The Axe of the Dwarf Lords

Chronicles of the Nameless Dwarf #2

by Derek Prior

One foot into the lands beyond the Farfall Mountains and the nightmare begins.

Nils wishes he’d never taken the job to escort a dwarf with no name on a madcap quest for redemption. Ilesa reckons she should have asked for a bigger bounty, and Silas is beginning to think the grimoire he stole from the Academy has a sinister will of its own.

Nameless, on the other hand, is having the time of his life. After all, what more could a dwarf want than a horde of undead to splatter with his axe, a shape-shifting woman who does dwarf especially well, and a wizard who can produce ale out of thin air?

But his ever fragile mood takes a turn for the worse when he discovers a terrible secret at the bottom of the sea—an unstoppable horror that destroyed an entire race, and a mythical axe that brings back the darkest of memories from his recent past.

Genres: Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery

83 pages

First published January 12, 2012

About the author

Internationally bestselling and award winning author Derek Prior excels in fast-paced, high stakes epic fantasy adventure stories in which good ultimately triumphs, but always at a cost.

Taking familiar fantasy tropes as a point of departure, Prior expands upon them to explore friendship, betrayal, loyalty and heroism in worlds where evil is an ever-present reality, magic is both a curse and a blessing, and characters are tempered in battle.

Winner of best fantasy novel 2012 (The Nameless Dwarf: The Complete Chronicles)

Fantasy Faction semifinalist for the SPFBO 2018 (Ravine of Blood and Shadow)


Website: www.derekprior.us

Twitter: @NamelessDwarf

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dpprior

Reviews

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the author starts off with a bang and never looks back. This is one of a series of stories about a Nameless Dwarf and you cant help but fall in love with him. The characterization of the dwarf and his companions is lush and complex, the wordsmithing beautifully targeted to achieve the proper feel and tone for each sentence, paragraph and scene. The plot is tight, the pacing never lets up and the vocabulary is spot on for each circumstance. There is humor here too - a black kind of humor that makes you laugh and smile and shake your head and sometimes groan, but it is definitely funny.

I can't decide whether my favorite parts were the battle scenes or the scenes other bits in between the battles. Nobady can write a battle scene like Prior - especially with blades and edged weapons. With limbs flying, blood spraying, blades stabbing and noses crunching, you also get your everyday, run-of-the-mill bites, kicks, punches, cuts, scrapes, abrasions and contusions. Ambercrombie comes close, K. J. Parker too. The Nameless Dwarf wreaks havoc on uncounted enemies with his double-bladed axe and a randy tavern song on his lips, be they interfering thugs, arrogant wizards, beautiful assassins, gigantic ant-men and even just gigantic ants. He's always happy to be startin' somethin'. He'll taunt them 'til they attack. No matter how big, no matter how tall everyone is fair meat for taking. His partners in crime help out sometimes, but Nameless is the star attraction.

In between those times when Nameless is killing everything that breaths, you get some lush worldbuilding and character development of Nameless and his ever increasing set of companions who are in the world of Aethir - the world of dreaming. Nameless has done unspeakable things in the past under influence of an evil axe. Now to atone, all he wants is to save his people, the dwarves , from the fate they are running to, the fate that will kill them. He is a changed man. So he follows the dwarves to Qlippoth, the land of nightmares to save them and send them back home once again. Qlippoth, of course, can kill him too, but not caring he charges ahead to atone for his deeds. Prior makes you not only love Nameless, but feel protective over him and deeply sympathetic to his plight - there are many scheming characters here who crossover from Prior's other series - like Aristideus - who is up to his neck in this evil axe business. No telling what his real motivation.

These are excellent stories so Fafhrd and the Mouser type good - you remember those stories by Fritz Lieber, that you have to read at least three of these Nameless Dwarf stories to appreciate how absolutely fantastic they are. I would recommend these stories to people who like adventure and a teumping good read. You don't even have to appreciate fantasy, just appreciate a well written story by a storyteller of the first degree. You can't go wrong here!

[Gerald Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

All hail the Nameless Dwarf and his band. Fun reading.

[D · Rating 5 out of 5]

- Quote: “My point was really a matter of observation. Of patterns. Heroes fall. Heroes rise again. It’s just the way of things.”
- Thoughts: Second part of the Nameless's journey through the dreamlands of Aethir, a short story with lots of variety in it, from zombies to hungry scholarly evil cyclops with good maners.
▶◀
These are my personal opinions, you may discord, my final rating of the book is not necessarily linked to this system and may diverge from it.
Book Storyline
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Development: 5/5 stars
- Enjoyment: 5/5 stars
- Writing stile: 5/5 stars
- Funnyness: 3/5 stars
- Epicness: 3/5 stars
- Scaryness: 2/5 stars
- Smartness: 4/5 stars
- Addictiveness: 3/5 stars
- Plot twists: 3/5 stars
- Pace: 4/5 stars
- Storyline planning: 4/5 stars
- Ending: 4/5 stars
- Holes: 1/5 negative stars
- Self contained (Y/N): ✓
- Cliffhanger (Y/N): ×
- Adult (Y/N): ✓
- Mystery (Y/N): ×
- Treasure Hunting (Y/N): ✓
- Violence level: Fight for survival with blades
- Tech level: Sword and Sorcery
- Religion level: Small mentions
- Main genre: Fantasy
- Subgenre: Sword and Sorcery, Tabletop RPG campaig, Adventurers party quest
- Point of view: Each capter is told from one of the party members perspective
- Best of it: nice variety, feels like playing a cool RPG campaign
- Worst of it: There are some publishing and republishing and reebooting and repackaging omnibuses messes around the whole series
- Aftertaste: Today's dinner.
Cover/Art

- Quality: 4/5 stars
- Traces: 4/5 stars
- Colors: 3/5 stars
- Style: 5/5 stars
- In a few words: A good ominous looking cover
Characters
The 4 members party plus its fifth Deus Ex Machina member shows a little bit of maturing, and although none shall admit it, they begin to show signs of friendship, so they probably can be properly indignant when they are betrayed - that is my guess
Nameless, being the owner of the title and the most interesting character has the most development, showing a great complexity in his character, as usual.
- Consistency: 4/5 stars
- Connection: 4/5 stars
- Dialogs: 4/5 Stars
- Interactions: 4/5 Stars
- Quest party: ✓
- Tsundere: ✓
- Romance: Nah, just sex
- Notable best characters: Nameless, Cyclops, Abednago
- Notable worse characters: Nils
Setting
Lots of variety of scenes, the dreamlands had been mentioned many times before in the series, and even briefly braved, but that time has been an in and out teleport assisted mission. so it's the first time we see an expedition venturing through it
- Setting overall score: 5/5 Stars
- Tension: 4/5 Stars
- Atmosphere: 4/5 Stars
- Zombies: ✓
- hungry scholarly evil cyclops with good maners: ✓
- Lost city of obscure destiny: ✓
Worldbuilding
Rich worldbuilding through the whole series, one of the strongest points of the author.
- Originality: 5/5 stars
- Variety: 5/5 stars
- Consistency: 5/5 stars
- Impact on the story: 5/5 stars
- Maps: 5/5 stars - look for it in the author blogspot tough.
- Vastly varied world: ✓
- Mythical and magic: ✓
- Rich fictional background: ✓
- Historical importance: ✓
Rules
- Impact on storyline: 5/5 stars
- Rulebreaker (Y/N): ×
- Type of Rule: Magic, magical artefacts, Sword and Sorcery classic rules
Series Storyline
- Impact of this book in storyline: 4/5 stars
- Storyline planning: 4/5 stars
- Probability that I'll read the next book sometime: 90%
- Can be read as a standalone (✓/×): ✓ but it's a far better book with lots of background information from the previous books and from Sword of the Archon series.

[Ay Oh Be · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before Reading: PLEASE PLEASE DON'T LET NAMELESS BE DECEIVED AGAIN

During Reading: I HATE zombies. Why are there always zombies?
The telegraphing is very clear for Silas. Blighty is definitely coming back and Silas will pay with his life. I hope I am wrong but things are definitely pointing in that direction.

After Reading: Honestly. My only thought is ... Please PLEASE don't let this axe do Nameless dirty like the last one did ... Twice. Prior will need to write a different story at least once.

[Montzalee Wittmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rtc

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome!

[Arwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since I read all of these back-to-back I’m going to just do one review for all of the books. This series felt like the author put all every conceivable science fiction, fantasy and horror troupe into a bag and just started pulling stuff out. Lets see an um Dwarf, next an Ant-Man, zombies, a cyclops, oh and here’s a Biblical reference to Jonah. Then lets also have a changeling, a novice wizard and a helpless but good-hearted boy. Out of a blender and onto the pages of your Kindle. Entertaining, but not amazing.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story began with two of the characters hiding in the poop of a pig pen to avoid zombies. The descriptions were very graphic.

[janet campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book lengths are very short

I feel as I'm reading books in Jr highchair they are so short...but I do like the story line line