Finished reading To Ride Hell's Chasm by Janny Wurts.

Its an excellent book. Since it is a true standalone the intensity of the events and the heady pace can sometimes feel like an adrenaline rush. In fact after the first bit of setup the book takes off and never looks back.


The emotional quotient in this book is very high as several pretty major events happen in a relatively short time.
The author puts detail in the strangest things. This is the first time I was genuinely worried about a horse.
The way the worldbuilding takes place is very interesting. The story takes place in a relatively small area which is easy enough to construct, but the way the wider world is portrayed through memory and the way the sorcerous threat is built up is very interesting. The juxtaposition of scarred veterans and brutal sorcery against the rather bucolic insular society of Sessalie made for a very interesting contrast.

I have read in multiple places about Wurts' style of writing - her tendency to use the occasional archaic word or phrase. To me this did not detract from the story at all. After I took a couple of chapters to get settled in, the narrative moved fast and smoothly.

On the other hand I could not help but feel that the characters of the Anja and Mykaael were somewhat exaggerated. Of course this may have been a side-effect of the book focussing so much on them. Also I would have liked to know more about how things worked out in Sessalie and the Empire at the end really merited more explanation.

Overall, a very enjoyable book which I would recommend.
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2016 reread: This is an enticing, entertaining, thought-provoking and unpredictable adult fantasy story, brought alive with poetic prose and driven by unforgettable characters. This hidden gem, which I discovered thanks to the wonderful Goodreads Community, is also my entry point into the work of Janny Wurts who has fast become my favourite epic fantasist.

Her novels helped me define what kind of story truly resonates with me. I used to equate epic fantasy with Lord of the Rings, which I loved, but I didn’t want to invest my time in read-alikes and so my preconceptions led me to disregard a great genre. Today some of the authors I admire, along with Wurts, are Erikson, Kay, Berg and Martin, all great adult novelists -- mostly of epic fantasy.

I love complex, sweeping stories with both global stakes and personal drama. I revel in Machiavellian intrigue and guarded secrets. I want engaging plots and believable twists. I delight in detailed and realistic battles. I like inference and foreshadowing. I enjoy witty humor and harrowing choices. I want interesting, well-rounded and memorable characters. I want carefully-planned stories which are consistent and layered. I want top-notch storytelling and a prose that goes beyond decoration. I want an immersive experience where the story doesn’t lack internal logic and where my assumptions are upended most often than not. I want to feel, to think and be surprised, to be challenged and entertained.

Yeah, I’m an easy reader. I like several genres and I love light or tawdry reads as well, but the stories that hit me hard emotionally and intellectually are, invariably, epics with many of the above characteristics. Such stories are normally served in series format because “slow-burning and clever”, possibly with quite a number of characters to manage effectively, involves several volumes and a generous time span.

However, Anja’s, Mykkael’s, Taskin’s tale and Sessalie’s plight prove that all I love in fantasy can also fit a standalone book with a five and one-half day plot.

One of the first things you notice about To Ride Hell's Chasm is its unique prose. You either hate or love Wurts’ style, which is so her, I would recognize it anywhere. She fleshes-out her adult novels with depth and scope of language, daring the reader to dive in for an intense emotional rollercoaster of high visual impact.
This tale is no exception, and it is there, in every paragraph, in every chosen word that lay all the subtle nuances and clues which bring the story forward so richly. The first time I read it my attention was initially divided between understanding and events. The second time I simply fell into the rhythm of the storytelling and I became totally caught up in the tale.
Diversity, clash of cultures, the conflict between prejudices and effective listening, between principles and personal moral codes are some of the absorbing themes so originally (book published in 2002, when you rarely found dark-skinned protagonists) and seamlessly woven into the story.

I appreciated again the world-building and the magic system. As I followed the two unlikely investigators, I thought about tiny Sessalie’s and its citizens’ reasonable fears, about cooperative efforts and integration. I smiled at Jussoud’s patient understanding of both the strong-headed protagonists. I felt frustrated at their stubbornness and at Mykkael’s aggravating behavior, noticing how well it bears testament to the worldly experience of a scarred, foreign veteran who had an idea about the dire threat behind a seemingly mundane problem.
I liked again the second part of the book, set in the wilderness, action-filled and relentless. I loved that well-developed protagonists with personalities and attitudes don’t necessarily need a human-like ability to speak.
When I reached the powerful denouement, this time I enjoyed it unconditionally because it was so natural, I would not have wanted a different outcome. I also came to realize, contrary to my first impression, that while this tale is resolved, the setting has sequel potential.

Okay, this is probably part review, part love letter to my favorite literary genre and part shout-out to the incredibly eclectic author who triggered (and nurtured) it all.
To Ride Hell's Chasm is an innovative and forward-thinking book which holds a special place in my heart, the more so because by revisiting I recognized resonances and implications which I had missed before. While savoring again the events and developments I was better able to piece together the whole picture, and what was love with some minor gripes two years ago, has now turned into awe. The planning behind this story is impressive, every dialogue counts and not one member of the cast is willing to break character or compromise individual integrity to cater to the reader.
I had fun and knowing where this was going was just an afterthought. This, I think, it’s the power of a story which gets better every time you read it.

Warmly and forever recommended.


‘Death has no repeal. It is a brute ending that leaves us the legacy of an inscrutable silence. Therefore, I understand the voice of mercy very well.’ ( )

This book came as a surprise. As always, praise be sung to the Goodreads community for their recommendations. This is the first book I've read by Janny Wurts and I'll surely look for more of her works.
To Ride Hell's Chasm is uniquely written, and at first I struggled with the complex phrasing, the subtle choice of words, and the masterful descriptions. Yet the plot, carefully unwinding in the first part of the book, and the compelling characters, fully rounded and intriguing, did not fail to make me feel for this great book, and devour page after page, craving more.

The book opens with the sudden disappearance of the princess of a small and secluded kingdom on the night of her betrothal party, and the captains of the city garrison and the royal guards are tasked with the investigation. The first is Mykkael, a mysterious foreigner and an unrelenting commander burdened by a heavy past, whose fighting prowess and integrity of character divide the opinions of both his men and his employers. The second is Taskin, the long-serving right-hand of the king, a man of high moral values: just, stern and stalwart, a warrior born and nourished in a sheltered kingdom, but thanks to his intellect, not hidebound. The world-building is powerful, truly evocative in both the urban and the wilderness backdrop, and the fascinating, multifaceted magic system plays an important part in the story.

The carefully tended cast of characters is a real gem. I absolutely loved the main characters interaction, they take center stage so smoothly that I think I related to the investigation through them, and got frustrated along with them at the inevitable clash of cultures and prejudices.
Taskin didn't despise or destroy what he could not understand and I think his reliance and growing relationship with Jussoud (or the fact that he acknowledged the qualities of a foreigner in the first place) is a consequence of that: he cannot understand Mykkael but he perceives honesty behind his behavior and cannot blindly dismiss him; even when the evidence seemed to prove him differently, Taskin coherently keeps probing, and he starts to change by small degrees during the story as reaction to the events and to Mykkael's unyielding convictions. He's solid and loyal and very human: his stubbornness and hesitations were aggravating but greatly in-character for a man whose core beliefs were being so badly shaken, all things considered he behaved admirably.
I resonated with this pair and the secondary characters, while the mystery tightens and the tension grows, and then when I thought all the carefully laid details and pieces were going to click into place I was in for big surprises instead, as Taskin and Mykkael get entangled by more layers of intrigue, collisions and sudden turns of events.
The whole story unrolls in a few days, the first part set in the city and immediate surroundings, the second mainly set outside the capital city of Sessalie, and it is indeed a race against impossible odds, where there is no hewn line of action and the reader is thrown off-balance in his certainties.
I was engaged in reading about both the princess and the warrior riding in Hell's Chasm and the warded in the castle growing to realize the truth behind the disappearance of Anja, and slowly coming to the understanding that only concerted efforts can save the kingdom from doom.
I couldn't help comparing the differences in the story as the main setting changes from urban to wilderness, but I enjoyed every page of the book, and most importantly, the epilogue with its intensity, its coral quality, the possibility that selfless courage and acceptance still retain the power to redeem a tormented soul in a intense denouement. Personally I would have liked that things could have gone differently, but as they were coherence demanded no less and I appreciated the author didn't offer a complaisant solution; endings are a vital linchpin of a good story and can make the difference between a book I like and I book I love thru and thru and which will always be a favorite, like To Ride Hell's Chasm. I was left with a bitter sense of void when I reached the last page, and a slight vexation at knowing the story had truly reached its end.

I empathized with the pair Taskin and Mykkael as they tried to delineate the circumstances of the princess disappearance and the suspects parties; I enjoyed the second part of the book as well, more action-packed and fast paced, and the denouement, which, while entirely coherent, left a bit of hurried aftertaste and a longing for a less steep epilogue, particularly after the care deployed in the urban-set part of the book. I liked the princess as well, and she is not wanting for intensity, but I missed the balance of uncertainties and the keen undertones of the Taskin/Mykkael conflict.

Janny Wurts' writing style features an incredibly focused vocabulary and she literally paints the story with carefully evocative words and studied linguistic structures. Her deep poetic style is of great emotional impact, and for me it became an element in its own right, which added an uniqueness to the events narrated, the pace set and the characters portrayed, and was not only a medium of ancillary importance to convey plot and images. That's what I felt with Hell's Chasm and that is probably why I related so strongly at once, to that engaging complexity that just pulls you in and doesn't let you go (also, being English a second language, had I found this choice a simple exercise of style I would have had no motivation to go on: the language must needs fit the story). I agree it is a matter of taste and expectations, and this kind of writing may not be to everybody's taste, but I was glued to this book from start to end, and the style enhanced my reading experience.

Adult fantasy at his best, wonderfully written, thought provoking, with unforgettable characters, involving, entertaining and unpredictable. Warmly recommended. ( )

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

To Ride Hell's Chasm was my first Wurts novel. I actually have a copy of the first book of The Wars of Light and Shadow saga which I started (and liked so far), but I got a bit intimidated by the time commitment (and the fact that WoLaS is unfinished...), so I decided to try this stand-alone first to get a feel for Janny Wurts' style before I leapt into a mega-epic. Along that line, I was also interested to see how she would affect an actual ending, since WoLaS doesn't actually have one yet (at least not in print).

It took me a while to get used to Ms Wurts' style. I haven't had a lot of reading time lately, so the last several things I've chosen to read have purposely been a bit...light. Like chocolate mousse. Wurts is not light. The prose is, in fact, heavy:

"Only small details bespoke the grave trouble slipped in through the well-guarded gates. Taskin's patrols came and went, double-file rows of neat lancers threading through the carriage traffic in the broad avenues above Highgate. In the queen's formal gardens, amid lawns like set emeralds, two dozen tiny surcoated figures enacted the midday change of the guard.

The sun, angle shifting, sparkled off the polished glove of a flag spire. The slate and lead roofs of the palace precinct dropped in gabled steps downwards, in cool contrast to the terracotta tile of the merchants' mansions, crowded in rows like boxed gingerbread above the arched turrets of Middlegate. There, the tree-lined streets ran like seams in patchwork, jammed by the colors of private house guards helping to search for the princess. Their industry seethed past the courtyard gardens, scattered like squares of dropped silk, and stitched with rosettes where the flowering shrubs adorned the pillared gazebos.

Farthest down, hemmed by the jagged embrasures of stone battlements, the lower town hugged the slope like a rickle of frayed burlap, the roofs there a welter of weathered thatch, and craftsmen's sheds shingled with pine shakes. Mykkael's garrison troops kept their watch on the outermost walls, the men reduced as toys, bearing pins and needles for weaponry."

When I first started reading, I felt like my dainty dish of chocolate mousse had suddenly been replaced by a 20 oz sirloin, and I had some initial trouble digesting it. It probably didn't help that I wasn't finding the time to sit down with the book before midnight. By the time I got to it, I was about as alert as if I actually had consumed that 20 oz sirloin. But, I liked the story and characters immediately, so I started reading earlier in the day, and by the time I was about 1/3 of the way through the book, my pace had picked up significantly. By the time I was 1/2 way through, the language was no longer a barrier and the story was so gripping that I actually could stay up past midnight and read. In fact, I stayed up reading until 2 am for the last two nights without any trouble at all. I actually had to force myself to go to bed. At first I thought that as the pace of the story got faster (it flies for the second half of the book), Ms Wurts writing had become more succinct. But, I went back and read some of the first half again to check my theory: No. It hadn't changed -- it was me. I just got used to the writing style and had learned to appreciate it. Ms Wurts is an artist (she does her own cover art and maps) and she uses words like she uses her paint. They put us in the scene; they show rather than tell.

This book is finely crafted in other respects, too. The plot is interesting, original, and tight. There are moments of horror, grief, and humor. There are no clichés, unbelievable romances, plot holes, stereotyped characters, or deux ex machina. The plot is unpredictable, too. In fact, there were a few times that I thought "how are they going to get out of this mess?" and I had no clue, and even if I'd had a clue, I would have been wrong. The ending, also, is unexpected, realistic (realistic for a fantasy novel, that is), and satisfying. And, importantly, Ms. Wurts writes knowledgeably about all those little details of ancient lifestyles that we love to read about in high fantasy -- sword fighting, horses, war strategies, servants, weird food, boiling laundry, dressing wounds -- at no time did I suspect that she was bluffing.

The system of magic that Janny Wurts creates is unique and fascinating. There's an explanation of it at the back of the book that I wish I had seen before I finished the novel. And, speaking of the actual physical book, it was well-crafted, too. There's a glossary and maps, nice cover and interior art, and I found NO spelling or other editorial errors in this edition. It's too bad the publisher -- Meisha Merlin -- has gone under. (And too bad I dropped this copy in a puddle when I jumped up to pull my 2 year old out of the pool.)

So, now that I've finished To Ride Hell's Chasm, I think I have a small idea of what I've been missing by not reading The Wars of Light and Shadow. A long epic by Janny Wurts sounds like a very good thing.


Read more Janny Wurts book reviews at Fantasy literature. ( )

I am really struggling with this review. As I read, I didn't feel that I really loved it - but I never really hated it either. Yet, the overwhelming feel of the story continues to be on my mind.

I finished this book. But it took me 2 months. Or, rather, the first 200 pages took me 2 months - the last almost 400 pages (which I dove into because I had another book that I wished to read) took me 2 days. (I really wanted to finish it because I really like the author and she was involved in a group read.)

The beginning seemed quite slow to me. (I suppose this should be obvious as it took me so long to read.) That being said, I fell in love with Mykael very early on, which is another reason I stuck it out.

I am much more drawn to characters than I am to world building. This book seemed, to me, to have a very well crafted world, but not quite so much character building. The characters seemed, well, not quite one dimensional - but not 3d either - so lets call them two dimensional.

The action starts out very slowly - with a missing princess - and, as is expected, more questions than answers. During this time, the author slowly draws her world and crafts her characters. As the story progresses, the action picks up remarkably and leads the reader on a fascinating jaunt until the story concludes (and answers all the previous questions).

The writing style also slowed me down. And, I cannot put my finger on the how and why of that. It just did. When I devoured the last 400 pages, I didn't struggle nearly as much as I did with the first 200. Also, the author's vocabulary is HUGE. This is the first time I found myself using the "look up" feature on my e-reader. And, I found it very convenient as I read.

I believe this book to be very well written. The world building is beautiful. In the end, I think it is just not the type of book that was right for me at the time I read it.

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