Skullsworn - Bolhaverso

320 pages

English language

Published Sept. 29, 2017 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:: 978-1-5098-2298-0

(1 review)

Pyrre Lakatur doesn't like the word skullsworn. It fails to capture the faith and grace, the peace and beauty of her devotion to the God of Death. She is not, to her mind, an assassin, not a murderer--she is a priestess. At least, she will be a priestess if she manages to pass her final trial. The problem isn't the killing. Pyrre has been killing and training to kill, studying with some of the most deadly men and women in the world, since she was eight. The problem, strangely, is love. To pass her Trial, Pyrre has ten days to kill the ten people enumerated in an ancient song, including "the one you love / who will not come again." Pyrre is not sure she's ever been in love. If she were a member of a different religious order, a less devoted, disciplined order, she might cheat. The Priests of …

Pyrre Lakatur doesn't like the word skullsworn. It fails to capture the faith and grace, the peace and beauty of her devotion to the God of Death. She is not, to her mind, an assassin, not a murderer--she is a priestess. At least, she will be a priestess if she manages to pass her final trial. The problem isn't the killing. Pyrre has been killing and training to kill, studying with some of the most deadly men and women in the world, since she was eight. The problem, strangely, is love. To pass her Trial, Pyrre has ten days to kill the ten people enumerated in an ancient song, including "the one you love / who will not come again." Pyrre is not sure she's ever been in love. If she were a member of a different religious order, a less devoted, disciplined order, she might cheat. The Priests of Ananshael, however, don't look kindly on cheaters. If Pyrre fails to find someone to love, or fails to kill that someone, they will give her to the god. Pyrre's not afraid to die, but she hates to quit, hates to fail, and so, with a month before her trial begins, she returns to the city of her birth, the place where she long ago offered an abusive father to the god and abandoned a battered brother--in the hope of finding love...and ending it on the edge of her sword. -- Back cover.

5 editions

Øyvind reviewed Skullsworn by Brian Staveley

A story about love, death, and a delta

5 stars

I have been told that all stories are about, love death and the ocean. In this book are we following Pyrre a priestess to be of death or Ananshael as the God of Death is known in the universe of the Unhewn Throne. One of Pyrre's tasks are to find her true love and kill him or her. And it all happens in a city built in a river delta. So for once the formula more or less holds true.

The writing is really good, and it is sometimes really poetic. In some way's I wish we could have seen more of the Annurian empire, but the story keeps us primarily to a small corner of that well fleshed out world. If you want more read some of Brians other books. The story is short and it has a few interesting twists along the way, there is some character development …

I have been told that all stories are about, love death and the ocean. In this book are we following Pyrre a priestess to be of death or Ananshael as the God of Death is known in the universe of the Unhewn Throne. One of Pyrre's tasks are to find her true love and kill him or her. And it all happens in a city built in a river delta. So for once the formula more or less holds true.

The writing is really good, and it is sometimes really poetic. In some way's I wish we could have seen more of the Annurian empire, but the story keeps us primarily to a small corner of that well fleshed out world. If you want more read some of Brians other books. The story is short and it has a few interesting twists along the way, there is some character development but it's limited scopes makes it understandable that there is not much of it. I won't hesitate to recommend this book to most people. And if you have enjoyed Brian Staveley other works then this is a nobrainer to read.

Subjects

Fiction, fantasy, general