Sozutov Semyon - Samhain. Climbing

Heroic fantasy in the best (or worst) traditions of the adventures of “Conan the Barbarian.” Only as the main character is a werewolf with magical powers of chaos, who from birth can hardly be called an ordinary person. Superhuman strength, bestial form, instant regeneration, no need for food - the hero can hardly be classified as a mere mortal. Plus a peculiar sense of humor, rudeness and the most cynical attitude towards everything, which, oddly enough, make the hero more understandable to the reader.

A magical world in which a follower of light is in power, who declared himself a demigod and rules with an iron fist. On the one hand, because of this, the attitude towards all kinds of dark sects, necromancers, werewolves and other “dark ones” is strictly negative. But this does not mean that prosperity has reigned in the lands of light. Rather, on the contrary, at the slightest suspicion of witchcraft abilities, a painful execution awaits you. And the local feudal rulers do not value human life at all, hold bloody tournaments with a bunch of corpses and are not against plundering a village or two from their neighbor, selling all the inhabitants into slavery. It is because of such a raid that our hero’s “childhood” ends. And he begins to travel the world, constantly finding adventures and new friends. In general, the world can hardly be called kind. Wherever the hero goes, human life is worth practically nothing. Moreover, not only people, but all races hate strangers, and at best they kill them quickly, and at worst - long and painfully.

The hero is not just strong, but very strong. Most of the fights end with him killing his opponents with his bare hands, in especially difficult cases using a melee weapon or animal form that comes to hand. Moreover, from birth, all wounds on the hero instantly heal, and food is needed only not to replenish strength, but only for the pleasure of taste. In general, the hero’s adventures are not very diverse, although he travels all over the world, but does not meet worthy opponents. Yes, there is even a standard task to find parts of an artifact. But the hero simply and artlessly comes, defeats the owner (despite the fact that they are far from ordinary mortals), takes the artifact and goes for the next one. In general, these adventures do not arouse much interest in the reader - the epic campaign to collect the strongest artifact simply comes down to not very difficult battles with their previous owners. The only thing the author pays attention to is the description of hand-to-hand combat. But, again, with the participation of the main character, everything is very predictable - he is several times faster or stronger than his opponent and practically does not get tired and can kill with one blow of his fist.

The action develops very quickly. If at the beginning of the book the author still paid attention to the hero’s childhood and a detailed description of the same tournament of fighters, then then the action rushes at a gallop. In just a few pages, the hero undergoes training at the local “temple of martial arts”; the search for “stones of power” comes down to traveling as quickly as possible between the places where they are stored and defeating their guardian. And training at the school of the gods generally comes down to describing one lesson, a friendly drinking session and completing a couple of tasks, followed by initiation and a VERY transparent hint about the further fate of the hero.

In general, fans of heroic fantasy may like it, but overall everything is as primitive as possible and does not arouse much interest. The only thing that will slightly enliven the reading is the hero’s cynicism, his love of obscene expressions in any situation and the sense of humor that his comrades and opponents can feel.

Heroic fantasy with a hero who ingenuously goes ahead through all obstacles

Fast plot development

The hero’s peculiar humor and cynicism dilute the narrative

A fairly large world, which, however, is not distinguished by kindness

The hero is VERY strong, tearing apart ordinary mortals and even demigods literally with his bare hands. He does not meet worthy opponents. Boring

The plot moves too quickly, with almost no details (even where they would be useful)