The Shadowed Path: A Jonmarc Vahanian Collection

by Gail Z Martin

Nothing ahead but Vengeance – Nothing behind but Blood

Soldier. Fight slave. Smuggler. Warrior. Brigand Lord. You may have encountered Jonmarc Vahanian in the Chronicles of the Necromancer but you don’t really know him until you walk in his footsteps. This is the start of his epic journey.

A blacksmith’s son in a small fishing village before raiders killed his amily, Jonmarc was wounded and left for dead in the attack. He tried to rebuild his life, but when a dangerous bargain with a shadowy stranger went wrong, he found himself on the run.

Gail Z. Martin returns to the world of her internationally best-selling books with these thrilling ales of adventure and high fantasy, collected together here for the very first time.

Over half a million Chronicles of the Necromancer books sold

• ISBN10: 1781084394
• ISBN13: 9781781084397
• Publish Date: 14 June 2016 (first published 2 June 2016)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 December 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Solaris
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

interesting back story Set of short stories following the life and adventures of Jonmarc Vahanian and how his life was complicated and messy and how he gained skills that he had to bring him to where he became a hero.  Followed by a curse he tries always to do the right thing, sometimes not succeeding too well but it's interesting to read these glimpses into his life.

[Danielle Ackley-McPhail]

Gail Z. Martin amazes me. The intricate nature of her story telling, the solid skill of her writing...The Shadowed Path is a series of stories she's written separately over a span of years, and yet each one remains consistent, the thread unbroken. This is characteristic of all of Martin's writing. She is a powerhouse.

Of course, one of the drawbacks of pulling together a collection of individual but related stories is that each was written with the expectation that some readers will be coming into the universe cold and uninformed. That leads to a lot of repetition from story to story. In fact, when I initially started reading I missed the fact that this was a collection and not a novel because the continuity was that solid, the story line unbroken. However, after the third segment or so of encountering a recap of who people were and what the caravan was like had me going back to the description and discovering the error in my perception. That helped a lot as I just let the repetition slide past me and focused on the story. I would have liked to have seen these stories novelized rather than collected, with the repetition culled out, but even so this was a solid, enjoyable collection rich with detail and frenetic with action.

Fans of Jonmarc or those meeting him for the first time will grow strong in their loyalty to this steadfast, if ill-fated young man. A great gateway to the Winter Kingdom novels, for any not already familiar with them.