Cold Redemption

Gallow #2

by Nathan Hawke

Nathan Hawke is the pseudonym of fantasy author Stephen Deas.

I fought against your people, and I have fought for them. I have killed, and I have murdered. I betrayed my kin and crippled my king. I led countless warriors to their deaths and fought to save one worthless life. I have stood against monsters and men and I cannot always tell the difference.

Fate carried me away from your lands, from the woman and the family I love. Three hellish years but now, finally, I may return. I hope I will find them waiting for me. I hope they will remember me while all others forget. Let my own people believe me dead, lest they hunt me down. Let me return in the dark and in the shadows so no one will know.

But hope is rare and fate is cruel. And if I have to, I will fight.

Genres: Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Military Fiction, Magic

336 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2013

About the author

Nathan Hawke is the pseudonym of fantasy author Stephen Deas.

Reviews

[ELC · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 star
Very exciting upto the mid part of the book.. Afterward I felt it started to go round & around, with a lot of coincidence in between.. The part when Beyard realise what he is, was my favourit part.. I've guessed it earlier in the book, but still, how sad.. my heart goes out to him..


'Why did you call me shadewalker.'
The Aulian didn't answer.
'What did you throw in my face, Oribas of Aulia?'
'Salt.' The word was a whisper, so quiet that Beyard barely heard.
'Salt. Again?'
'Yes.'
' Just salt?'
'Yes.'

Beyard let that linger a while. 'Why, Aulian? Why would you throw salt in a man's face? Why did your salt burn so?'

The Aulian didn't answer but by then he didn't need to.

The iron skin, the ever-present sense of cold, the ambivalence to food and even water, the sleepless nights and salt that burned. He'd been what he was for seventeen years and had never understood, and yet this Aulian had seen through it in days. If he'd still been able to cry, Beyard might have shed a tear for himself.

'No need, Aulian. No need.' His voice was like the grinding of stones. 'I am like them, am I?'
'Yes.'
'I am no longer alive.'
'No.'

The Eyes of Time had done this to him. He'd stolen into the Temple of Fates, for which the price was always death, and thought he'd escaped his punishment, but he hadn't escaped at all....


Overall, it's not perfect, but not bad either since I still want to check out the 3rd book..

[Patremagne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good heroic fantasy. Hawke/Deas continues to explore some of the same themes Gemmell did so well: friendship and sacrifice most prominent here.

Fast pacing, great action, great characters, with a rather straightforward plot as is common in heroic fantasy, and especially in Gemmell's work, which Hawke/Deas wrote Gallow in part as a tribute.

[Andrew Garrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still entertaining but not as good as the first.

[Jim Galford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second novel in this series continues to strong presentation of the fantasy character, Gallow. I am impressed by the author's characterization and storyline.

[Dustman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed both books but this was more action filled. Great reads.

[Scott Gardner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as book 1 , ok read

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

better flow in this one so a 4 rating. A good fast paced action fantasy novel.

[Steven Poore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Folks, if you want merciless, blood-soaked, iron-hearted, gut-wrenching, fate-shrouded, tendon-ripping, salt-laced, hell-grim fantasy that knows exactly how it feels to take on the world with nothing but the axe and spear stolen from the corpse at your feet, you need this trilogy in your life. Nathan Hawke (aka Stephen Deas) gives post-Gemmell grim heroics a bloody going-over, and the result is absolutely spot-on thus far.

Start with The Crimson Shield, and prepare to stay up late. You won't regret it.

[Robin Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review:
I held off reading book two of this series, just for a few extra weeks, sometime anticipation can make a book even more fun, but also i wanted a bit more of a gap from book one, to ensure i wasn't being swept along by my own enthusiasm.
I'm very very happy to say i wasn't. Where book one is like a piece of historical fiction given a slight fantasy bent, Vikings with a difference. Book 2 takes the reader deeper into the fantasy world, the different people, different lands. Some of the mystical / magical elements are dangled, but deliberately vague.
Most of all its a character driven story, Implacable, honourable, deadly Gallow. His friend from across the mountains, his past in the shape of the fateguard, and his friend Tovis Ludmouth, the Marroc, the loshir.
Every person, every race, all written with a very clear skill so reminiscent of Gemmell it makes me nostalgic for the Drenai with every chapter.
Many have been compared to David Gemmell in style, but this for me is truly the first to get the characters right, to get the flow right and to make me want to start the book again as soon as i finished it.
I dearly hope that this series not only gets nominated for a Legend award but wins, for the cover art which is exceptional, but more for the story that is a combined series in my top 5 stories this year, and if it keeps up this standard could make my all time top 10.
I look forward to book 3 Gallow: The Last Bastion, due out on the 12th Sept.

Very Highly Recommended
(Parm)

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

c2013: FWFTB: good, redemption, blood, sword, hero. The author certainly places a lot of trust in his readers. There is very little blurb on the cover but some absolutely marvellous cover art. Although it has not been that long since I read the first book, there was a whole lot of background stuff that I do not remember at all. I kept checking back on various websites but this was always stated as being the second book. This installment is really good: it's exciting, great characters, some wonderful action sequences with some unexpected pathos. Not too preachy although the theme is quite obvious. Really liked it and recommend to the normal crew. "I'm hoping that it means you're not going to throw me into a ravine now,' said Oribas, and then he smiled too, because the flowering of understanding in another man was always a joy to see, whoever they were.'

[Shane Kiely · Rating 4 out of 5]

Further adventures of Gallow, (essentially) viking action, people in revolt only this time it's in the snowy mountains (I seem to be reading a lot of stuff set in the mountains lately, thankfully this doesn't feature an exhaustively descriptive climbing scene). The big change from the first book is that the fantasy component comes to the fore here. There's a bit of magic & a few more mythical creatures thrown in for good measure. Doesn't feel as self contained as the first book, you need to have read the crimson shield to get what's going on (though there is a bit of recapping of the previous events) and there are obvious plot threads left open at the end though I don't know if I'd call the ending a cliff-hanger per se. If you liked the first one, you'll enjoy this.

[Deb Omnivorous Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is at once a four star and a one star. All through #1 I puzzled as to why I was not enjoying it more, here while following the further adventures and tribulations of Garrow, I have pinpointed the reason:

I love the chapters with Garrow in them, they are the four star parts. However, I do not enjoy reading the plot builder parts, the ones with the forkbeard politics, those are the one star parts and they lose my interest quite significantly whenever I encounter them.

It is such a very unsettling, polarised reading experience, I have never really experienced anything like it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much more engaging than book #1.
Three years passed since the end of Crimson Shield, which was difficult to adjust to at first. But I got over it quickly, as the author brought the story around to familiarity quite well.
The author kept my attention and made me eager to find out what happened next.
More of a nod to fantasy in this one, but still not more than a nod. But it's ok, because the action is plentiful and the story is captivating.
Eager to dive into book #3.

[Soesje · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It is a good second book that builts up the unsolved problems from the first book. Just like the first book it has a good balance of perspective changes. Not too many that you get lost, and not a lot going back and froth across timelines. Here and there you get the same event from a different perspective and go back about 5 minutes or a day. More fantasy elements where introduced in this book, but it was still kept very viking esk.

[Alex Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars! Nathan Hawke outdid himself with this one! Cold Redemption outshines even the great work of the Crimson Shield. One of my new favorite characters comes into, Beyard, the merciless and mysterious Fateguard. Plus open rebellion, a decent love story, and one of the best sieges ever written.

Do your self a favor and pick up any book with Nathan Hawke's name on it. Especially this book.

[Raymond Just · Rating 3 out of 5]

A true middle book in the trilogy, with no beginning and no end, it takes quite a while to re-invest in our protagonist, Gallow Truesword, and his friends. But the last third of the novel redeems the rest of it, and has one cheering for the Foxbeard and the Marrow well enough. I expect the final installment will garner more stars.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book even more than the first. I really liked how things from the first book tie into things in the second, in ways that I wasn't expecting. I really looking forward to the next book. I think Mr. Hawke does a great job of not having too many points of view, and all of that characters are interesting and believable.

[Benjamin Kahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I found this book to be a decent read, I didn't enjoy it as much as the first in the series. I found the two love stories not that interesting and didn't buy how Beynard kept letting Gallow go. There seemed to be too much of "I've got to get back to my wife and family" and "let's make love before we die" for my tastes. Not enough going on and a little too much treading water.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far better than the first, due to the fast pace.

[Rudi Opperman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the kind of book that you just want to keep reading. Interesting characters.

[Susana789 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slušne napísaný stredný diel, viac kvázi-historické ako fantasy a s viacerými literárnymi chybičkami na strane tvorby postáv aj rozprávania príbehu. Zaujímavé, ale mňa to do seba celkom nevtiahlo.

[Sharkie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just bored me a little bit. I enjoyed the first book, there was constantly action and really good character development, but this one just lost it for me.

Maybe it was because I got sick of the bloodshed (I know, how can you get sick of grisly bloodshed, right?) and the characters just felt flat and there wasn't a ton going on. I just got bored, is all.

I will read the third, definitely,just to see how it ends, but the second was just boring.