From a strong new voice in epic fantasy comes the fiercely original
tale of Durand, a good squire trying to become a good knight in a harsh
and unforgiving world.
Set to inherit the lordship of a small village in his father's barony,
because the knight of that village has been bereaved of his own son,
Durand must leave when the son unexpectedly turns up alive.
First, Durand falls in with a band of knights who are working for a duke's vicious son and ends up participating in the murder of the duke’s adulterous wife. Fleeing, he comes into the service of Lamoric, another duke's disgraced son, who is carrying out a complex subterfuge in an attempt to restore his honor in the eyes of his father, his family, and the king.
But greater conspiracies are afoot — dark plots that could break the
oaths which bind the kingdom and the duchies together and keep the
Banished at bay. It may fall to Durand to save the world of Man.
Authentic and spellbinding, In the Eye of Heaven weaves together the gritty authenticity of a Glen Cook with the high-medieval flair epitomized by Gene Wolfe’s The Knight to begin an epic multivolume tale that will take the fantasy world by storm.
“The world and… cultures that Keck unveils in In the Eye of Heaven are brutal and raw, and through it all the reader senses a fierce authenticity, a depth of knowledge in the author, assuring that every detail, every nuance, is precisely as it should be. This novel marks the debut of an exceptional series, revealing the mythical depth and resonance possible within the genre of fantasy — a rare feat these days.” — Steven Erikson
“In the Eye of Heaven is a powerful and assured debut novel, featuring gritty realism, skilled characterization, and compelling storytelling, set against the backdrop of a mythos that has the ring of primordial truth.” — Jacqueline Carey
“A very intelligent book, with a hero who starts out as raw and physical as the world in which he finds himself but who proves able to use his mind to get out of the situations his body’s gotten him into.” — David Drake
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Start a discussionFrom author David Keck, a strong new voice in epic fantasy comes the tale of Durand, a good squire trying to become a good knight in a harsh and unforgiving world. Durand of Col has sold his sword to both vicious and noble men and been party to appalling acts of murder as well as self-sacrificing heroism. In a land still haunted by magic, he has also been marked by the gods for a special destiny.
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What Risingshadow readers think about this book
In the Eye of Heaven is the first book of The Eye of Heaven trilogy.
In my opinion In the Eye of Heaven is a nice fantasy book, but it's not as good as it could be. It's not bad, but it's not excellent either.
This book is a good fantasy debut and it's an interesting book.
