IF YOU LIKE THESE BOOKS, YOU MIGHT LIKE THE WORTH OF SCARS

Happy release week everyone! Reviews are rolling in and have been mostly very positive, and those who pre-ordered the ebook should now be able to download the full novel. If you happened to have read an advance copy, reviews are also now allowed to be posted on Amazon, so if you have an active Amazon account and have read the book already please go do that here!

If you happen to be on the fence about whether or not to purchase The Worth of Scars, this blog post is for you. If you're a fan of any, some or all of the following titles or their authors (or purely like the sound of them!), then there is a good chance you'll enjoy my debut novel, and otherwise should get an idea of what you might be in for should you decide to read it. It goes without saying that I make no comparisons with the quality of the respective works and The Worth of Scars, only their topics and content!

A GAME OF THRONES BY GEORGE R.R. MARTIN

Let's kick things off with the obvious and most well known, shall we? This is the one crossover with the 'influences on The Worth of Scars' blog post I did a few weeks back, so I'll try not to repeat myself.

How is A Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire in general similar to The Worth of Scars? Well, in quite a few ways:

Ancient threats intent on wiping out humanity returning? Check. A large cast of protagonists divided by individual chapters each told from their own point of view? Check. A bleak, grounded tone, and a world populated by severely flawed characters? Check. Continent-spanning epic fantasy where the fate of humanity is in the balance but in which many forces are distracted by their own petty squabbles? Check. The two books are also of a similar length, and mark the start of a (potentially!) long and currently unfinished series.

Honestly, I expect the Scarred Saga to become much more 'Game of Thrones-y' in future instalments, particularly in terms of the series' infamous politicking and spatially separate but intrically-interconnected stories, but there's more than enough overlap to be getting on with for now in The Worth of Scars.

promise of blood by brian mclellan

It's difficult to write a so-called 'flintlock fantasy' novel without drawing comparisons to The Powder Mage Trilogy and other works by McLellan. While Promise of Blood is more 'military fantasy', and puts the flintlock in the aforementioned flintlock fantasy far more front and centre, there are plenty of parallels here, outside even the setting, technology and weaponry. There are extremely powerful magical cabals propping up governments; gods and demigods are returning, and must to be fought with a musket (if you're lucky), a bayonet and vastly inferior magics; there's extreme political instability and upheaval; and the weaponry and technology talked about above make armed conflicts more brutal, bloody and destructive than might otherwise be possible in your typical 'sword and sorcery', medieval-style setting.

GUNS OF THE DAWN BY ADRIAN tchaikovsky

Am I just resorting to naming other flintlock fantasy titles now? Well yes, but also no. Guns of the Dawn is a less-talked-about Tchaikovsky work than some of his more well-known titles. It can be summed up quite succinctly as 'what if Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice was drafted in a magical version of the Napoleonic Wars and sent to fight over a swamp?' There's a bit more to it than that, but that's the general setup, anyway. Other than the setting, there are two main similarities with The Worth of Scars that I want to highlight. The first is the forced transition from that very familiar middle or upper class '18th century' life as depicted by the likes of Austen, into the also very familiar but very contrasting struggle of armed conflict, with the characters having to quickly adapt (or not!) to their change in circumstance. The depicted characters in Guns of the Dawn, and in several cases in The Worth of Scars, also happen to be women - shocking I know. I can make no claims myself on this topic (not without sounding like an arse, anyway), but Tchaikovsky's depictions of his female characters in Guns of the Dawn were highly praised and, in the words of one of The Worth of Scars' early reviewers: 'I particularly enjoyed the female characters, as a woman it’s rare to find women who are this well-written while also being allowed to be delightfully flawed.'

assassin's quest by robin hobb

The Farseer Trilogy, and Hobb's mammoth Realm of the Elderlings as a whole, is among the fantasy genre's most unsung masterpieces. While I reiterate that I make no claims that The Worth of Scars comes anywhere near matching Hobb's work in terms of quality, there are some crossovers between her enormous oeuvre and my tiny one, and between Assassin's Quest and The Worth of Scars in particular. 'Character-focused' can often be a bit of a nebulous term, but it is one I've seen levied a lot at Hobb, and even in the handful of reviews The Worth of Scars has received so far, it seems to be something of a theme. Similarly, Hobb's stories (and by stories I mean the main plot at hand) take their time to really get going, something The Worth of Scars is also very much guilty of, for better or worse - another running theme in early reviews. Additionally, I don't think it's an exagerration to say that as much as I love him, in the Farseer Trilogy at least, Fitz can be THE MOST FRUSTRATING AND AT TIMES COMPLETELY FUCKING IDIOTIC AND CLUELESS CHARACTER OF ALL TIME. Sorry, Fitz. Like I say, I love you, but I have never wanted to punch some sense into a character so badly in any other book or piece of media. The characters in The Worth of Scars, similarly, are hardly the wisest bunch, with track records of making some truly awful decisions. So, if you like your characters to make terrible choices a la Fitz, there's a lot of idiocy for you to look forward to in The Worth of Scars. Next, one of my favourite aspects of Hobb's magic system in Realm of The Elderlings is the addictive and potentially debilitating nature of The Skill, which is taken to an even grimmer and more physical degree with Andara's Gift and the Scarred in The Worth of Scars. Lastly, Assassin's Quest, as the name implies, is centred around a big old quest. The Worth of Scars, too, focuses on a long, continent-spanning quest. Case closed.

BEFORE THEY ARE HANGED BY JOE ABERCROMBIE

Speaking of long, continent-spanning quests, the second First Law entry has one, too. Combined with the setup - ancient wizard with dubious motivations corrals a bunch of bickering misfits on a quest - and the overall tone, use of dark humour and different but decidedly grisly magic systems, Before they are Hanged and Abercrombie's work as a whole are the closest touchstones to The Worth of Scars that I can think of. Ever wanted a slightly gentler paced, longer, perhaps a touch less bleak and cynical, more explicitly character-focused and less action-heavy version of First Law, but with (arguably) a grimmer, harder magic system and a bigger world? Yeah, no, me neither, but it's here if you want it, regardless.

And that concludes my picks for titles that, should you like some or one or all of them, you might well also enjoy my book. The Worth of Scars officially releases on Wednesday 30th September, in just two days as of writing this (aargh!). If you want to support me and help me out please like and share any social media posts promoting it that you see, tell your fantasy loving friends and family, leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads if you've read it, and otherwise simply send me good vibes and prayers for a successful launch, that would be so, so appreciated.

Cheers,

Gabe