Richie Billing is a British author from Liverpool, once a Lawyer he gave it all up to bring you tales from Fantasy worlds. I first found Richie when I bought The Fantasy Writers Handbook, a brilliant reference book for any aspiring fantasy writer, he has had other works published but his debut novel is Pariah’s Lament. You can find Richie online here Richie also runs a Discord channel where you can chat with him and other writers, it’s a great community and well worth checking out, the details are on his website. He also has a podcast you can find on Spotify The Writers Toolshed, go check it out.
When an attempt is made on Ashara, Keeper of Yurr his young advisor Edvar must uncover the plot to kill him and stop those behind it. With a neighboring kingdom, Karrabar involved Edvar must race to find out who is trying to destroy Ashara and why. Isy is a Pariah to her people and when she leaves she finds an ancient people on the run, can she guide them to salvation during this time of turmoil?
It’s been a while since I have read this book and I have been meaning to get around to this post for a while. Staying in Gladstones Library in Wales on a writing retreat what better time.
This story is told through the eyes of Edvar and Isy, both compelling characters with interesting backgrounds. It was an adventure to follow them both through their journey in Pariah’s Lament. It is a character-driven story and highlights many of the issues that real people face today, it’s easy to feel what is at stake for these two heroes as they deal with their worries and feelings and how they deal with their confidence in their abilities with so much depending on them. I found I was rooting for them both and at times found myself stressing with them. If you feel like an outsider, or you don’t fit in you may empathize with these main characters, Richie does a great job of showing us the emotions while delivering a captivating story.
The world itself is rich and you can tell from the detailed descriptions of the city of Yurr and the history that is mentioned throughout the book, it is obvious a lot of work has been put in to make this a rich and detailed world. I love some good world-building and this is it. The only thing I think I would have liked more was for the relationship between Edvar and Isy to have gone further, maybe this is something we will see in the future 🙂
This book is a Core story from the Of Metal and MAgic world and the idea is many authors writing stories based in the same world, it’s a great idea and something that makes me want to read more about this world and other stories written in it.
I would recommend this book if you like Fantasy, it’s not as detailed as the big epic fantasy novels but it is enjoyable and well worth a purchase.
You can purchase Paraiah’s Lament from Waterstones, or online at Amazon
