Chronicles of Maradoum Volume 2: A Fantasy Anthology

After listening to Chronicles of Maradoum Volume 1 I thought I knew what to expect before listening to Volume 2. This is one of those times I’m thrilled to have been wrong, Volume 2 started off with some intense action and kept up its momentum through all the succeeding vignettes. I’m hoping the third volume is as good as these first two. If you enjoy fantasy stories or anthologies of short stories, you may want to give these first two volumes of the Chronicles of Maradoum a listen/read. A.J. Carter’s narration brought each character to life and made the listening experience a true pleasure. I received a review copy of the audio book from StoryOrigin

Good against evil. But who is good and who is evil is not always clear. Stories of witches, wizards, sorcerers, and mythical beings. As they fight for revenge. To right the wrongs done by the powerful, and power hungry. Some will live on after their heroism, some will die as martyrs to their cause so that others will draw strength from them to carry on. To free the down trodden from tyranny and evil. I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

The second collection of short stories about the world called Maradoum and its various cultures that often show curious similarities to some on our own Earth. Some of these stories are funny, others tragic. They are just as diverse as the world they’re set in. I hope that the author still has inspiration left, not only because I loved the short stories (not my usual taste) but also for the Convent series that play in the same universe. Mr Hughes has a terrific eye for detail as in the first story when he describes the 2 guards while the main character slips into the castle. He is a master in his craft and has fine-tuned the English language into a precision tool.

1. THE RED WALL
“The red wall was the bane of the slum folk’s existence, the focus for their hatred, the symbol of their oppression. Behind the red wall hid Emir Majumba Jash Ibm Khoruumfo and the elite, the rich and influential, in the lap of luxury. Outside the red wall, the common people were left to their own devices, left to war with one another and starve to death amidst crime and disease. Like everybody in the slums, Linza hated the red wall.”
This first tale takes place in the Babese sultanate, where Palacia Bab’s family are the supreme overlords in the period covered in the Convent series. I don’t know when exactly these events take place but it’s a tragic and heroic story about a group of rebels that rise up against an unfair and cruel ruler. But once they get into power themselves, they’re corrupted by that power and become every bit as unjust and cruel as the one they removed.

2. BLOOD SACRIFICE
The knights of Justiqua bring their crusade against witches and witchcraft to the island of Chilpea and brutally murder everyone they suspect of being a witch. Until they come to Mzee Lou and kill her daughter. She gets into a fit of rage and invokes the God of blood to drive the invaders away as she sacrifices herself and the knights she killed to Him. As Chilpea still exists in the age of ‘the convent series’, her sacrifice looks successful although God himself didn’t have to do much for it.

3. OF WIZARDS AND MONKS
How a peaceful ex-monk turns into a man of violence after the gruesome murder of his wife and daughters. First, he finds the monastery ransacked and the monks murdered by a group of evil wizards. He has to use his own eldritch powers and the crystal on a dead monks staff to kill the last wizard, that taunts him by gloating over the evil he brought on the man’s family. Now Eryu has but one purpose and that’s to punish the man responsible for sending the wizards, the Shenzan (provincial governor) himself.

4. LEGEND OF THE LAKE
“Whatever the truth, legend says that once upon a time this lake boiled and brimmed with a malevolent people.”
A lonesome yak-herder befriends a legendary evil creature that he didn’t believe existed. But also the evilness is only true for half the population. Those who refused to kill and to eat humans have formed their own society and with time they became different (though related) species. Now the different sorts are involved in an ongoing war. The man wants to help his new friend win that war.

5. VIPER’S NEST
“He had heard tales in his youth, of course, of Sorcerers and their spells, which often took the form of a chant, repeating evil, eldritch words over and over until the very fabric of reality folded to the caster’s will; but he had never thought to hear such a thing. He had never dreamed such a thing truly existed; even when he had taken on this mission, he had assumed”
A military unit is in pursuit of an armed gang. They’ re no ordinary villains but sorcerers, come to resurrect the soul of their leader, Wadi-Wadi, the greatest necromancer ever in Chilpea. He placed his soul in a crystal to be reawakened later by his adepts.

6. LEGACY OF A CONSUL
In a world that resembles ancient Rome, a deeply loved consul that rose from the military ranks is murdered by the minions of the other consul. But when the Senate refuses to condemn the perpetrators, a riot breaks out. This happens in a world where magic is as much a weapon as a strategy.

7. A PRINCE IN PERIL
A young prince (in a 1001 nights setting) is warned that his stepmother hired assassins to murder him. The young girl tells him that she’s a spy for his father and takes him to Kazim, the warlock who fell out of grace when he was born. But the stepmother is not the only person to employ killers.

8. SKULL AND SPINE
A young Orc has to bring back the skull and spine from an enemy he killed during his first raid. When they raid a caravan, that’s not a problem. He’s insecure what to do with the women in the group as in Orc culture women are no fighters and the human ones didn’t fight either. Must he kill them or set them free?

9. The DAIMYO’S DOWNFALL

An island society where the magical Tengu form the aristocracy. Onna Bushito is proud to serve the shogun. When she’s sent to the daimyo Bakufu to ask him to commit seppuku. He refuses to take this honourable way out and starts fighting her. He breaks all rules when he uses magic in the fight.

10. DRAGON RIDER

The high-elf commander of a dragon rider unit goes in against his direct orders and retaliates against the lizard-folk that ransacked an elvish town instead of routing out a gang of ‘pesky’ humans as he’s been commanded. As everybody is fighting everybody in this story, he’s more than a bit surprised to meet ‘the Rebellion’ an anti-war group made up of people of all races: goblins, pygmies, humans, all different elf races eve, the lizards that try to restore peace in the realm. He learns that all that he’s been told are lies and that his side is certainly not the ‘good’ one, the villains.

11. THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

Dod, a Wildesvin who lost his wife and son to disease, makes a boat-trip to the Edge of the World. He expects to die there and meet the Gods so he can ask them ‘Why?’ Skalda, goddess of Winter accompanies and interrogates him. He reaches the rapids and waterfall, but what he finds there is not what he expected.