Wulfric is great, once I got to know him – which I felt we didn’t get the chance to do in the first section. I was not impressed with the beginning of the story, but after this turning point, I quickly changed my mind. The difference between the first third of the novel and its later two-thirds is incredible. She’ll return home with the head of an abomination, or not at all. Indra means to succeed, if nothing else just to defy her arrogant and controlling father, who was against this whole idea from the start. To do so, she’ll have to hunt down and kill an abomination within a year. She is ten months into her initiation trial, which she must pass to become a full-fledged paladin. Then there’s Indra, a fierce young warrior, determined to prove herself worthy as a knight of the Order, an elite group of monster hunters. Fifteen years ago, he fought to rid his kingdom of a plague of monstrous beasts known as abominations, and for his troubles he was cursed with a fate worse than death.

Once the greatest soldier and former confidante of King Alfred the Great, Wulfric now lives in the shadows. Wulfric is a former knight, fallen far from grace, who now wanders the English countryside dressed in rags and chains. We get a lot more character-focused, with the plot centered on two key protagonists. The entire tone of the novel also changes. Here we finally get to the meat of it, when things truly begin to take off. To me, Chapter Nine felt more like the real start of the story, kicking off the main narrative which takes place approximately fifteen years after the events of the first section. They didn’t quite mesh with the part that came after. That’s because the first eight chapters are foremost concerned with establishing background information and historical details. However, when compared to the rest of the book, this section had the feel of a very long drawn-out prologue the pacing here is a bit choppy, its tone blunt and cut-and-dried, the writing style straightforward and almost pedagogical in its delivery – not unlike a textbook. I don’t want this to put anyone off though, because it really is not bad. The only catch? The first part of this novel, made up of the first eight chapters, is its major weakness. It feels like I’ve been waiting for a book like this my whole life, a historical fantasy mixed with horror that puts the “dark” in Dark Ages. I really want to bring attention to this one.

A review copy was provided by the author/publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Abomination by Gary Whitta