In the grimdark fantasy novel 'Blackwing' by Ed McDonald, readers are introduced to a bleak world where mortals struggle against the odds imposed by godlike beings. The protagonist, Captain Galharrow, commands the Blackwings, a paramilitary force tasked with battling monsters created by the Deep Kings to reactivate Nall's Engine. As the story unfolds, Galharrow navigates a dangerous landscape known as the Misery, filled with twisted creatures and supernatural dangers, all while uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the world as he knows it. McDonald's writing style is described as dark, twisted, and filled with gruesome scenes, redefining grimdark fantasy for many readers.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings for Blackwing include violence, gore, alcoholism, and themes associated with war and suffering.
Has Romance?
While romance exists in the narrative, it is not the dominant focus; relationships develop amid the backdrop of dark themes.
From The Publisher:
"A remarkably assured fantasy debut that mixes of the inventiveness of China Miéville with the fast paced heroics of David Gemmell."-Anthony Ryan, New York Times bestselling author of The Legion of Flame
Set on a postapocalyptic frontier, Blackwing is a gritty fantasy debut about a man's desperate battle to survive his own dark destiny...
Hope, reason, humanity: the Misery breaks them all.
Under its cracked and wailing sky, the Misery is a vast and blighted expanse, the arcane remnant of a devastating war with the immortals known as the Deep Kings. The war ended nearly a century ago, and the enemy is kept at bay only by the existence of the Engine, a terrible weapon that protects the Misery's border. Across the corrupted no-man's-land teeming with twisted magic and malevolent wraiths, the Deep Kings and their armies bide their time. Watching. Waiting.
Bounty hunter Ryhalt Galharrow has breathed Misery dust for twenty bitter years. When he's ordered to locate a masked noblewoman at a frontier outpost, he finds himself caught in the middle of an attack by the Deep Kings, one that signifies they may no longer fear the Engine. Only a formidable show of power from the very woman he is seeking, Lady Ezabeth Tanza, repels the assault.
Ezabeth is a shadow from Galharrow's grim past, and together they stumble onto a web of conspiracy that threatens to end the fragile peace the Engine has provided. Galharrow is not ready for the truth about the blood he's spilled or the gods he's supposed to serve…
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What can you read after
Blackwing?
About the Author:
Ed McDonald has spent many years moving between different professions, cities and countries, but the only thing all of them have in common is that they have allowed him the time to write. He currently lives with his wife in London, a city that provides him with constant inspiration, where he works as a university lecturer. When he's not grading essays or wrangling with misbehaving plotlines, he can usually be found fencing with longswords, rapiers or whatever else comes to hand.
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