FREE book: CARNIFEX: A PORTENT OF BLOOD
"Prior weaves a fully realized world in this rich fantasy, from history, political structure, and family life to work, food, drinking (lots of drinking), and romance." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Carnifex is a masterpiece of sword and sorcery storytelling. A visceral yet thoughtful epic." -- Bookwraiths Reviews
"Gritty, tense, and brutally tragic. High quality storytelling with great characters and a relentless plot." -- Mitchell Hogan, author of A Crucible of Souls and Aurealis Award winner.
"...by the end I did care about those people--all of them, including Carnifex, were flawed but fundamentally decent people. But I had read The Nameless Dwarf, and I knew what was coming, and how it all ends. That knowledge made the book both hard to continue reading and hard to put down." -- Black Gate Magazine
"And holy shit... the battle scenes. THE BATTLE SCENES!!! People don't actually realise how hard it is to write a good battle scene, but Prior makes it look easy. They are gripping, violent, and brilliantly choreographed." -- Smash Dragons
"A Fantasy Adventure of remarkable scope, populated by many memorable characters. Maybe D. P. Prior's finest work to date." -- Ray Nicholson (Amazon Top 1000 reviewer)
"Whenever I have high praise for a book, I usually like to find at least one aspect of the writing to challenge, but this one's got me stumped. I guess I could complain that it ended all too soon, but then there are three other volumes to enjoy..." -- Laurence Scotford
"It's not often I'm left speechless but this was one of those times. WOW!!" -- Ebookwyrm
"5 Stars is easily earned here and I'm sure it will not be long before we see this, the most unique of dwarves on the big screen! This year is indeed the year of the dwarf!!" -- Scott Morrison
From Kirkus Reviews
In this fantasy novel, a dwarf grapples with deception and a stark destiny that could save, or ruin, his people.
The Nameless Dwarf first appeared in Prior’s The Resurrection of Deacon Shader (2009) and later in his own series, collected in The Nameless Dwarf: The Complete Chronicles (2013).
Here, readers get the character’s origin story, including his name and how he came to lose it. Carnifex Thane wears the red cloak of the Ravine Guard in Arx Gravis but seldom faces real fighting in the safe and predictable city.
A theft in the Scriptorium by a homunculus, or deep gnome, is alarming, however. Even more so is a frightening and deadly incursion in the mines by a creature that the toga-clad human Aristodeus calls a golem. If golems are real, maybe the legendary Axe of the Dwarf Lords is, too. Carnifex’s brother Lucius, a scholar, wants to mount an expedition to find the Axe, but the city’s do-nothing Council opposes the plan.
Several losses send Carnifex to spar with baresarks (wild dwarfs) in the fighting circles of the lower city; feeling he has nothing left to lose, Carnifex makes the risky decision to follow his brother seeking the Axe and fulfill a fool’s prophecy: “You must forget in order to find the truth of who you are.”
Prior weaves a fully realized world in this rich fantasy, from history, political structure, and family life to work, food, drinking (lots of drinking), and romance.
The characters are also well-developed. Carnifex, for example, though a doughty fighter and drinker in the best dwarf tradition, struggles with a black-dog depression that “feasted on scraps of vitality, hunted for glimmers of hope and happiness.” Dwarf women play a larger and more vigorous role than in most fantasy novels, as when “hammering out a beat on the top of a long table, froth spraying from their whiskers.”
Immersive worldbuilding adds texture to this dark, intriguing tale about a fighter.
"Carnifex is a masterpiece of sword and sorcery storytelling. A visceral yet thoughtful epic." -- Bookwraiths Reviews
"Gritty, tense, and brutally tragic. High quality storytelling with great characters and a relentless plot." -- Mitchell Hogan, author of A Crucible of Souls and Aurealis Award winner.
"...by the end I did care about those people--all of them, including Carnifex, were flawed but fundamentally decent people. But I had read The Nameless Dwarf, and I knew what was coming, and how it all ends. That knowledge made the book both hard to continue reading and hard to put down." -- Black Gate Magazine
"And holy shit... the battle scenes. THE BATTLE SCENES!!! People don't actually realise how hard it is to write a good battle scene, but Prior makes it look easy. They are gripping, violent, and brilliantly choreographed." -- Smash Dragons
"A Fantasy Adventure of remarkable scope, populated by many memorable characters. Maybe D. P. Prior's finest work to date." -- Ray Nicholson (Amazon Top 1000 reviewer)
"Whenever I have high praise for a book, I usually like to find at least one aspect of the writing to challenge, but this one's got me stumped. I guess I could complain that it ended all too soon, but then there are three other volumes to enjoy..." -- Laurence Scotford
"It's not often I'm left speechless but this was one of those times. WOW!!" -- Ebookwyrm
"5 Stars is easily earned here and I'm sure it will not be long before we see this, the most unique of dwarves on the big screen! This year is indeed the year of the dwarf!!" -- Scott Morrison
From Kirkus Reviews
In this fantasy novel, a dwarf grapples with deception and a stark destiny that could save, or ruin, his people.
The Nameless Dwarf first appeared in Prior’s The Resurrection of Deacon Shader (2009) and later in his own series, collected in The Nameless Dwarf: The Complete Chronicles (2013).
Here, readers get the character’s origin story, including his name and how he came to lose it. Carnifex Thane wears the red cloak of the Ravine Guard in Arx Gravis but seldom faces real fighting in the safe and predictable city.
A theft in the Scriptorium by a homunculus, or deep gnome, is alarming, however. Even more so is a frightening and deadly incursion in the mines by a creature that the toga-clad human Aristodeus calls a golem. If golems are real, maybe the legendary Axe of the Dwarf Lords is, too. Carnifex’s brother Lucius, a scholar, wants to mount an expedition to find the Axe, but the city’s do-nothing Council opposes the plan.
Several losses send Carnifex to spar with baresarks (wild dwarfs) in the fighting circles of the lower city; feeling he has nothing left to lose, Carnifex makes the risky decision to follow his brother seeking the Axe and fulfill a fool’s prophecy: “You must forget in order to find the truth of who you are.”
Prior weaves a fully realized world in this rich fantasy, from history, political structure, and family life to work, food, drinking (lots of drinking), and romance.
The characters are also well-developed. Carnifex, for example, though a doughty fighter and drinker in the best dwarf tradition, struggles with a black-dog depression that “feasted on scraps of vitality, hunted for glimmers of hope and happiness.” Dwarf women play a larger and more vigorous role than in most fantasy novels, as when “hammering out a beat on the top of a long table, froth spraying from their whiskers.”
Immersive worldbuilding adds texture to this dark, intriguing tale about a fighter.
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