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Pieces of Hate has been on my radar since its release, but oddly I never got around to reading it.
Even when I surprisingly received a review copy of sitelinkA Whisper of Southern Lights along with one I had requested, I didn't manage to get to it.
But it is October now, which is the perfect time to read some horror, so this was exactly what I needed,
The book actually consists of two stories: Dead Man's Hand and Pieces of Hate, The latter is a novella, the former described as a novelette and first in the series, Whereas Pieces of Hate is told in third person, Dead Man's Hand instead goes with a first person narrative, through the eyes of an innocent bystander who gets caught up into events.
For me, Dead Man's Hand worked much better, The narrative style keeps the mysteries intact and divulges just what is necessary, while the reader has to connect some dots, The point of view character and his place within his western community worked well to reinforce feelings of fear and terror but also threw in the reader's sense of curiosity and inability to stay away from the mystery unfolding around Gabriel the oneeyed stranger's search for the "demon" named Temple.
Gabriel and Temple both remain mysterious throughout, and it isn't quite clear just what is going on, why Gabriel hunts Temple exactly and what their shared history is, The distance between reader/PoV character and the hunt for vengeance added to my enjoyment,
Dead Man's Hand turned into quite a good horror mystery in my eyes, with the reader being thrown into a longrunning conflict between inhuman characters, and confronted with a sense of helplessness.
With Pieces of Hate, the clock gets turned back to centuries earlier and the style switches and puts the lens right on Gabriel, We get to find out about his tragic backstory and cause for his need for vengeance, see his traumatic experiences and a few more overt displays of malice from Temple.
There are a bunch of things left unexplained in this one yet, and where I liked that in Dead Man's Hand, here it felt a bit jarring, due to how much was actually explained as it is.
The man with the snake in his eye, for example, is a real mystery to me, and I wanted to find a bit more out about him, since his message to Gabriel gets repeated like a mantra here.
In contrast to the western setting of the previous story, this one goes for a pirate theme, I like that quite a lot, especially since the pirates here are shown as real cutthroats, Even knowing some of Gabriel's secrets, there are a few risks involved regardless, simply due to the relative unpredictability of the pirate crews, Somehow Lebbon managed to make some of them menacing yet also likeable,
In case it wasn't clear already: These are not nice stories, They are full of grim themes, violence, hatred and a general sense of dread, They are satisfying for all that, and while I prefered Dead Man's Hand, Pieces of Hate, taking everything into account, might be the more chilling of the two stories.
It seems like Tim Lebbon is trying to vary up the settings with this series, going from western to the age of sail, to the second World War in sitelinkA Whisper of Southern Lights.
I appreciate that variety, and thought that what he brought to the table in both stories here suited the settings quite well,
With this book done, I definitely want to go deeper and read the next book, which is already lying on my nightstand, . . along with a host of other reads, to be fair, Gabriel's hunt for Temple isn't over yet, and I want to see its violent conclusion for myself, Lebbon got me invested in Gabriel as a character and the horror mystery as a whole, so he's earned my readership, I'm a sucker for a good play on words and the title of this one tickled my funny bone, Not that Gabriel and Temple's battles are anything to laugh about, but I like to take my giggles where I can get them,
So. The high seas, a demon, and a man with a whole lot of hate in his heart, Where bookkept us out of Gabriel's head, this book sticks us smack dab in the middle of it and we get to see both the regret Gabriel had over his calling and how badly he burns to carve his ounce of flesh from Temple.
Gabriel can see how it's eating at him, too, He's caught between a horrific past and a bleak future and neither of them offer him any sort of peace,
Nicely bloody with some awesomely brutal imagery, I genuinely liked how unapologetically gritty Gabriel's battle against Temple is, Those two don't pull their punches when they come together and anyone in the line of fire is in jeopardy,
Kelly sitelinkReading the Paranormal
As a story, it was fine, but thematically, it just hit so many of those old cliched notes and I didn't really care about the characters or this revenge quest.
There were references to difference stories, but I feel like others have done it better, Didn't really vibe with the audiobook either, Ultimately, I only finished it because it's on a list of books that I bought, and I'm trying to read everything I buy, But I didn't particularly like this, sadly,
Content warnings: I received this book from Goodreads.
The book starts out with Dead Man's Hand, which I enjoyed despite the overall confusion of what's going on, I think since the Dead Man's Hand story starts a long while after Pieces of Hate it shouldn't have been located at the start of the book,
Anyway, Dead Man's Hand style is western with the normal dusty, lawless, little cowboy town and the sudden appearance of a dangerous gunslinging stranger, Gabriel, AKA the MC, is not the POV in this one, some nobody named Doug is, I'm not being cruel in calling Doug a nobody because his only use is to describe the mystery of Gabriel and Temple's arrival and the eventual fight to the death in his uneventful little town.
I called the first story confusing because unlike in Pieces of Hate, it doesn't explain the complicated relationship between Gabriel and Temple and why they want to kill each other so badly.
Pieces of Hate was much more forthcoming in the information department, You learn about Gabriel and what happened to him, and also a little bit about Temple, though not much more than that he's a evil demon, Gabriel has an unwilling but undeniably exciting Pirate adventure on his unending quest to kill Temple, Because of Temple, Gabriel makes a few terrible sad mistakes which I guess is where the horror genre comes in, I'm not going to say what it is,
I'm not going to describe anything else, I'm stopping myself from probably ending up giving it all away,
Retroactive Sep: Technically this is a collection that includes both the short story "Dead Man's Hand" and the novella "Pieces of Hate" at least the Tor.
com edition is. First was a Western tale, the second was a pirate tale, and both feature an immortal character seeking revenge against a real bad guy named Temple, They're OK stories! Two novellas paired in one offering: the first a gunslinger story, Dead Mans Hand, and the second a pirate tale, Pieces of Hate, linked together by a vengeance plot and a character living through the centuries until he gets his revenge.
Gabriel is the oneeyed assassin seeking vengeance on Temple a shape changing demon who slaughtered his family a thousand years ago, The family seems to be a plot device as they dont get much page time,
Its one of those be careful what you wish for scenarios having wished to kill Temple without realising that Temple is a demon, Gabriel is condemned to live long enough to complete the deed, and that could be forever.
The first story is set in Deadwood, in the American west chronologically later than the second story which is set on board a pirate ship,
Gritty, bleak and gruesome, this couldnt be described as a feelgood story and unsurprisingly Gabriel fails to kill Temple on both occasions, so there must be more to come.
Received from Negalley in exchange for a review,
Well, for starters, the stories are out of order, The first book you read takes place after the second, The first story had a a Western feel but was a little too noir for my taste, It just didn't fit. The second story had some pirate elements but wasn't really a pirate story, It felt like a bit was borrowed from the show Black Sails, Just not the greatest use of reading time,
This review is in exchange for a free egalley from Netgalley, com. sitelink wordpress. com/
Publisher: Tor
Publishing Date: March
ISBN:
Genre: Fantasy
Rating:,/
Publishers Description: During the Dark Ages, a thing named Temple slaughtered Gabriels family, A man with snake eyes charged him to pursue the assassin wherever he may strike next, and destroy him, Gabriel never believed hed still be following Temple almost a thousand years later, Because Temple may be a demon, the man with snake eyes cursed Gabriel with a life long enough to hunt him down, Now
he has picked up Temples scent again, The Caribbean sea is awash with pirate blood, and in such turmoil the outcome of any fight is far from certain,
: Gabriel hunts a demon over the centuries that killed his family only it seems that neither can die, Can you say plot hole The characters are well developed within the limited story line and the world building delivers scenes that impact, Compelling story line and characters made this novella a worthwhile read,
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Download Your Copy Pieces Of Hate (Assassin, #1-2) Produced By Tim Lebbon Available In Audiobook
Tim Lebbon