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The War of the Black Tower Trilogy #1
War of the Black Tower
When a dark power rises, only a cursed prince can stand against it.
Baleron is the youngest son of the king of Havensrike, a land eternally at war with the sinister empire of Oslog to the south, ruled by the Dark Lord himself. Baleron, a womanizer and rogue, the black sheep of the royal family one step from being kicked out of the castle, longs to redeem himself in his father's eyes. But when his beautiful sister Rolenya is seized by the dark powers, the thralls of the Dark Lord call out to Baleron in worship, calling him the Chosen One of their Master. What can they mean?
As if that weren't bad enough, the gears of war begin to turn, and the legions of Oslog pour forth from their lairs to make war upon the free peoples of the North. If Baleron can't save his sister and unlock the secret of his nature, the Dark Lord will sweep the world in shadow.
War of the Black Tower: Part One: Cursed by the Dark Lord is the first volume in the action-packed epic fantasy trilogy by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Jack Conner. With the darkness and grit of George R. R. Martin and the sweeping adventure of J. R. R. Tolkien, War of the Black Tower features grand set pieces, epic battles, operatic action and the best dragon since Smaug. If you like thrilling action adventure with amazing twists and turns you won't see coming, don't miss out on this unique epic fantasy series.
Baleron is the youngest son of the king of Havensrike, a land eternally at war with the sinister empire of Oslog to the south, ruled by the Dark Lord himself. Baleron, a womanizer and rogue, the black sheep of the royal family one step from being kicked out of the castle, longs to redeem himself in his father's eyes. But when his beautiful sister Rolenya is seized by the dark powers, the thralls of the Dark Lord call out to Baleron in worship, calling him the Chosen One of their Master. What can they mean?
As if that weren't bad enough, the gears of war begin to turn, and the legions of Oslog pour forth from their lairs to make war upon the free peoples of the North. If Baleron can't save his sister and unlock the secret of his nature, the Dark Lord will sweep the world in shadow.
War of the Black Tower: Part One: Cursed by the Dark Lord is the first volume in the action-packed epic fantasy trilogy by USA Today and New York Times bestselling author Jack Conner. With the darkness and grit of George R. R. Martin and the sweeping adventure of J. R. R. Tolkien, War of the Black Tower features grand set pieces, epic battles, operatic action and the best dragon since Smaug. If you like thrilling action adventure with amazing twists and turns you won't see coming, don't miss out on this unique epic fantasy series.
303 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 28, 2014
716 people are currently reading
1382 people want to read
About the author
Jack Conner
84 books91 followersRaised in Austin, Texas, Jack Conner is the bestselling author of the Black Tower Trilogy. He's an ardent fan of fantasy, horror and weird fiction, and writes them all. He's lived all over the United States and has traveled across the world, but recently he's moved back to his beloved Austin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
May 5, 2019
I have read and reviewed this book for SPFBO 2017.
I will describe War of the Black Tower as classic high fantasy with dark overtones that is highly derivative of many others that I had come across.
The story is told from the third person perspective of Baleron, the out-of-favour son of the King of Havensrike. He is the perceived black sheep of the family, fallen into disrepute for being known as a womanizer (especially of the married kind) and, from what I can gather, possibly a past incident of cowardice.
The narrative started with a lot of action with Baleron and his best friend, Salthrick, being pursued by some Borchstogs, which is revealed to be a race of violent creatures which are minions of the dark lords. Within a couple of chapters, we are treated to lots of killing, torture and gore as an army of Borchstogs stormed the fort of Ichil.
And then we have an incredibly beautiful princess, Baleron's sister, Rolenya, who was to marry the prince of another land to forge an alliance with Havensrike. At her insistence, Baleron came to lead the caravans for her journey to be wedded. It shouldn't come as any surprise to say that all hell broke loose during that fateful trip.
The pacing of the story was actually good. Boring travelling parts were almost completely absent and the narrative went straight into the meat of the events. However, the sheer amount of cliches and tropes that were evident in the story was very hard to ignore. The peril of the world at large was of the largely typical Dark God rising motif. Out of that, we have the Dark lands, which just screamed Mordor, replete with volcanoes and rivers of fire. The Borschstogs reminded me of warrior orcs. Then we have the vampiric sons and followers of the Dark One who have bat wings and fangs, of course. To cap it all off, there were also elves, seemingly straight out of Tolkien's handbook, and as well as a potential relative of Smaug.
To give some credit to the author, he did incorporate a bit of twist in the prophecy around the revival of this dark god. The characterization of Baleron was decent but I was too overwhelmed by the cliches to really get invested in him. The action scenes were also pretty good when I tried not to get too disenchanted by the problems I had with the book.
While I don't have anything against fantasy tropes per se, there are tropes which are done well and those which are well overdone. In any case, there are fantasy readers out there who may enjoy this as these elements or themes of fantasy were the cornerstone of the genre decades ago for a reason. However, with the incredible levels of originality on display in contemporary fantasy of late, War of The Black Tower will necessarily be immensely challenged to gain any foothold among seasoned fantasy readers.
I will describe War of the Black Tower as classic high fantasy with dark overtones that is highly derivative of many others that I had come across.
The story is told from the third person perspective of Baleron, the out-of-favour son of the King of Havensrike. He is the perceived black sheep of the family, fallen into disrepute for being known as a womanizer (especially of the married kind) and, from what I can gather, possibly a past incident of cowardice.
The narrative started with a lot of action with Baleron and his best friend, Salthrick, being pursued by some Borchstogs, which is revealed to be a race of violent creatures which are minions of the dark lords. Within a couple of chapters, we are treated to lots of killing, torture and gore as an army of Borchstogs stormed the fort of Ichil.
And then we have an incredibly beautiful princess, Baleron's sister, Rolenya, who was to marry the prince of another land to forge an alliance with Havensrike. At her insistence, Baleron came to lead the caravans for her journey to be wedded. It shouldn't come as any surprise to say that all hell broke loose during that fateful trip.
The pacing of the story was actually good. Boring travelling parts were almost completely absent and the narrative went straight into the meat of the events. However, the sheer amount of cliches and tropes that were evident in the story was very hard to ignore. The peril of the world at large was of the largely typical Dark God rising motif. Out of that, we have the Dark lands, which just screamed Mordor, replete with volcanoes and rivers of fire. The Borschstogs reminded me of warrior orcs. Then we have the vampiric sons and followers of the Dark One who have bat wings and fangs, of course. To cap it all off, there were also elves, seemingly straight out of Tolkien's handbook, and as well as a potential relative of Smaug.
To give some credit to the author, he did incorporate a bit of twist in the prophecy around the revival of this dark god. The characterization of Baleron was decent but I was too overwhelmed by the cliches to really get invested in him. The action scenes were also pretty good when I tried not to get too disenchanted by the problems I had with the book.
While I don't have anything against fantasy tropes per se, there are tropes which are done well and those which are well overdone. In any case, there are fantasy readers out there who may enjoy this as these elements or themes of fantasy were the cornerstone of the genre decades ago for a reason. However, with the incredible levels of originality on display in contemporary fantasy of late, War of The Black Tower will necessarily be immensely challenged to gain any foothold among seasoned fantasy readers.
May 8, 2014
This was a nicely fast paced read. There was action from beginning to end. I like action, so, naturally, I liked this story. I don’t have tons to say about this book. The plot was nothing incredibly new, which never bothers me. As I’ve said, it’s characters that will get me to love a book. While the characters in War of the Black Tower are not developed to my taste, there was still enough to keep me interested in the series. Matter of fact, I was invested at the end of book one and immediately bought book two. Why? Well, though Baleron wasn’t as intense of a character as I would normally flock to, he had just enough to hook me to the story, which, as I said, moved fast so it made up for Baleron’s slightly above average appeal to me.
I wish I would have been shown more of his “roguishness” from the beginning. He might bed a married lady, but I never got a feel for just how horrible that was for the world I was in. I did enjoy reading about his desire to please his father, and his continual failures to do so. It made you want to cheer for the guy, even if you wanted to slap him at the same time. The other characters did nothing for me. I wasn’t drawn into any other stories, but what happened to Baleron in the temple interested me enough to keep reading the series. I wanted to see how it would play out.
It states clearly in the title that this is a dark fantasy. It has some great, incredibly entertaining gore (I’m a girl who loves my gore), which pleasantly surprised me. There is sex and torture, so if that’s not your thing, I’d steer clear. I will say, there were some amazing descriptions in this book.
Overall, a quick, entertaining read.
I wish I would have been shown more of his “roguishness” from the beginning. He might bed a married lady, but I never got a feel for just how horrible that was for the world I was in. I did enjoy reading about his desire to please his father, and his continual failures to do so. It made you want to cheer for the guy, even if you wanted to slap him at the same time. The other characters did nothing for me. I wasn’t drawn into any other stories, but what happened to Baleron in the temple interested me enough to keep reading the series. I wanted to see how it would play out.
It states clearly in the title that this is a dark fantasy. It has some great, incredibly entertaining gore (I’m a girl who loves my gore), which pleasantly surprised me. There is sex and torture, so if that’s not your thing, I’d steer clear. I will say, there were some amazing descriptions in this book.
Overall, a quick, entertaining read.
April 5, 2020
Sorry to say that I really did not enjoy this book. The plot is ok, but the main characters are, for me, not believable. I couldn't invest any real enthusiasm for any. The enemy, the One, has no depth; I prefer either only enigmatic glimpses or full disclosure early on. I ploughed through to the end, hoping to be dragged into this world, but ended it simply glad it was over. Unfortunately for Mr Conner, I shall not persevere any further.
April 7, 2020
Terrible book. Absolutely no character development and all it does is talk about evil, dark, vile characters doing evil, dark, vile things. The good guys that you want to learn to cheer for get short shrift, and therefore you don’t connect with any of them. Couldn’t care less what happens in the next books, I’m just glad I’m done with this one. Don’t bother.
February 11, 2021
I'm sorry but the story line was all over the place,some chapter had no connection between start and finish and between how the last one ended and new one started. The beginning was intresting enough but pretty fast i lost the will to continue
January 24, 2025
Yeah....a bit fiat for me
I struggle with a third-person point of view because I find it difficult to connect.
Add to that points of view that keep changing, and it gets even more difficult to connect.
This book, though, held no emotion. Atrocities were taking place, and you only knew it because you were told it.
The plot takes forever to come together, but that's typical of this style. But there was not much excitement, oddly, since things were definitely happening, but I felt completely outside of it.
There was no anticipation because as soon as things start to come together, the point of view changes and the flow was broken.
I never truly got into the read and didn't care what happened.
I struggle with a third-person point of view because I find it difficult to connect.
Add to that points of view that keep changing, and it gets even more difficult to connect.
This book, though, held no emotion. Atrocities were taking place, and you only knew it because you were told it.
The plot takes forever to come together, but that's typical of this style. But there was not much excitement, oddly, since things were definitely happening, but I felt completely outside of it.
There was no anticipation because as soon as things start to come together, the point of view changes and the flow was broken.
I never truly got into the read and didn't care what happened.
February 7, 2018
Epic fantasy
An excellent epic fantasy! All the best aspects of a truly epic fantasy are present: colossal world building, intricate characters, amazing battle scenes. It's all there. I especially love how terribly flawed the main protagonist is and how he realizes he must change his ways and improve himself to become the leader he is meant to be. This is going on my shelf with Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Terry Goodkind, Salvatore, Anne McCaffrey and Tolkein. Yes, I do believe it's THAT good and the series has that kind of potential. Eagerly looking forward to reading more from this author.
An excellent epic fantasy! All the best aspects of a truly epic fantasy are present: colossal world building, intricate characters, amazing battle scenes. It's all there. I especially love how terribly flawed the main protagonist is and how he realizes he must change his ways and improve himself to become the leader he is meant to be. This is going on my shelf with Terry Brooks, David Eddings, Terry Goodkind, Salvatore, Anne McCaffrey and Tolkein. Yes, I do believe it's THAT good and the series has that kind of potential. Eagerly looking forward to reading more from this author.
September 14, 2020
Disappointingly, NOT a complete story!
I stopped halfway through this because it was such hard reading--not because it was particularly badly written, but because it's so depressing.
In the end, I got sick of seeing it in my "in progress" list and decided to just get on with it. About 94% of the way in, I had a bad feeling there wasn't enough time to wrap it up. Things were obviously coming to a head, but there was obviously too much to accomplish.
And sure enough, Baleron is on a picnic, having sex with an elf, and... BOOM. End of volume one. WTAF?! I fucking despise a book that doesn't stand alone, even if it is a series. All this suffering for naught. 😠
I stopped halfway through this because it was such hard reading--not because it was particularly badly written, but because it's so depressing.
In the end, I got sick of seeing it in my "in progress" list and decided to just get on with it. About 94% of the way in, I had a bad feeling there wasn't enough time to wrap it up. Things were obviously coming to a head, but there was obviously too much to accomplish.
And sure enough, Baleron is on a picnic, having sex with an elf, and... BOOM. End of volume one. WTAF?! I fucking despise a book that doesn't stand alone, even if it is a series. All this suffering for naught. 😠
January 12, 2018
Sometimes fantasy writers create a world where the evil is so ubiquitous and oppressive that it is impossible for the ordinary reader to suspend disbelief. It is not possible for good to exist in such a world. However good the writing may be (and it's pretty decent here) the story simply is not coherent. Dark, brutal, and bloody, maybe, but not coherent. Not recommended.
August 21, 2019
I found this story to be very creative and interesting. The main character is a flawed human being but he steps up to do very heroic things when needed. The world the author created is engaging and imaginative. There are lots of moving pieces throughout the story. I look forward to reading the rest of this series. I recommend this to Fantasy lovers who enjoy a bit of dark Fantasy.
April 15, 2020
Excellent read!
I may be called a cheap skate for I get most of my books for free. Well I'm old and on Social Security. But once in a while I get a free book that I really like. This was it. God characterization, dialogs, sorry line... Loved it! Now I've got to get the rest of the books (4 more). Let's see how I do it!
I may be called a cheap skate for I get most of my books for free. Well I'm old and on Social Security. But once in a while I get a free book that I really like. This was it. God characterization, dialogs, sorry line... Loved it! Now I've got to get the rest of the books (4 more). Let's see how I do it!
May 22, 2022
As advertice you can see the similarity with stories like Lord of the Rings. I did not like the main character as with other stories like that. He is kind of an antihero. His value as a hero comes for from a legend that determine he will be a hero. His act in war scene is priceless. The story is not stand alone so if you do not like to read series is not recommended.
June 16, 2018
Very enjoyable
Really enjoyed this the plot held up throughout. The characters are strong as you would expect. But the main character seems to be always be there to kill his friends off. So
I follow the series
Really enjoyed this the plot held up throughout. The characters are strong as you would expect. But the main character seems to be always be there to kill his friends off. So
I follow the series
April 2, 2020
Intense
This first book has drawn me into the world of the Black Tower with characters who are both honorable and flawed.
Some of the scenes are dark and disturbing but not gratuitously so. I'm now ready to explore further.
This first book has drawn me into the world of the Black Tower with characters who are both honorable and flawed.
Some of the scenes are dark and disturbing but not gratuitously so. I'm now ready to explore further.
April 6, 2020
Excellent fantasy
Almost a can't put it down book. I cared about the characters, there were plenty of plot twists, and decent world building. Not sure i get the vampire business, but i guess its a thing now. If you like fantasy, you will enjoy this book.
Almost a can't put it down book. I cared about the characters, there were plenty of plot twists, and decent world building. Not sure i get the vampire business, but i guess its a thing now. If you like fantasy, you will enjoy this book.
May 31, 2020
Interesting story
While parts seemed to drag on I thought it was a good story and fairly well written. The characters were interesting and the action was enough to keep me reading.
While parts seemed to drag on I thought it was a good story and fairly well written. The characters were interesting and the action was enough to keep me reading.
November 29, 2020
Good but
Its a good story but very short and the next 4books are less than 1000 pages. I always feel like the authors are trying to make more money by splitting up the stories into shorter books.
Its a good story but very short and the next 4books are less than 1000 pages. I always feel like the authors are trying to make more money by splitting up the stories into shorter books.
Read
October 2, 2022Didn’t finish it
I didn’t like the main character really
It didn’t quite grab me and it seemed unnecessarily cruel and violent and showed it in quite some detail, which I don’t like
So a no from me.
I didn’t like the main character really
It didn’t quite grab me and it seemed unnecessarily cruel and violent and showed it in quite some detail, which I don’t like
So a no from me.
February 15, 2025
Not Bad!
Went into this completely fresh and glad I did! A pretty meaty high fantasy affair, plenty of blood, guts, magic and romance to go around. Fans of Patrick Rothfuss or Brandon Sanderson will find plenty to enjoy here as well.
Went into this completely fresh and glad I did! A pretty meaty high fantasy affair, plenty of blood, guts, magic and romance to go around. Fans of Patrick Rothfuss or Brandon Sanderson will find plenty to enjoy here as well.
June 10, 2017
Average quality novel. The stereotypical rogue hero with plenty of swordplay.
January 14, 2018
Suspenseful Fantasy
A new world with an interesting backstory. I look forward to reading the follow up tale. Baleron is a gent I can cheer for.
A new world with an interesting backstory. I look forward to reading the follow up tale. Baleron is a gent I can cheer for.
Want to read
March 25, 2020 🎁 FREE on Amazon today (3/25/2020)! 🎁
April 12, 2020
Hard to put down
Very enjoyable and hard to put down. People who you think are going to be main characters in the story suddenly get killed. You never know what will happen next.
Very enjoyable and hard to put down. People who you think are going to be main characters in the story suddenly get killed. You never know what will happen next.
Read
April 29, 2020I understand the necessity of building towards a comeback for the Protagonist. But, wow it just kept getting darker and darker.
May 7, 2020
started off alright,but then seemed a bit confusing,jumping ahead a few months or years during the narrative
June 14, 2020
Interesting
This is an interesting read for adults and teens. It is the start of a tale of good versus evil. It keeps you intrigued and wanting to read the next book in line.
This is an interesting read for adults and teens. It is the start of a tale of good versus evil. It keeps you intrigued and wanting to read the next book in line.
February 18, 2022
No cliche left unturned.
March 5, 2022
Good dead
I liked this book A it took me into a new world where I engage with the difference in culture and view
I liked this book A it took me into a new world where I engage with the difference in culture and view
January 8, 2024
Too dark and too violent for me.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews