What do you think?
Rate this book
Kingdom of the Serpent #2
The Burning Man
After a long journey across the ages, Jack Churchill has returned to the modern world, only to find it in the grip of a terrible, dark force. The population is unaware, mesmerised by the Mundane Spell that keeps them in thrall. With a small group of trusted allies, Jack sets out to find the two 'keys' that can shatter the spell.
As the search fans out across the globe, ancient powers begin to stir. In the bleak North, in Egypt, in Greece, in all the Great Dominions, the old gods are returning to stake their claim. The odds appear insurmountable, the need desperate...
This is a time for heroes.
As the search fans out across the globe, ancient powers begin to stir. In the bleak North, in Egypt, in Greece, in all the Great Dominions, the old gods are returning to stake their claim. The odds appear insurmountable, the need desperate...
This is a time for heroes.
352 pages, Paperback
First published June 11, 2009
12 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Mark Chadbourn
66 books220 followersA two-time winner of the prestigious British Fantasy Award, Mark has published his epic, imaginative novels in many countries around the world. He grew up in the mining community of the English Midlands, and was the first person in his family to go to university. After studying Economic History at Leeds, he became a successful journalist, writing for several of the UK's renowned national newspapers as well as contributing to magazines and TV.
When his first short story won Fear magazine's Best New Author award, he was snapped up by an agent and subsequently published his first novel, Underground, a supernatural thriller set in the coalfields of his youth. Quitting journalism to become a full-time author, he has written stories which have transcended genre boundaries, but is perhaps best known in the fantasy field.
Mark has also forged a parallel career as a screenwriter with many hours of produced work for British television. He is a writer for BBC Drama, and is also developing new shows for the UK and US.
An expert on British folklore and mythology, he has held several varied and colourful jobs, including independent record company boss, band manager, production line worker, engineer's 'mate', and media consultant.
Having travelled extensively around the world, he has now settled in a rambling house in the middle of a forest not far from where he was born.
When his first short story won Fear magazine's Best New Author award, he was snapped up by an agent and subsequently published his first novel, Underground, a supernatural thriller set in the coalfields of his youth. Quitting journalism to become a full-time author, he has written stories which have transcended genre boundaries, but is perhaps best known in the fantasy field.
Mark has also forged a parallel career as a screenwriter with many hours of produced work for British television. He is a writer for BBC Drama, and is also developing new shows for the UK and US.
An expert on British folklore and mythology, he has held several varied and colourful jobs, including independent record company boss, band manager, production line worker, engineer's 'mate', and media consultant.
Having travelled extensively around the world, he has now settled in a rambling house in the middle of a forest not far from where he was born.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 12, 2009
A good book - to be honest i read this one before the 1st one (Jack of Ravens) and so missed out on the backstory. However i found it didnt matter too much as it was a great book in its own right.
By going through time periods etc you could forgive it gettinga bit self indulgent, but it doesnt. Straight forward fantasy writing which races along like a very fast thing on a very fast road.
Currently reading Jack of Ravens, and its equally good. MC builds the characters well and doesnt take the easy route of making them one-dimensional. Each character has different levels to them in each given situation - the bad guy is not completely the bad guy, the good guy is not completely the good guy. They are just them... the rest relys on perspective and opinion, and i think it takes a brave writer to allow his reader to make that choice themselves.
By going through time periods etc you could forgive it gettinga bit self indulgent, but it doesnt. Straight forward fantasy writing which races along like a very fast thing on a very fast road.
Currently reading Jack of Ravens, and its equally good. MC builds the characters well and doesnt take the easy route of making them one-dimensional. Each character has different levels to them in each given situation - the bad guy is not completely the bad guy, the good guy is not completely the good guy. They are just them... the rest relys on perspective and opinion, and i think it takes a brave writer to allow his reader to make that choice themselves.
December 21, 2022
The Burning Man brings the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons closer to the end of the world. And after eight books (three in Age of Misrule, three in The Dark Age and this is the second in The Kingdom of the Serpent.) it has been a long and challenging fight. The lives of the characters have been torn apart and rebuilt, as has the world around them. Magic has been released and it’s now being extinguished. The Brothers and Sisters have one final chance to stop the magic and hope in the world being extinguished forever.
As hinted at in Jack of Ravens the Tuatha Dé Danann are not the only Gods to be awakened in the world. As events have spiralled the quest of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons brings them in contact with other Great Dominions some aren’t as friendly to the cause as others.
Mark Chadbourn is one of the best writers I have ever read regardless of genre. He manages to mix characterisation and storytelling so that one feeds off the other and neither is sacrificed. Not an easy thing to manage as stories need an emotional core without being emotional and soppy and characters need a journey and purpose no matter how much you like then.
In The Burning Man the pace never slows. That’s partly down to Chadbourn’s non-indulgent style. He gives just enough information and moves on. So this whole section is told in 329 pages and at no point do I feel short changed. He’s crammed in a lot.
It’s partly style but mostly he’s built up so much momentum that the story carries you forward. It’s rarely that I pick up a book just to see what happens next whilst waiting for a computer to boot or software to install (I got a new computer and usually I’d be staring at the machine keeping an eye on progress) or in ad break or choosing to read over everything else.
There were several sad and surprising moments, events happened where I wanted our heroes to hold on to their happiness a few moments longer and twists came seemingly without warning (though the signs I think were there if I’d have been paying a bit more attention).
Chadbourn has managed to make each of the characters rounded; they have their flaws, their own strengths and their own agendas. They act and react in their own and sometimes surprising (but not out of character) way.
I’d love to say more but if you’ve read this far it’ll only spoil it and if you haven’t it’s not going to make much sense if I said more about the plot apart from he ends The Burning Man in such a way that I have no idea if or how are heroes are going to save the world and what world they’ll end up saving.
I can’t wait until Book Three of The Kingdom of the Serpent.
As hinted at in Jack of Ravens the Tuatha Dé Danann are not the only Gods to be awakened in the world. As events have spiralled the quest of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons brings them in contact with other Great Dominions some aren’t as friendly to the cause as others.
Mark Chadbourn is one of the best writers I have ever read regardless of genre. He manages to mix characterisation and storytelling so that one feeds off the other and neither is sacrificed. Not an easy thing to manage as stories need an emotional core without being emotional and soppy and characters need a journey and purpose no matter how much you like then.
In The Burning Man the pace never slows. That’s partly down to Chadbourn’s non-indulgent style. He gives just enough information and moves on. So this whole section is told in 329 pages and at no point do I feel short changed. He’s crammed in a lot.
It’s partly style but mostly he’s built up so much momentum that the story carries you forward. It’s rarely that I pick up a book just to see what happens next whilst waiting for a computer to boot or software to install (I got a new computer and usually I’d be staring at the machine keeping an eye on progress) or in ad break or choosing to read over everything else.
There were several sad and surprising moments, events happened where I wanted our heroes to hold on to their happiness a few moments longer and twists came seemingly without warning (though the signs I think were there if I’d have been paying a bit more attention).
Chadbourn has managed to make each of the characters rounded; they have their flaws, their own strengths and their own agendas. They act and react in their own and sometimes surprising (but not out of character) way.
I’d love to say more but if you’ve read this far it’ll only spoil it and if you haven’t it’s not going to make much sense if I said more about the plot apart from he ends The Burning Man in such a way that I have no idea if or how are heroes are going to save the world and what world they’ll end up saving.
I can’t wait until Book Three of The Kingdom of the Serpent.
June 20, 2018
Another solid entry in the mythic spiritual tale of the fight for the fate of reality and the human spirit in which Chadbourn weaves multiple culture's mythologies and finds common spiritual beliefs to weave into a universal blend of the secrets behind reality. Jack Churchill has finally ended his journey through history, covering over 2000 years of resisting the Army of Ten Billion Spiders and their forces of despair and hopelessness, and returned to the modern day.
Unfortunately, Jack needs to find his fellow Brothers and Sisters of Dragons to free them from the Mundane Spell which holds them in a re-shaped world of dreary hopelessness where the spiders have nearly won, and wake them up to the true wonders of the world, hidden behind the veil. Along the way, he continues to evade and resist the champions of the forces of unlife, their own twisted Brothers and Sisters of Spiders, and the mysterious Liberator who seems take perverse joy casually killing any who threaten the eternal entropy of the end of the world.
Once Jack rescues his allies, they set off on a mad dash quest across this world and the Far Lands behind reality where gods and magical creatures live, to find the last chance to re-set the balance and remake the world again, to allow the human spirit to grow and find its true potential. Plots from all previous books of the connected trilogies in the larger story begin to take shape as a final showdown approaches. Along the way, Jack has to re-learn assumptions of how magic and gods behave, as the rules of Britain don't apply where the Norse, Greek, Egyptian or other pantheons hold sway.
Unfortunately, Jack needs to find his fellow Brothers and Sisters of Dragons to free them from the Mundane Spell which holds them in a re-shaped world of dreary hopelessness where the spiders have nearly won, and wake them up to the true wonders of the world, hidden behind the veil. Along the way, he continues to evade and resist the champions of the forces of unlife, their own twisted Brothers and Sisters of Spiders, and the mysterious Liberator who seems take perverse joy casually killing any who threaten the eternal entropy of the end of the world.
Once Jack rescues his allies, they set off on a mad dash quest across this world and the Far Lands behind reality where gods and magical creatures live, to find the last chance to re-set the balance and remake the world again, to allow the human spirit to grow and find its true potential. Plots from all previous books of the connected trilogies in the larger story begin to take shape as a final showdown approaches. Along the way, Jack has to re-learn assumptions of how magic and gods behave, as the rules of Britain don't apply where the Norse, Greek, Egyptian or other pantheons hold sway.
February 18, 2021
I am re-reading the books back to back and have really enjoyed not having enforced gaps whilst I had been waiting for the books to be published during the early 2000s. Although I loved the books first time around, it has been a much richer experience this time as everything is stull fresh in my memory. There's only one book left, so I need to start thinking about what to read next!
December 8, 2017
Full review here:
http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...
Good read. Was interesting seeing presentations of Pantheons outside of the Celtic.
http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...
Good read. Was interesting seeing presentations of Pantheons outside of the Celtic.
April 26, 2018
Hmmmm 2nd book in and I'm still not sure if I'm enjoying these....
They are extremely dense and complex stories.....
They are extremely dense and complex stories.....
September 2, 2016
Book 2 picks up where book 1 ends. Luckily for those that haven’t read the first book (or have a short attention span) if you read the first part “The Final Age” you will be caught up on what came before and the entire necessary back story. Doesn’t take long and is very compact, so don’t let the idea of needing to read this part first scare you. Then you get into the meat of the tale. You get to visit different cultures (and there gods – no minor thing there!) and find out what happens if the old gods wake up. I don’t know about you, but some of the things those old gods were supposed to have done would scare me silly. As the title suggests, there are correlations found in the Burning Man arts festival and the old Celtic burning man. You meet Coyote, Raven, get judged by the Egyptian gods, trapped by the Norse gods, meet Sky father and of course Puck, the Libertarian , Lugh and Rhiannon make return appearances. Let’s not forget the Final Train, or what spurned or betrayed love will drive people to do.
© Night Owl Reviews
© Night Owl Reviews
January 6, 2009
Reunited with his own Five, Church is all set to truly begin the war with the Void, the nearly omnipresent evil who controls the Army of Ten Billion Spiders. With the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons once more with their memories - albiet missing Veitch, the Brother-turned-traitor - now the last Five there will ever be have to wake the Dominions, the god-kingdoms scattered across the planet. For the Tuatha de Danaan might believe they are the highest, but there are others; in Norway, Odin wakes; Osiris and the Sky-Father return to the world of the living at the Five's passing.
Seeking the two unknowable Keys to Existence - that of Destruction, and that of Life - the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are racing to find the treasures before the Army does. But there are enemies who are not all they seem, and friends waiting to betray them. Who can they trust as the war begins to approach it's climax?
Seeking the two unknowable Keys to Existence - that of Destruction, and that of Life - the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are racing to find the treasures before the Army does. But there are enemies who are not all they seem, and friends waiting to betray them. Who can they trust as the war begins to approach it's climax?
April 2, 2015
Strong second book in a cracking (albeit longer than expected) series. I liked the Mundane Spell, trapping humanity in its humdrum misery after the Void's victory at the end of the Dark Age trilogy - it meant that, as a reader of the Empire Strikes Back trilogy, I got to see an actual impact on the world of the good guys' loss. The characterisation of the different gods of the world's Dominions was great, too, particularly the unknowable and remote Norse gods. Plus, great to see Church and Ruth back together again, hooray!
October 30, 2016
I was glad of the recap that came at the beginning of the book because I would have been lost without it. However, although the plot was eventful, it felt overstuffed with ideas, none of which were given room to breathe before being dropped in favour of something new. The parallel narratives were confusing, as they were filled with many similar characters, who felt very much of a type. The book as a whole seemed overpopulated with under-developed characters whose abrupt personality shifts occurred to move the narrative along rather than springing from emotional experience.
October 18, 2012
The book was so good. I didn't know at the time that this book is a trilogy. In the opening of the book it's starts out by telling you about Jack Churchill, well Jack is the one telling you about what happen with who & how he came to be Brother of Dragons. Then he will give you a update about how all this came to be and what happen in the first book.
I could not put this down.. And if I did, it was very hard to do.
I could not put this down.. And if I did, it was very hard to do.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews