Received arc from Quercus Books and Netgalley for honest read and review,this review is my own.
I enjoyed this one, even if at times it was a bit slow.But with the first in a series you are always going to get a little bogged down with all the characters etc.
This was a good story and it flowed really well, and I kept going.
It is quite good to find a story that starts off on one path but then changes as the story goes on.
Really enjoyed.

The Burning Land is the first book in the Talmont trilogy. It was a great introduction to this world. The characters were all well written, although I found some of them quite frustrating at times. The world was an interesting one and it was well written. I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

Having got back into fantasy books after a long time away from them, I was looking forward to this one as it was billed as having politics and dastardly doings. It wasn't too bad and I do love the The Falcons, the knights of the Vestal Order! However, it was a struggle to finish and not the page turner this reader was hoping for.

I am afraid I did not get through the entirety of this one. I have enjoyed David Hair in the past, so I am very grateful to the publishers for giving me access to this first book in a new series, but it didn't captivate me like his previous books have. The prose felt a bit clunky, and where Hair's talent has previously been in character, for me, these characters felt very tropey and there was nobody I cared about enough to keep reading.

I’ll start this review by saying I’m a fan of Hair’s previous work, The Moontide Quartet (even though I really disliked book 3, book 2 remains one of the best books I’ve read). So, I was really excited to see that he was coming out with a new series set on a new world.

In the Burning Land we are going to follow a group of Vestal Knights as they discovered that their kingdom and faith might not be as good as it was supposed to be.

As you can see, I’m staying out of spoiler territory since I believe that the plot of the book was great, but we deviated from it a lot in the middle. Very early on, thanks to capturing an enemy soldier, they find out that the magic they use might be killing the place where its crystal is placed. I loved it, the beginning was so engaging filled with action and intrigue. But at a point our heroes are forced to leave in the search on a man while their enemies are hunting them, and honestly, I’m not usually a fan of this. Even though the world was amazing and really cool to explore I was expecting more and more from the plot, and it didn’t deliver until the ending, leaving more questions than answers.

As I just said the world was great, especially the magic system. I’m not surprised since Hair is usually really good at this, I just wished we had more of the politics seeing as in the Moontide Quartet it had a huge part. Again, the magic, amazing. We have rechargeable magic swords for the good guys, more usual magic for the wizards and “rage” magic for the bad guys. There one more but I won’t talk about that one since I would consider it spoilers.

Characters play a huge role in this story. We have Romara, the leader of the Vestal Knights we follow, she starts as a fantastic leader to follow but as the story progresses, she became the most annoying of all the characters, at times feeling like a teenager acting more out of stupidity than anything else. We have Jadyn, the one who suspects, he’s the one that starts our story and honestly, I quite liked him, he’s your more usual white knight, with a heavy moral compass and who just wants to do the right thing. Besides a few more Vestal Knights we also have a thief and the vyr (the enemy soldier) which were some of the more interesting characters, although they also acted a little bit too young sometimes. The characters are given space to grow, and they do in a lot of ways but honestly, I don’t think it did enough since a couple of them felt more regressive than progressive. I do have to say that my favourite one was the wizard in the Vestal Knights, she’s just the best.

The thing that annoyed me the most is the transcription of accents, I know is a me thing, but honestly, I hate it. For someone whose first language is not English, listening to accents is fine but reading them is awful. I’m never going to be on board with this, just do it on the audiobook and it will be fine.
As a wrap up, I think The Burning Lands has equally as pros as it has cons, so if you’re looking for a more classic take on fantasy, where morally and moral conflict have a huge part of the story, you’re going to enjoy it a lot. If you want something huge or gory then this one might not work for you. As it is I gave 3.75 star rating, and I will continue with the series since the story is still very intriguing.

The Burning Land by David Hair book 1 of the Talmont Trilogy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus books for this eARac.

The Falcons are Knights of the Vestal Order committed to keeping the Empire safe but when one of its members questions a supposed enemy, they learn things they should not know, which has marked them as enemies of the Empire, and they must flee as they seek to learn more.

Overall I enjoyed this book. The story kept me hooked from the start as we see the Falcons in action and their learning of what the Empire is doing, leading to a chase across the lands where they uncover more information about just what is going on.

The characters in the books were really well done and I enjoyed reading from the different perspectives of the Falcons and at times even some of those chasing them. Each was given time to shine and let the reader know what they were thinking and their motivations.

The world-building was very well done and it was fun to see a chase across the lands and learn about some of those lands from the differing views of some of the characters. It is a world that I want to learn more about, especially the precursors to the Vestal Knights.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Burning Lands and would recommend it to any fans of fantasy especially those of classic fantasy.

It took me some time to get into the book, but whew it hairbrush I wasn't and to put it down.
It was slow in some scenes, but picks back up again and doesn't disturb the reading experience.
The battles and the characters are well written, the magic system interesting.

I enjoyed this book a lot and will definitely read the next installment.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. My thoughts and opinions on this book are my own and given voluntarily.

"The caliph asked me today why history matters. It was no idle question (...) What he was really asking me, his history tutor, was, 'What are you for?'"


The Burning Land by New Zealander author David Hair is the 1st book in his new fantasy adventure series The Talmont Trilogy. This is the 1st work by Hair that I've read and I was pleasantly surprised by the author's imagination and skill with the storytelling craft.

From the synopsis and the very first passage (as can be seen from the quote I chose) of The Burning Land, I expected a Veris Serios Epic Fantasy Adventure with Political Scheming and It's the End of the World as We know it Drama. The book does deliver on everything I just mentioned, however, The Burning Land brings its reader(s) more than can be divined from the synopsis.

Hair's latest book has all the ingredients that make a superb read: superb worldbuilding, an intriguing story followed by interesting, diverse, complex, well-developed characters and a pace to match. Through a diverse and fascinating cast of characters, The Burning Land explores the complex political and environmental issues and realities that plague the world of Talmond. However, political scheming and other seriously epic events are not the only things that Hair's book brings to the table. In addition to the scenes where the characters must make hard choices, there are plenty of humorous and silly scenes. The serious and the humorous situations create an excellent contrast in character development, highlighting the sides of the characters that we might not usually see.

Characters and character development were among the highlights of The Burning Land, especially the attention devoted to female characters and their development. Hair's female characters are nuanced, complex and diverse. Their thoughts, emotions and actions instantly capture the reader(s) attention. None of what I mentioned is at the expense of the male characters in the book, on the contrary, their development is equally superb and all of this complements and enhances the characters and their interwoven stories.

The Burning Land was a surprise, both story and character-wise and by the end I was invested in the characters and the world and will eagerly pick up the sequel when it comes out.

My first book from this author and I enjoyed it. A brave bunch of knights using power drawn from certain “nodes” are fighting against deformed citizens who have powers of their own.
Except the lines get blurred as to who are actually the bad guys, and as our gang dare to question things they find themselves hunted by both their colleagues and those they once hunted.
Some good characterisations, liked the strong female commander who has to hand command over to someone else who doesn’t want it. As we progress through the story there are revelations from their colleagues and suspicions that not much of what they know is true.
Solid fantasy here with an interesting plot and characters with depth. Good stuff.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Tethered Citadel Series, an epic fantasy featuring a fantastic and original world building and a plot that mixes politic, magic and personal stories.
This is one is the start of a new travel into a new place.
This is a fantasy according to my heart: gripping, compelling and entertaining.
I liked the intrigue and the complex world building. There's echo of other series I loved and this makes it more intriguing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Jo Fletcher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

"The Burning Land" was an odd one for me! Throughout the book, I had the feeling that I'd read this before (I absolutely haven't, and can't even bring to mind anything similar enough to cause that feeling). Maybe I'm just very, very comfortable with David Hair's writing after reading "The Tethered Citadel" trilogy. Anyway... This is a brilliant book! Great writing, characters, setting, plot. Gather supplies before you start this one because you won't want to move once you start!!

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

What a fantastic read this book is. I was very pleased when the publisher allowed me to read this early, especially as this book is just supremely good.
From the onset, you appreciate the return of David Hair. His sublime ability to create some incredible characters, all with such depth and interest that it is a joy as ever for the the stories to ebb and flow around and past such characters. Characters that you feel for or hate, but ultimately forge that emotional connection.
Underneath all of this is a perfectly crafted story which just lifts you as you read it, such is the skill of the author and the sheer joy that this story brings you as you devour it as quickly as you can.
Welcome back David, we have missed you. I sincerely hope this book brings you the acclaim and success that you very much deserve.

Thank you Quercus Books, and Net Galley for sending me the arc of The Burning Land by David Hair in exchange for my honest and unbiased review. Having not read anything by David Hair previously, I was intrigued by the start of an epic fantasy that focused on a band of people on a journey, hunted and having to face challenges and accusations, and I can truthfully say that Hair doesn’t disappoint!
This is the first book in The Talmont trilogy and it is packed full of mature and well developed world building, historical aspects, politics and of course a brilliant magic system. Never mind the characters, who are truly well-rounded, developed and thought out, providing contrasting views and personalities across the board.
The book focuses on a core group of soldiers who are searching for the true roots of a crystal that powers their world, magic, weapons and minds of priests and warriors. Is this crystal truly a force for good or evil? Our core group are The Falcons, vestal warriors led by FMC Romana, who takes a lot to like but, is no weaker a character for that, plus other characters they pick up along the way. Aura, the Nepali who helps one of them escape from prison joins the group, and whilst the Empire’s language being her 2nd weaker tongue, is a truly intelligent and great character with a sense of intuition that shouldn’t be denied, plus her distinct perspective provides a humourous holistic viewpoint.
The world building in The Burning Land is so well crafted, weaving in history with current timeline to create a 360 view of a world that has been shaped by it’s history, politics and magic. And the magic is truly intriguing, is it a force for good or evil? Is it destroying their world. Add in some truly breath taking action and a plot that flows as speedily and convoluted as the quest, taking you up inlets, twisting and turning right until the end. I was totally engrossed in this book from the start and can’t wait to see where the next book in the series takes Falcons next.

Fantasy quest. Rules like to rule, and don’t always tell the truth. Romara and her Falcons knights are going to find this out the hard way when friendships mean they disagree and go against the Vestigial Order’s leaders. So they set out to find the truth for themselves. The first book sets the scene and takes time to get going. So three stars for the beginning. 4 stars by the end as the excitement and tension increased, and now I’m ready for book two. Thank you to Quercus Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

The Burning Land is the first volume of what promises to be another excellent epic fantasy.
The basic plot of a small band of people searching for something while being pursued by the forces of evil is definitely not new and David Hare certainly used it himself in his last trilogy. However in this first book of The Talmont trilogy, he has created a world with history, politics and an intriguing magic system that really drew me in.
Our small band of good guys are searching for the truth about the shards of a powerful crystal that have been planted around the empire and power the magic that fuels the weapons and minds of the elite warriors and priests. Are they benign and just use natural energy or are they destroying the land?
Any fantasy book stands or falls by its characters and David Hare has created a brilliant group of contrasting characters, on both sides. We have a pentancle of vestal warriors, the Falcons, led by the noble born Romana. Added to this group, we have a youngster who has been trained as a swordsman by his father, a young woman from a foreign nation and another young man who is one of the enemy and taken prisoner by the Falcons. As they journey across the empire seeking the truth, each of the characters learns more about themselves and each other. I liked all of them including the abrasive Romana who has problems seeing anything good in anyone who is different to her.
The standout character for me though was Aura, the Nepali who falls in with the group after helping one of them escape from prison. Not being a citizen of the empire, her command of the language is poor which leads the other characters to underestimate and look down on her. However, she is possibly the most intelligent of the entire group, already speaking four languages fluently and her instincts save them on more than one occasion. I enjoyed the author’s use of the multi POV which allowed us to see the thoughts of the different characters and Aura’s internal thoughts were complex as well as being occasionally amusing. As an outsider to the empire, she had a very clear sighted view of things.
As always, David Hare excels at the world building. I loved the world here and enjoyed the snippets of history that are dotted throughout the book giving the reader insights into the present situation. The magic was interesting especially the idea that the stones that power the magic are causing an ecological disaster. The use of the magic by the warriors will also eventually destroy them as they get taken over by which affects Romana as she draws near to the end of her career as a warrior at the age of thirty.
The pace of the book felt right to me. There are some exhilarating action scenes especially at the beginning and end of the book but as it is a quest story, it never really stops moving. The plot twists and turns as the Falcons (and the reader) learn more about the truth and it kept me interested right up to the final page.
This is the start of another great series by David Hare and I am very grateful to the publishers, Quercus Books, and Net Galley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I finished this book and literally said wow out loud. And I'll say it again. Wow. What an amazing book and start to a series.

Everything about this is epic: the worldbuilding, the magic system, the characters, the politics, the twists and turns. After the first few pages, which were admittedly a little hard to get into, I couldn't put it down. The pacing just kept me turning the pages.

The only thing that I found slightly annoying was the language Aura spoke was a weird bastardisation of Spanish and Italian. I just found it a little jarring.

I cannot wait for the next book, and I will be looking into further works by this author.

I enjoyed reading this! This is a well written story with substantial world building and a solid plot. The characters are well fleshed out and character development was apparent. I liked that, especially in action scenes, there are multiple POVs and although it got confusing at first, I got to focus clearly on individual characters. It also makes all the members of the group stand out. I also like that the story actually has real-life and modern issues being hinted on such as the obvious scarcity of women in positions of power and the destruction of natural resources among other things. I cannot wait to know what happens next in the next instalment of the Talmont Trilogy. I would recommend this to anyone who loves epic adult fantasy books.

David Hair, author of The Moontide Quartet, begins his new series, The Talamont Trilogy.

The book tells the story of a group of knights, called the Falcons, led by the charismatic Vestal Knight, Romara Challyis who after her (maybe) lover, Jadyn, gets clapped in irons for questioning a Vyr, (the bad guys of the book) against the express orders of the ruling church. This leads to a daring prison break to get Jadyn out. However, Amarra also gains a couple of unexpected companions, the Vyr Gram, and a thief called Aura, from what appears to be an Italian type culture.

They then collect some more members of the falcons, and also an initiate knight called Soren and set off to understand the reasons for the Vyr attacks (who are kind of a rebel set of magic users that employ a similar magic to the knights of the book). They learn from Gram that mabe the Vyr aren’t really the bad guys and actually it is the Empire and the Vestal Knights that are really the bad guys and that they are killling the land with their magic and they just don’t care.

In the midst of this, we have lots of character development, because we need to have some tortured individuals to make it believable. It turns out that the magic that the Vestal Knights use can burn people out and make them turn into something similar to the Vyr (who turn into beserking type monsters) and Romara is turning to the dark side. Not only that Jaydn and his beau, Romara find out that they not might be as hot for each other as they first thought as they both start to develop feelings for other people and then people are not what they seem.

In the Burning Lands, David Hair decides to throw everything at the reader. He wants a Mistborn level of adventure, but with a Star Wars type ethic. However, he also wants a rip roaring adventure reminiscent of Sebastian de Castell and tries to get the grimdarkness of Joe Abercrombie. Does it work? Well, to a degree it does!

It’s obvious that David Hair is able to write a good adventure story with tons of action, sizzling sword fights and zippy magic. And I did enjoy this aspect.

However, it is not without its problems. The plot starts of promisingly. There seems to be this ecological disaster going on that seems to mirror the climate disasters that are happening in our own world, especially the increase of wildfires that are plaguing various parts of the world, and the fact that the main cause for our current woes are ourselves and the way we treat the planet. However, it’s not long before this aspect is left by the wayside in favour of a traditional chase by bad guys across the continent.

In addition to that, the characters are a bit sketchy too, even though we are supposed to like and understand the reasons for their behaviours. Romara who is going through a change, instead of coming off as tortured and unsure, comes across as a whiny adolescent.

Another problem that I had with the book was that David Hair regularly used accents in his dialogue which unfortunately detracts from the character. For instance, Aura, who is from an Italian type culture comes across as Andrew Sachs in Fawlty Towers and is used as a comedic character, except, it’s not. It’s a bit cringe to be honest! It just doesn’t work.

There were other things that I thought didn’t work or could have been done in different ways. However, there were elements that I enjoyed. The world building was good, and like I said, the adventure aspects of the story worked well and I did enjoy them.

In addition to this, the magic system was something of note. It is primarily based around object magic that imbues the user with power. However there are two contrasting ways of using the power. The Vestal Knights have the power attached to their swords and it subsequently gives them superhuman powers, whereas the Vyr tap into the power and use it to transmute their physical appearences. And then there is a more natural power called the Aegis, which is classed as heresy by the empire.

So all in all, I actually generally liked the story, but it was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

I was kindly sent this by Jo fletcher books to read and I cannot thank them enough. This book has everything that I love in a political fantasy.
Knights, history, intrigued and now even more questions and not really knowing who I am suppose to be rooting for. If you like Sebastien de castell you will love this book, where knights who want to do well but question their ideals by it. This has me, wanting to know more and seeing where it leads. The snippets of history at the beginning of each of the chapters made me want to read more because it shows the deep knowledge of the land and you were constantly finding out things as the main characters battled the expectations they had in their life. Romara on page is exciting from a woman leading the knights and the expectations she has placed on herself for this task and I cannot wait to see Romara’s journey in the next book especially as the story climaxed towards the end chapters.
You could feel the emotion on the page as you watched the characters battle with what their lives are now and what they wanted to be. Now I have to

Post will be going up on instagram tomorrow..

The world-building in The Burning Land is excellent. I could read an entire history book on this setting. Really readable prose, too.