The Malice

By: Peter Newman

Narrated by: Jot Davies

Length: 14 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

Following Peter Newman's brilliant debut, The Vagrant. This is the much-anticipated sequel, The Malice.

In the south, the Breach stirs. Gamma's sword, the Malice, wakes, calling to be taken to battle once more. But the Vagrant has found a home now, made a life, and so he turns his back, ignoring its call. The sword cries out, frustrated, until another answers. Her name is Vesper.

©2016 Peter Newman (P)2016 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"This is a must-read." ( SciFi Now)
"An original and engrossing world...written with confidence, flair and imagination." (Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Shadows of the Apt series)
"A unique and imaginative world where the only hope rests on the capacity of human beings to love." (Melinda M. Snodgrass)

Reviews of The Vagrant:
"For fans of classic science-fiction literature, this is a must-read." (SciFi Now)
"Come visit this brilliantly imaginative land of winged swords and broken solar cells." ( SFX)
"The Vagrant is a joy to read: an original and engrossing world, a strong story and a protagonist who is intensely charismatic despite - or because of - his silence. Newman's debut is written with confidence, flair and imagination, bringing his dark world to marvellously macabre life." (Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of the Shadows of the Apt series)
"A stunning and ambitious debut novel set in a unique and imaginative world where the only hope rests on the capacity of human beings to love." (Melinda M. Snodgrass)

Great continuation

I absolutely love this series. If you liked the first you’ll like this one and it’s expansion of the universe and how it came to be.

Fun book

Awesome story line! I was totally engulfed in this entire story. would definitely recommend this series

Just plum amazing

One of the best book series I have read in the last decade. Love the world and the people.

A Strange Thing to Notice (vague plot spoilers)

It is a strange thing, to notice that, like the first novel, the beginning is a dark affair. The characters are disgusting, in both appearance and (in vesper's case) deed. The events are dark, and disheartening.
Twice now, I've found myself wondering if I should even continue; when events take turns that are so appalling to my own desires. But, if one doesn't hate what one sees, how can one find joy in the changes that emerge.

The ending, again so like the Vagrant, has a completely different taste to it. Some villains and enemies get their just due, and we find satisfaction in the bonds forged, certainly.
And though this is a trick (again); it feels sure, and lighthearted compared to the blunt foreboding of the novel's beginning.

This, though; seems to be the magic of the novels. Though great works are done, though many die, and much changes; one still feels a sickening sense of wrongness. In the Vagrant, this was at the Six, and their Shining City. And at the state of the world.
Here, it is a much more dangerous wrongness, for it stems from Vesper herself. Her moral growth is still in progress, and one must wonder if she has learned nothing between her initial encounter with the First, and her final conversation with the keeper of The Seven.
Her good intentions, and the lies they bring, may have dire consequences. But, I've yet to read the final book, so all is conjecture.

Vesper is a glorious main character. Very flawed, as a result of her naivety and good intentions. She is the type of heroine to be learned from. She is the embodiment of our generational successors; and her relationship with the Vagrant and the world she discovers is a unique glimpse into the mess that is each generation's attempt to set straight the world their forebears have so skewed.
One can only hope that such a complex plight can be portrayed as well as it has been presented.

Beautiful language, calming, exciting, capturing

Peter Newman writes with a poetic language, unfolding the story with vivid descriptions and perfectly fitting metaphors and at the same time leaves much free space for the readers to fill in the gaps with their own imagination. This world is beautifully narrated by Jot Davies with a captivating, steady voice that makes you feel like you are there.