Now everyone has their favourite authors, those that you automatically buy anything that they write without really reading what its about, yes? Well I’m the same. Other than what do you do when that author all of a sudden changes genre? And under a slightly different pen name?Well that was the situation I had with this book. Conn Iggulden is an automatic buy for me when it comes to historical fiction novels; I don’t think I’ve opened one yet that I have not adored. But when I heard he was bringing out Darien, I was a touch unsure as he was now venturing into the realm of fantasy.

I love a good fantasy novel, but I can not stand fantasy novels that try and have any link to history; taking a myth of history and putting a fantasy spin on it? No thank you! Either stick to the historic world or create a fantasy one, don’t blend the two. Now I know a lot of fantasy worlds are vaguely like medieval history, and that’s fine as long as you don’t say its London, or Rome or some other real world or historic city.

Now because of this I get really unsure about diving into fantasy novels from authors that I know have a past with historical fiction, even more so when they are one of my favourite authors for their historical work. But Darien sounded really good, and I had heard a lot of good things about it; so I ordered it from the library as I decided I was still not confident enough to spend my money on it.

Told from multiple points of view, this novel followed several different story lines that for once I didn’t have a favourite; normally when I read different points of view, I find that I have one or two that I prefer and just end up skimming the ones that I don’t like as much. With Darien, I found that although a lot were completely different, I felt just as involved with all of them. I felt so deep into the story and the characters, I struggled to ever put it down.

Full of suspense, and a gut wrenching death, I was clinging to this book from start to finish, and have spent ever since looking for a book to read that will now not let me down.

The only downside that I had with this book was that I felt that parts of the end were slightly sudden. When a named character died, I honestly just felt that it was not much evolved and not really fitting into the flow of the story. That being said, the story very quickly moved forward and I was straight back into the grasp of the novel.

So now here I am, counting down the days for book 2; each book I pick up is just being a ‘make do’ book. I rated Darien 4.5 stars out of five, losing the half a star purely for the suddenness of parts of the ending. That being said I am still longing for this novel again and may have to do a reread when I manage to get my own copy.

Please please please can you send me your fantasy recommendations, preferable not too long a books though as only recently out of a reading slump. Thank you!!!