Reviewed by Guvnor
When I read this I did actually find it quite good to read, and was surprised.
It centres around two main characters- a young knight and a peasant girl. They are in a sort-of relationship, as they do not have the money to marry.
Cutting out lots of very strange descriptions, the peasant girl has visions of Sigmar. Initially she is branded a witch (the book is set in the time of the three emperors) but with the help of a witch hunter (who is only ruthless because he has to be*sarcastic laugh*) she is cleared (the townsfolk don't like this and go nutty and they all die because the witch hunter sets fire to the town.) However this witch hunter has a grudge with the knight and vice versa.
While his girlfriend is being called a witch, our young but not-very-noble knight is having fun being insulted and so on. A lot of people think he shouldn't be a knight as he is not noble enough. Eventually they get round to insulting the girlfriend/witch and he gets very very angry. I must say this bit did not impress me. The actual duel was very well written but the conditions were stupid. The insulter must apologise if he loses, and should our hero lose then he (the hero) must leave the order. This did not ring true to me.
However our knight wins and we never see this apology. After this it gets a bit strange and I can't say anymore without giving everything away. Which is a pity because the other two books are quite good.
In the end of the last book there is a very clever little part that explains this grudge between the witch hunter and knight. In fact the knight caused it. The witch hunter killed the knight’s family because he thought the knight’s father killed his wife with witchcraft. In fact, it was the knight himself using the power of chaos to take revenge on this witch hunter. So, this knight caused all his own misery, causing him to cause it. It is a very nice little time loop thing about cause and effect.
The ending though is a bit pathetic. However Mr Gav does not make a 'glorious victory, happy ever after' ending. In fact everyone is very sad, despite their glorious victory. All the good characters are betrayed and killed by their former friends, well not killed but betrayed and probably killed. We are never told. I felt very depressed.
These books are really following two characters and how one follows the path of Sigmar, even if it does not give her any reward and the other goes to chaos in order to reach self-fulfilment. Not a bad series in fact.