What do You think about The Jackal Of Nar (2000)?
To start this book was hard to get into for me, I’m not entirely sure what it was that didn’t catch me because I enjoy John Marco’s writing, I like the idea in the book, but I just wasn’t drawn in right away. Although around the time that Richius and Dinadin ended up in the hotel with the Trin woman Dyana I was huffing about “men”. Although that is mostly due to personal issues I have I was so annoyed that Richius could save Dyana from rape, save her from Dinadin and then go ahead and sleep with her himself even after proclaiming that he wanted to “Protect” her. It just annoyed me so much that I got very, very huffy over that whole part in the book.Oh and then suddenly he wants to show her that he isn’t a bad guy and wants to prove to Dyana that he still wants to protect her and that he would never hurt her. *huff huff huff* !!! So annoyed! Moving on!Dyana is a spirited woman who wants to bow to no man, which is why I was so confused about her complete change once she is married to Tharn. What the hell happened there? She is a completely different character and it is impossible to take her seriously. Her fire just seemed to burn out. The writing was slow. Like I said previously I like John Marco, Eyes of God continues to be one of my favorite books, but this book was slow. Maybe it’s because it’s his debut book but it was slow. The scenes dragged out with too much detail being mentioned for things that didn’t really matter. I’ve always liked the fact that Marco is not opposed to killing off vital characters but it felt so forced in this book, so needless. Perhaps it is the theme of war but it just wasn’t a very fun or catching book. Conversations were broken up by long winded descriptions, action was broken up by long periods of Richius worrying over this and that and Dyana. Their love was very forced as well. I’m not sure what more to say about this book. Marco seems to write damaged characters a lot better than normal ones, Richius came off pretty average and maybe that was the issue. I want the damaged, broken characters that caught me in Eyes of God. This book just seemed to drag on, and I dragged my feet trying to read it. I’m hoping that as the series moves forward John Marco’s writing will evolve into the style I fell in love with.**This has nothing to do with the book but man are these advertisements on highlighted words the most annoying thing ever**
—Dani
I really enjoyed this book. For this being John Marco's first novel, I was very impress. I totally enjoyed it. It was very visual and I could imagine myself there. I was kind of bummed that some of the characters were killed off so quickly, because I would have liked to gotten to know them better. But all and all a very good read. Mostly military fantasy, a little bit of magic and a made up creature or two. But it was mainly about one man's struggles and where his loyalties lie, epic love and finding one's place in the world.
—Millerbug
Perhaps I didn't give this book a fair chance. (No, I didn't finish this one.) But I found that I was forcing myself to read it, and so decided why bother. The beginning caught my attention instantly while I was examining it in the store. It started in the midst of a battle involving trenches, war wolves, and flame cannons. So I bought it. Sigh. That's the only compliment I can really give this book. I found myself irritated with just about every character. Richius, the protagonist, always seemed to make stupid, hypocritical decisions. He would lecture his friend, Dinadin, for a page about why they can't sleep with Trin women, but only moments after his friend goes to bed, Richius himself sleeps with a Trin whore (that's not an insult, she's actually a prostitute). Then the next morning Richius decides he's in love with her and sells Dinadin's dagger to pay for another night with Dyana, the Trin prostitute (who he had ironicly saved from being raped earlier in the book). The list goes on; Richius never seems to learn from his multiple bad decisions. And his bad decisions weren't the cute "Oh, he's a flawed but loveable character" bad, they were the "Is he mentally challenged?" type of bad.The other characters were no better. Dinadin is mad at Richius because if Richius hadn't gone to this one city another of their friends wouldn't have died, but another character has to point out to Dinadin that it was his idea to go to that city in the first place. Dyana, the whore, makes the conscious decision to become a prostitute, but is suprised when her employer expects her to sleep with someone. I understand that must have been a hard decision to make, but she wasn't forced to choose that path; And instead of going into it with her head held high, she whined, begged, and pitched a fit. All these things would have been acceptable if she had been some sort of slave, but she made the decisions she made of her own free will. That's like choosing to drink spoiled milk, and then becoming angry when it tastes bad. I lost all respect I had held for her.The story also slows quickly after the beginning. I found myself asking "What exactly is the conflict here?" The war was over in the first few chapters! Then the characters did a lot of staring at each other and asking, "Well, now what?" I guess that's an exageration, but it still seemed very slow. In the end (or rather somewhere around the middle) I just couldn't force myself to follow these characters that I couldn't stand any longer. Perhaps the story would have gotten better if I'd kept reading, but I honestly couldn't find the motivation to keep going.
—Amber
