I was excited and thankful to get this galley as there has been plenty of hype around this one, however I struggled to get into it. The book seems to have been marketed as something it's not (quite) - namely, an overtly humorous romp a la Kings of the Wyld - and it also takes a long and confusing time getting to grips with what the story actually is (I'm still not entirely sure). Plenty of things going on, but not much to really grab the reader beyond a sense of curiosity about what might be coming. But I just wasn't interested enough to go much more than 20% in (others said to wait until the Black Hawks actually appear, so I gave it another chance, but even then it didn't do it for me).

Did not finish, so I normally wouldn't put a rating in, but NetGalley made me...(sorry, I didn't know there was another way to give DNF feedback).

Reviewed by my co-blogger, Petrik, at Novel Notions.

Entertaining, intense, and filled with great lines spoken by morally grey characters to root for.

If you’ve been following the adult fantasy market for the past two years, you’ll most likely realize that the cover art is quite similar to Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames—one of my favorite fantasy debuts of all time. The cover art is done by the same artist—Richard Anderson—and as always, he never fails to deliver a striking/distinctive artwork. Excluding the similarity in cover art, does the content actually provided something similar to Kings of the Wyld? It would have to be a no from me. The exposure and advertisements I’ve seen for The Black Hawks so far have led me to think that this is an overwhelmingly comedic and light-hearted book; I have to disagree with this notion. Sure there are some funny lines embedded into the narrative, such as this description about wolves for example:

“To think I left Clyden for this. Eaten by a fucken dog with a hairstyle.”


But a few funny lines here and there, in my opinion, doesn’t make a book with a darker tone to it be termed as comedic or hilarious; not when there are many serious topics to unpack in the story.

The Black Hawks is the first book in Articles of Faith series, it’s also David Wragg’s debut work. Wragg’s debut revolves around premises that have been done a lot of times before. The story follows Vedren Chel, a knight bound by oath to a dead-end job to his step-uncle. When an invasion occurs very early in the story, Chel finds an opportunity in the chaos to free himself from his oath by doing a new task: deliver Tarfel, a bratty prince of the kingdom, to safety by escorting him across the country whilst being chased by ruthless assassins. As his new task begins, Chel and Tarfel meets the mercenary group, The Black Hawks Company, and find their missions intertwined. As you can probably guess, The Black Hawks is a quest-centered fantasy; almost the entirety of the plot revolves around Chel trying his best to fulfill his oath to Tarfel. It’s true that this kind of premise has been done many times before, but Wragg was able to successfully deliver an engaging reading experience with this premise and I, as a reader, don’t see any fault with that.

It did take me a quarter of the book to find myself fully engaged with it. Part 1 felt a bit hard to get into for me but once Chel and Tarfel met The Black Hawks Company, my reading experience of this book became significantly better and the quality never stops escalating up to the bloody cliffhanger conclusion. To succinctly explain it: the entertainment value in the interaction between Chel and the members of The Black Hawks Company was immense. Through these characters, the themes of faith, friendship, loyalty, and war were efficiently explored. It was intriguing to see how Chel and Tarfel—both are virtuous characters—influenced the morally ambiguous group of mercenary that pretty much have a close-to-zero sense of loyalty. These characters also spat curses as effortless as they inhale air. Seriously, I’m talking about The Gentleman Bastards’ level of innovative cussing. I didn’t expect it at first, but somewhere along the way Chel, Tarfel, Lemon, Rennic, Spider, and Loveless became characters that I ended up caring about.

“It’s always about sex. Shepherds know how much of human history has been steered by some central figure’s urge to fuck someone or something.”

Banters and engaging dialogues aside, The Black Hawks is quite an action-packed debut; action scenes dominate the pages of this novel. Due to the constant chase the main characters endured, the majority of the action scenes were skirmishes or small-scale combat that’s spread throughout the whole book. There are no monsters or fantastical creatures within the series so far, and all the battles were well-written close-quarter combat. Speaking of actions, you better get some free time to read through the last 20% of the book. Seriously, I couldn’t put it down; it was full of tension, it will also have you begging for the next book immediately upon closing the final page. In all honesty, I’m not a fan of reading the first book of a series with a huge cliffhanger ending, especially when the next book isn’t available for me to read yet. But I also have to admit that the last 20% of the book and the cliffhanger ending did leave an incredibly strong impression to me.

I have no idea where the story will go from here, but I’m excited to find out eventually. The Black Hawks is an incredibly entertaining debut that’s filled with morally ambiguous characters, witty banter, and well-written close-quarter action scenes. I believe this debut will be a hit for readers who loves a darker-toned fantasy novel with a memorable cast that has occasional humor embedded in the grimdark-esque narrative.

This is a great gritty humorous fantasy novel, that kept me interested from beginning to end.

Perfect for lovers of the Kings of the Wyld series.

I love a well-written book filled with memorable characters, boisterous adventure, political intrigue, hysterical dialogue and competing visceral reactions. You know, the kind of book that makes you snort out loud with laughter only to follow with a “eww, that was graphic” remark, all within the same page. A book where the pace is fast and steady; not bothering to take breaks for injury, death or hangovers, of which there are many. And I idolize a book with descriptive passages so real I can smell the road sweat, the blood and the goat hair, or when the author describes a character as “his hawk face clouded with the customary displeasure he wore like a favored hat”, well, these are just some of the reasons I love David Wragg’s, The Black Hawks.

The book focuses on Chel, a hapless character who while trying to escape his home city under siege, is inadvertently sworn to protect the youngest prince of the royal family and must take him to his older brother, the crown prince. Sounds pretty straightforward, except Chel and the prince, Tarfel, are kidnapped by a band of mercenaries, The Black Hawks, for reasons not shared with them.

Along the way, an unknown group tracks Chel and his kidnappers through snowy mountains, they are attacked by wolves, battle with rebels, fight off painted bezerkers, and dine with rumored cannibals. And that’s barely covering what happens in the short period of time in which this book takes place.

But, to me, the best part about The Black Hawks is the characters. Bawdy, ruthless, funny, loyal. Somehow, throughout the book, Chel is able to survive broken bones, a torn shoulder socket, a fractured face, road rash, knife fights and a monster hangover. Prince Tarfel starts out whiney and useless but as he grows as a character, he grew on me. Rennic is the hawk-nosed leader who uses the f-word as a noun, verb, gerund, pronoun and adjective. His second is Loveless, a blue-haired woman you do not want to cross in a fight, but she’ll be your dance partner or drinking buddy. Spider is creepy, insane, insanely creepy, and refers to himself as “the Spider”. Foss is mountainous and soft-spoken with a religious background. Whisper is a mystery as she can track anything in a snowstorm but communicates only in hand gestures.

And then there is Lemon, my absolute favorite. Lemon chatters constantly in a cockney-like venacular but is a graduate of the “hacademy” thus she understands the meaning of the phrase, ‘metaphorical construct’. She proudly carries her “ironmongery”, a stunning display of vicious hammers and deadly hatchets, on her weapons belt. And loves to play the game of “Would you rather be…” She usually tortures Foss with this game, like the time she asks if he would rather be a tarantula or a hairless cat, then had to explain what a tarantula was. He ends up choosing a hairless cat because “at least it has poise”.

It’s a great book with so much going for it. The banter is hysterical and I had tears running down my face as I read some of their interactions out loud to my husband. I cannot wait for the next book, not just because The Black Hawks is so awesome, but also because it ends with a cliffhanger. Not a hair-pulling, screaming as you throw the book across the room then trash the author on goodreads-type of cliffhanger, but still…a cliffhanger.

Highly highly highly recommended.

(I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. And the book was damn awesome.)

10% in and I knew this was going to be a very good read for me, it had possibly one of the funniest lines I've ever read and when a book makes me laugh, it definitely is a great sign. Well, when it means to make you laugh anyway. This was just a genuinely fun read and a great standard fantasy. It had all the elements that I love in fantasy novels, the underdogs, humour, battles, political dangers, and a kingdom in peril! Sometimes the language felt a little too modern given the setting, but, it worked for the most part, probably my only complaint really. It's nothing groundbreaking but it does use the fantasy formula extremely well and Wragg's style is enjoyable to read. I CANNOT WAIT for book 2!! Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this in exchange for my honest review.

From the premise, it was clear that The Black Hawks have a lot of potential to be an adventurous, fun read filled with action and political intrigue. While it does fulfill the premise to some extent, it also failed to deliver in some major aspects. The dialogue was terrible, the characters are interesting but didn’t have enough time to shine, and the world building needs some more explanation. I’m definitely interested in the direction of the story, so hopefully the sequel will be a far improvement from this book.

A decent fantasy story, although not what I was led to believe it would be—scratch that as another victim of the Misleading Blurb? (What I mean is that, if you sell me fantasy as “hilarious”, I’ll expect something that’ll really make me laugh, like Discworld. Which is not what we have here.) So, yes, please, people who write blurbs, stop doing that; you’re doing these books quite a disservice.

Anyway. As I was saying, the story is “decent”, as in it’s not going to revolutionise fantasy for sure, but remains entertaining. The world-building is on the generic side: easy to understand, no need for pages of exposition about how magic works, etc., and the geopolitics is introduced through events and dialogues.

My problems with this novel are, firstly, the main characters. The prince is pretty much a whiner all along, and not particularly interesting; whether he opened his mouth or not, it was all the same for me. Chel had a more exciting beginning—sworn to someone who basically swindled him out of his heritage through marriage, forced to run errands rather than be an actual knight, and liable to jump into whatever he can find, probably because he’s bored to death. The issue with him, though, is that he ends up wounded fairly early in the story, and stays like that for a while, which means he’s out of commission for anything fighting- or action-related. Add this to the second problem, a.k.a. travel fantasy, which I often have with such stories, and let’s just say it really doesn’t help.

(I don’t review fantasy very often, so I’m not sure I mentioned it in a previous review, but I have a weird relationship with stories where a good deal of the plot is devoted to travelling—and that’s as a writer as well! I got introduced to fantasy precisely through this—LOTR, I’m looking at you—and I keep gravitating towards such stories, yet at the same time, they also tend to bore me easily, because apart from the occasional wolf/bandit/assassin attack in the forest/mountains, not much else is happening. Here, the fight scenes themselves are good, there’s tension and blood and people do get hurt; but what’s in between tended to bore me.)

As for the Black Hawks themselves, they did have their interesting sides as well. Some light is shed on them throughout the story, a lot more mystery remains at the end, to be developed in the next volume(s) I hope, and in general, they were of the (somewhat magnificent) bastard kind, which is something I enjoy: unlikeable as people, yet likeable when it comes to following their antics.

On the other hand, the cliffhanger at the end was not one I appreciated. The twist was surprising (perhaps a little on the cliché side), but the cliffhanger was definitely too abrupt, as if a couple of chapters were missing from the book.

The Black Hawks’ synopsis caught my attention: reluctant hero with an impossible task surrounded by reluctant friends? Sign me up!

It wasn’t quite like that though.

More like sworn-guard unwittingly tagging along when his master is kidnapped, making a few friends on the way but never quite making it into the group. Partly due to his ineptitude – sworn-guard with no weapon? – and partly because he has an innocence that mercenaries can’t quite get their heads around.

I liked Chel as a main character. He’s stubbornly loyal, in over his head, faced with a difficult situation, and he never wavers. He’s not particularly gifted, unless being in the wrong place at the wrong time counts. Fleeing from his enemies, Chel accidentally finds himself sworn to a prince – with a price on his head and mercenaries after them.

Rennic is introduced as a scruffy beggar, but Chel soon realises there is more to him. He is gruff, unfriendly and unapproachable. I felt he stays that way throughout the entire book – it was hard to connect to him, or see any opening for any of the other characters to warm to him.

Prince Tarfel is best described as adorable. He’s innocent, naïve, with a too-big-heart that somehow makes you warm to him despite him being useless. I thought he would be an annoying character, but he proved me wrong. He doesn’t do anything to inspire Chel’s loyalty, but you just know he would be lost without him.

The rest of the gang are a mixture of personalities. But throughout the entire novel, I struggled to properly connect to them. They had admirably traits, and it was a fun book to read, but I didn’t feel I was emotionally invested in any of them. Considering the majority of the book is dogged with danger, that undermined it.

I have nothing against bad language when it is used correctly. With the kind of plot unfolding here, it would be wrong if the characters were politely spoken. But this went too far. The dialogue didn’t read naturally to me because of the swearing – it drew my attention, interrupted their speech and then started to annoy me because of the previous two reasons.

Despite the violence and threat of violence – other mercenaries, betrayal from within, cannibals and a deadly church – the plot was slow paced. There was a lot of travelling. This might have worked, apart from my lack of connection to the characters, so it just made it feel a little slow.

That being said, the final few chapters were tense and gripping. A fight with the odds stacked highly against them gives some of the main characters the chance to show their true colours. It would have been better if it felt like it had a conclusion rather than just an opening to the next book. Overall, this was an okay book – it was engaging enough that you kept reading and wanted to know what happened to the characters. But I wouldn’t rave about it either.

Bound to a dead-end job in the service of his uncle, life isn’t all that for Vedren Chel. That is until the kingdom is thrown into chaos, and Vedren finds an out: escorting the stranded prince who promises his oath would be dissolved. But dragging a prince while being hunted by enemies on all sides isn’t easy and when they find themselves in the company of the Black Hawks, Vedren’s dream to return home drifts further away from him.

It hurt a lot to not like this one. I was really excited to read The Black Hawks, but nothing was really impressive about this book at all. The pacing was all off, the fight scenes were exhilarating but they were immediately followed by extreme moments of utter nothingness.

Chel was both annoying and amusing at the same time. He doesn’t seem to do much apart from getting beat up violently and somehow surviving. The prince in question is quite immature, but we get no clarity in his age, or I either missed it. The Black Hawk Company had the makings to be so good. But their humour fell flat for me. I wasn’t sure if Chel was supposed to grow to enjoy their company or be terrified of them because, in the end, Chel comes to like them, but I don’t think that development really came through in the story.

The last quarter of the book did really interest me. But the overall story just didn’t entice me enough to care about continuing this series in the future. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. Or maybe, it just wasn’t the right time and I’ll have to check out reviews of the next book in the future to decide if this one deserves a second chance.

Black Hawks by David Wragg caught my attention last month as this impressive debut seemed to have drawn the impossible comparisons to two of the genre's greatest, Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch. And then that gorgeous gorgeous artwork on the cover resembled the cover of one of the most buzzy ( and rightly so!) debuts in the previous couple of years - Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. Tall order to live up, sure but hey - you got my eyeballs!

Finally got down to it over the last one week - when rains in Langkawi and airport transits gave me ample time on my week off to gobble this one up. And say this for David Wragg - this guy's writing chops are absolutely A-class and he writes a fine debut to give us an impressive epic fantasy about a band of scrappy mercenaries getting caught in a twisted game of power in a kingdom reeling in the middle of civil unrest and faith gone ugly. In a year of spectacular books, this one's going to be standout and hells, that says a lot about a debut.

So Black Hawks is a low epic fantasy that promises us a lot of fun, violence and humour in the company of a mercenary bunch of battle-scarred veterans scrapping with each other and jostling with life and death as they try and keep alive. The story unspools from the single POV of young Chel Vedren, a young man forced into knight-duty for his step-uncle, a minor Duke. But knighthood in the beginning seems like a dreary job leaving little scope for glory. Until the day when the coastal city where he is stationed, is attacked by barbaric forces from the North ( unimaginatively called Norts!) and he is thrust into the unlikely position of protecting the younger prince of the Kingdom Tarfel (A charming young man whose vocabulary in the beginning is limited to frightened whimpers and empty declarations of his royal lineage) and whisk him away to safety. He is taken into protective custody by this rough and tumble gang of no-gooders' who appear out of nowhere as the whole besieged city is burning and thus, begins young Chel's education in the ways of the wild, picking up important lessons in life and also, discovering who he really could be.

The best feature about this book is the fun factor. There's this wide silver lining of humour spread through the book, underlining the unflinching violence that marks the lives of these Mercs. I was laughing out loud at many instances and this lightens up the mood of this otherwise dark book. There's only very little world building so to speak - A standard medieval ages kingdom on the brink of civil unrest, power hungry tyrants who control the reins in the name of 'faith', no magic at all and a few ethnicities that represent the minority and thus, are the 'outsiders'. But what is there, is a relentless focus on the explosive plot surging ahead with little twists and unexpected turns, marred by exciting action and backstabbing galore.

The characters are well fleshed out and memorable. The group dynamics, the relentless banter and quips and the brotherhood-formed-on-the-battlefield shines throughout the book. In the quieter moments when we take a gasping, breath in between the interminable action scenes, we get to know the Black Hawks better. There is Rennic, the boss-man of the hard-nosed bloody minded company whose gruff demeanour and tough stance are a result of a life-long struggle on staying alive and single-minded focus on getting the bloody job done and getting paid for it. He's a man whose soul is like a twisted barbed line on which hangs countless guilty acts of having gone back on his 'promise' in order to survive. A true mercenary in that.
I totally loved Lemon - with her fiery orange hair and incessant cussing, she's a lass with a heart of gold and more education than the rest of the company put together. She's a total hoot with her choicest imaginative epithets. Then there's Loveless, an artist with her blade whose backstory is probably the most thought-out. Foss is a gentle giant whose good humour and manners belies his fearsome strength. Whisper and Spider make the rest of the band - each deadly in their own arts, shooting an arrow or fighting dirty. Spider especially is one of the greyest characters in the lot, shifty and creepy throughout the book and as a reader, I couldn't really make out as to where his loyalties lay. I really hope to see more of this guy!

But the best of all is of course, young Chel himself. Who is quite ordinary and who cannot even hold a sword up or use a skinning knife to save his own life. And yet, whose relentless dogged determination to carry on through with his sworn duty puts a shine on the boy. His heart is pure gold and he wouldn't back down from his duty to protect the prince. But what he is blessed with, is good luck and he carries on through with it right upto the end. Dislocated shoulder, broken ribs, purple bruised throat, all of this be damned. He truly won me over as a character to root for - no special powers, an observer to the bloodshed around him, the voice of the mercenary company as they get entangled into the power games of the tyrants and Lords in the kingdom, teetering on the edge of a collapse.

Black Hawks doesn't do anything by a stretch to push the boundaries of the genre sure, but it is such a fun impossible to put down read that grabs your attention from get-go, pushes the pedal to the floor and races to an astounding climax, leaving you on an infuriating cliffhanger. An extraordinary debut that deserves all the love it's garnered and continues to, I cannot wait for the next part of the Articles of Faith.

In theory, it's fun and fast. But I just can't get into it and have an impression we've seen it all. DNF for now, I'll try to give this one another chance in a few weeks/months.

An enjoyable read for fans of gritty fantasy with a healthy helping of humour. Pretty much all the other reviews have said if you like Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch then you'll like this, and there's a reason they're saying it!

Main character Chel begins the book by stumbling into trouble and things go downhill (and uphill) from there. He ends up sworn to protect a prince as they travel the country, running from assassins and disaster. Enter the Black Hawks, a roguish gang of mercenaries.

A fun story that ends on a massive cliff. It's not the most original fantasy tale you'll ever come across, but nor is it without surprises.

From GoodReads:
Yes, this is in the Abercrombie, Lynch style (which is a good thing).
Also has a feel of the recent 'Kings of the Wyld' (which is also a good thing.

There is nothing really new about this but it is done really well.
Hero making his way in the world, gets in with band of larger than life mercenaries, lots of action, sniff of a love interest

Took a while to get going, but was worth the wait.
The motley crew of good/bad mercenaries are which adds the spark to this. Our hero is still getting going.

Have a feeling that the next in the series is where this series will really come alive - looking forward to it

The Black Hawks follows Vedren Chel, a young knight-in-training whose training is floundering and he is disengaged. His place in the corrupt country, and its class system, is dubious, and suddenly thrown into doubt when his home city is invaded. He sees the chance to escort young cowardly Prince Tarfel across country as his way out of his dead-end role. Sadly for him, they are kidnapped by the Black Hawk company, a crew of mercenaries as likely to call you an inventive swear-word as to instantly gut you.
The story is one that emerges over time, as Chel and the Black Hawks' journey changes and develops into more of a righteous quest. While I tend to prefer books where I can visualise the overall plot early on, I really enjoyed this and the way everyone was on the back foot the whole time. It gave me, as the reader, the feeling of being unaware and at the mercy of this harsh world, as it did for the characters in the story.
The characters themselves are largely well-developed. Chel is an interesting main character, being morally strong but largely useless in a fight. I was oddly glad that his battle skills barely improved throughout the book, I was at one point dreading chapters of sword forms and stances. He contrasts well with the Black Hawks, who are a grim company of morally corrupt selfish head-cases who are somewhat loyal to each other, but at the same time out for themselves. Within the crew each has their own place, their own skills and their own defined personality. It was a little hard initially to remember each of them, but I quickly got to know them well. Their different skills were well used in the action scenes as the company fought against other crews of mercenaries and corrupt government/church officials.
The plot is strong here. As said earlier, it develops over time with twists and turns and treachery and moral corruption throughout.
While the ending was a little bit of a surprise and a let-down, it felt overall the right way to end this first book in the series.
I had some issues with the pacing, but on the whole really enjoyed this book.

I loved the concept of this book and I was fully ready to dive in head first and see what was happening.
I think an element of why I ended up feeling fairly 'middling' about this book was a timing issue - this is not a book you can just pick up and set down as and when, you need to make a dedicated effort or else what happened to me will occur and you will find yourself hopelessly lost.
I did think the concept was interesting and I actually quite liked the main character and a number of the side characters and I think if I sat down and re-read this, giving it it's due I would have a good time. For that reason this review will be a temporary review until such a time as I can re-read. For the moment I will say that this book has good bones and a lot of detail, it's an epic journeying kind of a story where you get to encounter a fair few different settings and peoples. It's a story where many people's expectations are turned on their heads which I always appreciate and I have no doubts that on a re-read this book will be amazing.

What an action-packed ride through a fantastic landscape. Full of political intrigue, twists and turns and a cast of characters like no other. It’s safe to say I have fallen a little bit in love with The Black Hawks.
The story starts in the port of Denimas here we meet one of our main characters Chel. He seems pretty disillusioned with life, just ticking along trying to find his way. During an invasion Chel finds himself with the Prince and thus embarks on a journey to dissolve his oath and find his own way. The only thing is, he has to keep the prince alive!

I instantly gelled with Chel, he’s multi-faceted and I love that, essentially, he just wants this job done so he can gain his freedom. However, he also takes his oath extremely seriously and things he does in order to achieve that are quite something.

As for The Black Hawks, what a brilliant bunch of characters. The women are strong, take no shit and fight just as well and just as hard as the men. The men all have unique characters of their own and complicated backstories. All are snarky, rude and hard drinking, I loved the scenes with all of them. Great fun to read.

My only slight complaint is that we didn’t learn enough of their backgrounds, especially Chel. Things are hinted at and revealed partly but not enough to suit my curious needs. However, I am wondering whether more will be coming in the following book.

This book also had my favourite kind of World Building. Things are revealed slowly as we travel through the landscape. This gives you time to process everything and learn all the finer details. This came in handy as you realise the political power play that is going on.

If you can’t already tell I loved this book. Definitely in my top reads of this year and I am so looking forward to reading the next one.

My thanks to Harper Voyager for a copy of the book via Netgalley.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis

Dark, thrilling, and hilarious, The Black Hawks is an epic adventure perfect for fans of Joe Abercrombie and Scott Lynch.

Life as a knight is not what Vedren Chel imagined. Bound by oath to a dead-end job in the service of a lazy step-uncle, Chel no longer dreams of glory – he dreams of going home.

When invaders throw the kingdom into turmoil, Chel finds opportunity in the chaos: if he escorts a stranded prince to safety, Chel will be released from his oath.

All he has to do is drag the brat from one side of the country to the other, through war and wilderness, chased all the way by ruthless assassins.

With killers on your trail, you need killers watching your back. You need the Black Hawk Company – mercenaries, fighters without equal, a squabbling, scrapping pack of rogues.

Prepare to join the Black Hawks.

Review

Thanks to the publisher and author for an advance reading copy of The Black Hawks (Articles of Faith #1) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this eARC did not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel.

David Wragg’s debut was an enjoyable fantasy romp rife with morally ambiguous characters, sarcastic and witty banter, and enough swordplay to keep Inigo Montoya entertained. While I have seen it compared to Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames and Joe Abercrombies First Law Trilogy, The Black Hawks stands on its on merits and creates a new fantasy realm that will astound readers who dare to take the plunge.

The Black Hawks themselves remind me of a mix between the mercenaries found in Fletcher’s Manifest Delusions and Selby’s The Winter Road. A mix of hardened killers with zero filter, exceptional skills with blades/axes, and motivation that is only fed by stacked coinage. To say they are likeable is an overstatement, but to say they don’t grow on you as the story unfolds is a straight up lie.

Then you have Chel. Sort of a Aethelwold-ish character (not that he has nay claim to anything) but is sort of a down-on-his-luck drunkard who is thrust into the spotlight when he stumbles upon the prince and guides him to safety. From there, you have what feels like a coming-of-age story (it isn’t) where Chel is forced into facing a reality he would rather stray away from: protecting a prince at all costs across a country full of murderers, thieves, and wolves.

I feel that the comparisons under-deliver in ways that aren’t necessarily fair to the author and may leave *some* readers wanting more. The Black Hawks does not contain the over-the-top, consistent hilarity or battles that you get with Kings, nor does it plunge you into the minds of some of the best characters ever created in The First Law World. Having said that, it does have its fair share of humorous one-liners from the mercenaries, several intense, small-scale combat scenes, and Chel is a very likeable character that I would like to see more from. In summation, just don’t go into it thinking it is going to be exactly what you expect based on media marketing.

All in all, I highly suggest you give The Black Hawks a go. It is a little slow on takeoff but you’ll be hankerin’ for more once you cross the halfway point. The mercs themselves are plenty of reason to grab this book and give yourself plenty of belly laughs, and the ending will have you waiting on pins and needles for the sequel.

This took me a tad longer to read than it really should have as I was savouring the book.
By far, one of the best books I've read this year, and I would put this up there with Abercrombie (whom I love!) I've already added a copy to my online basket to give to a friend for his birthday.

An excellent grimdark. Full of action, questionable but lovable characters, violence, and back-stabbing. I loved every minute of it. The sequel better be out soon!

4.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2019/10/03/the-black-hawks-articles-of-faith-1-by-david-wragg/
I enjoyed The Black Hawks very much. According to Goodreads this is approx 430 pages and yet those pages were turning so quickly that it couldn’t have taken me more than a couple of days to finish – I was that hooked. I hesitate however to call this ‘fun’ and I’m not sure I’d call it ‘hilarious’ either and the reason why I’m going to the trouble of pointing that out is that some people shy away from books that are funny (or trying to be), humour being a tricky way to please everyone after all. This is very entertaining, it pulled me in fairly quickly, it’s quite action packed, particularly the last third, it has some great characters and there is plenty of snarky banter. It’s also not a shy novel so if you’re a little wary of profanity then keep that in mind – for me, well, I just love all the banter even if it is a little crude here and there so I was happy as a pig who fell into a mud bath and then found a golden truffle.

As the story begins we meet Chel, he’s about to find himself in a spot of bother which by the sounds of it is the usual state of affairs for him. Chel is sworn under oath in the service of his uncle, which seems to involve, mainly, carrying clothes around – yep, that’s Chel, he’s like the newbie sent out for everyone’s coffee and believe me he doesn’t enjoy his role at all, it’s just not what he imagined! Then the City is attacked by the fire wielding Norts and Chel attempts to flee before becoming a fireball himself. This is when he is unwittingly roped into the service of one of the younger princes, Tarfel Merimonsun and their adventure really begins. Chel’s prior obligations are removed when the Prince makes a bargain with him – Chel will become the Prince’s protector, relinquishing the oath to his uncle and upon delivering the Prince to safety Chel will be released. Let’s just say that being a knight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and the chance to go home appeals very much to Chel so the deal is struck.

Unfortunately for Chel it seems that there are other parties interested in the Prince and so it isn’t long before trouble catches up with them.

The Black Hawks are a bunch of mercenaries. All very different characters indeed, they have an easy camaraderie and I have no doubt that readers will find a favourite amongst this crew. I can’t deny that when they entered the scene they stole the show a little. But, I don’t want to be unfair to Chel and Tarfel. Their story is very easy to get on with. Chel is no sword master but what he lacks in technique he makes up for in his own moral code and sheer good luck. Tarfel is completely clueless and a little detached from reality. Far from being concerned about being abducted he simply expects a ransom demand to be presented and things to follow a natural and well established course, which naturally will involve the exchange of much gold and no harm to his princely self. He’s actually very endearing in his gullibility. I have to say the way the relationship between these two develops as the story progresses is one of the winning elements to the book and indeed for that matter their interactions with the mercenaries. Also, regarding the Hawks, all of them are very distinct and the author makes it so easy to envision them. I’m not saying they’re all nice! But they’re just so well drawn and even the more brooding members of the crew will eventually work their magic on you or at least you’ll be relieved when they show up in the middle of a tight spot.

Speaking of magic. This isn’t really the type of fantasy that includes monsters and magic, at least not thus far, more adventures and escapades. Lots of skirmishes and running and a good deal of stabbing. The number of ways that these characters could die just mounts up as the pages turn, wolves, storms, cannibals, other potential abductors trying to steal the already abducted for themselves not to mention members of the cloth throwing their hat into the ring.

The world building was good. We’re given a little of the history of the ruling monarchy but in bite size pieces usually during conversation between different members of the Hawks and Chel or Tarfel. This is a world that has seen its share of war and not everyone can be the winner – there are always those left with the bitter taste of defeat and on top of that and the potential for rebellion, there is also a very strong religious presence that has a feel of the Inquisition with men and women of the cloth becoming objects of fear.

In terms of criticisms. I have very little. I really enjoyed this from start to finish – the only issue I would mention is that the ending is something of a cliffhanger – which doesn’t frustrate me as much as it does some people I know – that being said, when is No.2 coming out please?

I thoroughly enjoyed this. It’s highly entertaining, there are some wicked lines and banter that I really wish I’d highlighted to use for this review and basically I can’t wait to read more. Let me put it like this – if the second instalment was available, right here, right now I would be all over that. That’s all I’m saying.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I love fantasy books with a bit of a twist - so this book suited me down to the ground .

This was a fun read with moments of sarcasm and humour , plenty of fights and battles which kept me engaged - the characters were just 'odd' enough to make the book interesting and although it flowed well enough it was nothing out of the ordinary .
That being said , as the book ended on a cliff hanger , I look forward to reading the next in series .

Chel is tasked , by his Uncle , with escorting Prince Tarfel to safety ……………. meeting the mercenaries The Black Hawks along the way . Who to trust ? Can he trust ?
The motley list of secondary characters are what makes this book …………….. Chel himself not so much , he has little depth with almost no backstory to make him interesting .
I hope that this will be addressed in the next in the series .

I was given an ARC of this book by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.