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A Song for No Man’s Land #2
Return of Souls
If war is hell, there is no word to describe what Private Jones has been through. Forced into a conflict with an unknowable enemy, he awakes to find himself in a strange land, and is soon joined by young woman, Morana, who tends to his wounds and tells him of the battles played out in this impossible place.
She tells him of an Iron Beast that will end the Great War, and even as he vows to help her find it, enemy combatants seek them, intent on their utter annihilation.
Return of Souls is the second volume of the trilogy Andy Remic began with A Song for No Man's Land.
She tells him of an Iron Beast that will end the Great War, and even as he vows to help her find it, enemy combatants seek them, intent on their utter annihilation.
Return of Souls is the second volume of the trilogy Andy Remic began with A Song for No Man's Land.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2016
3 people are currently reading
315 people want to read
About the author
Andy Remic
50 books183 followersAndy Remic lives in Lincoln, UK, although his heart and viking soul belong to the Scottish mountains. Married with two children, Andy has a variety of esoteric and sometimes contrasting loves, including sword fighting, climbing, mountain biking, kick-boxing, Ducati motorcycles and retro-gaming. He recently wrote the computer version of his novel Biohell for the 48K Spectrum, in which many people are still stuck. He writes in both SF and fantasy fields, and is sometimes accused of literature. Current novels include: Spiral, Quake, Warhead, War Machine, Biohell, Hardcore and the upcoming Cloneworld, Theme Planet and TOX for Solaris Books, and the Kell’s Legend trilogy, Kell’s Legend, Soul Stealers and Vampire Warlords for Angry Robot Books.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 9, 2016
We are now two books into Andy Remic’s ongoing A Song For No Man’s Land series, and I have to admit that I’ll be taking a pass on the rest. I’m just simply not connecting to the material and will have to chalk it up to the old ‘it’s not you, Mr. Remic, it’s me’ excuse.
You see, I’m not much for traditional fantasy. I slogged my way through Tolkein’s Lord of the Ring series and felt rather unrewarded (the movies are better, as far as I’m concerned), and forced myself to make it through Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon because of all the praise that Malazan series has garnered. There are exceptions of course – I’m a giddy sucker for George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and am always on the lookout for new R. Scott Bakker books. I have a much easier time with urban fantasy series, like Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black novels.
All of this is a long-winded way of my trying to explain that I thought Andy Remic’s latest novellas would be up my alley, with their heavy on World War I and light on fantasy elements approach. Alas, it’s not meant to be…
Although Return of Souls, and it’s predecessor, A Song For No Man’s Land, are novella length stories, I’ve felt they were both too long and unnecessarily plodding. Each book has been divided into four parts, with the first 3/4 devoted to Jones and his time on the frontlines fighting German soldiers and beastly creatures known as walriders. The last quarter, though, is when Remic decides to take a sharp and sudden turn, introducing new characters to eat up the page count, hopping back and forth in his narrative between newbie cast and the old-hands, in order to set up the next book. This is a pet peeve of mine.
When I finished the prior entry in this series, I was curious to see where the story would go. Unfortunately, I found myself hitting a wall before the half-way mark into this latest entry and was ready to move onto some other book instead. Remic introduces a new love interest for Jones to pine after, and it mostly serves to grind an already slow narrative to a near halt. I finished it, merely because these are short books (even if they subjectively feel much longer to me), but can’t muster up the enthusiasm to rate it any higher than a 3-star read – it’s an OK story, and while I certainly didn’t hate it, Return of Souls failed to connect with me in any way past a bit of a time killer.
Fantasy fiends may have a better time with it, or those who don’t mind a war story with rather languid pacing. This book, and this series taken as a whole thus far, just isn’t for me.
[Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.]
You see, I’m not much for traditional fantasy. I slogged my way through Tolkein’s Lord of the Ring series and felt rather unrewarded (the movies are better, as far as I’m concerned), and forced myself to make it through Steven Erikson’s Gardens of the Moon because of all the praise that Malazan series has garnered. There are exceptions of course – I’m a giddy sucker for George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and am always on the lookout for new R. Scott Bakker books. I have a much easier time with urban fantasy series, like Chuck Wendig’s Miriam Black novels.
All of this is a long-winded way of my trying to explain that I thought Andy Remic’s latest novellas would be up my alley, with their heavy on World War I and light on fantasy elements approach. Alas, it’s not meant to be…
Although Return of Souls, and it’s predecessor, A Song For No Man’s Land, are novella length stories, I’ve felt they were both too long and unnecessarily plodding. Each book has been divided into four parts, with the first 3/4 devoted to Jones and his time on the frontlines fighting German soldiers and beastly creatures known as walriders. The last quarter, though, is when Remic decides to take a sharp and sudden turn, introducing new characters to eat up the page count, hopping back and forth in his narrative between newbie cast and the old-hands, in order to set up the next book. This is a pet peeve of mine.
When I finished the prior entry in this series, I was curious to see where the story would go. Unfortunately, I found myself hitting a wall before the half-way mark into this latest entry and was ready to move onto some other book instead. Remic introduces a new love interest for Jones to pine after, and it mostly serves to grind an already slow narrative to a near halt. I finished it, merely because these are short books (even if they subjectively feel much longer to me), but can’t muster up the enthusiasm to rate it any higher than a 3-star read – it’s an OK story, and while I certainly didn’t hate it, Return of Souls failed to connect with me in any way past a bit of a time killer.
Fantasy fiends may have a better time with it, or those who don’t mind a war story with rather languid pacing. This book, and this series taken as a whole thus far, just isn’t for me.
[Note: I received an advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.]
June 29, 2016
Pues será que yo y este autor no congeniamos. A Goodreads pongo por testigo, que no más Remic en mis estanterías.
August 10, 2016
Review also published here
Disclaimer: The publisher offered me an ARC of the novel. I was highly intrigued by the predecessor when I read it earlier this year, so I jumped at the opportunity.
As with A Song for No Man's Land , Return of Souls performed the best for me when it was dealing with Robert Jones' life in the trenches of the Great War. His mental health is rapidly declining, spiralling out of control to the point where the lines between reality and hallucination, or fantasy, are blurring.
On many occassions, I found myself questioning just what was really going on. What did Jones go through, compared to what he felt and saw. And I loved that. The war has ground him down, and the loss of his friends weighs heavy on his chest. The delivery was fantastic in those early chapters, up to the second third.
And then things changed drastically. The multi-dimensional war that was hinted at in the previous installment moved onto the stage, and Jones finds himself in a different place entirely, the only familiar things being the Walriders that have haunted him all along, and the ever-present threat of war. About halfway through, Return of Souls had crossed the line from dark military fiction with a heavy psychology angle into fantasy, albeit still with a psychological angle.
When the girl Orana entered the picture and Jones quickly fell for her, things started to drag a little for me, and again I started questioning what was going on. That is a major theme of the novel, as it answers few questions while posing countless new ones. Aspects of A Song for No Man's Land that I was hoping would be elaborated on were seemingly forgotten, or at the very least left for the third novel to connect to the ongoing narrative.
One disappointment for me was that there was only one single chapter delving back into Robert's childhood, back to the sanatorium that the first book showed as more than just a little traumatic for the bloke. That chapter was very short, but to the point. It had me put the book down and update my Goodreads status with a resounding "What the ——?!". The absolute disgust and pity I felt after that chapter got to me - as it was supposed to, so Remic scores a big point here.
At the end of it all, I enjoyed the adventure with Jones and Orana, even though it left me a bit dissatisfied for answers. Thankfully, it looks like Robert is as lost as me, and all too willing to trust strangers in that strange place. I'm definitely on board to find out what is going to happen next, after some big twists in the final chapters.
If Andy Remic can manage to tie everything together and elaborate on the situation in The Iron Beast , I'll salute him. I have my ideas about what is going on already, but I clearly need the third installment to make proper sense of it. For what it is, though, Return of Souls is a solid psychological mystery that makes me yearn for more.
Disclaimer: The publisher offered me an ARC of the novel. I was highly intrigued by the predecessor when I read it earlier this year, so I jumped at the opportunity.
As with A Song for No Man's Land , Return of Souls performed the best for me when it was dealing with Robert Jones' life in the trenches of the Great War. His mental health is rapidly declining, spiralling out of control to the point where the lines between reality and hallucination, or fantasy, are blurring.
On many occassions, I found myself questioning just what was really going on. What did Jones go through, compared to what he felt and saw. And I loved that. The war has ground him down, and the loss of his friends weighs heavy on his chest. The delivery was fantastic in those early chapters, up to the second third.
And then things changed drastically. The multi-dimensional war that was hinted at in the previous installment moved onto the stage, and Jones finds himself in a different place entirely, the only familiar things being the Walriders that have haunted him all along, and the ever-present threat of war. About halfway through, Return of Souls had crossed the line from dark military fiction with a heavy psychology angle into fantasy, albeit still with a psychological angle.
When the girl Orana entered the picture and Jones quickly fell for her, things started to drag a little for me, and again I started questioning what was going on. That is a major theme of the novel, as it answers few questions while posing countless new ones. Aspects of A Song for No Man's Land that I was hoping would be elaborated on were seemingly forgotten, or at the very least left for the third novel to connect to the ongoing narrative.
One disappointment for me was that there was only one single chapter delving back into Robert's childhood, back to the sanatorium that the first book showed as more than just a little traumatic for the bloke. That chapter was very short, but to the point. It had me put the book down and update my Goodreads status with a resounding "What the ——?!". The absolute disgust and pity I felt after that chapter got to me - as it was supposed to, so Remic scores a big point here.
At the end of it all, I enjoyed the adventure with Jones and Orana, even though it left me a bit dissatisfied for answers. Thankfully, it looks like Robert is as lost as me, and all too willing to trust strangers in that strange place. I'm definitely on board to find out what is going to happen next, after some big twists in the final chapters.
If Andy Remic can manage to tie everything together and elaborate on the situation in The Iron Beast , I'll salute him. I have my ideas about what is going on already, but I clearly need the third installment to make proper sense of it. For what it is, though, Return of Souls is a solid psychological mystery that makes me yearn for more.
August 16, 2016
I won’t be reading anything else by Andy Remic. I didn’t care for most of his first Tor.com novella, A Song for No Man’s Land, but it got interesting right at the end. Unfortunately, Return of Souls doesn’t deliver on what little promise its predecessor held. Instead, it doubles down on everything I didn’t like about the first book in this planned trilogy and adds a heaping dose of blatant misogyny that makes it a deeply unpleasant read.
Read the full review at SF Bluestocking.
Read the full review at SF Bluestocking.
Read
January 27, 2020Jones is back, bereft of friends, terrified of inhuman foes, and trying to survive the 3rd battle of Ypres. Remic is so good at creating a horrific vision of the front—of hopelessness and horror, of surrender and grit, of the randomness of death when a million people are trying to kill you in a million different ways.
A fun book, with a big mid-novella twist and a constant sense of foreboding, Return of Souls gives fans of this series more of what we loved about A Song for No Mans Land, and then turns up the fantasy dial. For me, Song was a better read, but this is a solid follow up.
Originally posted on Grimdark Magazine.
A fun book, with a big mid-novella twist and a constant sense of foreboding, Return of Souls gives fans of this series more of what we loved about A Song for No Mans Land, and then turns up the fantasy dial. For me, Song was a better read, but this is a solid follow up.
Originally posted on Grimdark Magazine.
February 23, 2018
Good but garbled
Enjoyable though it feels a bit disjointed. Hard to follow the (dimensional?) shift which goes wholly unexplained and leaves a slew of unanswered questions that will hopefully be addressed in book three.
Enjoyable though it feels a bit disjointed. Hard to follow the (dimensional?) shift which goes wholly unexplained and leaves a slew of unanswered questions that will hopefully be addressed in book three.
November 4, 2016
A tad repetitious of the first book.
Author used a few terms too often through the book. Maybe reading 1 and 2 back to back might be the problem. Still a fun quick read though!
Author used a few terms too often through the book. Maybe reading 1 and 2 back to back might be the problem. Still a fun quick read though!
July 19, 2016
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.0 of 5
I was not aware that this was book two in a series/trilogy until I sat down to write this review and grabbed an URL for the cover to paste above.
Return of Souls, by Andy Remic, is a novella of war and its atrocities that transcends time and dimensions.
Private Jones is a soldier in the trenches in the War to End All Wars (WWI). By so many accounts, it was one of the most brutal wars for soldiers and Remic captures this well through the journal writings of Private Jones as he details the horrors that he's witnessed and the fears that plague him. But as the story moves on, Jones' fears begin sounding a little stranger and stranger and we can't help but wonder if its psychological stress or if something else is actually happening.
But this is an Andy Remic story, and if you are at all familiar with him you probably already guessed that the story would take on a tangent away from a conventional war story.
Private Jones wakes up in a strange land where is found and tended to b a woman named Morena. She tells him of the atrocities on her world and of the battles that have played out. Her role as nurse contributes to his falling in love with her and he promises to help and protect her even in the face of unknown evil.
This is a very powerful piece and I'm really curious to go and read the first part of this story since this feels like a very good beginning to me. There are a lot of unknowns, but Remic builds the story nicely and I trust that he will answer the unknowns as we go (and he does).
I'm not a fan of stories that don't have endings but instead rely on trying to secure another sale by not ending the current story, and for that I take away a 'star,' but otherwise this was a very compelling read that had me eager to turn the page to see where it was going.
Looking for a good book? Return of Souls is a novella by Andy Remic that takes on the horrors of war from different times and different realities through the eyes of a front lines private.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
I was not aware that this was book two in a series/trilogy until I sat down to write this review and grabbed an URL for the cover to paste above.
Return of Souls, by Andy Remic, is a novella of war and its atrocities that transcends time and dimensions.
Private Jones is a soldier in the trenches in the War to End All Wars (WWI). By so many accounts, it was one of the most brutal wars for soldiers and Remic captures this well through the journal writings of Private Jones as he details the horrors that he's witnessed and the fears that plague him. But as the story moves on, Jones' fears begin sounding a little stranger and stranger and we can't help but wonder if its psychological stress or if something else is actually happening.
But this is an Andy Remic story, and if you are at all familiar with him you probably already guessed that the story would take on a tangent away from a conventional war story.
Private Jones wakes up in a strange land where is found and tended to b a woman named Morena. She tells him of the atrocities on her world and of the battles that have played out. Her role as nurse contributes to his falling in love with her and he promises to help and protect her even in the face of unknown evil.
This is a very powerful piece and I'm really curious to go and read the first part of this story since this feels like a very good beginning to me. There are a lot of unknowns, but Remic builds the story nicely and I trust that he will answer the unknowns as we go (and he does).
I'm not a fan of stories that don't have endings but instead rely on trying to secure another sale by not ending the current story, and for that I take away a 'star,' but otherwise this was a very compelling read that had me eager to turn the page to see where it was going.
Looking for a good book? Return of Souls is a novella by Andy Remic that takes on the horrors of war from different times and different realities through the eyes of a front lines private.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
July 25, 2016
This started out so excellently. I preferred the action taking place in this world to that in the new/strange land - the former was horrific and awful and visceral, with the deeply creepy walriders interspersed with enemy soldiers. The strange land felt more same-oldy to me - abandoned castle, quest, beautiful maiden with rape backstory (which immediately knocked a star off, I can tell you, I'm so sick of rape being the go-to drama for the sole female character). Just less interesting all round. Still, the mix was working for me overall, but the strong beginning petered off into a muddled end which was a bit disappointing, considering how quickly this book grabbed me when I started it.
The cover art is amazing, though.
The cover art is amazing, though.
September 15, 2016
Dark, dismal and depressing highlighting all the horrors of war (and other horrors!) but so well written it drags you in and forces you to keep turning the pages. I look forward to the final novella in the trilogy.
June 11, 2016
3.5/5.0
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews