Die Assassine

Throne of Amenkor #1

by Joshua Palmatier, Michael Krug (Übersetzer)

In den Palästen und Hallen Amenkors herrscht trügerischer Friede. Doch in den Gassen der Unterstadt leben die Menschen in bitterer Armut. Als obdachlose Waise hat Varis gelernt zu kämpfen. Dabei hilft ihr ihre besondere Gabe: Sie kann die wahre Natur der Menschen sehen.
Eines Tages tritt ein Meister-Assassine an sie heran und bietet ihr Arbeit an. Varis soll für das Gute töten. Doch was soll sie tun, wenn sie erkennt, dass selbst in den Guten das Böse wohnt?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Science Fiction, Magic

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2006

About the author

Joshua Palmatier started writing science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories in the eighth grade, when the teacher assigned a one page Twilight Zone-ish short story. He wrote a story about Atlantis. It was from the perspective of one of the inhabitants as he escaped in a spaceship, watching his world being destroyed by water from one of the viewports of the ship. He got an A. Joshua hasn't stopped writing since.

"The Skewed Throne" is Joshua's first published novel, but it's the fourth novel he's written. The sequels--"The Cracked Throne" and "The Vacant Throne"--are now all available. His next series--comprising the novels "Well of Sorrows," "Leaves of Flame," and "Breath of Heaven"--was initially published under the pseudonym Benjamin Tate, but is being released in June 2016 under his real name. He is currently hard at work on the third book in his latest series, "Reaping the Aurora," with the first book "Shattering the Ley" now available and the second "Threading the Needle" due out in July 2016. He's also managed to write a few short stories, included in the anthologies "Close Encounters of the Urban Kind," "Beauty Has Her Way," "River," and "Apollo's Daughters."

Joshua is also the founder of a small press called Zombies Need Brains, which is focused on producing SF&F themed anthologies. There are two anthologies currently available--"Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens" and "Temporally Out of Order"--with two new anthologies due in August 2016 titled "Alien Artifacts" and "Were-". Find out more about Zombies Need Brains at www.zombiesneedbrains.com.

Bibliography: Novels:

Throne of Amenkor series:
The Skewed Throne
The Cracked Throne
The Vacant Throne

Well of Sorrows series:
Well of Sorrows
Leaves of Flame
Breath of Heaven (forthcoming)

Novels of The Ley:
Shattering the Ley
Threading the Needle (July 2016)
Reaping the Aurora (forthcoming)

Bibliography: Short Stories:

"Mastihooba" in Close Encounters of the Urban Kind edited by Jennifer Brozek (APEX).
"Tears of Blood" in Beauty Has Her Way edited by Jennifer Brozek (Dark Quest).
"An Alewife in Kish" (as Benjamin Tate) in After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar edited by Joshua Palmatier & Patricia Bray (DAW).
"The River" in River edited by Alma Alexander (Dark Quest).

Bibliography: As Editor:

After Hours: Tales From the Ur-Bar (DAW)
The Modern Fae's Guide to Surviving Humanity (DAW)
Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens (ZNB)
Temporally Out of Order (ZNB)
Alien Artifacts (ZNB; forthcoming)
Were- (ZNB; forthcoming)

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

A gritty debut fantasy!

Varis is a young urchin, "gutterscum" by her own admission, a street smart thief who manages to survive on the margin by her own wits, resorting to violence when the circumstances are forced upon her. Living from hand to mouth in "The Dredge", a shanty town and slum beyond the borders of Amenkor, her developing abilities for murder and thievery attract the attention of Erick, a royal guardsman and assassin who seeks out and kills any marks the ruling Mistress has judged must be eliminated. Under Erick's tutelage her abilities are honed to a ruthless edge but Varis has another skill she has not disclosed to anyone - an innate magic she calls "The River", a supernatural flow into which she can submerge herself. In "The River" she sees evil in shades of red and innocence in shades of gray.

When Erick assigns her to kill a mark that Varis knows to be innocent, their ways part and Varis retreats back to the core of Amenkor proper. Once again, her agility, her survival skills and her murderous ability with knives bring her under scrutiny. Borund, a local merchant, hires her as a bodyguard and Varis finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy among the Amenkor merchants, an attempt to seize monopolistic control of trade at a time when the survival of the city itself seems in question. The First Mistress seems to be losing her sanity and is issuing nonsensical orders. The pitiless unfolding of events places Varis in the position of being the only one who can save Amenkor!

A fine plot line with much promise, to be sure! And, in his debut outing, Palmatier has certainly crafted his story with enviable writing skills in the development of his characters, in the clever narration of exciting action sequences, and in the layout of easy-flowing natural dialogue. Varis' own brief and lucid description of her young life seems brutal in its crystalline clarity but totally natural in its presentation:

"I decided I'd be better off on my own. So I left. I ran away, moved deeper into the slums beyond the Dredge. I lived like an animal there, scrounging in garbage heaps, eating anything I could find, scraps you and Borund wouldn't even feed to a dog. I was dying and I didn't even know it."

But I also felt that Palmatier was tip-toeing across a knife edged ridge that far too narrow for my liking - the difficult decision an author must make about how much to introduce, how much to disclose, how much to resolve and how much to leave for explanation and completion in future works! Oh sure, there is obviously a sequel in the works. But there are only two plot devices which move "The Skewed Throne" from normal medieval fiction into the realm of fantasy - the magic of "The River" and "The White Fire", some sort of bizarre, powerful event that sweeps through Amenkor from time to time! Even Varis owns up to having no idea about the meaning of The Fire:

"I felt its purpose. Nothing to do with Amenkor, nothing to do with me. It was residual energy, the remains of an event so powerful it had stretched across the ocean, burned across the sea from a distant land. The consequence of a magic that no one in the throne knew the intent of, that was totally unfamiliar. It was nothing to us."

Personally, I'd need more resolution in this introductory novel to move it to a higher rating as a stand alone novel. But (and this is a fervent hope), in the belief that all will come clear in future novels, I'll certainly move on to the second novel in the trilogy THE CRACKED THRONE and recommend it to other fantasy lovers as well.

Paul Weiss

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Skewed Throne is Joshua Palmatier's debut novel, the first in a trilogy set in the city of Amenkor. The heroine is a girl named Varis, self-proclaimed "gutterscum" with the ability to sense threats from those around her.

The strength of Palmatier's book lies in Varis. Varis is a bitter girl, hardened by years of living in the Dredge, but she retains a core of humanity. Her ability to slip into what she calls the river, where threats stand out as splashes of red in the currents of the world around her, makes her an intriguing point of view character.

The early chapters develop Varis as a character, and while the pace never slows, it feels like the central plot of the book doesn't really start moving until later. We learn that the Mistress of Amenkor is losing her mind, and it is Varis and her gift who will have to put things right.

This is not a cheerful book. There are at least five or six scenes of rape or attempted rape, as well as a number of killings. Palmatier never glosses over the violence in Varis' life, and it is a violent life indeed. I have a great deal of respect for that kind of honesty from a writer. At the same time, some of the rape and killing began to feel repetitive by the time we reached the mid-point of the book.

The Skewed Throne stands alone as a novel, but you can see Palmatier setting the groundwork for the story to come. The White Fire which swept through Amenkor and apparently gave Varis her gift is never really explained. Only at the end do we receive our first clues, clues which will presumably be explained in the second and third books.

Perhaps the best recommendation is that I like Varis enough to want to read the next book. And I'm very eager to learn more about the history of the Skewed Throne and the origin of the White Fire, things that were only touched on in this book.

While it might not appeal to everyone, if you enjoy grittier fantasy, I would recommend picking up The Skewed Throne.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is good start that has its own surprises.

And it isn't like much of the derivative fantasy out there. By that, I'm talking about the dumb farm boy, who gets the talisman/sword from the wise old man, to defeat the Dark Lord of Wherever.

Now if you do go for that derivative fantasy, don't let it get you down. Expand your horizons and go for something different like this book.

Focus is on one character: a close to pubery girl named Varis who lost her mother at a very young age and has become something of a thief in the seedy districts of the city. She also has a special empath-like power that lets her see into the souls of strangers and gauge if they're good or evil.

Look for a great deal of emphasis on how she steals food (i.e. distracts some merchant while taking a piece of fruit) as well as how she deals with hunger and loss. The first sign of affection from someone nearly makes her burst into tears and this is one of the strong points of the character. Rarely do such complex characters exist in fantasy tales.

Partway through the tale, Varis is hired by a royal assassin to find people for him, and, a bit later, kill people for him. All come through order of the Skewed Throne, a magical seat which is controlled by a queen of sorts, who wields a great power to control the magical fluctuations. Think of the Skewed Throne like some great magical item of mystery.

Moral issues arise as Varis discovers some of the intended targets of execution are not evil. Moreover, matters become more twisted when her mentor lets a competitor-thief boy get training and his heart is very dark. Through a series of events, Varis goes into hiding and becomes a bodyguard for a rich merchant. Don't be fooled by her small size, though, her mentor trained her to be deadly with a knife. People thinking she is weak works to her advantage.

However, the intrigue is just getting worse and it all ties into the Skewed Throne.

Look for a great deal of focus on the main character's stifled social skills as well as what it was really like to be a thief on the verge of starvation.

Deep themes of belonging and doing the right thing are also apparent.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book embodies a trend I've been seeing a lot of recently: a book that has a nifty-cool concept, but suffers in the execution--and I'm sorry to pick on this book in particular, but it's the one I've tried to read most recently. A lot of books published recently have the same problem: the author doesn't seem to know where his story actually begins. In this case, the book is about a girl with special powers who is trained as an assassin so that she can kill the current ruler (who is insane) and assume the throne herself.

That's a great beginning of a novel. That's the setup. It's not a whole novel, it's the first third at most. I want to know what happens next, not spend 300+ pages of training and dithering before getting to the cool stuff.

I wonder if the problem is not necessarily the writer, but the current publishing model for YA and fantasy in particular: that is, We Must Have a Trilogy! Well, what if a story doesn't contain a trilogy's worth of material? Do you pad out the setup into the first book? That's what seems to have happened here, and it happens a lot, and it drives me crazy. It's not good writing, and it's not even a good marketing strategy, because it makes me disinclined to pick up the next books in the series. If the author spent all this time on the setup of his story, does he even know how to write the good parts?

Again, I am sorry to pick on this book in particular; it's definitely not the only one I've read in recent memory with this exact same problem. I could list dozens of others. So, come on, authors! Come on, publishers! Something in the industry is broken; let's try to fix it, please?

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5* out of 5*

I tore through this book in about a day, which surprised me, the enjoyment factor was definitely there.

The author has some good ideas, and although the execution at times could be a bit better, the overall story is pretty enjoyable.

Interesting "magic", a main character that you can feel for and an ending that isn't a cliffhanger. The book also packs in a decent amount of action.

[Lenora Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books should have been a book I could cheer. The main character is a girl/woman (She grows up from 14 in the course of the book) whose motivation isn't about a man, or men, or anything of the sort. She's driven by survival, desire not to slide back to what she was, a much smothered and denied, but visible, wish to be loved or embraced by family, and conflicted pride in her own rather violent skills. The city-state in which it takes place is ruled by a woman, and always has been, as the successor is chosen by the Skewed Throne itself.

The white fire, a strange magical effect which has swept over the city twice in its history (Once "a thousand years ago" an incident about which there seems to be a surprisingly accurate remaining history*, and once just a handful of years before the action starts,) is a mystery clearly meant to be solved in the sequels.

Varis is living in a market area on the fringe of the slums of the great city to start. And this is where my big problem crops up.

In poor and poorly patrolled places, one usually gets an interesting and broad variety of crimes. People are looking for escapes, so drugs or alcohol or cigarettes, or at least the untaxed and unregulated varieties, tend to run rife. For similar reasons, gambling dens and their hope might come up, though they tend to be a middle to upper class thing. People will go into prostitution in hopes of making extra money, or will kidnap and pimp out others so as to get he money without the risk. Taxes tend to put a strain on already tight purses, so there tend to be smuggled goods, ranging from staples to luxuries. This creates a world of smugglers, people with a hidden still in their basement, people running honest shops with something less honest available in the back for those who know how to ask. Loan sharks take advantage of the desperate. Thugs and bodyguards crop up all over, to protect a smuggler or pimp, to squeeze blood from a stone from the desperate victims of the loan sharks. Kids and adults both realise working in groups gets more than working alone, and form gangs, which soon, as a sheer matter of self defense, realise that letting members go who know anything is very bad for business, and develop both perks and threats to keep members in. Thieves and opportunists hang around to snag whatever can be snagged.

In the underworld we're shown here, we only see the thieves and opportunists, of which our heroine is one, and one gang, which she belonged to but fled with zero consequences. Otherwise, all the crime in the market?

Is rapists and serial murderers of women. Women kidnapped off the street and raped then killed, some of them it seems so fast our heroine can't even follow from across the street and down a couple of alleys before it's done.

ALL OF IT. Oh, except one man we see beat his girlfriend, the girlfriend of whom seems honest (Although she eventually kills him in self defense).

True, there are, I think, 2-3 men whose actual crimes we don't know who are hunted by the law (Which in this city state means being marked for death). And Bloodmark, our heroine's rival, who does kill men as well as women, mostly in the name of the law. When he does so with any excuse OTHER THAN "It's a legal target", it's revenge on Varis - so that even as the violence kills a man, it's all to hurt a woman. (I suppose fridging a man for a woman's sake is at least a bit of variety -- although I find it interesting that it's implied Varis has actually traded about 10 words with the man in question, in spite of how important she considers him. I'm hoping I misunderstood their encounter).

But this is not a real underworld. It's a bloody mess where women are targets. Except Varis.

And Varis remains the only exception. Every other woman mentioned as existing in the market is a target, either of her, or of another thief, or of a rapist-murderer.

Once we cross the river into the merchant levels of the city, we get cutthroat merchanting, bodyguards, paid assassins, and some more thieves and would-be-rapists of opportunity. There's no underworld here, but there's a whole lot more of what we should have seen as an underworld. and while there's a paucity of female characters even compared to the first section (Mostly waitresses or prostitutes working in bars), at least they're not automatically and all targets.

Varis gets hired as a bodyguard here, then slowly converted into paid assassin. There's an excellent undercurrent to this section, where she looks like she's going to be accepted into a family, and you can tell she wants that, but it never happens; if anything, she slides further and further back over time from a possible family member to a mere bodyguard then to a mere tool to use.

Then - and this isn't a spoiler as the first chapter explains it - she's been hired to kill the Mistress of the city, whom the white fire has driven mad.

So the entire book and Varis's life history are all leading to and pointing to her meeting with the Mistress, the ruler of the city, who seems to be mad.

This book finally passes the Bechdel test on page 349 of 375. (There might have been enough dialogue in flashback between Varis and her mother to count. ONCE. before that.) And - well, the Mistress IS mad. She's coherent enough to give Varis a little warning before the spoilery ending stuff, but I don't know. It felt a bit underwhelming as a scene with the fate of their city-state in question. Oh, and the flashbacks that Varis get of centuries of history include yet another woman raped and murdered.

Ultimately, I think it comes done to, only Varis is allowed to be strong AND female.

A pity. She was a good character. Some of the men around her were interesting characters who needed more done with them - Erick, and William both felt like they could use more time. (Borund was well drawn but used about the right amount)

Someone tell me Palmatier/Tate got better? Enough better I won't feel like I want to leave his worlds as fast as possible before someone murders me?

[Ariadne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Die Assassine von Joshua Palmatier war definitiv kein Fehlgriff für mich!

Inhalt:
Die junge Varis muss sich seit dem gewaltsamen Tod ihrer Mutter im Elendsviertel der Stadt Amenkor alleine durchschlagen. Mithilfe ihrer Gabe, die ihr anzeigt wer für sie gefährlich ist und wer nicht, versucht sie zu überleben. Eines Tages trifft sie auf Erick, einen Gardisten der Regentin von Amenkor, der ihr anbietet, ihm bei der Suche und Beseitigung von gefährlichen Verbrechern zu helfen. Doch in der Stadt und mit den Menschen von Amenkor geht etwas Schlimmes vor. Etwas, das vor 6 Jahren begann, als ein weißes Feuer die Stadt und ihre Bewohner veränderte. Auch die Regentin, die Beschützerin von Amenkor, die auf dem Geisterthron regiert, ist seit dem verheerenden Feuer langsam dem Wahnsinn verfallen und wird die Stadt mit sich zerstören, wenn sie nicht jemand rechtzeitig aufhält.

Meine Meinung:
Die Handlung fesselte mich schon zu Beginn und ließ mich bis zum Schluss nicht los. Ich hatte das Buch praktisch in einem halben Tag durch. Glanzpunkt war ganz klar Varis. Ihr Überleben und all die Schrecken, die sie seit ihrer Kindheit durchgemacht hat, waren so realistisch und anschaulich geschildert, dass man einfach mit ihr mitfühlen musste. Dabei wird klar wie sich Varis unter diesen Umständen entwickelt hat und sich immer auf Distanz zu ihren Mitmenschen hält. Vertrauen schenkt sie nur wenigen und deshalb hat mir ihre Geschichte mit Erick, der eine Art Vaterfigur für sie war, besonders gefallen. Die Schilderung dieser besonderen Gabe, den "Fluss", in dem Varis abtaucht um ihre Umwelt anders wahrzunehmen fand ich anfangs ein bisschen verwirrend, aber daran gewöhnte ich mich im Laufe des Buches. Das Ende und die Story mit der Regentin war ein wenig vorhersehbar, trotzdem gut ausgeführt. Die Spannung hielt bis zuletzt. Einige Fragen blieben noch offen und unbeantwortet (was genau ist der Geisterthron und was war dieses weiße Feuer?), aber das wird hoffentlich in den nächsten beiden Büchern behandelt. Ich jedenfalls freue mich schon darauf.
Für den Auftakt einer Trilogie fand ich es erstklassig und vergebe 4 Sterne!

Update 09.01.16
Beim 2.Mal Lesen ist es wenn möglich noch besser geworden!!! Die Atmosphäre des Buches hat mich wieder vollständig gepackt und zu wissen, was in den nächsten Büchern kommt, macht es nur noch besser. 5 Sterne für eine meiner Lieblingsserien.

[M— · Rating 2 out of 5]

An engaging if somewhat pedestrian read. Reminded me a little of the Lies of Lock Lamora but less clever, much more straightforward. The plotline was predictable — what, like the main character was ever not going to be the new Mistress — but I really liked being in the main character's head. Varis was gloriously pragmatic and sensible.

The madness of the Eryn-Mistress was poorly explored for my taste. I would have found the climax more believable if she had first manipulated Varis into siting on the skewed throne and then committed suicide, sticking Varis with the ruling responsibility; but I can understand Palmatier reinforcing his choice theme and having Eryn-Mistress make Varis deliberately choose.

Recommendation: Treat this book as a drinking game and take a shot every time there's a rape, a threat of rape, or a memory of rape. Rape (threat, memory) did not happen to one named female character. Of the unnamed characters who were not technically raped, the first was left wailing over the raped and murdered body of her young daughter, the second was implied and then murdered, the third was murdered and her body not inspected for other incidentals. It's a mark in the books favor that I carried along reading it despite the rapey mcrapeness.

[Liviu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Under-average fantasy in both style and story. In a year in which I read so many interesting books, this was one of the worst.

[Kathleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Doubt I'll bother with the rest of the series though... too many others that interest me more.

[Rina.P · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meinung

Dieses Buch stellt mich vor eine schwierige Aufgabe….es zu bewerten….Der erste Teil war langweilig und ich war kurz davor es bei seite zu legen….aber da es so viel gute Kritiken bekommen hat, habe ich es weiter gelesen. Aber eher hängend als fliegend. Der zweite Teil in Amenkor wurde etwas besser….aber es fiel immer wieder ab. Jedesmal wenn ich dachte…jetzt! War es vorbei….mir fehlt auch etwas die Erklärung. Varis hat eine Gabe…sie kann die Menschen in Grau und Rot unterteilen….Grau – harmlos – Rot – gefährlich….ausserdem kann sie in den Fluss tauchen….(Das ist quasi unbeschreibbar) Ich habe es so verstanden, dass sie alles ausblendet und einen Fluss zu sich zieht, der ihr den richtigen Weg zeigt und sie auch schützt. Ebenso hat sie ein Feuer in sich, das den gleichen Effekt hat….ebenfalls unterscheidet sie die Menschen an ihren Gerüchen…so filtert sie die Leute in ihrer Umgebung….Die wenigsten haben Namen….die beschreibt die Menschen….z.B. der mehlweise Mann – Bäcker…und so weiter…..Aber es gab keine Erklärung zu ihrer Gabe….Das hat mich etwas genervt….Vielleicht kommt in den anderen Bänden das noch zu Sprache….aber ich denke nicht, dass ich sie lesen werde. Dafür habe ich mich doch zu sehr durch den ersten Band gequält. Ich habe es für die Wortmagie Challenge ausgewählt…..aber leider passt keine Aufgabe….aber bei Märchenhaft durch 2016 habe ich einen Punkt gefunden

Fazit

Das Buch hatte einige spannende Elemente, aber meist habe ich mich etwas schwer getan dabei zu bleiben…oft sind meine Gedanken auch beim Lesen abgeschweift…also nicht so wirklich fesselnd….es bleit wohl bei Band 1 – die anderen 2 werde ich eher nicht lesen

[Al Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine first read in the Throne of Amenkor series, the tale follows Varis, a street urchin who embarks on what does not quite look to be a rags-to-riches story. She is tired of either fighting just to survive, or being used as a toy by others, using her gift that enables her to see, to simplify, whether people are good or bad. The book rattles along at a good pace, and I look forward to reading Book Two.​

[Snipes · Rating 2 out of 5]

From my notes on my opinion of this book from 2017, this book was laid out in a confusing manner, the side characters were flat, things weren’t fleshed out well, and there’s a somewhat detailed rape scene near the end of the book. Did not vibe with it.

The rape scenes and the shallowness of the character’s really did it for me, I didn’t enjoy the book as much as I wanted to.
Won’t be reading the rest of the series.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free review copy of this book.
It has a nice gritty feel, although it quickly turned more violent than I expected. There's a lot of throats being slit in this book. If characters sneaking around in dark alleys and clawing their way out of the gutter appeals to you, this might just be your next favorite read!

[Marsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

12 pages in, at the end of the first chapter, I found myself already invested in our protagonist. This one grabs you in a hurry and never let's go. Read the whole book in one day.

[Heidi]

Great book!

[P Akhter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good character driven narrative.(without the usual angst!!).showing, not telling..I would reread!!

[Seton Catholic Central High · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was exciting. There was a good plot and story, and the characters are easy to like. But sometimes the book is hard to follow. The plot starts with a young girl in the slums of a city called Amenkor. She is recruited to join the queen's hit squad, which goes around killing political opponents and enemies of the city. Then she is tasked with killing the queen to save the city, and she must infiltrate the castle. While on her journey, she learns of the magical powers that the throne holds, and she must choose to save the queen or save the city...

[Debbie's Spurts (D.A.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

My ratings should be the only review of books from me showing on goodreads. They are my unincentivized, unconnected consumer product opinions.

The star rating reflects solely my subjective reading experience and resulting opinion of the book according to the rating scale used by goodreads. It's not intended to destroy anyone's livelihood nor to churn out book promotions for them — just my opinion/reaction shared with other readers and a means to track my reading, provide book comparison data and aid in book recommendations feature.

I rate here according to goodreads scale meaning that because goodreads determined most readers choose books they think they will enjoy, the goodreads average/okay rating on a 5-unit scale (2½) is rounded down to 2 stars where other sites like retailer Amazon round up to make 3 stars the average/okay read.



[A briefer way to put that is that yes I rate books one star lower on goodreads than on Amazon without in any way considering that to be bullying anyone or restriction of trade—I just do look to see if a site's scale runs 1-5 or 5-1 then what each unit means in that site because that's how I was taught to use scales.

I'm too durn old to be convinced otherwise, too durn ornery to believe that the only correct way to do anything is how it's done on Amazon.com site, and firmly remain convinced only people—not inanimate things like commercial products aka books—can suffer the psychological trauma of being bullied.]

[Bücherplanet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inhalt:

Varis lebt im Siel, wo sich der Abschaum und die Mittellosen versammeln. Überleben kann sie schon als Kind nur durch ihre Fähigkeit, die guten, harmlosen Menschen in grau und die böswilligen in rot zu sehen.
Dann trifft sie auf Erick, einen Gardisten der Regentin Amenkors, der ihr Potential erkennt und sie benutzt um Mörder aufzuspüren.
Durch ihn gelangt sie auch ins wahre Amenkor, wo sich ihr Leben drastisch ändert.

Meinung:

Das Buch war wirklich klasse. Ein spitzenmäßiger Auftakt und tatsächlich mal völlig frei von Liebesgeschichten.
Die Geschichte ist aus Sicht Varis' geschrieben und zeigt sehr gut ihren Zwiespalt zwischen dem Wunsch die "roten Menschen" zu töten und dem Bemerken, dass diese Menschen eben auch Menschen mit Wünschen, Träumen und einer Vergangenheit sind. Varis ist sehr gut charakterisiert und man merkt, dass sie lange Zeit noch sehr kindlich ist, was es allerdings zeitweise etwas schwer macht, sie sich als Erwachsene vorzustellen, wenn sie älter wird.
Die anderen Charaktäre sind zwar versucht worden, gut zu beschreiben, aber da muss ich doch einen halben Punkt Abzug geben, denn ich finde, sie wirken doch etwas flach. Abgesehen von "Opfern", die sowieso nicht lange leben, gibt es niemanden, den ich besonders sympathisch oder unsympathsich fände.

Fazit:

Sehr guter Auftakt, nur an den Nebenfigüren müsste noch etwas gearbeitet werden. Ich freue mich schon auf den zweiten und dritten Band.

Merlinsdaughter von Mexxbooks

[David Fortier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some stories grip you right from the start and never let go until the book is done and "The Skewed Throne" by Joshua Palmatier is one of those. I found myself reading this novel at every possible moment I could spare, right up until the last word. When the book was completed my only regret was not having more to read.

The story is a great tale about a young girl Varis, surviving on only what food she can steal in an extremely harsh city of Amenkor. Varis has an amazing way of seeing the true nature of people. She comes to work for some powerful individuals who help her move from petty thief on the streets to bodyguard and lethal assassin. Her growth as a character, from the frail youth to the hardened young adult, is a result of both her environment and her own decisions.

I've read very few books were a female is the MC, and so her emotional reactions initially through me off, not because they were poorly written, but because I'm not used to them. For a young woman with a difficult life her reactions now seem quite appropriate.

Overall, the story was fantastic, and I'm about to sink my teeth into the next installments "The Cracked Throne" and then "The Vacant Throne."

[Giacomo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joshua Palmatier has done a very good job with this debut novel. I think it is sometimes difficult for male authors to do female leads, but Joshua pulls it off well with Varis. She is a character you can sink your teeth into, one you feel for, one who is believable. This is not a pretty world he created but a realistic, gritty, nasty place to live--or try to live. Varis faces plenty of hardships and obstacles and they all seem real.

Once or twice I started to feel as if the violence was a little too much/often, but looking back it was reasonable. Another thing Joshua does well is dangle the mystery of all good fantasies. He leaks out information oh so slowly, giving you just enough to whet your appetite, then clams up and moves on. Exactly what I want in a fantasy. It kept me turning pages and wondering about the White Fire, about Varis and about the Skewed Throne.

He wrapped things up nicely at the end, but left a wonderful chunk of 'I need more' for the next book, which I'm about to go get.

Nice job, Joshua.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first book I ever read by this author. From what I can tell, it's also his first book. I was sucked in from the moment I started reading. Varis is an interesting character and one that I found I wanted to know more about. By the time I learned more about her, the story was so engrossing I didn't want to put the book down.

It did have a few slow points, but they were very small and it was easy to get past them. The book ended with enough of a hook that it made me want to get my hands on the second book in the series. But it did not end with such a huge gaping hole that I was left discouraged by the fact that the story wasn't concluded. There was a definite conclusion to the events in the main storyline.

[Words · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good debut fantasy novel. The main character strongly reminded me of Vin, from Branden Sanderson's Mistborn series - very stark point of view, very straightforward, does what she thinks needs to be done. I thought the character and plot development were fairly well done, and the story advanced at a good pace. My only complaint is that the initial jump in timelines was confusing. The story actually starts in the past, then jumps forward to the present time, and then continues where it left off in the past. But it wasn't clear to me that this was what was happening until the next series of jumps. Other than this, I thought it was a good story, and I'm already reading the second one, The Cracked Throne.

[Metaphorosis · Rating 3 out of 5]

reviews.metaphorosis.com

3 stars

The Skewed Throne is perfectly readable as a stand-alone novel, but also smoothly sets the scene for same world sequels. It's a good, though not astounding debut from a writer who shows promise for growth. Palmatier breaks no new ground in fantasy, but does a nice job of creating credible, engaging characters in an interesting setting. He stumbles from time to time, and fails to ever lift the story into must-read territory, but he creates a pleasant narrative. The story and writing are enjoyable, and Palmatier's potential enough to consider buying (or checking out) the next novel in the sequence (which appears to be The Cracked Throne).

[Andi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surprisingly delightful, honestly.

I'd picked this book up because the author did a talk and a reading at a local group thing. He was nice, so I bought his book.

Finally started reading it. Fast, quick read. Interesting main character and world. I knew what her "fate" was because the reading Josh did was from one of the sequels, so I was very interested in how he'd go from how she started to where I knew she was going to finish. I honestly didn't see how it was going to happen for a good part of the book--well, almost to the end, actually.

Good, solid, enjoyable read. I've got the next book on order and the 3rd on preorder when it comes out in paperback.

[Mordie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book tells about a story of Varis. She is 'gutterscum', one of the many homeless and poor who live in the streets. She needs to fight and steal for her food. This book tells her story and how she survives.

It is a rough reading, but it is also a rough world. It is easy to see fantasy town to be like this. The world itself is ugly and beautiful at the same time. People have to work for their living and only rich and powerful will survive.

Varis learns to be powerful. She learns how to fight when a Erick founds her and tells her to find him a 'mark'. Somebody who has to die for what he has done. From there on Varis will learn and change.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here: http://fantasybookreviewer.blogspot.c...
I was pretty surprised about the high quality of the writing and the story. Its a gritty tale, and there are no wizards, dwarves, elves, etc. Its just a tale about a young girl doing what she can to survive in a hard world. Her circumstances do improve, but the story maintains its focus on the character building, and how Varis (the viewpoint character) comes to discover who she is, and to accept herself despite the harsh actions she has to take to survive.

[Pete Aldin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was a pleasant surprise. Palmatier has done a terrific job of keeping the novel fixed inside one character's point of view while keeping us hooked.

The lead character is a fascinating hero (heroine) and an unlikely one. The magic system is original and interesting. The setting is gritty and lively.

If you're not into trilogies, you'll be pleased to know you can read this book as a stand alone novel without committing to two more (ie., to get the end of the story). That said, I've read and enjoyed the whole trilogy (and I'm not a fan of trilogies).

Worth a look!

[Dana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book prior to interviewing the author, who was a math professor at a local college. He's a really fascinating guy, and although I'm not a huge fantasy fan, I really enjoyed this debut novel. Did I mention the author's has a doctorate in math? How bizarre to find someone who works well with both sides of his brain!

Also, this is the first book in a trilogy ... read it!