'The Low Road' – Evan Dicken (Black Library)


Today is the big meeting at work (and I'm running it, we who are about to die etc...) so just a short post from me this time round, at least until I get a chance to watch ‘Kenobi’ later on this evening. Luckily for me then, last night’s read was a short one; it’s almost like ‘past me’ was thinking about today and thought that he’d do ‘present me’ a favour. Good work ‘past me’, good work… 😉 I’m a fan of Evan Dicken’s work (read my reviews on ‘The Path to Glory’, ‘The Red Hours’ and ‘Fangs of theRustwood’) so when I saw ‘The Low Road’, it didn’t take much for me to pick it up and give it a go. And I’m glad that I did…

Can a lone Branchwych warn her allies of impending attack?

After her home is destroyed, a Sylvaneth Branchwych must travel through the creeping mire to warn her Glade of an imminent Kruleboyz invasion...

‘Kruleboyz’ are Orcs by the way. Sorry, Orruks… But you knew that already 😉

I’ve had a lot of luck with Dicken’s short fiction and ‘The Low Road’ proved to be no different. I’ve still got my fingers crossed that Dicken writes a full length novel for ‘Age of Sigmar’ but that’s another story, lets get back to ‘The Low Road’…

I’ll be honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of talking trees so I did approach ‘The Low Road’ with some trepidation. Dicken’s story though, ended up being just what I was after; a snapshot of life in the Mortal Realms that I wouldn’t normally look at, with some action around it to keep things fresh and moving forwards. It all comes together very nicely with an ending that brings the real story into focus, not the one that you thought you might be reading. And I liked that, there is a lot that goes into Shikal’s journey and it is definitely worth following to the conclusion.

‘The Low Road’ is a very quick read so there’s not an awful lot more I can say really. It’s a vivid slice of life, in the Mortal Realms, that shows just how perilous this world is and what it takes to survive and make a difference for your people, even though there is inevitably a price to be paid...

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