Farnor

Nightfall #1

by Roger Taylor

Book by Taylor, Roger

Genres: Fantasy, German Literature

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Roger Taylor was born in Heywood, Lancashire, and now lives in the Wirral. He is a chartered civil and structural engineer, a pistol, rifle and shotgun shooter, instructor/student in aikido, and an enthusiastic and loud but bone-jarringly inaccurate piano player.

He wrote four books between 1983 and 1986 and built up a handsome rejection file before the third was accepted by Headline to become the first two books of the Chronicles of Hawklan.

Reviews

[2Due · Rating 4 out of 5]

*566 pages

Allow me to take a deep, relieved breath for a moment... Farnor, I like you a lot, but good lord, you are slow!

I never minded a slow paced story, as long as it's not boring, I'm in for the ride, and indeed, this book gripped me immediately from the start and it had such good vibes... hmm honestly the whole book is very good vibes... a vibe book with sauce.
The story is very atmospheric, it grabs you and plops you right into the valley and you too will gasp at the magnificence of the mountains and at the looming form of the abandoned castle. You will also very well fear the dark presence yourself from its introduction to the very end (for some reason it felt to me like the Nothing from the Neverending story movie, which really showed a dark atmosphere too), but the creature in Farnor is very different.
Despite the grip this book had on me, when I reached the halfway mark, it drastically slowed down for me and I did struggle. It wasn't bad by any means, still have very good insights of the characters' thoughts, but for a bit it was just that and "wait and see", which got repeated a few times in the book and drove me nuts. I still get it why it was done so, even the characters got fed up with it, but please go on...
Characters are quite good and well differentiated, although there was a bit too much focus on the bandits and the protagonist could have a bit more in my opinion. I did appreciate that we don't have the number of Farnor's age, we only know he's a young man.
I also love how the cover perfectly captures the book's mindset, perfect match.

Despite the pace, it's a gripping and well developed story and I already got myself Valderen to see how it ends.

[Mark L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having first read this book in 1999 I decided to reread Farnor. This was the first Roger Taylor book I read. I enjoyed it on the first reading and still like it.

My only problem with the book was one character, Marna. She grates somewhat.

Besides this, Taylor has a good grasp of timing and the eponymous hero does not suddenly develop staggering powers. In this sense it is a bit of a slow-burner. .

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the other reviews say, it's a long and slow paced fantasy read with a simple plot, and a nice hook into the sequel.

[Liana]

Now here's a rare story that nobody talks about. Farnor is a typical long and winded epic fantasy that I found myself skimming through most of the time, but it definitely has a lot of charm. Many times I wanted to give up on the book, but there was something about the warm writing that kept pulling me back in... I dunno. This book isn't for everybody, but if you like epic fantasy as much as I do, than by all means give this book a chance... if you can find a physical copy.

[Aksel Erzinclioglu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was great and I cannot wait to read its conclusion in Valderen! A story that really makes magic and the wider world seem so alien. Roger Taylor puts us in the shoes of the quaint villagers of the valley so we'll, denying us any look at the wider world or any explanation of the magic, making us as ignorant and fearful as the characters themselves. A really well built tale with fantastic character. Well worth your time!