The Black Hawks by David Wragg @itsdavewragg @HarperVoyagerUK

Synopsis:

Dark, thrilling, and hilarious, The Black Hawks is an epic adventure perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch.

Life as a knight is not what Vedren Chel imagined. Bound by oath to a dead-end job in the service of a lazy step-uncle, Chel no longer dreams of glory – he dreams of going home.

When invaders throw the kingdom into turmoil, Chel finds opportunity in the chaos: if he escorts a stranded prince to safety, Chel will be released from his oath.

All he has to do is drag the brat from one side of the country to the other, through war and wilderness, chased all the way by ruthless assassins.

With killers on your trail, you need killers watching your back. You need the Black Hawk Company – mercenaries, fighters without equal, a squabbling, scrapping pack of rogues.

Prepare to join the Black Hawks.

My Review

What an action-packed ride through a fantastic landscape. Full of political intrigue, twists and turns and a cast of characters like no other. It’s safe to say I have fallen a little bit in love with The Black Hawks.

A brief introduction

The story starts in the port of Denimas here we meet one of our main characters Chel. He seems pretty disillusioned with life, just ticking along trying to find his way. During an invasion Chel finds himself with the Prince and thus embarks on a journey to dissolve his oath and find his own way. The only thing is, he has to keep the prince alive!

The Characters

I instantly gelled with Chel, he’s multi-faceted and I love that, essentially, he just wants this job done so he can gain his freedom. However, he also takes his oath extremely seriously and things he does in order to achieve that are quite something.

As for The Black Hawks, what a brilliant bunch of characters. The women are strong, take no shit and fight just as well and just as hard as the men. The men all have unique characters of their own and complicated backstories. All are snarky, rude and hard drinking, I loved the scenes with all of them. Great fun to read.

My only slight complaint is that we didn’t learn enough of their backgrounds, especially Chel. Things are hinted at and revealed partly but not enough to suit my curious needs. However, I am wondering whether more will be coming in the following book.

World Building

This book also had my favourite kind of World Building. Things are revealed slowly as we travel through the landscape. This gives you time to process everything and learn all the finer details. This came in handy as you realise the political power play that is going on.   

Final Thoughts

If you can’t already tell I loved this book. Definitely in my top reads of this year and I am so looking forward to reading the next one.

My thanks to Harper Voyager for a copy of the book via Netgalley.