more straightforward than I generally like, but the descriptions were great and I felt like the main characters at least were written well enough that they didn't feel like copies of each other. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Adeline

** spoiler alert **
           4.25 ! 
Thank you to Netgally and Angry Robots for giving me this opportunity to read this arc in exchange for an honest review. 

In the five kingdoms, Kell is known as the slayer of the Ice Lich, the only survivor of band of warriors that saved the world from famine and eternal ice. In other words, a hero. But is he? 
We quickly learn that Kell is neither a hero nor a coward like the title would suggest, but a simple man who as a teenager just wanted to save the world and survived through a traumatic experience that resulted in ptsd. Now as a new threat emerges he must face his fears and try to save the world once more. 

I really liked this book ! First of all this read was a lighter epic fantasy (light as in opposite of dark fantasy) than I usually read. At the beginning especially it doesn’t take itself seriously. While it does have serious topics like ptsd, stereotypes, truth, lies, faith and religion, there were also several slapstick moments (like something out of a Monty Python sketch) that made me laugh. About halfway through the book, as the characters get closer and closer to their goal, the action takes the front scene culminating into a epic end. There was also a good amount of political intrigue that sets up the rest of the saga. 

I loved the diversity of the secondary characters, they were all really fleshed out and boy do I hate that nasty ass Reverent Mother the most. 
The writing was great and the world building was richly and superbly interwoven into the story. As always Stephen Aryan excels in these areas.

Kell as a main character was really engaging. I really liked how we could see his struggle with being famous, especially the way people see him as a figure from a tale and not a real human being. It’s a good critique of celebrity culture and how we can idolise them in a selfish, possessive way yet. And of course there was a clear critique of organised religion who want to impose their way of thinking and their evil schemes to colonise the world. 

There were times where the writing wasn’t polished enough (like repeating something about a character or contradicting statement by a character) but it didn’t impact negatively on my enjoyment especially considering this is an ARC. 

The ending has me super excited and I’m looking forward to read the next book in this series!

Janice Hopper

I liked that parts of this book that acknowledged that even heroes can come home with PTSD and have a hard time. 

But the writing seemed pretty pedestrian to me. There was a lot of action, but I found myself skimming over a lot of the action scenes because I honestly didn't care what happened. Some characters were going to fight really hard. Somebody was going to take a serious injury that would be handled with a few stitches in a later scene and never referred to again. Somebody was afraid. 

So probably, just not for me. I see lots of folks liked it. I did read to the end (in spite of some skimming), wanting to know how things came out. But I don't plan to read the sequel (sequels?)

Rating 3.5 
Thank you so much to the publisher for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

This is the story about a hero called Kell who is struggling with coming to terms that he once saved the lives of many but this is because it was all by "mistake". He is an antihero that just wants to be left alone a lead a normal life. I found his character to be intriguing, I chuckled as I learned more about Kell. He was pretty amusing with his traits. He is that morally grey protagonist that makes us wonder about his next step, but at the same time grows from his experiences and losses. The world building was pretty detailed, the plot had a good flow. I would have loved to learn a little bit more of origins. Overall, this was a solid epic fantasy book with great plot. The inclusion of mental illness is always a pleasant surprise since these are situations that need to be voiced more and it's great to see them being included more in titles. Looking forward to reading more by this author.

Kell Kressia is a legend, a celebrity, a hero. Aged just seventeen, he set out on an epic quest with a band of wizened fighters to slay the Ice Lich and save the world. He returned victorious, but alone. Ten years have passed and Kell lives a quiet life, while stories of his heroism are told in taverns all across the land. But now a new terror has arisen in the north Ð something has taken up residence in the LichÕs abandoned castle beyond the Frozen Circle, and the ice is beginning to creep south once more. For the second time, Kell is called upon to take up his famous sword, Slayer, and battle the forces of darkness. But he has a terrible secret. Kell was never a hero Ð he was just lucky. Everyone puts their faith in Kell the Legend, but heÕs just a coward who has no intention of risking his life for anyone... File Under: Fantasy [ Our for a Hero | When the Going Gets Tough... | Band Together | Till Death ]

Book I of the Quest for Heroes

Beautiful story about what happens when the farm boy comes back from the grand quest with ptsd, fear, and regret. What happens when the fellowship of the ring is made up of cruel bastards and murderers. What happens when 12 go but only the farm boy returns? And what happens when the farm boy has to take half as many back to the evil creature in the castle even though he just wants to run away? Gorgeous. Give it a read. 

Lewis John Fisher

This is one of the best fantasy novels of the year. Hands down. Put down everything and read it. Go on cowards, you wont

Judy McClure

New to me author. Loved this fabulous first book in a new fantasy series. Very much looking forward to book two!!!

The Coward Quest for Heroes #1

Reviews