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    Nights of Villjamur
    Nights of Villjamur
    Nights of Villjamur
    Audiobook16 hours

    Nights of Villjamur

    Written by Mark Charan Newton

    Narrated by Steven Crossley

    3/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    An ice age strikes a chain of islands, and thousands come to seek sanctuary at the gates of Villjamur: a city of ancient spires and bridges, a place where banshees wail the deceased, cultists use forgotten technology for their own gain, and where, further out, the dead have been seen walking across the tundra.

    When the Emperor commits suicide, his elder daughter, Rika, is brought home to lead the Jamur Empire, but the sinister Chancellor plans to get rid of her and claim the throne for himself.

    Meanwhile, a senior investigator in the city inquisition must solve the high-profile and savage murder of a city politician while battling evils within his own life, and a handsome and serial womanizer manipulates his way into the imperial residence with a hidden agenda.

    When reports are received that tens of thousands of citizens are dying in a bizarre genocide on the northern islands of the Empire, members of the elite Night Guard are sent to investigate. It seems that, in this land under a red sun, the long winter is bringing more than just snow.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 30, 2010
    ISBN9781400187607
    Nights of Villjamur
    Author

    Mark Charan Newton

    Mark Charan Newton was born in 1981, and holds a degree in Environmental Science. After working in bookselling, he moved into publishing, working on film and media tie-in fiction, and later, writing science fiction and fantasy including the Legends of the Red Sun and Drakenfeld series. He currently lives and works in Derbyshire.

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    Reviews for Nights of Villjamur

    3/5

    113 ratings16 reviews

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    • 4/5
      YOOOOOOOO THIS WAS GOOD. I FEEL LIKE THE SERIES WILL GET BETTER TOO.
    • 2/5
      This book seemed all over the place. It seemed to jump from one scene to another and the different plot lines didn't seem to fit together. There seemed to be important parts of the world, like the 2 races that were completely forgotten about, or things that were interesting but never explained like the banshees howling when people died. The characters were also completely forgettable. Not my thing at all.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this, but it did feel like a lot of stage setting was going on at times; so many people and races introduced; and it was a little hard to keep track of everyone at times... but it does have a sense of promise. A bit similar to the opening of the Malazan series.

      Re-read as have 2nd & 3rd in series on TBR. A little more telling than showing of story than I remember
    • 1/5
      When I purchase a novel, we make a pact. I'm willing to suspend disbelief and come on your journey as long as you show competency in the art of writing.

      I found this book unreadable. In it's current state it shouldn't even be offered for sale. I feel really sorry for the author to have been so let down in editorial standards by his publisher. There is a blatant failing in basic grammar to the point where that's all I saw. Every few lines I'd be abruptly jarred by clanging syntax. There's misuse of commas, passive writing, dangling modifiers, odd paragraph breaks and sentences that simply don't make sense.

      [quote]Like a hunter, Brynd stalked wide so as to keep outside of his target's range of vision, drew the dagger from inside his boot.[/quote]

      What?

      [quote]As a commander of the Night Guard he had sailed to the shore recently, following the Emperor's useless orders.[/quote]

      huh?

      [quote]If only he'd brought Nelum along, a man who could generate plots in his head with simplicity, but Nelum was back in Villjamur, because Brynd hadn't thought he'd need him.[/quote]

      It's hard to stay in the story when all you want to do is hurl the book across the room.



    • 4/5
      Read-alike for Rothfuss and Harry Potter, only darker. The ice age is advancing and refugees come to Villjamur where the king lives. Wars and rebellions break out . Cults use artifacts to work magic and the evil ones are bringing the dead back to life. Dark, mysterious atmosphere, creative scary stuff, leaves lots of dangling threads for series. Smart, complex, fascinating. Author introduces two species very gradually.
    • 2/5
      Newton is ambitious, certainly. He has some interesting ideas for characters and plot, and an intriguing setting in his ice-besieged city and Empire of islands. Unfortunately, he simply doesn't have the experience to pull it off - his style stutters, his characterisation falters, and he is unable to resist giving way to stereotype and predictability after a promising start. Don't believe the reviews that this was an amazing debut (it wasn't actually his first novel) or at the forefront of British fantasy (the bar is very high now as it was when this was first published, after all). Sadly, this was an also-ran, although it shows promise for his later work. That said, the execution is poor enough that I'm not sure I have the stomach to try his later work, which is a bit of a problem.
    • 4/5
      First Yule book of 2013 to be finished.The prose is not top notch, it is a bit clean and down to fact, carrying the story but not evoking atmosphere as good as it could. This is a book of excellent construction, interesting plot-lines with just enough recognition to create anticipation without becoming predictable. Tho some events and turns could have been a bit more original and the author could have had a little less survival rate of the main characters (I'm probably a bit damaged by GRRM). But it is heroic Weird Fantasy in a a very interesting world, with a Epic tint. I really want to read the rest of the books as the characters are exemplary complex and interesting.Had the prose been a notch better and the main cast a bit less heroic it would had get the fifth star easily, now it fell just short of that.
    • 3/5
      This book fulfils most of the hallmarks of epic fantasy: a positive throng of characters, a large amount of worldbuilding, lots of dire forebodings about a coming end of the world, super-evil evil characters, etc. I'm not a big epic fantasy fan. I find that when it is good, it is really, really good, but when it is bad... well, you get the picture. So if you are an epic fantasy fan, ignore my review and try this book. There are a lot of original ideas and epic potential here; it might be a good fit. Even better, try it on audio. The reader is fantastic. It seriously gained an entire star, possibly a star and a half from me, solely because of general reader awesomeness.

      If I could pick one word to describe this book, it would be "incoherent." To get the idea, let my try to describe the characters and plot.

      In a world with several different races and a large and imperialistic empire, an ice age is coming, and everyone is afraid about it. (Apparently an "ice age" means a few decades of bad weather, and no explanation is ever given as to how the people know to predict said ice age.) There are a bunch of sects of cultists who collect powerful relics (no explanation for said relics), a random banning of all but a few major religions (no explanations here, either), a power-hungry chancellor full of nefarious schemes to gain power, a sorcerer who is raising the dead (not a good explanation of why said sorcerer did so is really ever given), a bunch of mysterious murders by magic in the city (a ridiculously inadequate explanation for the method and motivation is given here. hover for spoiler), a quest for another world, and the arrival of a bunch of alien lobster-like monsters who apparently seek to invade and destroy (you guessed it...no explanation),... well, the number of elements to the plot just keep coming. All of these ideas are good by themselves, but to me, it felt like none of them were sufficiently well thought out or developed. The book just couldn't decide what it wanted to be: it has a few elements of political thriller, but the politics are made too black and white to fit this genre. We have a few battles, but no focus on the warrior characters. There are several elements of mystery and intrigue, but just as they start getting interesting, the narration swaps to the point of view of the villains and we find out the whys and wherefores. This left the plot as an jumbled muddle, a tangle of plot thread resolutions and introductions, and no coherent arc.

      The biggest failing for me is one that goes hand in hand with the epic fantasy genre: a certain sense of grandeur and a tendency to take itself far too seriously. For example, I felt like the book tried very hard to be acute political satire, but it lacked subtlety and dimension. For instance, we have an evil leader who uses a vicious attack on a small set of soldiers to claim that a rival country has weapons of mass destruction--uh, powerful cultist relics--to justify an imperialism-driven attack upon them. This same leader uses fear to shut down the borders of the city and prevent refugees from entering (They're illegal aliens! They carry disease! They'll take away food and jobs!) and threats of potential terrorism to enforce a Patriot Act--uh, I mean, stronger search and seizure laws. He secretly wants to exterminate all the refugees...apparently for no better reason except that they look messy. Said leader is indisputably evil-evil; he murdered his own parents because they irritated him. It's all a one-sided characterization. Making a character that evil is lazy; anyone with him is automatically bad and anyone against him is automatically good. See what I mean about lacking subtlety and actual analysis? At the same time, the protagonists' attitude of let-the-refugees-all-die-during-the-ice-age-but-don't-outright-kill-them is...you guessed it... incoherent.

      As is standard for epic fantasy, there are a *load* of characters, and the book bounces between the perspectives of well over a dozen of them. To name the major ones, we have a noble albino guard, a privileged princess, a thieving cassanova, a scarred prostitute, a dutiful member of the inquisition (which functions as police, among other things), an ancient cultist trying to find a secret to let him live for ever, an uber-evil chancellor, ... well, the list just keeps going. In my opinion, we get the plot from the perspectives of too many characters, even for epic fantasy. It seems to me to be a lazy way of plot exposition: rather than developing characters or figuring out how to really tell the story through the eyes of a limited set, just keep switching them to get to the action scenes. And unfortunately, characterization wasn't well done. All of the characters have very similar voices, and all sounded oddly artificial to me, rather like a 21st-century LARPer trying to stay in character. The audiobook was a saving grace here: the narrator managed, via intonation and accent, to inject a touch of personality into each of them. Even with this, the characters felt to me to be...you guessed it... incoherent. For example, our friendly lathario is perfectly happy to borrow someone's identity, act as a gigolo, and rob jewellery from his victims, ostensibly because he wants to help his mother live forever. And then suddenly he falls in *lurve*, forgets about his mother, and becomes a noble rescuing hero. It didn't feel like character development to me; he didn't go through any form of self-realization or dramatic event. It just felt like inconsistency. The same was true for all the other characters as well. The narration tends to fall into the "tell rather than show" zone when trying to get into the characters' heads, so all felt flat and impersonal to me.

      Overall, I think the author has a bunch of creative ideas. Unfortunately, he tried to shoehorn them all into a single book at the expense of coherence and developed characters. If you really, really like epic fantasy and you're willing to be in this one for the long haul, take a look at this. In particular, check it out on audio. Despite the serious cliffhangers and unanswered questions (seriously, why are there random crustacean monsters running around?), I'm not planning on picking up the next book; however, I think the author has a lot of potential and will be worth watching out for as he develops his craft.
    • 4/5
      Book Review - Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton Nights of Villjamur Series: Legends of the Red Sun (Book 1) Mark Charan Newton Spectra (2011) Trade Paperback 464 pages ISBN-13: 978-0345520852Murder, mystery, and magic ; a deadly combination, to be sure, but in the hands of Mark Charan Newton it becomes something altogether more entertaining then might be expected. And, while the prose, character development, and pace seem to lack perfect clarification the story itself is strong enough, the plot and characters creative enough, and the new concepts introduced intriguing enough to make this a better than average murder/mystery/fantasy. While I enjoyed the story a great deal there were some plot point, character development, and location problems that were somewhat disappointing. The strength of the back-story got lost in places – tell me more about Caveside, and the Garudas, and the banshees, and the coming ice age (winter/freeze) – and some of the characters’ actions were somewhat unexpected and sometimes illogical. For instance, during a visit with a prostitute, the last person to see one of the murder victims alive, an investigator dismisses a major murder scene clue (blue paint) even though he knows that she’s an artist. Another major plot flaw occurs when one characters’ anger over being overlooked for promotion forces him from the role of minor character to major antagonist. But we are told early on in the narrative that the position he envies have always been reserved for members of a particular race and he doesn’t qualify. The mid-story switch in character standpoint didn’t flow enough for me to overlook those failings. Now, with those flaws pointed out I must add that I was definitely entertained by Nights of Villjamur and while the faults are not quite glaring they may turn some readers off but they certainly did not distract me from the story. And, in the spirit of entertainment and in the telling of a good yarn I’d have to say that there are enough unique and creative ideas in the story to keep even the most jaded readers diverted. Fortunately for Mr. Newton, this first story in the cycle has enough fertile ground and potential to develop into a highly acclaimed series. Let’s hope he’s up to the task. If you’re the type that enjoys dark fantasies filled with strange alien races, unpredictable magic, murder mystery, and light fantasy then Nights of Villjamur is certainly recommended for you.3 ½ (4 for originality) out of 5 starsThe Alternative Southeast Wisconsin
    • 1/5
      This was one of the worst books I've ever read. I couldn't even finish it because I felt like I couldn't justify the time wasted on continuing to read it. It's like bad wine: not worth the calories.I think my impression of the book can best be summed up with the description 'not convincing'. It reads like a failed imitation of GRRM-style epic fantasy + political intrigue. The characters aren't convincing, the plot isn't convincing, even the vaunted city Villjamur isn't convincing. For a place that's supposed to be full of atmosphere, it doesn't really have any. Characters vacillate between naive and cunning, cruel and kind, from one scene to the next, with no appreciable consistency. The plot is so predictable that foreshadowing hardly seems necessary; even so, the foreshadowing is so heavy-handed, it feels like an anvil.I was looking forward to trying out a new author, a new series, but my hopes have been badly misplaced.
    • 4/5
      Very intriguing start to a new series. Although I found the writing odd and quirky, I was quickly entangled into the plot. Good story and excellent creation of atmosphere and complex alien world. I especially liked that his world was created not just using visual images, but included sound and smell and at times I felt I could touch the cold stones and frightening snow.I found some of the characters to be problematic, at first, but I was relieved to see they all grew and matured and deepened as the tale progressed. I'll definitely read the next book in the series to follow the adventures of the rebels of Villjamur.
    • 4/5
      I found the writing somewhat awkward at times and the book certainly could have used an editor who was paying more attention. The plot was based upon some fairly well-used fantasy tropes: the cold, endless winter settling in over the land; the Machiavellian adviser scheming for the throne; the sinister magic orders with their own agendas; the invading horde conquering the lands of Civilization.Yet, for all that, it's a rather enjoyable start to a new series. The strength lies in the colorful characters that Newton has created in his story. From the rumel (a lizard-like race) cop who is struggling with domestic problems and disloyal subordinates while trying to solve high profile murders, to the young princess who discovers that she's really rather clueless about life for the common citizen, each came alive in this story and kept me eager to find out what would happen to them. Moreover, Newton was adept at giving the non-humans a subtly not-human cast that made them seem something other than just a shell on another interchangeable piece.The story moves in directions that are a bit predictable but keeps its pace and your interest. Though much of the "magic" in the book is built upon use of ancient, not understood devices unearthed in archaeological expeditions, the book has a solid fantasy feel to it, the technology being of the "sufficiently advanced" sort to qualify as magic. Newton is a bit too in love with his own vocabulary—that unobservant editor I mentioned above really needed to say, "Hey, bud, no need to spend $1 when a 5¢ word will do."
    • 4/5
      I wasn't sure what I was expecting when I began this book, but it' the first book I've read in a while that's ended in a truly satisfactory way. Considering that it's the first in a series, and plenty of plotlines are left to explore in the next book, I'd say that's quite impressive. And it's not the only good thing that I can say about this book either. I found it to be a very nice read.I often speak about the characters in a book, because often it's what makes a story for me. This book was no different, and the characters were good. But what really stood out about them was how they were written as viewpoint characters. Generally with viewpoint characters, descriptions are the same style from different perspectives. In Nights of Villjamur, however, I felt that each character had their own outlook on things. While Brynd (a human) sees people and rumel (The other major species), Jeryd (a rumel) sees people and humans. It's a subtle touch, but with high-caliber writing it's often these little things that make a difference.While on the subject of races, there is one race that was done in a unique, but excellent way. The Banshees. Often considered supernatural, evil things - in this Newton describes them as simple women, who are overcome with despair when people die (hence the screaming). Again, this isn't a major thing. But it fits into the story so perfectly, helping to create a solid culture for us, as readers, to enjoy. The different races, the lifestyle and culture are all done very well.The first downside of the book, the only major one I felt, was that the history and geography of the place is a bit confusing. It could be something to do with the names. a lot of the places start with "Vill", so it's easy to get them mixed up. The Empire has the same name as the emperors, and their families, and even the city (Jamur is the empire name). It looks simple on the map at the beginning of the book, but it's easy to get lost when reading about it. Similarly, Newton apparently has a larger vocabulary than I, as I had to look several words up in a dictionary. That doesn't happen to me often these days, but I felt it happened too much in this one. (Febrile was the first example, which means "Of or relating to fever". I think it may have been misused)But I found that although the names were awkward, the story wasn't at all. It was fairly fast-paced, although it wasn't particularly action-based. The political aspects of the book were much more prevalent. As was the magic system - if I can call it that. It's well quoted the advanced enough technology looks like magic (actually, this is even said within the book). And this is how the magic works in this. I have seen the technology-magic system used before, but not in quite such a way. the general populace is aware that it's all technology, it just takes lots of learning and knowledge to be able to use the devices. and there are different factions, who use it in different ways - just as many magic factions in traditional systems do. Again, it's something that worked really well. here.I enjoyed reading this book. It wasn't exceptional writing, the names of the characters and places were often confusing or forgetful, but it was an exceptional story. This book gets my recommendation, and I look forwards to reading the sequel.
    • 1/5
      Please, would someone take this man's thesaurus away! This book was recommended to me, but I could not finish it.
    • 1/5
      So if you buy a book solely because the cover is beautiful, or because the title is intriguing, then you accept the risk that the book might be not so good. But when you buy a book because you've seen it mentioned all over the place and because the plot sounds like ten different kinds of awesome, then you're your expectations might be somewhat higher. And yet, sometimes, the spur of the moment book will be fantastic and the anticipated one, well, let's turn our attention to Nights of Villjamur.A city scrambling to prepare for a fast approaching ice age, masses of desperate refugees pushing at its walls, is left leaderless when the emperor commits suicide. Someone, or something, is killing of important council members, and a dark cult is making a grab for power. Zombie like creatures are shambling around the countryside and a war is brewing. Seriously, all that stuff happens in this book. All that stuff and then some. A plot like that, you might say its a bit too ambitious, maybe a bit too much action and excitement for one average sized book. But you almost certainly wouldn't look at that and say it sounds boring.I went into Nights of Villjamur expected to be challenged, and challenged I was. But it wasn't because the plot was so complex, the prose so twistedly weird, no, the challenge was to finish the damn thing. A challenge I failed.The problem, well, one of the problems, is that Mark Charan Newton is all tell and no show. I can't think of one examples in the three quarters of the book I made it through where Newton actually shows something. It's all, 'Bob walked down the stairs, he was tired and also a little hungry. He passed John, who he didn't like because four years ago he cheated at a game of poker.' Obviously that's not a dirct quote, but seriously you could open it to any page and find a quote not much better.This telling over showing is particularly evident when we look the character Brynd. He's commander of the elite night guard, an albino, and a closeted homosexual. Everyone mistrusts him because he's an albino. I know this not because we ever actually see anyone mistrusting him, but because he, you guessed it, tells us. Or other characters will think, 'here come Brynd, I don't trust him because of his freaky white skin.' Another book I read recently had a character who, like Brynd, was an outcast because of their genetics. I'm referring to Jant Shira, from the excellent Castle trilogy. Throughout this books we see other characters too unnerved to meet Jant's eyes, obviously highly uncomfortable in his presence. He obviously makes people nervous. No one ever acts like Brynd bothers them, they just tell us he does.Or there's an evil council member dude who wants to take control of the city, and to do that he wants to start a war. So he goes to the head armorer and says, 'tell everyone this arrow was made in our enemy nation.' And the armorer is all like 'uh, no.' And then the councilor says, 'do it or I'll beat the living shit out of you.' No, really, he's that subtle. And then later he thinks about how he's got to go do some more clever manipulating. Ah, excuse me? Straight up threats do not a master manipulator make...The characters lack any real depth, and there's definitely no mystery to them. How can there be when they tell us everything? The telling is even worse when it's done in dialogue. 'How do you feel about your boss?' Asks character a. 'I used to like him but now I don't because he didn't promote me.' Who actually talks like that? It also feels like the characters interact only on a most superficial level. The emperor, for example, beat his wife and possibly also murdered her. And yet Brynd, his most trusted adviser, seems to have no opinion about it. Newton also has a some little writing quirks that he repeats a lot, most annoyingly in the dialogue of different characters, which makes them sound very similar. (Also, at one point some random character suddenly realises that he's never liked communal toilets. How do you suddenly realise something you've always known?)Mostly I'm just really disappointed. This book had such crazy amounts of potential, and I felt like the character of Brynd in particular could have been pretty amazing. Could have been, would have been, but ultimately wasn't. Maybe the next books in this serious are better, but as I couldn't even finish this one I don't know if I'll ever find out.
    • 2/5
      A thoroughly disappointing read, to be honest. The initial premise of a coming ice age and people seeking sanctuary in the ancient city of Villjamur is decent enough, but the execution is poor and everything else is equally weak.Newton's biggest problems are his characters, who are so terribly weak and clichéd - the scheming councillor; the promiscuous young man who goes steady for the initially aloof princess who melts and falls for the first outsider she meets (him); the devoted copper / Inquisitor who's more focused on his work than his wife; the prostitute who is lonely despite all the intimate company she receives; god, one could go on and on.The author's writing is okay but nothing more. Most glaringly, Villjamur is an oddly soulless city. I've seen Terry Pratchett give Ankh-Morpork more character in a few lines than Newton manages to give Villjamur in this entire book. Other aspects of Newton's universe cry out for more development. The banshees are a nice idea but it's never made clear why they're there, why they do what they do. They're simply there and it's so frustrating. Also, Newton needs to learn to write a little more in-universe - the interview with Urtica was cringe-worthy with its "thank you for your time" modern lines.It is Newton's first book, so perhaps he'll improve. Yet the likes of Joe Abercrombie, and to a lesser extent Scott Lynch, have written superbly from the start and have set a high bar for new voices in the fantasy genre. Newton, unfortunately, doesn't come close after this initial inspection.