The Barrow Audiobook By Mark Smylie cover art

The Barrow

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The Barrow

By: Mark Smylie
Narrated by: Michael Page
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When a small crew of scoundrels, would-be heroes, deviants, and ruffians discover a map that they believe will lead them to a fabled sword buried in the barrow of a long-dead wizard, they think they've struck it rich. But their hopes are dashed when the map turns out to be cursed and then is destroyed in a magical ritual. The loss of the map leaves them dreaming of what might have been, until they rediscover the map in a most unusual and unexpected place.

Stjepan Black-Heart, suspected murderer and renegade royal cartographer; Erim, a young woman masquerading as a man; Gilgwyr, brothel owner extraordinaire; Leigh, an exiled magus under an ignominious cloud; Godewyn Red-Hand, mercenary and troublemaker; Arduin Orwain, scion of a noble family brought low by scandal; and Arduin's sister, Annwyn, the beautiful cause of that scandal: together they form a cross-section of the Middle Kingdoms of the Known World, united by accident and dark design, on a quest that will either get them all in the history books or get them all killed.

©2014 Mark Smylie (P)2014 Tantor Action & Adventure Classics Epic Fantasy Heartfelt

Critic reviews

"Genuinely inspired, shockingly erotic, and completely fantastic." (John R. Fultz, author of Seven Sorcerers)
All stars
Most relevant
Let me preface this by saying that I love the new genre of fantasy called the "anti-hero" (joe abercrombie is one of my favorite authors) and when I read the blurb for this I thought it would a story similar to that.

It is an it isn't. This story has more sex, more violence, and more treachery (if you can believe it!) that kept you guessing up until the end.

If you like dark fantasy give it a try, but as my title indicates this story is definitely not for the faint of heart!

Not for the faint of heart...but a good story

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The first half of the book is a bit lecherous and it's not that I find graphic sex scenes to be offensive, but the length of some of them just seemed kind of disruptive.

After the first half or so of the book, it becomes more of a typical gritty adventure.

The writing and character development are well done and the voice acting is excellent. I would recommend it to anyone looking for grimdark, but keep in mind it's very nsfw and has a few scenes that some might call misogynistic (but written in a way that fits the characters).

Pretty Good Grimdark

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I must start this review by saying that Mark Smylie has the potential to be a great author. He can create good character depth, write excellent fight scenes, and create an intricate plot but he does have some flaws. First, he likes the gruesomely disturbing scenes a bit too much, he lingers on a few almost pornographicly depraved sex scenes a bit too much. These scenes provide nothing for the novel unless to turn someone on if you like that sort of thing. I understand this is supposed to be a grimdark novel, but he simply goes over the top with it. The other problem with this book is the fact that his overall starting plot is a bit generic and almost seems like a dungeons and dragons theme. However, despite these shortcomings I must say Smylie has the potential to write novels with the likes of Abercrombie and Cook. I would recommend this book to read because it does have some of the more intriguing characters I have ever read about and was fairly enjoyable. Also, the second book in the series is coming out soon and I am planning to get it because I feel it could be a great second novel. Finally, the narrator did a good but unremarkable job, but it was very easy to tell the characters apart. This is why I gave him 4 stars.

decent first novel a little too disturbing

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Let's get straight to it with the bad on this book. There is a ton of sex in this book, which is fine, I'm no prude but it doesn't add to the story at all. Instead, it provides a view into a fetish that killed the series for me. There are scenes involving reaching individual performance goals, as well as teams of individuals working independently to reach their own goals. In short, there is too much rooster in this book.

I won't buy the 2nd in the series.

The good!
Michael Page was excellent. I really can't say more. The characters had their own voices and they were distinct. 10 Stars out of 5.

The story, aside from it's frequent one on one meetings to tackle a performance related task, was not bad at all. I'd tag it like a prequel, with all of the oddities and weaknesses that a prequel has. This book successfully launched the story of Stjepan Black-Heart, and introduced Erim, who needed a lot more scene time. Erim spends so little time in the story, that ultimately at the end, when Mark tries to hand the series contract baton to Erim, that I was intrigued, but left thinking, "I should know more about this character...?" not knowing if that should be a question or not. The reveals that occur during and after the climax of the book are jarring due to the lack of build up.

Do I recommend this book?
No, not to any friend or family due to the excessive and unnecessary rooster time.

HOWEVER,
If you don't mind a lot of distraction, the story was fun, so go ham. I prefer less sexual intimacy in my dark fantasy books.

The biggest disappointment (Not a spoiler)
Erim is an interesting queer character (I hope I'm using that term right). She's attracted to women, but dresses like a man to dodge all the rules that women are required to follow. The interesting part about Erim, is how mysterious and capable she is. Unfortunately, she spends precious little time doing meaningful thing, so at the end I didn't feel like I knew her terribly well. Additionally, some of the events in the book centering on Erim end up conflicting with the ending, indicating that either Erim was forgotten, or was modified at the end to potentially have a bigger role in later books. Either way the implementation was awkward.

A little less rooster, a little more story

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If people would get past their inhibitions about sex, they would see a great story here and realize the the sex that is intertwined well throughout the story is there for a reason other than perversion.

loved it

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