I couldn’t finish this book, I lost interest. Too much talk about all the different “religions” and I could keep track. This is for someone who wants a deep dive into a fantasy world. I just wanted the adventure part of the story not a history lesson of a time that didn’t exist. ( )

Loses one star for gratuitous and nonconsensual sex. Obviously an RPG world - places and history described in loving, exacting detail, while characters are superficially intriguing but ultimately barely sketched and/or inconsistent. Absolutely no character growth, and not a lot of character agency. Plot is remarkably by-the-numbers dungeon crawl. Some interesting scenes showed promise, but no follow through. Reading was a slog but I kept up because there were sparks, and one and a half fascinating characters - or perhaps I should say that their potential is fascinating. Writing and editing pretty solid, just lacking depth. Sad.

[EDIT] after some thought, while everything I said still stands, I have to admit the final twist was ingenious, and it reflects back on prior events, showing some hints that are not quite effective foreshadowing, but are clever nonetheless. I'd give another half star, if I could. ( )

I won't hold back - this is a train wreck of a book. At first pass, these are the stock characters every GM has dealt into an ongoing campaign, the initial quest as straight forward as they come: rob the ancient tomb, plunder some gold, get the magic sword.

Why read it, then? There's an argument there. You could say its because it's a Michael Bay train wreck, a Wachowski style production. Larger than life explosions, Brandon Frazier as one of the male leads, over the top dungeon crawler.

And then chapter one starts.

The Barrow is a well written tale of gritty fantasy. The biggest problem this book faces, I think, is that if you haven't read the comic it's a prequel to, then there's no way to filter the volume of information being dumped on you. What's important? What's filler? I couldn't tell, and that's a problem. In a sea of gritty fantasy epics, this is certainly dark, more adult than most of its competition. Sadly, it didn't work for me, but it wasn't from a lack of style or ability, so your mileage may vary.

The ARC for this novel was kindly provided to me by Pyr for review. ( )

Setting aside just after 10% in. This book is dense with details - lavish descriptions of the heroes and their caparisons that made Mr Dee ask if this was a romance, endless travel particulars, and when I decided I'd had enough it had just gone on for multiple pages about the many and varied whores available and their relative charms. Just too much stuff, and too much of it quite generic fantasy. Plus the single female character so far is most developed in her sexual insecurities.

An unusual band of adventurers sets off to raid a wizard's barrow and retrieve a mythical sword. It's a nice, simple premise for a standalone fantasy novel. But The Barrow strives to be something more.

Mark Smylie can write. At times, the story just chugs along and is a joy to read. At times...

While there's a good solid story here, it is too often bogged down by paragraph after paragraph (or sometimes page after page) of needless world building. I appreciate the obvious thought put into the world, but those details would have been better explored in future books or appendices rather than dropped into the exposition. These details made the book unpleasant to read. I just don't care about the Earl of Whosis' brother who was descended from the Baron of Somewhere. The book felt something like the Peter Jackson Hobbit adaptation. A nice, simple adventure tale is bogged down by extraneous stuff that waters the whole down.

Smylie has supposedly been working on a sequel/second book set in the same universe. When/if it comes along, I'd likely give him a second chance. But jeeze, I hope he cuts down on the extraneous stuff.

*The Barrow is related to Smylie's comic series. However, the book is sold as a standalone and it did work as a standalone tale. ( )