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Priest of Bones

War for the Rose Throne, Book 1

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Priest of Bones

By: Peter McLean
Narrated by: David Morley Hale
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Summary

'Sixty-five thousand battle-shocked, trained killers came home to no jobs, no food and the plague. What did Her Majesty think was going to happen?' 

Tomas Piety takes his duties seriously: as a soldier, as a priest of Our Lady of Eternal Sorrows and as a leader of men. He has come home from the war to reclaim his family business, to provide for his men and to ensure the horrors of Abingon can never happen in Ellinburg. 

But things have changed: his crime empire has been stolen, and the people of Ellinburg - his people - have run out of food and hope and places to hide. With his best friend, Bloody Anne, his war-damaged brother, Jochan, and his new gang, the Pious Men, Tomas sets out to reclaim what was his. 

And as Tomas is dragged into a web of political intrigue by the sinister Queen's Men, forced to work against the foreign infiltrators lurking in the backstreet taverns, brothels and gambling dens of the Stink, one thing becomes clear. 

The war has just begun. 

©2018 Peter McLean (P)2018 Quercus Editions Limited Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Historical War Royalty
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Critic Reviews

"Charismatic and very more-ish." (Mark Lawrence, best-selling author of Red Sister)

"Fans of Daniel Polansky, Mark Lawrence or, dare I say, Blackwing will most appreciate this book." (Ed McDonald, author of Blackwing)
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great story and reading u enjoyed every minute of it. would recommend it to anyone looking for a good listen

great story

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A unique Grimdark historical fantasy of gangsters and soldiers with skilful writing and thrilling storyline. Highly recommended!

Absolutely Brilliant

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A great, fast-paced, entertaining story, to my mind.
Cinematic scenes, solid characters and plenty of authentic dialogue.
The narrator did an amazing job bringing this book to life.

Priest of Bones

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I really enjoyed listening to this book. It was a solid story with an interesting magic system I hope we learn more about.
I totally get the Peaky Blinders comparisons, there are quite a few similarities throughout the book.
First person narrative took a minute to get into and it was a bit repetitive, telling us the same things over again in the same way with no variance at all but hopefully this is edited out in the second book.
Still a bloody good read with plenty of violence and settling of scores.

Solid, fast paced fantasy

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If you want a really good book, check out Joe Abocrombie's First Law series narrated by Steven Pacey. I was looking for something to follow these epic, violent and satirical novels but McLean's writing is just very weak in comparison.
Priest of Bones, in essence, is a very poorly written rip off of Peaky Blinders. Even named the main character Thomas. "Our Lady", one of the deities of this universe, is so basic and not thought through at all just like everything else. Also the dialogue is super repetitive, cause there's nothing to say...

below average

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