Devil in Green

Dark Age #1

by Mark Chadbourn

Humanity has emerged, blinking, from the Age of Misrule into a world substantially changed: cities lie devasted, communications are limited, anarchy rages across the land. Society has been thrown into a new Dark Age where superstition holds sway. The Tuatha De Danaan roam the land once more, their terrible powers dwarfing anything mortals have to offer. And in their wake come all the creatures of myth and legend, no longer confined to the shadows. Fighting to find their place in this new world, the last remnants of the Christian Church call for a group of heroes: a new Knights Templar to guard the priesthood as they set out on their quest for souls. But as everything begin to fall apart, the Knights begin to realize their only hope is to call on the pagan gods of Celtic myth for help...

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Magic, Dark, Mythology, Supernatural

468 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 17, 2002

About the author

A 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.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continuing in the same world as The Age of Misrule trilogy but with a (mostly) new cast, this is more semi-urban fantasy/horror steeped in UK folklore. I really enjoyed it.

[Clay Kallam · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of the things that annoys me about narratives based on a painful and bloody struggle against terrific odds and powerful opponents is that after several hundred pages, or even a thousand, of grim, back-against-the-wall situations, the authors wind everything up in three pages of happy ending. So after hours of reading about pain and suffering, readers are given only two or three minutes of pleasure as a reward, which hardly seems fair.

Mark Chadbourn, however, has sunk to new depths in his series The Dark Age. The three books (“The Devil in Green,” “The Queen of Sinister” and “The Hounds of Avalon”, all published by Pyr and all $16) chronicle an Earth in collapse, as suddenly all the demons and devils of myth and magic have come to life, destroying the world as we know it.

The various heroes battle their way through plenty of blood and trauma, with minor characters sacrificing themselves left and right to save humanity, and the protagonists going through torture and despair. Chadbourn does toss in a few pages of respite here and there, but for the most part, it’s the overpowering forces of evil crushing tiny sparks of good for three straight books.

But then, as we finally wind down in the last great battle, with the icy winter of the last days combining with millions of undead intent on destroying all human beings, Chadbourn shows us the door to redemption – but never walks through it. That’s right, after three full books, there is not a single moment of triumph. There is the promise of some (and it’s conceivable Chadbourn will write about it in another trilogy), but it’s never delivered. So readers, after suffering along with the several heroes (some left over from the previous trilogy, The Age of Misrule), get nothing for their efforts but a doorway full of light – and that’s not close to being enough reward for me.

[Tim Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Devil in Green' is the darkest, most captivating adult fantasy novel I've read in a long time. It blends history and myth into a post-apocalyptic Britain setting. The main character Mallory is nearly an anti-hero, with an uncaring attitude that slowly transforms into true chivalry by the end of the novel. Filled with horror and hypocrisy of both mythological, and biblical proportions, this book brings the reader to a medieval realm of mysterious forces beyond the fragile advent of human civilization.

I'd nearly given up on this mostly formulaic genre until I came across Chadbourn's trilogy. Read this if you have any inclination toward fantasy and science fiction novels.

[Lel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd forgotten how much I love this author and the world that he has created.

This is a follow on series set after the events of The Age of Misrule Trilogy but can be read on its own. The world is not the same place that we know. The age of machines and industry has come to a grounding halt and myth and magic reign again. Humanity is beset by creatures from folklore and magic and are no longer the dominate species in the world.

This book follows Mallory, a everyday normal arrogant guy. He thinks his best bet in surviving in the new world is to join the church as a night. He will be guaranteed a bed, food and a weapon right? As you can imagine it all goes a little pear shaped. The church leaders are the over zealot hardcore type who see Mallory for a trouble maker from the start. He and his group get sent on a suspicious mission to save a monk from the horror of the Salisbury plain. The mission goes badly and then people start dying in horrible ways. The church finds itself under siege from within and without and its up to Mallory to run or discover the truth.

This book is sooo hard to put down. It has all the elements in a book that I love. The characters are very realistic and I did find myself shouting at them a couple of times when they did things I didnt think they should. The blend between the folk lore and the collapse of the normal way of life is portrayed as a very scary possibility. For me this book gives rise to the fear that if the world was set back to the stone age would you survive the new order? Would you rise a success and become happier without all the modern day trappings of work and bills? Or would you starve? Would you become the hunted? How would all your morals stand the test?

I cannot recommend this book (or the previous series) enough.

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is no frills story telling with most of it carried out in dialogue. The characters seem rather flat to me. I never came to like them enough to care what happens. The hero is weak although he carries the title Brother of Dragons and a corresponding magic sword which seems mostly useless as far as the story went.

The premise is that civilization is destroyed when the dimension that contains myth, fairy, magic and gods leaks back into our world. The first book features the Green Man. Neo-pagans are much better off as they already accept magic. The Christians much less so as they see the Green Man as the Devil, the dragons as the Serpent. Most of the story is centered on the slide of the newly organized Christian Knights (to defend the faith from said evil) into the barbaric practices of their history i.e. the inquisition, conversion by the sword, etc.

[Espen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is well-written, continuing the story that has made Mark Chadbourn one of the few authors that manage to put an unique twist on the King Arthur/Celtic/Holy grail-type plot. Still, because of the strong attacks on religion in general and christianity in particular, I would not recommend this book to everyone. Try it if you like, but don't expect to be unaffected by the zealotlike belief that underpins his stories.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review here:

http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...

It's very dark reading at points, for all that it ends with a much more optimistic tone than anything that's come before.

[Lulu Moolah]

from the 2010 pyr edition, page 14:

"The thunder made him start so sharply that he almost jumped from the saddle. . . . The lightning came a few seconds later, turning the inky fields and clustering trees to stark white."

and

"More thunder, another flash of light. "

i stubbed my eye on these two bits and had to stop reading until the throbbing in my head died down, realizing in part: "for such to occur in editions eight years and more after the book was first published, this meteorological phenomena first being misconstrued by the author and then missed by whatever proofreader(s) pyr utilizes, i gave up on reading any further, gathered this and the other two volumes of the trilogy and presented the books to friends who maintain a small library sited cheek-by-jowl with the sidewalk in front of their home, (not wanting to burn the books and avoiding that sin) having concluded "small library, small chance of extensive circulatory contagion and i.q. impairment";

when i read, i want and need writing, not scribbling;

* * * * *

from 'understanding lightning: thunder'; national weather service, noaa

Thunder is created when lightning passes through the air. The lightning discharge heats the air rapidly and causes it to expand. The temperature of the air in the lightning channel may reach as high as 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun. Immediately after the flash, the air cools and contracts quickly. This rapid expansion and contraction creates the sound wave that we hear as thunder.

[Reian'sReads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing: 3/5
Plot: 3/5
Magic system: 3/5
Pace: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Overall: 3/5 💛💛💛
•••
Writing was kind of confusing at the beginning (maybe it was just me) but I did get used to it later on. The plot was ok i guess.. I just wanted a little bit more than what happened. They didn't really explain how the "magic" or the "blue fire" works, but given that it is a series, maybe it is explained later on. At the beginning the story kind of felt more of a dystopian, and was more concentrated on religious aspects instead of the fantasy part. Which didn't really matter but I was just not expecting that. I think this book was good with Mallory being the dislikable but likable main character. But Miller was just so annoying and childish and a cry baby. (Though I did kind of cared for his character) All in all, this book was pretty good. Might continue the series.

[Vikki]

I’m not the intended audience.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Devil in Green takes place shortly after the end of Always Forever, the final book in Mark Chadbourn's Age of Misrule trilogy, which described the return to our lands of legendary creatures and gods, so old and powerful that their memories became the basis for many of our myths. Now the final battles are (seemingly) over, and humanity slowly tries to come to terms with the realities of the new Dark Age, society as we know it is practically gone: electricity, fuel and communication are virtually non-existent, and the Tuathe De Danaan are still abroad.

In this fractured version of more or less present-day U.K., the old faiths have lost much of their allure and power, but remnants of Christianity have banded together to provide a bastion of light, with a reformed Knights Templar serving as the muscle to protect the brethren and help spread the word across the land. It's towards this military-religious group that two of the novel's protagonists, Miller and Mallory, are both running, each for their own individual reasons that are revealed later in the novel.

Aside from a few info-dumps here and there (e.g. a quick lecture-summary of the history of the Knights Templar), The Devil in Green is a well-paced and enjoyable story. We're thrown right into the action from page one with a truly hectic chase scene, and as soon as the characters get a chance to catch their breaths, Mark Chadbourn does a good job illustrating their distinct personalities and styles with a few deft strokes. As they enter the military-style training of the Knights, we get a good bit of soldierly camaraderie between Mallory, Miller and their new mates Gardener and Daniels — including an unauthorized excursion to a nearby Travellers' camp, where we meet Sophie, the novel's spiritual parallel to the Age of Misrule's Ruth. Mallory quickly emerges as an authority-averse cynic in the vein of Bill Murray's character in the movie Stripes (with the Knights' captain Blaine being a much less good-natured version of the movie's Sergeant "Big Toe" Hulka).

While this first novel in the Dark Age trilogy can technically be read independently from the Age of Misrule books, readers who are familiar with that earlier trilogy will have a decidedly different perspective on the activities of the Knights and their leadership early on. To get the full experience of The Devil in Green, I recommend picking up World's End, Darkest Hour, and Always Forever first. This way, you'll also be treated to John Picacio's gorgeous cover illustrations for those novels, which seem to be echoed, book by book, in the new Dark Age trilogy, with the cover of The Devil in Green thematically connected to World's End. If only all fantasy novels were published in such handsome, thoughtful editions.

Mark Chadbourn initially does an excellent job balancing the different faces and facets of religion, from simple, heartfelt spirituality to the unbalanced prejudice of strict dogma, but as the novel progresses, the latter comes more and more to the forefront. With all the brethren and knights trapped inside their compound, almost as if stuck on an island, the novel increasingly reminded me of Lord of the Flies with adult Christians. Let's just say that, if you took offense to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, The Devil in Green is probably not for you.

Regardless of your (or Chadbourn's) feelings about organized religion, The Devil in Green, like the Age of Misrule trilogy, is an enjoyable and fun (if dark) read, once again filled with realistic, current, eternally bickering characters, interesting mythological and historical tidbits, and a gripping, edge-of-your-seat story. Unfortunately the final few chapters take a turn for the worse, with a couple of deus ex machina escapes and a chaotic and rushed resolution. Despite the ending, which mars what would otherwise be an excellent read, I definitely look forward to the second book in the Dark Age trilogy, The Queen of Sinister, due out from Pyr in June 2010.

(This review was also published at the Fantasy Literature website: www.fantasyliterature.com --- come check us out!)

[Joel Flank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Several years after the end of the modern world, and the age of misrule of soulless corporations and soul numbing modern society, the world has fallen into a new dark age. Humanity is barely holding on without the modern world supporting them, and reverting to small isolated communities of survivors. At the same time, the creatures behind humanity's myths and legends have returned, and roam the countryside, hunting and tormenting any they find, or showing the survivors that there is true wonder in the world once again.

Mallory is a survivor, looking for an easy setup, and figures with his skills and criminal past it shouldn't be too hard to prove his worth. When he hears that a group of religious folk are trying to re-establish the Christian church, he figures they'll need muscle to help protect their interests. Once he arrives though, he discovers that being aloof isn't really in his nature, and tries to be a real example of a decent human being, rather than one of the church factions that is trying to re-establish their views of exclusion and supremacy. Of course this sets him in direct opposition of the hardliners at the church, and he's sent on a dangerous mission outside the safety of the walls.

Once there, he winds up experiencing first hand the other realm of the supernatural, and is told he is a Brother of Dragons, destined to help set things right in the world . He returns to the church, and finds things oddly changed, but no one else can see things but his immediate companions. However, the church is now besieged by supernatural forces, but are they out to destroy humanity, or is there a different motive? As Mallory strives to unravel the mystery, he learns that the worst evils aren't necessarily supernatural at all.

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The dark age series is the first serie I've read by Mark Chadbourn but I must say it was a very refreshing series to me.

The first book in the series is this one, though, there's no problem reading the second book first because it has no spoilers and it's at the same time as the first book.

here's what I liked about The Devil in Green: it's pretty much a new setting to me, and I do not mean the post-apocalyptic thing he's got going on. It's the fact that he weaved legends and myths very cleverely into the story. He knew exactly what he was talking about. You can just tell from reading the story that mr. Chadbourn loves old legends and stories.

the main cast is awesome, for lack of a better word, Mallorey was your basic anti-hero. You know, the asshole. That's why I liked the guy. most of the time his clever remarks brought me a smile.

I do have something of a critical note. If you're sceptical about the christian methods and church like myself, you'll like this story just a little more (even though it mainly takes place in a church). Mark doesn't like the church very much. he's very sceptical (well, mallorey is, but Chadbourn puts quite a bit of effort into this side of him.)

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and I'd reccomend it to anyone who likes a story with a philosophic undertone. Because it has just that. It does not, however, puts it right in your face all the time.

[Susan Weller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so excited to read this book based on the cover and the description and while it is a decent book, it really didn't live up to my expectations. This could have been an amazing tale, but to me it spent way too much time pondering the nature of good and evil and the role of religion. I wanted to see more of the mythical figures that came into being in this world. More background on those and the landmarks they inhabit would have made it wonderful.
Can there be evil within in a religious order? Of course. So why did half of the book deal with the question of whether it was possible or not? Maybe if I was still a kid and this was a new concept, it would have been more interesting, but instead it was just boring. I wound up skimming a lot and did find some interesting parts, but overall it was a let down.

[Despair · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first book in the 3 trilogies. At first, it was incredibly difficult to follow. However, the authors depiction of a world undergone through primeval de-evolution of the world's current sight to a world of mysticism and something more fulfilling. What will make you appreciate this book is not the happy ending, but the fact there's more and this is not but a prelude to a more cataclysmic event that will shake both the story and your reading experience. As someone a bit younger than many others, this was one of the true books that gave me a hope for literature more fulfilling than your average predictable pieces that makes you more empty. I love books, but this one really made my spine tingle with each page, as visions of fear and anticipation grow as my eyes trailed the next detail that made my mind see the real world in a more clairvoyant light.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

The protagonist spends almost the entire book hanging out with a bunch of Christians in a cathedral and complaining about how foolish their dogmatic approach to religion is... unsurprisingly, even though I'm sympathetic to his viewpoint, this was a real drag to read & I was constantly wondering why he didn't just skip out to go join the hippie camp with the people he actually liked - there was only a very brief & vague explanation about duty/ redemption that really didn't make up for the majority of the book being incredibly dull and painful.

[Suburbangardener · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first of the second trilogy of the "Age of Misrule" books. I found it a better read than the first trilogy, as, instead of a mad race across the country, the main characters are stuck, for better or worse, in one place. The themes of the universality of beliefs and the ill effects of narrow-minded dogmatism really appealed to me. I was reminded of something (I think it was Star Trek): a society that starts by burning books, ends up burning people.

[Dan Smyth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-written but ultimately disappointing. It feels like very little happens in this book of any note. The ending, which should have been exciting, is mostly just confusing. The MC is very unsympathetic besides. Not much that I cared for. My official review is at:

http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.co...

[Cat Tobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the prequel trilogy, World's End, but this was a disappointment. The characters were varied and interesting, but the plot felt very forced, all dramatic tension completely disappeared in the middle, the protagonist's motivation was never really explained and the ending was weak.

[Jenine Young · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is my second attempt at reading this book. 175 pages in, I realized I didn't care about any of the characters or the plot and plodding through another 125 pages sounded awful. This is probably one of 3 books I've given up on in my lifetime.

[bluetyson]

isbn,original

[Susi Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing characters (so in love with Mallory), great imagery, not so sure of the switch between dark fantasy and fairytale

[Lori]

galley from BEA

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full Review

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for magic...good and evil and a challenge to organized religion. Well done in this book.

[Sofia Nitchie · Rating 1 out of 5]

not so impressed after a chapter and a half. Where are the females? The characters so far seem one dimensional and the dialogue needs a boost. think ill skip it

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part of nine book series.