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Read The Jackal Of Nar (2000)

The Jackal of Nar (2000)

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Rating
3.56 of 5 Votes: 2
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ISBN
0553578871 (ISBN13: 9780553578874)
Language
English
Publisher
bantam spectra

The Jackal Of Nar (2000) - Plot & Excerpts

I finally finished it! All 660 pages (trade paperback) of small print.I feel an oddly hollow sense of accomplishment.First of all, I didn't find this book incredibly easy to sink into. It's interesting right off the bat, that's for sure, but I wasn't really committed to any of the characters for an unusually long period of time. Eighteen chapters, to be precise. To be even more precise, I finally decided "Yes, I care what happens to [protagonist]" at page 236. 236 pages out of 660 before I finally felt any profound interest in the conflict's outcome or for the well-being of the characters.The story is advertised as a military fantasy, and while the description isn't entirely inaccurate, I don't believe it really relays the true spirit of the story. The book is more about changing alliances, finding friends (and enemies) in unexpected places, and the cost (and reward) of loyalty. There are military moments in the story, but hardly enough to really warrant the label "military fantasy" when I think what is meant is "there are armies fighting one another at various times in this book."Part of the problem with emotionally connecting to this book is the main characters. The hero makes dumb decisions. All the time. For dumb reasons. These dumb decisions cost him friends and allies. We're still supposed to care about this man. Then his former friends make other bad decisions (or hold grudges) and the audience is shown the cost of even more bad decisions.I get that not everyone thinks the same way, but I don't really think that Richius was intended to be a true antihero like Thomas Covenant was. I think he is meant to be a tragic figure - a man who loses (almost) everything because of love/loyalty/corrupt polticians/bad timing. But when this so-called tragic figure just does stupid crap time and time again, it's not exactly inspiring; it's frustrating.Once you cut through the "woe is me" garbage, though, there's a decent adventure here. A man, through circumstances SORT OF beyond his control, finds himself allying with his former enemies because he finds out they aren't the monsters that he thought. There's a bit of the Noble Savage motif here, but fortunately the "savage" culture doesn't appear to be directly based on any real-world culture, so I didn't have to cringe every time they came into a scene.By the end of the book, I was really enjoying the story and wondering where it was going to go, and when/how the conflict was going to resolve itself. I certainly did NOT see a few dramatic "exits" coming and was happily surprised that Marco is willing to follow the old advice: Murder your darlings.All in all, the book was rather enjoyable, but I hesitate to ascribe more than 3 stars to a book that took 236 pages to really grab my attention.

This is an article I wrote for fantasyliterature.com called "Why You Should Read... John Marco." I was first introduced to John Marco a number of years ago by a good friend of mine through the first book in his Tyrants and Kings Trilogy, The Jackal of Nar. After that I was hooked. To this day, years later, I can vividly see the cathedral of Nar being frescoed, hear the din of each battle, but most of all I can still feel every bit of pathos written into his books.And that’s what draws me back to John Marco; his characters are so real you can practically reach out and touch them. They could be any one of us and their struggles are monumental. Marco takes you to highs and brings you down low with a manageable amount of characters with whom you grow unbelievably attached. Their motivations are understandable and their suffering can be heart-wrenching at times, not to mention their exhilarating triumphs.If you’re looking for gray, Marco pretty much wrote the book on it (hehe). I’m always impressed when authors, like George R.R. Martin, can have you sympathizing for the most dastardly character and Marco does it over and over. Characters such as the Machiavellian Biagio will always stay in my head as a prime example of someone I wanted to hate, but could not help but root for.I could probably go on for pages about his characters, but I’ll save you that at least. In summary, they’re deep, they’re three-dimensional, and if you don’t love them, you’ll at least be impressed with them.While I appreciate the fast-paced, run-and-gun novel, Marco employs a much more descriptive style to bring about his reading experience. Through this approach, he paints a picture that stays with you. You’ll find yourself inside the characters’ heads, feeling what they feel and seeing the world how they do.When I found out about this project, I emailed the man himself, John Marco, and here’s what he had to say about his writing: “The only thing I might say, however, is that I’ve never undertaken a story I’m not passionate about. Some folks love my books, some dislike them intensely, but I’ve always taken heart in knowing that I’ve done my best and told the stories I wanted to tell.”Marco has written two trilogies, Tyrants and Kings, and the Lukien Trilogy, and his first foray into the young adult scene Starfinder, book 1 in the Skylords series. He is currently working on another Lukien book. (Don't you just love commas?)Do yourself a favor and read John Marco.

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

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