Huw the Bard

by Connie J. Jasperson

The youngest master in the Bards’ Guild, eighteen-year-old Huw Owyn is at the top of his craft. The Spring Conclave is underway, and Huw is late to the ceremonies. While he lingers with his lady, the Bards’ Guild is attacked. Seeking to rule the most powerful clan in the valley, Earl Rann Dwyn hangs the Guild Master, Huw’s father. His thugs torch the hall with everyone still inside, igniting a firestorm and incinerating a quarter of the city.

Smuggled out of the burning city in a reeking ale barrel, Huw the Bard is a wanted man. Starving, reduced to begging and worse, he must somehow make his way north to safety. It’s a 200-league walk as the crow flies to the one place he might have a friend, though the path Huw must take is anything but straight.

Murder, rape, and the taint of treason – a lot can happen to a man on a journey like that.

Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction

246 pages, Paperback

First published March 28, 2014

About the author

Connie J Jasperson lives and writes in Olympia, Washington. A vegan, she and her husband share five children, numerous grandchildren, a love of good food and great music.

You can find her blogging on her writing life at: Life in the Realm of Fantasy
http://conniejjasperson.wordpress.com

Reviews

[Alison DeLuca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm starting to think Ms Jasperson has created her own medieval genre. I love the time period, and she has added her fantasy stamp as well as characters who leap off the page, grab you by the arm, and pull you into this story of love, loss, and one man's growth. For those who have enjoyed The Last Good Knight, you'll welcome several familiar characters within Huw.

It begins with Huw's fiancee Sinean dressing him up as a woman (any book starting off with bawdy cross-dressing earns an extra star in my Kindle) moves to a terrible inferno started by the Crows to kill most of the Bards Guild, and hurtles into an amazing adventure. Huw himself is dazed as he must leave Sinean and go on the road in order to save his skin and fight against those who caused the conflagration.

I thoroughly enjoyed Huw and must admit to quite a large crush on the long-haired singer. I'm not the only one, as many others fall victim to his curls and sweet voice in the book. I also loved the female characters - they are fierce, strong, and independent, and they insist on carrying the threads of their own fates. No simpering misses within the pages of a Jasperson novel. What happens to Ilene is terrible, but she and Huw overcome her terror together; that part of the book was riveting.

Furthermore, the background and history are so well thought-out it is difficult to emerge from the story. I found myself sneaking a few extra pages at the bust stop, in line at the grocery store, and of course past my bedtime to find out what happened to Huw and Sir Julian.

If you enjoy medieval history or simply great characters and a rollicking plot, I highly recommend this book as a wonderful read.

[Carlie Cullen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to say, this is one of the most unusual fantasy books I’ve read in a long time. Set in an alternate medieval dimension, it is chock full of adventure, treason, rape, murder, and magical creatures the like of which I’ve never before encountered.

The main strength of this book, apart from the wonderful storytelling, is the depth of characterisation given to Huw. He is an eighteen-year-old bard at the height of his craft when disaster strikes and he is forced to flee the city he has called home since before reaching double digits. With nothing but the clothes on his back, Huw, now a wanted man, must make his way to safety if he wants to survive.

As you take every step with Huw, you feel his pain, desolation, joy, and sorrow, and by the end of the book, he’s become a friend to treasure. Jasperson has crafted her main character richly; you see his transformation from a talented, spoilt, and somewhat vain young man who’s used to being fawned over and adored, to a humbled, desperate, penniless one who finds courage and a good heart.

At no time is the emotion overdone; it is layered with sufficient detail for the reader to empathise with each situation Huw finds himself in and, in my opinion, strikes just the right balance.

Each of the supporting cast is given definable personalities and, along with Huw, leap off the page.

The world-building is expertly designed and described in colourful detail. The magical creatures are, in some ways, the stuff from nightmares yet in the author’s skilled hands, they are believable and realistic.

The plot is adventurous and well outlined. There is never a point when a reader will not want to turn the page to see what’s going to happen next, yet it’s not a ‘fun and frolics’ type of adventure (although there are a few amusing bits). There’s plenty of sadness, guilt, anger, and revenge, to accompany the bravery, battles, romance and light-hearted banter.

Already a big fan of Jasperson’s work, Huw the Bard, took me in an unexpected direction, showing what a versatile fantasy author she is. I loved this book and it gets a solid 5 stars from me.

[Stephen Swartz · Rating 4 out of 5]

In her latest novel, HUW THE BARD, Medieval scholar Connie J. Jasperson has faithful recreated the art of the bildungsroman, an episodic tale of a hero's adventures. While set in a fantasy realm, I quickly felt immersed in a Celtic world full of minstrels and knaves, dukes and princesses. There is a feeling to the place names suggestive of Wales, and references to God bring a true medieval flavor to the adventures of the young bard.

The tale opens with Huw's escape from what he soon learns is an attack intended to wipe out the whole guild of bards. Running for his life, Huw enters one adventure after another, pretending to be one character or another to gain food, shelter, and other favors. Gradually his forlorn nature grows into a heroic persona and he is filled with the urgency to right wrongs and revenge his father and others who have died at the hands of the evil duke.

Taking this as a fantasy novel, all the tropes of the minstrel adventurer have been used quite effectively. I was able to fully enter that world and become one of its close observers. By the middle of the book I was at a point where I wanted to shout at Huw not to open that door or cross that bridge or speak to that damsel. Huw is quite the ribald character! He reminded me of me in my own youth.

There are sex scenes and scenes of violence, but for anyone familiar with medieval life, much of that kind of action was commonplace. However, as the author has depicted them, they are not gratuitous or overly graphic. Much of the time they exist to further the point of Huw's transformation from someone who merely played at life to someone who must make life right for everyone around him, the apotheosis of the hero.

The only real flaws come when a word or casual expression of modern origin is occasionally used. Although it may have taken me momentarily out of that Medieval world, it was in no way a hindrance to enjoyment of Huw's adventures. I strongly recommend HUW THE BARD to all lovers of heroic fantasy, Medieval history, or gallivanting, ribald episodes. Well done!

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Opening in the moments when Huw’s glamorous life as a feted bard is torn asunder, this elegant story traces his struggle to escape a land turned suddenly hostile to his kind. Alone and clueless how to survive outside of society, we follow Huw’s harrowing journey as he discovers not only new depths to his character, but also painful truths about the politics and culture of his land. An array of colourful secondary characters pop naturally in and out of this story, much as they may do in real life.
It has been some time since I read a book written in omniscient viewpoint, and I found it a little unsettling at first to jump between characters. However, as most of the story is from Huw’s point of view, I soon settled into the narrative. Jasperson has a masterful touch with characterisation and truly awesome world building skills, plus a way of imparting these in the natural course of the tale. This book is chock full of excellent writing, witty dialogue and great touches of humour, while the horrors, violence, rape and murder are equally well depicted without descending into gratuitous sensationalism.
Personally I would have liked a more urgent imperative to drive the plot – a solid goal to be gained in addition to the need for Huw to flee his homeland. The first half of the book was a little episodic, and I had one ‘huh?’ moment when, after many chapters of mourning his murdered father with no mention of another parent, Huw suddenly thinks about visiting his mother. If the foreshadowing was there, I’m afraid I missed it.
I also found that, after several adventures when dangers were outlined ahead of time, but never materialised, I lost the belief that Huw was in any real danger, although this did change later in the book.
So would I recommend it? That’s a resounding ‘yes’, for those who love great writing, characters and history; probably not so much if you’re looking for action and adventure and a pulse-pounding ride.
Me, I’m looking forward to the next one.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book! The story is a journey, an adult coming of age book. From page one there was action and the story constantly moved forward. The main character, Huw is a member of the Guild, a master Bard, and a bit of a spoiled young adult who has spent years living good, provided to him by his somewhat elevated station in life. The story opens in the midst of Huw hiding from soldiers. There's a purge going on and a tragedy in the making for Huw.

He has one option to stay alive; Flee. Disguised as a Tinker, and a scholar in the making, he spends the rest of the story on a journey north to a land and culture mostly foreign to him. The people he meets along the way are memorable characters. And MUCH to my delight, Jasperson brings in characters I've read in her other books. Her writing just keeps getting better and better.

"Huw The Bard" tells the beginning of Billy's Revenge and the Rowdies who ride from there, and Julian Lackland and his Lady Mags.

I didn't want to set it down. A simply wonderful, wonderful book!

[E.M. Prazeman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a 'told' travel story (rather than the more modern 'shown' style of storytelling) in the tradition of the Canterbury Tales, and reads as such. This can be a bit off-putting for folks used to reading close third person or first person narratives where you get a lot of feels that are shown rather than told. Once I got into that mindset - it took me a while to get there - I liked the narrative tone. The middle of the book is particularly lively and I enjoyed that a great deal. But toward the end the story became rushed and the dialogue became a vehicle for infodumps. I liked the concept of Huw the Bard quite a bit, but at times I put it down to read other things, though I did always come back to it eventually and I did finish it.

Spoilers:
The main character is very interesting and goes through quite a few changes, not just in the type of work he does - bard, prostitute, mercenary, inn worker and back to bard – but through personal growth. I think if the author stuck to that, I would have given the book a 3+ or even a four,
but the ending became all about the world and very little about the character other than Huw satisfying his own curiosity about the type of power the king holds, which knights are wrongfully in charge because of weaknesses in the political system, and who's really running the show in the twin kingdoms. The story, at least to me, seemed to promise that Huw would ultimately go to the northern king, complain about what happened to his family and guild, and the king would then make moves to fix it. Instead, Huw makes a new home elsewhere in the north and never sees the king. This would be fine if the middle of the story showed (or rather told) me that he was changing in the direction of feeling more at home in the north rather than springing it on me after describing how harsh and dangerous everything was. I don't think it was out of character, but it made the end abrupt because he never expressed a desire to find a new home. He seemed only to want to find safety, and possibly see to the downfall of the people who'd destroyed just about everyone and everything he'd loved.

[J.D. Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a rites of passage story, as soft Southern bard Huw Owyn - a victim of political sociopathy and deprived of his parents in a brutal sequence of events - begins a journey away from his pursuers to the distant North of Connie Jasperson's well-realised fantasy country.

The descriptions of Huw's world and the characterisation of Huw are two of the most striking aspects of this work. Ms. Jasperson's world feels like a combination of mediaeval Wales and a Tolkienesque Middle Earth, populated by fabled beasts like the firedrake and roving bands of mercenaries, some good and some very bad. Huw, at first a confused and frightened boy, gradually becomes a man, as he is forced to fight his way to freedom.

Everyone, it seems, is out to get Huw, simply for the fact that he is the last of the Bards and he narrowly escapes capture by a combination of luck and wiliness. He's a good looking boy, so a variety of women will not only give him an an occasional tumble in the hay, but will also help him along his way. Men, too, find him likeable - in more ways than one - and aid his attempted escape from the clutches of Crow mercenaries sent to find and destroy him. Will he get to the North and safety, or will he be killed as the forces of evil close in?

Ms. Jasperson manages to convey the drama of Huw's flight and his confrontation with several deadly perils, without hyperbole and in a laid back, accomplished prose style that creeps up on the reader in a quite enjoyable fashion. Huw and his world feel very real and that is no mean achievement in fantasy writing, some of which is hugely overblown.

All in all this is a rollicking fantasy and a terrific example of the genre. Five stars.

[Lee French · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fantasy tale reminds me of Tolkien, in that has that same feel of a world truly alive, that you known has history, lots of it. I half expected to find a glossary in the back, despite there being no separate language in use. On the down side of this, the author spend just a tad more time telling me about all the wonderful setting and backstory stuff than I'm happy to sit through. It's not egregious or endlessly rambling, just a bit more than I prefer.

Huw is an interesting character. He's bright and clever, and knows a great deal about how the world works, yet still manages to be enough of a blundering, naive idiot to find himself in some truly awful positions. He reminds me of a Romantic hero, the kind that wears hose and lace and throws his wrist to his forehead in melodramatic angst while all the ladies roost around him, either swooning or clucking.

Those same ladies would, undoubtedly, be scandalized by his adventures. Whoring, murder, rape, murder, sex, murder, and a little more murder can all be found within. Some of it is graphic, teetering on the precipice of what some snootier folks might call 'good taste'. I say it was perhaps a trifle past what I wanted to read in two or three places, and only briefly.

The pacing of the book threw me a bit. I expected an adventure story. It reads more like a travel log, showcasing the vivid setting more than the characters or plot. This does make sense, as Huw's story has more to do with leaving everything behind and starting anew than it does with overcoming some great, specific obstacle, though I wish it had more of a climax at the end.

Overall, I recommend this for people who like a little fictional history in their fantasy, and aren't looking for major battles or world-shaping confrontations.

[Ross Kitson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huw the Bard is a prequel to Connie Jasperson's The Last Good Knight, a book I hold in particular affection as it was one of the first Indie books I read several years ago when I first heard of self-publishing.
It follows the journey of Huw Olwyn, a bard fleeing the massacre of his fellows/family, as he escapes northward admits political upheavals. The journey acts as a framework on which Jasperson fleshes out the history of Huw's world, and matures his character.
The narrative is very cleverly done. I found it's style quite unique, almost as if the prose was part of a ballad that Huw was recounting. The humour is well done, and balances well with some fairly intense scenes of violence and sexual content. The fact these aspects are handled in a very sensitive and empathic way are a testament to Jasperson's skill as a writer.
Inevitably the appearance of the various key characters in The Last Good Knight pepper the book, and help drive Huw's journey north. The encounters with monsters and creatures in the latter part of the book contrasts with the threats of evil nobles and their cronies in the earlier sections- and this progress in the story brought to mind elements of role playing games, and authors such as Jack Vance and Moorcock. A fitting pedigree for this excellent book to join.

[Eric Jewett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this as historical fiction. It could have been Huw's travels through medieval Wales. There are gentle fantasy elements, with dangerous creatures and healing "majiks," but Ms. Jasperson creates sympathetic characters with believable internal and external conflicts. The story ends somewhat abruptly, which I hope is a sign that there is a Book 2 on its way.