Review: The Hanuvar Chronicles, Book 2: The City of Marble and Blood - Howard Andrew Jones

Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with me. A while back, I read Howard Andrew Jones’ novel LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, the first book in his Hanuvar Chronicles, and thought it was one of the best novels I’d read in years. I bought the sequel, THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD, as soon as it came out. And there it sat, unread, for some reason that I can’t fathom.

But no longer. I’ve read it now, and there’s no second-book-in-a-series slump in this one. Not hardly. THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD is absolutely fantastic.

For those of you unfamiliar with Hanuvar, he’s the former military commander of the nation of Volanus, which has fought a series of disastrous wars against the Dervan Empire. This conflict finally ends with the destruction of Volanus and the dispersion of the surviving Volani, most of them as slaves, across the empire. Hanuvar is thought to be dead—but he’s not. He’s still alive, and he has a plan. He’s going to find all of his countrymen who still live, free them one way or another, and take them to the colony he’s established called New Volanus. This campaign of freedom, waged mostly by stealth and subterfuge, gets underway in LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND and continues in THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD.

That name refers to Derva itself, the center of the empire, and Hanuvar will be in more danger there than ever as he tries to carry out his epic plan.

As you may have figured out, this is all based very loosely on the wars between Rome and Carthage, and Hanuvar is inspired by (you can’t even say based on because they’re too different) Hannibal. And the scope of the story Jones is telling is so vast that he employs a brilliant strategy: each “chapter” in these books is actually a novella, telling a separate story with a beginning, middle, and end, but they all fit together to form a continuing narrative that builds momentum as it goes along. This also allows Jones to tell different kinds of stories as the overall tale progresses. One of the chapters in the first book, for example, was a pure heist story—Donald E. Westlake or Lionel White in a sword-and-sorcery milieu—and in one point in THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD, Hanuvar is called upon to function as a detective and solve a murder. In another chapter, Hanuvar and some of his friends and allies pull a very neat con job. Jones doesn’t neglect the sorcery, though, as there are plenty of ghosts and demons and zombies and assorted otherworldly threats for Hanuvar to deal with.

All this is told in clean, compelling, fast-moving prose. Hanuvar is a great character, as is his part-time sidekick, a young actor and writer named Antires. The world-building of this alternate Mediterranean world is extensive but handled so skillfully that the storytelling never gets bogged down in it.

If you’re a fan of sword and sorcery, alternate history, epic fantasy, or anything like that, you just can’t do any better than this series by Howard Andrew Jones. This one is available on Amazon in e-book, hardcover, paperback, and audio editions. I've already bought the third book, SHADOW OF THE SMOKING MOUNTAIN, and I promise it won’t take me as long to get around to reading it.

Now, on a personal note, most if not all of you know that Howard Andrew Jones passed away earlier this year, another one taken much too young by cancer. Howard and I weren’t close and never met in person, but I considered us friends. We interacted on Facebook and traded occasional emails, brought together by our shared fondness for Ki-Gor pulp novels and John Benteen Westerns. I can only echo what everyone else who knew him has said: he was a great guy. It’s selfish of me, but I’m glad I have quite a few of his books left to read, including the third Hanuvar novel. I only wish there were going to be a lot more.

Neither Beg Nor Yield - Jason M. Waltz, ed. (Part 5)

This is the fifth and final batch of reviews of stories from NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD, the new sword and sorcery anthology from Rogue Blades Entertainment and editor Jason M. Waltz. The previous installments of this series can be found here, here, here, and here.

In most anthologies, collections, pulps, or any bunch of stories that I read, there’s usually at least one that I bounce off of, which is not to say that they’re bad stories, just ones that don’t appeal to me personally. This has finally happened in this anthology with “The Last Vandals on Earth” by Steven Erikson. This tale of a small group of Vandals being pursued by and battling enemies in Africa is written in an elaborate, highly distinctive style that just doesn’t resonate with me. I suspect some of you would really like it, so don’t go by me. But I didn’t care for it.

“The Barbarian’s Lawyer” by Lawrence A. Weinstein is just the opposite. It introduces two excellent characters, the barbarian called Blazgorn and Cynric Magsen, the lawyer who defends him before the High Arbiter when Blazgorn is accused of stealing treasures from the mansion of one of the city’s most powerful nobles. Doing humor in a sword and sorcery tale is a tricky proposition, but Weinstein manages quite well, prompting a number of smiles and one out-loud laugh from me while I was reading the story. But at the same time, he also gives us some very effective action. This is a wonderful story, and I’d love to see more of these two characters.

Last year, the first novel in Howard Andrew Jones’ Hanuvar series, LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, was one of the best books I read. I have the second book, THE CITY OF MARBLE AND BLOOD, but haven’t read it yet. I was very glad to see Jones and Hanuvar in this volume, as well. For those who haven’t yet made his acquaintance, Hanuvar is sort of an alternate world version of Hannibal (although that’s really too simplistic a description). His goal is to locate the survivors from his conquered country, Volanus, who have been scattered all over a world ruled by the Dervan Empire (think Rome) and get them to a safe sanctuary. In “Reflection From a Tarnished Mirror”, he runs up against an unusual threat to his quest, and as usual, Jones spins a well-written, compelling yarn. I’m not sure where in Hanuvar’s saga this story takes place, exactly, but it’s a strong reminder that I need to get around to reading that second book.

Finally, we have “Maiden Flight” by Adrian Cole. This is the first adventure of Ulric Wulfsen, a Viking raider who has a strange and dangerous encounter on a corpse-littered battlefield that leads to an epic confrontation and a poignant, very effective ending. I’ve been aware of Adrian Cole’s fiction for decades but have never read anything by him as far as I recall. This is a very good story and a near-perfect way to wrap up the anthology.

Looking back, I have some definite favorites among the stories in this volume. The top rank, for me, consists of the tales by Steve Dilks, Chuck Dixon, Keith J. Taylor, David C. Smith, Eadwine Brown, Jeff Stewart, Lawrence A. Weinstein, and Howard Andrew Jones. Four out of those eight authors are ones I’d never read before, and that’s one of the great appeals of a book like this, introducing the reader to new authors, or at least, authors they’ve never read before. I’ll definitely be looking for more work by several of these gentlemen.

In the meantime, if you’re a fan of sword and sorcery, I give my highest recommendation to NEITHER BEG NOR YIELD. Even though it’s relatively early, I have no doubt that it’ll be on my Top Ten list at the end of the year.

The Chronicles of Hanuvar #1: Lord of a Shattered Land - Howard Andrew Jones

I’ve been online friends with Howard Andrew Jones for a number of years now and have enjoyed his essays on various pulp-related subjects on his own blog and in various other places. He was one of the first people I came across who was also a fan of the Ki-Gor series from JUNGLE STORIES, for example. But I’d never read any of his fiction until now. I picked up LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND, the first book in his new series THE CHRONICLES OF HANUVAR, and tackled it, although it’s considerably longer than the books I normally read.

This series is loosely based on the wars between Rome and Carthage, with Derva being Rome, Volanus being Carthage, and Hanuvar being Hannibal. But that’s just a starting point as Jones creates a very different world from our own, one with dragons and sorcerers and monsters and spirits, and the events in Hanuvar’s life don’t play out the same way Hannibal’s did. Hanuvar is both the political and military leader of Volanus, but as the book opens he’s believed to be dead following the conclusion of the third war between Derva and Volanus. But Hanuvar actually survived the death of the dragon he was riding and a plunge into the sea, and now, alone and friendless, he sets out to rescue the survivors of his people and take them to the colony of New Volanus, which he started across the ocean several years earlier.

LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND is a fix-up novel comprised of fourteen novelettes and novellas, some of which were published previously in magazines and anthologies, and this episodic nature really works in its favor, allowing Jones to keep the story moving at a good pace as we follow Hanuvar on his quest. So many books like this are full of padding, but LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND really isn’t. Each section builds on the previous tales as Hanuvar gathers information, makes friends, battles both new threats and old, travels with a circus, and finally, at the end of the book, positions himself to launch the next step of his plan to free his people. This novel has an epic feel to it that works very well.

As for the stories—the characters, the writing, the action—I felt like I was reading Robert E. Howard in the Lancer editions, Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories in the Ace editions, John Jake’s original Brak the Barbarian stories in the Avon paperback, and even good old Thongor in the first Ace edition of Lin Carter’s THE WIZARD OF LEMURIA. In other words, I was right back there in the Sixties, sitting on my parents’ front porch, having a spectacularly good time reading rousing sword and sorcery yarns. LORD OF A SHATTERED LAND is that good. Better than Jakes and Carter, for my money, and if it doesn’t quite rise to the level of Howard and Leiber . . . well, those guys have nostalgia going for them, too, while Jones’ novel is brand new. In time, as I continue reading the Hanuvar books (the second one will be out next month, and I already have it pre-ordered), he may give those giants a run for their money. I can’t wait to find out. If you’re a fan of sword and sorcery fiction, this one has my highest recommendation. It's available in ebook and hardcover editions.