An interesting and engrossing fantasy, which was hard to put down. The author took us into a faux late medieval world among the artisan and yeoman classes. Marik, the protagonist, arrives in the North country and as a "Souther", endures prejudice. He has fled his native country after cowardice on his part and seeks a new life somewhere new. After holding a temporary menial construction job, a moneylender, seeing his ability with a sword, hires him as a bodyguard to his daughters and charges him to deliver them safely to their mother. Marik endures shipwreck and only with his native intelligence and with the aid of a cabin boy, makes his way to the "Delta", now under the control of a vicious warlord with a mercenary army and a giant as main henchman. He joins a band of rebels, who hope to regain their country. He becomes the de facto leader of the band. All preparations for the final attack, the journey through the mangrove, and the attack itself were very exciting. This book may be the start of a new series.

I felt the book to be mainly a character study of Marik and his relation to others. He in some ways reminded me of the author's protagonist in his "Agent of Rome" series, although a better fighter. Although having an interesting premise, I felt it not as good as the earlier series. I felt the giant, Hammerhand, was a stereotype of any ogre in any fantasy. I wondered about the map; although well-drawn, should it not have been flipped: the East, where the giant came from being on the right as one looks at it and the West, where the Delta and the different islands nearby, be to the left: following cartography convention, with the same body of water separating them? Shouldn't there have been an insert of the islands, naming them, since they were important to the story?

Recommended. ( )