Reviews: The Thousand Names (9)

What can I say this book was a page turner from the start. I enjoyed the way the book mixed fantasy and really tactics from the Napoleonic period.

I grew to love the characters in the book and couldn't wait to see what happened to them. This book is a good first book and I highly anticipate the next book in the series.

It would have been good,for a bit of background as the book keeps referring to a period earlier in time however this can be overlooked.

There are lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing the whole way through and a few surprises as well.

Found the book a bit long as well and thought that some of the parts could have been wrapped up sooner than what they could have been. However I do stand by my 5 star review and can see this author going far.

For people that live scifi and fantasy books this is a must read. Bring on book 2.

The Thousand Names is a fabulous fantasy debut novel heralding Django Wexler as a talented author. Full of battles, friendship and mystique, my interest was held from the first page. The plot takes a while to get going, the first few chapters serving as an introduction to the characters as well the fictional world. It can seem a bit complex and confusing at times, but all will be revealed through the development of the characterisation, and as the military campaign gets under way. The central characters - Captain d'Ivoire, Winter Ihernglass and Colonel Janus bet Vhalnich interact with each other awkwardly at first. The themes of friendship and trust develop as the story progresses.
I found myself comparing this book to A Game of Thrones, where we cannot trust everyone entirely, and are not too sure what their motives are in the wider scheme of things. There were also instances where I was reminded of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe books of the Napoleonic Wars.
Wexler's debut will appeal to both fans of fantasy and of military fiction. I am eagerly awaiting Book 2 of The Shadow Campaigns.

I do enjoy fantasy books and was looking forward to a new author in this Category. I found the first half of the book quite confusing in parts as to who was with which troop and maybe a bit slow, but soon after i became captivated by the twists and turns of the story and found it very hard to put down.
I will definitely be purchasing the next in the series as i can't wait to find out what can possibly happen next.
If you love fantasy its well worth a try!

You need to be reading Django Wexler. His books are a wonderful mix of Napoleonic inspired military and fantasy - magic with a light touch. His characters are wonderful, some of my favourites I've ever read, and I'm dying to find out what happened throughout the series.
Janus and Marcus have a wonderful Sherlock/Watson relationship - the inscrutable genius and the reliable soldier. Waiting to find out exactly why is going on in Janus' head contributes to 90% of my impatience for the next book!
Winter is a brilliant fantasy LGBTQ character - her gender and sexuality don't simply define her but contribute to enrich her character, (I find this worth mentioning since representation in fantasy and Sci Fi has been a hot topic over the past few years) and her character progression over the series is wonderful too.

Very highly recommended! His kids series is worth checking out too.

I think this is the first of this type of novel I've ever read. It's one of those which takes Earth based history (this is specifically from the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of the late 18th/early 19th centuries) and places it in another created land and then, for good measure, brings in a bit of magic.

There's lots of bloody battles (even in an imagined world it's not very pleasant being cut down by a sword or hit by a lead musket ball), lots of heroism (a must on the battlefield), baddies and opportunists (what's an adventure story without those?), feisty women (no such story could be without them) and an enigmatic leader with an honest, but naïve and flawed, subordinate. The magic and the supernatural exists from the beginning but only comes to its own towards the end.

And if this is what you like to read I think it works. The writing has the pace that's needed for such a story. You have to suspend disbelief when it comes to Winter, the name of the hero/heroine, but as it's a fantasy that shouldn't be a problem. Her secret 'works' in one book but there would have to be some resolution of the conflict to maintain credibility in future.

That's important as if they are still standing, even though battered and wounded, by the end you will see them again as this is only the first part of series, but I don't know how many. I would have thought that magic will play a bigger part as the series goes on as the set piece battles have already been covered.

I think this is the first of this type of novel I've ever read. It's one of those which takes Earth based history (this is specifically from the campaigns of Napoleon Bonaparte of the late 18th/early 19th centuries) and places it in another created land and then, for good measure, brings in a bit of magic.

There's lots of bloody battles (even in an imagined world it's not very pleasant being cut down by a sword or hit by a lead musket ball), lots of heroism (a must on the battlefield), baddies and opportunists (what's an adventure story without those?), feisty women (no such story could be without them) and an enigmatic leader with an honest, but naïve and flawed, subordinate. The magic and the supernatural exists from the beginning but only comes to its own towards the end.

And if this is what you like to read I think it works. The writing has the pace that's needed for such a story. You have to suspend disbelief when it comes to Winter, the name of the hero/heroine, but as it's a fantasy that shouldn't be a problem. Her secret 'works' in one book but there would have to be some resolution of the conflict to maintain credibility in future.

That's important as if they are still standing, even though battered and wounded, by the end you will see them again as this is only the first part of series, but I don't know how many. I would have thought that magic will play a bigger part as the series goes on as the set piece battles have already been covered.

A highly enjoyable, engaging and easy read and an excellent first book of a fantasy series called The Shadow Campaigns. You want to know what’s going to happen!

I really enjoyed this first novel by Django Wexler: it seems to be (according to references by the author) a fantasy adaptation of Napoleon’s campaigns in North Africa. The chapters concentrate on two main characters, Captain Marcus d’Ivoire and Winter, a ranking soldier. All characters are developed well and you are drawn into their lives and thoughts and want to know what will become of them.

It is very much a military story with engagements and battles dominating the first half of the book. The fantasy side is developed far more in the second half.

There are a couple of nice twists and turns to surprise the reader and the book ends with an obvious expectation that you’ll want to read the rest of the series as the last chapters create a lead into the next book.

For fans of Robert V S Redick, Patrick Rothfuss, Robin Hobb, Adrian Tchiakovsky and Karen Miller, all authors that I’ve enjoyed.

This is not the kind of book that I’d normally choose to read (fantasy epic, military fiction) and I found the 500+ pages made it an even more challenging read. I tried to enjoy the book but failed. This is in no way a reflection of the author’s skills but simply my literary taste.

The novel is dominated by 18th/19th century warfare. I found the first part to be one battle after another, after another … …

The author seems to have expert military knowledge and writes convincingly. However, I found the repetitive battle scenes to be very descriptive and too bloody and gruesome for my taste. Halfway through the novel fantasy elements and magic are introduced through secret societies, demons and hidden lore adding more to the story/plot than the epic war and battle scenes. This appealed to me much more than the first part of the novel and is the reason I gave 3 stars.

I recommend this book to fans of epic fantasy/military novels.

Upon first opening this book I thought that it would be an engaging read from start to finish, but after reading so far, I was not so sure as activity within the book slowed down all too often for me and I was left trundling through pages and pages where nothing entirely interesting was happening!

I did however like Wexler's writing style as he developed characters very well and used plenty of connotation which I found was one of the book's redeeming features. Wexler writes beautifully, he just need's to pace up the story line!!!