- Book: The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn
- Author: Tyler Whitesides
- Publisher: Orbit
- Published: 2018
There are a lot of differences when you start to get into this book, but on the surface of it, I can almost guarantee that if you are a fan of The Gentleman Bastards series by Scott Lynch then you will love this book too.
Ardor Benn is a ‘ruse’ artist. A conman to you and me and he takes pride and joy in coming up with elaborate schemes to pull off ever more daring heists. So when he is presented with the chance to steal the King’s crown he leaps at it and events spiral from there until we’re left wondering how such a simple set-up lead into the dire straits the eclectic cast of characters find themselves in by the second half or so.
There are insane dragons who are the root of an incurable disease, magic based on ground-up dragon shit, more than one high stakes heist, and a barrel load of swashbuckling adventure.
One potential negative, and it’s not really a big one…. well actually it is. It is a very big one and feels very much like two novels combined into one. There is a point around halfway that I personally think could have served as a more than viable endpoint to a book. But as I say it is only a slight qualm, the book is fast-paced enough to compensate.
- Beer: Heart & Soul
- Brewery: Vocation Brewery
- Style: Session IPA
- Strength: 4.4%
Big fan of Vocation’s beers. I don’t think I’ve had a dud yet, and this was not the one to break that streak. Fruity, tropical taste which is perfect for a English summer evening (one of the few). It’s got a strong flavour for a relatively low strength IPA, which makes it perfect for knocking back while listening to the radio.
Burch's Books and Beers 