YOU DIE WHEN YOU DIE

RELEASED 22 JUNE 496 pages | Paperback/ebook

Author angus Watson

Publisher Orbit When Ayanna, Swan Empress of the mighty Calnian Empire, receives a prophecy that a horde of pale-skinned people will destroy the world, she orders the annihilation of the only people matching that description: the residents of Hardwork village. Descended from Norsemen from across the ocean, the Hardworkers are warned of their impending destruction by their resident seer, a young boy called Ottar, and decide to flee rather than face extinction. What follows is a cat and mouse game between the Hardworkers and their pursuers, the Owsla, the deadliest assassins in all Calnia.

Angus Watson’s prose is lively and vivid, his description of being caught in a tornado is a blustery thrill, and he eschews the formal, stilted mannerisms of most epic fantasy dialogue for bawdy, contemporary banter. The world he creates is rich in magic but populated with prosaic figures like Hardworker Finn, a socially awkward teenager desperate to impress the girl he worships even in the face of mortal danger. It’s the characters that really animate the adventure, with the cheery charm of the Hardworkers contrasted with the single-minded Owsla.

This is the first of a trilogy, so Watson’s setting up his chessboard rather than going for checkmate, but it’s a hugely entertaining road trip all the same.