World's End

Age of Misrule #1

by Mark Chadbourn

When Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher encounter a terrifying, misshapen giant beneath a London bridge they are plunged into a mystery which portends the end of the world as we know it. All over the country, the ancient gods of Celtic myth are returning to the land from which they were banished millennia ago. Following in their footsteps are creatures of folklore: fabulous bests, wonders and dark terrors As technology starts to fail, Jack and Ruth are forced to embark on a desperate quest for four magical items – the last chance for humanity in the face of powers barely comprehended.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Fiction, Mythology, Horror, Adventure, Dragons

413 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

[Jeff Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually don't get into urban fantasy that much but I have to say I truly enjoyed this book, Chadbourn really knows how to set a scene and flesh out a character, and unlike some Authors he doesn't use this a a vehicle for his political or sexual beliefs. This book is about the old magic coming back to a modern world and he capture both the dread and the wonder with remarkable clarity. I simply can't wait to read the rest of the series.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this book, twenty-ish years ago, I couldn’t get enough of it and gave it 5 stars.

Re-reading it this month, I find myself knocking a star off, with a heavy heart (well, have you tried knocking a star off with a light heart? It just doesn’t have the necessary heft).

A couple of reasons for this:

Firstly, the way the author (and the characters) talk about science and technology as though they’re the same thing. Every time I read ‘science has stopped working’ my eyes rolled. Technology can stop working (I’m fairly sure we’ve all had firsthand experience of this, annoyingly) but science cannot. Science is not a mechanism or a force that can stop working. It’s just a method of observation and measurement. It can’t stop working, like a faulty television. Pedantic? Maybe, but it’s my party and I’ll pedant if I want to.

Secondly, I found the business with the broomsticks more than a bit creepy, and not in a good way. If you’ve read the book, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, trust me, you don’t want to know.

Thirdly, I really didn’t like the semi-deification of Princess Diana. I’m going to give this one a pass as the author does at least mention some of her faults and it’s a relatively minor story element, but it still bugged me.

Don’t get me wrong, though, I still really enjoyed this great slice of urban fantasy and will be continuing my reread of the whole series.

[Steven · Rating 1 out of 5]

A good premise can carry a story so far. After the premise is the characters and the language that makes or breaks a book. It's the difference between bad and mediocre, mediocre and good, good and great. World's End is rewarded with a good premise and then propels itself into mediocrity with poor characters and worse writing.

The characters are flat, boring, irrelevant. They speak in cliches and function like characters in a movie/story/comic book. They don't have any attributes that are realistic or, at the least, fun enough to make them worth reading about. "..."open this can of worms any further" Ruth says at one point and Church responds: "You can only bury your head in the sand for so long." That is bad dialogue. If you spent your life speaking in cliches the world around you would think you had issues. It's consistent throughout the entirety of the story, no one breaks the stereotype or trope in any way and I didn't care for them. Hell, the first scene with a Dragon (or Fabulous Beast which is a pretentious title) came and I hoped that they would be engulfed in flames and I could read a story dealing with real people instead of walking fantasy tropes.

Now, the language is worse. I began to keep a list of the adverbs and adjectives that Chadbourn used and I gave up after page 10. I couldn't keep reading it because they were everywhere. Chadbourn, in this book, uses adverbs and adjectives in the most egregious way. Strunk, White, Mark Twain, and Stephen King would rage out over the abundance and usage of these words. Having them isn't bad, seeing them all the time is. I think the worst I saw, counting "-ly" words, there were about 15 in a page and a half. You've failed as a storyteller if the way in which things are done isn't implied via the dialogue or the action. It's a weakness and it's distracting from the story itself.

I had hopes for this book. I loved the premise, the world is reset to the age of mythology (Celtic at least, maybe universal but all I saw was Celtic) where those creatures and things lived. Then, as I read, it was tired. It was, pardon the cliche, old hat. The characters are weak and not worth caring about. The language is terrible. It was frustrating and I couldn't keep going even knowing a troll or satyr or will-o-the-wisp or banshee or dragon could be around the next corner and magic would be used in a world where technology, science, and the Age of Reason is failing.

[Meghan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book makes me SO MAD. The premise is unbelievably, compellingly good: creatures big and small from Celtic mythology are awakening in (roughly) modern-day Britain, and a band of regular folk find themselves called into the fray. It's SUCH. A GOOD. IDEA. The plot hung onto that just enough to keep me reading through what is some of the worst writing I've ever had to wrestle my way through. I'm actively annoyed by this fucking thing. I was rolling my eyes and cursing at the stupid thing as I read it, but by god, I was going to stay the course through at least one volume. I'm still not sure it was worth it.

Characters are one-dimensional and utterly unbelievable, with the female characters getting the short end of an already puny stick (ye gods, save us from what's supposed to be intimidatingly sarcastic techno-babble of one of them). The one character of colour, you will be shocked to hear, is somehow mystically more in tune with the spiritual plane. His name is Shavi, he's Muslim, but he loves doing tai chi and yoga in the nude. Spare me.

Oh, and when I said "plot," I really still meant premise, because dramatic tension there is none. Characters are set on a mission, an obstacle presents itself, a magical solution immediately presents itself, rinse, repeat. I was never worried that anyone was going to die or be irrevocably injured because I never really got the chance to be worried in the first place.

Out there somewhere is an alternate universe where this is an absolute masterpiece of folkloric fantasy. For our sins, we are trapped here, with this version.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

World's End is the first book in British fantasy author's Mark Chadbourn AGE OF MISRULE trilogy. The novel was originally released in the UK in 1999, and has been re-released in the US by Pyr in 2009.

World's End can probably best be categorized as dark contemporary fantasy. The setting is England, in more or less the present day. Jack Churchill ("Church") lives in London and is trying to cope with the apparent suicide of his girlfriend Marianne. Returning home one night, he has a terrifying encounter under a bridge with a giant whose face seems to melt and change before his eyes. Ruth Gallagher, a lawyer, is also a witness. Both of them pass out, unable to deal with this terrifying vision, but in the next few days, they are drawn together to find out more about what happened.

Soon it becomes clear that life as we know it is changing: technology is starting to fail, creatures of myth and legend are returning to the world, and all the rules we rely on are changing. Church and Ruth embark on a journey to retrieve four magical items that may represent humanity's last hope at the end of the Age of Reason and the start of the Age of Misrule.

What I enjoyed most about World's End is its effective way of mixing regular life in the UK with the encroaching mythological elements. The protagonists travel across the country, staying in hotels, bed and breakfasts, or even their van, giving realistic descriptions of New Age tourism destinations like Stonehenge or Tintagel — while at the same time the country is falling apart because a dragon firebombs a highway or the Wild Hunt tears across the sky. Someone could probably retrace the characters' steps as a travel guide to major Celtic monuments and relics (though hopefully encountering less interference from various mythological monsters).

Another positive for me were the interactions between the main characters, who spend a lot of time bickering realistically and learning from each other. It's nothing new, but still refreshing to read a story in which a few of the main characters just simply don't like each other, while others slowly find common bonds. Some of the characters start out a bit flat, but they experience real growth throughout the novel and best of all, by the end of the novel I felt like I knew most of them.

It's also interesting that World's End can be appreciated on several levels. On the one hand, the novel can simply be read as an entertaining, action-packed contemporary fantasy, but at the same time Mark Chadbourn displays an obviously deep knowledge of mythology, tying together myths on a more fundamental level and, especially in the later stages, giving this novel an additional layer of depth and a broader scope than you'd initially expect.

Maybe a minor point, but one I really appreciated: from the very beginning, the more-or-less normal people who become the heroes of this story find it hard to deal with the surreal and terrifying creatures they encounter. Even in the first scene, both Church and Ruth faint when confronted with the terrifying giant, and later on, spells are used to inoculate them and others against the terrifying visions. It's refreshing to read a novel in which the heroes don't emit a Keanu Reeves-like "whoa" when seeing something impossible, and then just move on.

Some negative points: I found some of the plot twists obvious to the point of transparency, while others were simply too predictable, especially towards the end of the novel. The story occasionally speeds up to the point where it reads like the script for an action movie, but on the plus side, at least it's a movie I'd want to see — especially if the special effects look anything like the gorgeous and somewhat terrifying cover illustration by John Picacio, which has the distinction of being the first cover to actually show up in one of my nightmares.

All in all, I felt that the positives outweighed the novel's few problems, because World's End served up enough excitement, mythological depth, and interesting characters to keep me reading to the end. I'm usually not a big reader of contemporary fantasy or dark fantasy, but I definitely look forward to reading the next book in the series, Darkest Hour.

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

[Dorian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Churchill and Ruth Gallagher meet when they both happen to witness a strange attack - a minor civil servant is murdered by a monstrous being which neither of them can describe clearly. The police say "mugging", but Church and Ruth are reluctantly convinced that something else is going on. As they try to find out what, things get ever stranger.

This is a story about what happens when magic, and magical beings, return to our technology-driven world. (It's not very pretty.) Church and Ruth find themselves on a quest to fight back the approaching darkness and, as is traditional in quest fantasies, spend much of the book chasing around Britain searching for McGuffins and accumulating Quest Companions. They even have a Wise Old Mentor (though he is not quite like the traditional white-bearded wizard).

It's a pretty dark book. The opposition is very horrible, and has no objection to mass murder and wholesale destruction, as well as more individualised nastinesses such as kidnapping and torture. Still, Our Heroes find moments of joy and beauty along the way too (and indulge in some very realistic, if occasionally tiresome bickering); it isn't all doom and gloom.

The author has mined myth, legend and folklore pretty thoroughly for his magic setting. I must admit to being rather annoyed by his appropriation of Irish myth for the major antagonists, allies, and McGuffins, given the entire story takes place in Great Britain, and the five Heroes are all English. Even the Wise Old Mentor is Scottish. It's not, after all, as if that island hasn't got plenty of myth of its own - which he does use, but in a more subordinate capacity.

Also, the thing with the broomstick riding is entirely gratuitous.

Still, overall I liked it, and I've ordered the rest of the trilogy from the library.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

You ever read one of those books that has a great concept but very little follow through? That's what World's End is. The idea of this book, that the heroes need to bring the gods of Celtic mythology back to make the evil of the "old world" go away is intriguing in it's own right. It's a similar concept that Rick Riordian has been playing with in his Kane Chronicles series. Unfortunately the plot was rushed and things just seemed to happen. It felt like an action movie, not a book. Not a lot of thought, but there were sure a lot of fights and explosions. The characters (which is the number one feature in a book for me) were rushed and not well thought out. The author tried to include any number of different "characters" from our modern society. They all however seemed extremely fake, and forced into their actions based on the situation that the author needed them to get into, not because that's what the character would do. At the end I did not even feel bad when horrible things started happening to our characters, because the author had not developed them enough to make me feel remorse or regret for them. Interesting thought, not enough follow through in the ideas.

[Paul Weimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Age of Misrule: World's End, Mark Chadbourn's oeuvre of Celtic gods and monsters returning, with catastrophic results, to the world, finally reaches U.S. Publication. Done in a handsome edition with great art by John Picacio, the book soon transports the reader into a world that starts off familiar.

Only at first.

We met a set of characters in-then contemporary Britain (the book was originally written in the 1990's). Jack, Ruth, Laura, Shavi, and Ryan slowly come together, under the mysterious guidance of Tom, as events slowly reveal that the old creatures and Gods of Celtic Mythology are not only real, but they are returning to the world to take their place in (mis)rule once again.

Technology starts to fail, and magic starts to rise again. But the return of magic and magical beings, and magical items is no good thing. And worse. the five characters have been signaled out by the forces of darkness for reasons the characters themselves do not at first understand.

Still, when a dragon firebombs a freeway in order to try and kill you, and the Wild Hunt comes after you to stop you from doing something that you yourself do not know, its time to, flaws and all, to try and be a hero. To try and make sense of a changing world, and better still, try and guide its change for the better.

The characters are three dimensional and none are cookie cutter protagonists or sad-sacks. Chadbourn's writing is both poignant in the stories of the character as well as describing vividly and engagingly the encounters and conflicts these characters face as they deal with the too-rapidly changing world.

Strong use and understanding of remixed mythology and Faerie (which reminded me, in a different vein, of Bear's Promethean Age novels). Excellent set pieces. Characters that grow, change and you learn to care about.

Forget derivative pablum fantasy. This is some of the good stuff. In Silverlock terms, its clear that Chadbourn has made a pilgrimage to Hippocrene and isn't afraid to write like it.

I've already bought the second book in the series. I think, after reading this one, you will too.

[Briton · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Awesome book! I found this a while ago on a shelf in an old bookstore, and when i finished this volume, i immediately went looking for the rest of the series.

Mark is a brilliant author, creating very realistic characters from every kind of background, and creates a scene that is totally popular these days, yet never taken from this point of view. I will not say much, but i will say its similar to the stories of gods coming back to our world, yet this one is totally different.

Warning: Mark is a VERY descriptive author. I recommend his books only for very mature readers.

[Zuzana Schedová · Rating 5 out of 5]

V dubnu jsem si kromě nových knih, dala i dva rereadingy a tohle byl první z nich. Měla jsem chuť vrátit se k příběhu, který jsem už sice jednou prožila, ale zapsal se mi do paměti takovým způsobem, že jsem věděla, že se k němu někdy vrátím. A tak jsem se znovu vrhla na fantasy ságu z pera anglického spisovatele Marka Chadbourna a znova jsem se vrátila do Anglie, ve které se začnou dít zvláštní věci a každým dnem se začne objevovat množství nevysvětlitelných nadpřirozených jevů.
Děj této fantasy ságy odehrávající se v aktuální Anglii je postavený na keltských mýtech a legendách. Dávní bohové, kteří byli z našeho světa vyhnání se znovu vrací, aby převzali vládu nad Zemí a s nimi přichází všechny bytosti z legend a mýtů, o kterých lidi až do dnešního dne věřili, že jsou jenom vymyšlené. A tak se potkáváme nejenom s bohy, ale i s různými nestvůrami, vílami, lidmi se zvláštními schopnostmi, spolu s hlavními hrdiny navštěvujeme magická místa Anglie a stáváme se součástí zvláštní party, která tak nějak byla predurčena k tomu, aby zachránila svět před totální nadvládou keltských bohů. Nepamatuju si žádnou zvláštnější partu hrdinů, kteří se stali hrdiny proti své vlastní vůli. A tak Church, Ruth, Laura, Shavi a Tom se vydají na cestu, ze které není cesty zpátky.
Je to prostě skvělé. Hrozně se mi líbí námět toho, že se postavy z keltských legend a mýtů dostanou do našeho světa a začnou tady dělat paseku. Velmi dobrá myšlenka, kterou se podařilo Markovi Chadbournovi fakt zajímavě rozepsat a zpracovat. Je to první část trilogie, takže tady nic nekončí, právě naopak, i když se to může zdát, tak Konec světa je jenom začátek. A já se těším, když se do tohoto dobrodružství ponořím znovu. Je to prostě pecka a jedna z mých nejoblíbenějších fantasy sérií.

[Zoey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ancient gods and beings from Celtic myth are rising up and starting to walk in the modern world. Technology starts to fail, and modern life as we know it seems to be at risk. A small group of people - dare I call them a fellowship? - unite and go on a quest to seek out magical items to help face this threat.

Sounds great. I had this book on my Paperbackswap.com wishlist for months, and was excited to finally get it. Unfortunately I couldn't even finish the book. I gave up on page 54, after the main characters - Jack and Ruth - spent a page discussing Jack's taste in music. In a word, the book is boring.

By page 54, Jack and Ruth have had one unpleasant encounter with a mythical being and have started to investigate what might have happened. However, we don't know what they encountered, or what it might forebode. We know far more about Jack's wife, his depression/mourning, and even his musical tastes than we do about anything mythical. The focus of the story is obviously going to be on the characters rather than on the plot idea of re-emerging Celtic gods, which would be tolerable if the characters were interesting, but I couldn't care less about Jack or Ruth. If the main interest of the story is supposed to be the characters, then the characters need to be interesting.

The pace is slow, the characters are dull, and at times the writing is pretentious. The book seems to aim for intellectual entertainment, but it missed the mark and it put me to sleep. I've given up and am moving on.

Rating: 2.5/10

https://bewareofsloth.wordpress.com/2...

[Jason Chang · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this book did not resonate well with me at all. This was my "Judge a Book By Its Cover" choice for 2009, and I probably should have paid heed to the old adage. My main issue with the book were protoganists that did not come alive, villains that did not come alive, and a story that did not come alive. At the midpoint, I seriously debated whether I should call it quits. I presssed on only to confirm my negative impression down to the last chapter. I will not be reading the rest of the trilogy.

[Isk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Remind me never to read books where 'normal world' + fantasy intermix again. Please, just follow Rowling (who did it so well), and let the characters immediately accept that magic or what-have-you exists. I can suspend my disbelief if it means not having idiotic characters blabbering on about retardedly refusing to accept some minor fantasy even when they've already seen fucking dragons with their own fucking eyes.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

World’s End is a masterpiece of Celtic lore and mythology. Though the details can be overwhelming, and the idea of a band of chosen people out to save the world is a rather exhausted concept, the book itself is worth reading. Chadbourn’s flowing prose and captivating story is nothing short of riveting and will whisk readers away on a wild ride through incredible myths.

Read my full review here:

http://bookwormblues.blogspot.com/201...

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Age of Misrule was a book that seemed very familiar to me as I read it, I realized that was because Warren Ellis's Injection is a rip-off of this concept. The ancient gods of the Celts are awakening and the Age of Reason is ending. Magic is returning. Apparently the Covenant between the Light and Dark as been broken. A select group of humans, the Brothers and Sisters of the Dragon, have been chosen by fate to restore the balance. These normal people must undertake a quest to recover ancient and powerful relics and reach their full potential.

This book is a mix of positive and negatives things. First, the good- the setting of Great Britain and using traditional Celtic myths are awesome. From the Wild Hunt to the Shiobhan Sith are all here and well done. The old sites of Britain work well with the myths. The author clearly knows his cities from London to Glastonbury, little gems show he has spent time there. The overarching sense of threat grows as the books progresses. It starts with little hints that only the chosen ones are able to decipher, to near the end where there is no denying what is happening.

The bad- as with many tales of this nature, the characters make ALL the difference. Sadly, I was not impressed with this bunch for the most part. There are good characters like Tom and Shavi, ok characters like Ruth and Church, and an awful character in Laura. Laura is an obnoxious hipster idiot. She has dyed blonde hair, shaved on the sides with length on top (like some retarded pop singer whose name I don't recall since I never bothered to know it), dresses in that pretentiously awful style made infamous by hipsters everywhere and is a tech head. Well, in a world where technology is fading fast or misfiring, she's about as useful as a fourth nipple. Also one of the characters, Church I think, thinks she's "faux obnoxious", um sure she is...in much the same vein Hitler was "faux anti-Semitic". Even Church can get on your nerves..he is one of those people that no matter what they see, they will periodically say "I can't believe this is real" *sigh* After several chapters, you wonder if he is daft.

The overall story is good and the conflicts well done. But, I had two minor quibbles because they reek of Deus Ex Machina (DEM) solutions. The first is at the very start of the story when the heroes are being chased by a 30 foot dragon on the highway, at night. The Dragon we are informed can sense them and it ignites an entire lane of cars to kill them. Somehow they avoid it, but then the book says they rocketed down the rest of the highway which was empty...sooo ummmmm the dragon can't see the lone car speeding away? It'd kinda stand out I'd think.....maybe the dragon needed spectacles. Then once it does figure out who they are and chases them, at one point it shoots flame at them, but only incenerates the shrubbery on the side of the road. So a 30 foot dragon, capable of destroying an entire highway...can't aim or shoot the flames to take out a single car on a one lane road?
The second DEM was when the Shiobhan Sith were looking for the heores. They hole up in a hotel and at night realize the city is full of these creatures, who are invisible unless they want to be seen. At one point one comes into the hotel, so the heores hide. Tom goes into a closet and closes the door and Church and Ruth- CLIMB UNDER THE COVERS AND COVER THIER HEADS AND LIE STILL!!!!!! Absolutely bonkers, but according to Tom (something of an expert it seems) the Shiobhan Sith have animal levels of cunning. So this thing opens the door by getting the tumblers to turn and unlocking it magically- walks into the room, looks around, walks over to the closet and looks-and then leaves. Ummmmmm it can open locked doors, but didn't open the closet door? It didn't poke the covers of lift them up to look at the two people obviously uinder there? This was a bit of a stretch....

But, overall this was an enjoying read. I liked the setting and the creatures. I do not know if I liked the story, well mostly the heroes, that much that I would try volume two. But, by no means is this a bad story. I wouldn't highly recommend this, but if fantasy is your things..especially modern urban fantasy....this might be just for you. A 3/5 book.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

You hear an argument close by and you make in its direction to investigate. What you end up seeing is a man being murdered by a creature so hideous it makes you vomit then completely lose consciousness. That’s exactly what happened to Jack “Church” Churchill and Ruth Gallagher in Mark Chadbourn’s World’s End. The horrific experience has been permanently etched into their subconscious and it has changed their lives forever. Together they embark on a journey to find items that could save mankind from complete destruction by sinister forces.

World’s End is quintessential contemporary dark fantasy. The story setting is a mix of modern day society and various elements from mythology. It’s quite obvious Chadbourn has done his homework, given how well he links all these mythological pieces in with modern theological and philosophical concepts. Chadbourn creates a unique, believable, and complex tapestry of myth and folklore for this world. He pulls this off extremely well and authors-to-be should take note, because it’s this kind of detail in world building that writers often miss in their stories.

The characters in World’s End are many. There are at least six main characters that all get equal time. I’m usually wary when books have too many central characters; someone usually gets left undeveloped. That is not the case in this book. Each character is given the right amount of attention to make you feel for each of them and their unique situations. They have all come from different backgrounds and have very different personalities, but they are forced to rely on each other in deep and personal ways. I grew to love and respect each character as the story progressed. I even grew to like Laura, who at the beginning of the story made me cringe each time she spoke. The character development in World’s End is some of the best I’ve read.

The plotting of the story is where World’s End falters a bit, and was the only thing that kept it from getting 5 stars. The characters find themselves in predictable situations and are often saved in predictable ways. As Stefan said in his review (on fanlit), many of the plot twists are transparent. It almost seems that so much time and effort was put into building an amazing world filled with strong characters, that some of the actual plot devices were left wanting

Don’t let my quibbles about plotting stop you from reading the book, though. Complaining about predictable plotting in fantasy is like whining about there being dragons on the front cover. World’s End is brilliant in almost every other aspect of its storytelling, and I’m amazed that Mr. Chadbourn’s books don’t get as much attention as they should. I see vampire/zombie trash all the time cluttering up shelves. THE AGE OF MISRULE series blows away a large portion of bestselling fantasy available today. I look forward to reading the next installment, and only regret I didn’t read it sooner.


www.fantasyliterature.com.

[D · Rating 1 out of 5]

World's End felt throughout like a book I expected to like, and I wonder if I might've liked it better if I'd encountered it earlier. It's a heroic fantasy of the magic-returns-to-the-modern-world variety. Chadbourn clearly knows a lot about the myths and legends of the British Isles, and this was what I enjoyed most in the novel -- oddly, the moments when I was most conscious that a character was delivering exposition to the reader were some of the most interesting. It's not that Chadbourn can't write (although I did notice an over-reliance on the word "bleak" in the first few chapters). His prose is . . . "sturdy" is the word that comes to mind, not "rich," or "evocative," but certainly better than "serviceable." Several of his characters have a bit more roundedness to them than those in many fantasy novels (although I found a few of them annoying, which didn't help sell me on the novel). Chadbourn's Britain feels very solid; I've been to several of the locales he describes, and it's easy for me to credit that he has too.

I think my biggest issues with World's End are primarily about the plot, and fall into two groups. First, characters keep making screamingly bad choices. You know the horror movies where somebody says, "hey, let's split up so the monster can pick us off one by one"? That bad. (To be fair, the villains as well as the heroes have some boneheaded moments) Second, the abilities of the antagonists didn't seem consistent. They're more or less invincible until the plot requires them to take a defeat, and then they're suddenly vulnerable to a pitiful ruse. (You could argue that Chadbourn is employing a venerable tradition of underdog characters fighting mighty evils, but I would counter that the protagonists' actions would still benefit from a little more credibility.) It's also a druggier book than I prefer, and suffers a little from the wish-fulfillment guy-irresistible-to-women thing that bugged me so much about Stieg Larsson.

[Cathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Swing and a miss. It has a lot of the elements I like but it just doesn't come together. It does get a bit better in the last third, but it still isn't good. For one thing, there's never any emotion in the book. I was curious to see what happened but I never actually cared about the characters. And most importantly, while the writing was pretty good in general, there's no good dialog or clever wordplay enough to make the very, very long book any fun when the plot is full of gigantic holes. I saw some reviews claiming that it's dumb to complain about fantasy being predictable, that every fantasy is. Well, for one thing, that's bull, some authors manage to come up with new ideas. But yes, most are combinations of the traditional tales. So are romances, mysteries... I don't mind when a book is predictable when it's entertaining to read. But when I'm rolling my eyes and annoyed and flipping ahead constantly just trying to get to the next section, there's a problem. This book has so many coincidences just to get the author out of having to come up with writing a logical solution to how his characters met, or got of trouble each time, it just wasn't fun. And the whole plot was just lacking to me. The big idea was good once I saw it. But the quest was so dumb. It's a very strange thing to me, I just don't really know how to respond still. There were some good elements. I was curious enough to keep trying to see what happened. I am curious about the next book. If it wasn't so darn long with such tiny print again I might try it. It takes a lot to get me to not read the next book in a series that I can get from the library, but I think that I'm just not interested enough in the characters to bother. It wasn't offensively dumb but it was lacking in character development, plot development and style. Oy.

[amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are so many warring emotions going on when I look back on this read. Let's start with the positive: I really, genuinely love this plot. I know there's some people who have problems with old magics being mixed into a current day setting, but I don't mind it. I think it's more interesting if you can make it work & have it believable than creating an entirely made-up world where it'd be completely acceptable. It's much more interesting this way.

Now. Since I really don't have many complaints with where the story is going, let's turn to the characters. Here is where the problem lies for me, personally. I didn't like focusing on one group of people for a paragraph or two, & then launching into the other group's viewpoint. It left me feeling like I couldn't connect to any of these characters for who they were. They all ended up getting grouped together & no matter what new information we learned of these people, I always felt like I was still missing something. Laura, in particular, was especially irritating. I understand she's got her own problems, but she put me off so very much that I honestly didn't (& don't) care about her part in the story. I think Church is too wishy-washy (as well as Ruth, despite her being a character I actually root for) & Veitch never got any worthwhile development. (In fact, I believe that none of them really had hardly any worthwhile development.) Tom & Shavi are stronger characters, with Tom being probably my favorite from the entire book.

I'll keep on reading, since I'm actually interested to see how this turns out, but for now, the characters leave me wanting a lot more & I'd like to see a lot more growth & progress from them in the sequel.

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started out by reading Jack of Ravens and then realized it was the first in a sequel trilogy to The Age of Misrule. I've only given this book 3 stars even though I really love fantasy, especially the aspects of Celtic fantasy that is woven into the story. I think I slightly ruined this story for myself because Shavi, Veitch, Ruth, and Laura have been seriously changed in Jack of Ravens and it took some time to get used to the characters that they were supposed to be. Its not that it gives me foreknowledge, but that the characters are subtly changed in the sequel because of events that took place in that book, so these characters aren't the same as the second series. Second, I found this book very very violent, more so than I had expected. That's not bad per se, but just not what I had expected so we'll have to see how the series progresses.

The story itself is well crafted and intricate. I just wish he hadn't hit us over the head with the Roisin Dubh, everyone could tell from the way it was introduced that it wasn't a good omen, why did you have to keep harping on it. Seriously, this is not a spoiler, it's so obvious, plus unless you know Irish or have been to the pub I'm guessing most people don't know what a Roisin Dubh is.

The best character is Tom. He's grumpy and mysterious and surly and sometimes I feel like the only really multidimensional character. The only real problem I have with the book is that Church is sort of a depressed, useless lump and suddenly he's super important? I know that its something the character himself struggles with so I'm guessing it was done intentionally, but it does feel sort of like a trope I could look up on TVTropes.

[April · Rating 1 out of 5]

You would think that a book about the world being ended by Celtic Gods would be able to hold my interest. Sadly you would be wrong.

Despite the interesting set-up and look into the concepts of non-duality (gods being both good and evil and evil only existing as long as there's good and vice versa), the pacing of this book irks me. The characters do too. Perhaps it's just I would rather read about the gods and their monsters than two people sharing a traumatic experience which will probably end in them hooking up soon. Too little of the gods and monsters is shown in the opening chapters for my tastes. I needed more meat. More visuals. More something.

In short, I think I was expecting far too much. I was eagerly awaiting the opportunity to read this so you can imagine my disappointment that I cannot bring myself to continue after reading about 100 pages. But I just don't have the time to invest in a three book series when I don't care about either of the main characters or their issues.

I might come back to this someday, but for now color me underwhelemed and unimpressed.

[Reed · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having heard such wonderful things about this series, with comparisons to old Charles De Lint and Guy Gavriel Kay, I was eager to try it out for myself.

I can see how folks would draw such comparisons, with Chadbourn's novel being firmly set in the urban fantasy realm. I guess the Kay comparisons are to his Fionovar Tapestry books, where "ordinary" people take up powerful, archetypal roles in the story.

The problem I had with the story was the characterization was quite weak. I enjoyed the world Chadbourn has created--magic is coming back into the world, and a mostly Celtic-influenced series of critters and god-like beings are wreaking havoc. But the main characters are relatively stereotypical and two dimensional. I wanted to like the story, but I found that by the end I didn't particularly care what happened.

I probably won't read the next volume, unless someone I trust assures me that it will blow me away. That's ok. There's lots of books out there to be read. One less trilogy is not a bad thing.

[Siobhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final verdict: 2 1/2 stars.

This one had potential but wasn't executed well. I picked it up based on the subject matter (the premise that the old Celtic gods were returning, and a post-apocalyptic world without technology), but there was too much going on, the characters weren't very likable, and certainly didn't come off as very smart. There was an awful lot of jumping around, location-wise, and the idea that most of the population of the country hadn't noticed the current events was entirely unrealistic. The plot could have been streamlined, and the writing could have been better.

All said, I am going to give the rest of the series a shot, recognizing that this is the first of a series and was written a while ago. But I fully admit this is one that I wanted to like, and not one that I actually did.

[Frank Hood · Rating 1 out of 5]

I would rate this lower if I could. Horrible writing. It's like this guy knew some Celtic history and wanted an excuse to write about it. Poor excuse. So many missed opportunities to further the story and dialog that he runs over with "After an hour of sitting and wondering" "15 minutes later" It's like this person has no ability to distinguish how long something takes or that no one, world savers or otherwise, would sit and wonder for an hour without speaking. Instead the details were all about what specific highway they took. And his elements of erotica are just downright cringe inducing. It's like he just wanted an excuse to have someone get dirty with a broomstick.

Only good thing this book brought me was a realization that I could someday write a novel and it'd actually get produced. If this one came into existence, I can get one too.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

...What to make of World’s End? After reading it I am left with mixed feelings. There are aspects of the story I liked a lot. Chadbourn is obviously very versed in Celtic mythology and he uses this to great effect in the novel. He also makes sure not to make his story into a black and white, good versus evil kind of book. On the other hand the plot is pretty standard in fantasy. I didn’t entirely escape the feeling I had read this book before. The final part of the book suggests the plot of the second part in the trilogy, Darkest Hour, will be more interesting. For me that is enough to tip the balance, I guess I am on board of book two.

Full Random Comments review

[Chris Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. I really did.

A story about how the modem day world had to deal with the return of magic, and all the creatures of myth and legend?

That should make for a great story.

Unfortunately there's not a single likable character in the book. Not one. Everyone is constantly at eachothers throats. Hardly a civil word between the 5 main characters.

It took everything I had hoping for good character development, buy nope.

It's rare that I say this about a book I finished, but I'll never read this again.

I will give the author this though. He does a damned good job at storytelling. Is a great story. The magic system is superb, the villains are terrifying, and I loved how he drew the changes out instead of making it happen all at once.

[Amanda]

Once again my high hopes were sooo far off and..Did I miss something? is this some sort of Christian fantasy? At times it seemed like it was then I would think, 'no, i guess not' but it just felt too much like one for my liking. Although this wasn't, by far, the only reason I disliked the novel. It had some well-written parts but they were so few and far between I couldn't take it anymore. I wish I didn't persevere through the 130 pages I did read.

Anyway, I won't rate it because I didn't even get halfway, but wow, yuck. It's sad because the idea for this plot could have been crafted into an extraordinary story

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another book that I couldn't put down. Great characters, awesome world, and a moving plot. Some of his main characters are not my favorite, but then not every hero has to be likable.

Being a romance reader, the romantic plot in my opinion, is old and tired. I prefer my guys and gals to be self-aware enough that they realize what they are feeling and for whom. This is only the first book in the series, so I'm hoping for better development in this area in the next 2 books.

All in all, I think this is a great story. One thing I wish authors would do is put a phonetic dictionary when they decide to go with Gaelic, but that's my personal issue.

[Sanchita · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've never read any Mark Chadbourn before. He tries to bring to the fore the cyclical nature of history and time (similar to The Wheel of Time series). This series talks about the death of the Age of Reason and rebirth of the Dark Ages, full of magic and entities much greater than humans. My complaint with the book is that the characters aren't very believable because they keep making these ridiculous blunders like going out lone in the middle of the night when hairy scary monsters are about. Having said that, this book talks about alternate sexuality, abuse, grief and, yes, vaginas! That made it totally worthwhile.

[Nate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, Celtic fun. The Sidhe come back along with a bunch of other pagan deities and species. A few humans catch on, the Brothers & Sisters of Dragons (which reads way too much as a politically correct terminology) and don't really do much, but somehow manage to stave off destruction for a little while. I'm interested to see how the rest of the series goes, but not really in love with any of the characters.