Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Coward

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The Coward by Stephen Aryan

9 reviews

a_novel_craving's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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surdiablo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I liked it, better than what I expected and don't really have any major complaints. The prose is very accessible ( perhaps a bit too accessible for my taste ). The characters are alright, world-building is good and most of the story is wrapped up quite nicely, considering it's part of a duology and there's more to come. There's a lot of 'tell, don't show' which seemed rather glaring at times and distracted me but besides that, I can't really think of something that truly bothered me. The story itself is interesting and there's several moments, especially politicking in the background that made this one feel more than just a generic quest. However, I can't say I <i>really liked</i> this book. Don't get me wrong, I was never bored at any point and it was a fun read for the most part, but nothing really wowed or left a lasting impression on me. Everything was just.. fine. Will read the sequel anyway as I am intrigued enough to see what the future holds for

Kell and Willow

. I would recommend this book to anyone who just wants a fun adventure read as palette cleanser.

P.S. That First Law reference outta nowhere made me chuckle.

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permanentlyspacing's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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cookiecat73's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Very mixed feelings about this book. It was good, I liked Kell and the way it showed his trauma, the writing, atmosphere, and plot were all good. but there were multiple random sexual assualt scenes which did not need to be there, and the one time it hinted at anything not cis/het it was in a very predatory sexual way which again was completely unneccesary. There were a few typos and other small mistakes, which was odd, felt as though they should have been picked up in edits, but didn't really bother me. The ending overall was kinda good, it tied up some things well, but also left a lot unanswered which I guess is becuase of the sequel. The very very last bit really frustrated me, you should understand if you've read it. I enjoyed it overall, but am also very frustrated. I don't think I'll read the sequel.

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kerrousel's review

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book would have benefited from an editor. I’ve never seen so many mistakes.

I was skeptical at first, I think I spotted a few errors within the first few chapters. It took me a while to get used to the writing style. The story was fast paced enough it kept my interest and by the end, I had spent 2.5 hours reading until I got to the end. There are still a lot of questions unanswered.

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dolores_madil's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content warning that characters have PTSD

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pogue's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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astronut's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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storieswithbee's review

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adventurous challenging inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Genre: new adult, epic fantasy, high fantasy, quest, political/ religious intrigue

Age range: 17+

Overall: 4.5/5

Characters: 4/5

Plot: 4/5

Writing and Setting: 4-5/5

Content warning: *swearing, gore, violence, use of weapons, underage drinking, flagellation, death, injury, mental illness: PTSD, Anxiety, Depression.

The gist of my review:

With epic battles, a seemingly impossible quest, and cast of misfit heroes, ‘The Coward’ by Stephen Aryan is a great read for fans of ‘The Lord of The Rings’.

On top of this, Aryan did an incredible job of combining this really interesting magic system, elements of political/religious intrigue, and developing a diverse and in- depth world.

I’m under the impression that this book has one of the greatest first sentences of all time.

“Kell Kressia, slayer of the Ice Lich and saviour of the Five Kingdoms, tripped on a rake and fell into a pile of horse shit.”

I really enjoyed this book. The reason as to why I didn’t give it a 5/5 was because there was a very obvious lull in the middle of the book. During this, there was a lot of battles for Kell and the crew but they all seemed to resemble each other slightly which then became a little repetitive. Alongside this, there were scenes throughout the book that were trying to invoke some very profound emotions, however I found that I wasn’t overly moved.

Characters: 4.5/5

The supporting characters were fantastic. Normally I would break each character down and talk about them individually, however there is a number of very distinct voices in this story, and to do them all justice, this review would be very long. For now I’m only going to talk about the two main and their very polarising characters.

Kell Kressia:

Kell is a really interesting character. This book provides a lot of insight about his past and how he previously made the journey to slay the Ice Lich alongside a crew of eleven heroes. At the time he had been a young, naive seventeen year old and had come back as the lucky sole survivor from beyond the frozen circle.

In the present timeline he’s ten years older and has lived an unforgiving life. Initially he runs from the call to slay another threat, but a young man, Garren, challenges Kell’s legacy, coerces him into making the journey north and demands that he joins Kell on his quest.

Kell is a strong willed, brave, and insightful character. He cringes at the idea of being a leader, but he cares for his crew and respects the fact that he’s not the strongest or most ambitious in his quest. He’s very accepting of the differences between his crew members and we see new developments in Kell’s character as he interacts with each individual.

Throughout the story we are given a unique perspective between Kell from the past and Kell from the present, and so we are able to see how far he’s come as a person and in his personal growth.

Reverend Mother Britak :

The Reverend Mother is the holy leader of the religious group who follow The Shepard. She is a harsh, strict yet faithful leader to her religion and is striving to spread the word of the Shepard throughout The Five Kingdoms through any means necessary. She has some very ‘questionable’ ways of ensuring that the 12 pillars (kind of like the 12 commandments) are followed and her intentions are to increase her zealot followers.

According to her religion, magic and magical beings are against the word of the Shepard, and therefore Kell, his legacy and his current journey are a distractor to the public and towards her campaign.

Although Kell and Britak don’t cross paths in this book, Britak’s narrative sets her up to be a very compelling and lethal enemy in the sequel.

A special mention to Vahli and Willow because they were both fantastic characters.

Plot: 4/5

Admittedly, I didn’t have high hopes for the plot of this book. I usually don’t enjoy when the plot is centralised around a main quest, and this is one of those books, however when I reached the last couple of chapters, things started to unveil that gave hints towards the nature of the sequel and I can’t express how much those details changed my mind about this book. In my opinion, the last couple of chapters are what gave it an extra 1.5 stars and made me immediately excited for the release of the sequel.

Writing and Setting: 4-5/ 5

We see multiple perspectives throughout the book, however our main characters are Kell and Britak. The writing is in third person which allows for some very interesting perspectives.

As previously mentioned, there were parts in the book that were trying to evoke a lot of emotion and I didn’t really connect with them. These scenes were fairly early on in the timeline so I’ve put it down to not knowing the characters all that well in comparison to the emotions I felt towards the end of the book.

Without a doubt, the world building must be praised. We see a vast array of kingdoms, races, creatures, towns and locations that were fascinating to read about that is unique to this story and incredibly creative.

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