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Fantasy. Fiction. HTML: THE ROAD HOME Bahzell Bahnakson of the Horse Stealer hradani never wanted to be a champion of the War God. Unfortunately, Tomandk had insisted. Even more unfortunately, Bahzell's own sense of responsibility hadn't let him say, "No." Which was how he found himself in the Empire of the Axe, where even people who didn't actively hate hradani regarded them with suspicion and fear. Of course, that was only the start of his problems. Next, there was the Order of Tomanak, many of whom were horrified by the notion that their deity had chosen a hradani as a champion . . . and intended to do something about it. And assuming he survived that, he had to go home-across three hundred leagues of bitter winter snow-to face a Dark God who threatened to destroy all hradani. Throw in the odd demon and brigand ambush, and add a powerful neighboring kingdom with no intention of letting Bahzell (or anyone else) save his people, and you have the makings of a really bad day. But one thing Bahzell has learned: a champion of Tomanak does what needs doing. And the people in his way had better move. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management)..… (more)
User reviews
It's a race against time with a bloody battle at the finish, and of course, a few new verses for Brandark's Lay of Bahzell the Bloody Hand.... Solid, enjoyable epic fantasy.
War God's
In Book One, Bahzell and Brandark were pretty much operating as free agents; now Bahzell has Responsibilities, and he's part of the Order of Tomanak, which comes as a bit of a nasty shock to him, and also to the Order. In fact, the only person who seems to be at all happy with the situation is Tomanak himself...
So Bahzell has to deal with his new colleagues' reaction to having a hradani (Weber's sort of orc-equivalent, which is what Bahzell and Brandark are) Champion foisted on them by their deity, and he also has to deal with his own misgivings about being a part of a big organisation and his responsibilities and privileges in it.
Once the initial bumps are dealt with, Bahzell and Co have to return to the hradani city states to deal with one of the Dark Gods who has set up a secret temple there, and this occupies the rest of the book.
As side issues, we see a bit of unofficial diplomacy and trade negotiations; the hradani are poor and backward compared to the other Races of Man, but Bahzell's father (prince of one of the city-states) has a vision for the future and the drive and intelligence to make it work. How is this going to affect, or be affected by, Bahzell's sudden and unaccountable acquisition of Religion, especially since hradani in general (having been comprehensively used and betrayed by the gods in the past) have no use for gods either Light or Dark...