So I Wrote A Fantasy Novel…
“A murder or suicide. I don’t have all the details. The Bishop will tell you about it.”
“Not if I tell you to go fuck a pig, he won’t,” Heden said.
“There is that,” Gwiddon conceded.
Priest is my first novel, and the first in a series. It’s a fantasy novel. You can download the entire thing here and read it. I wanted to write a sort of hard-boiled fantasy novel. Short, brisk, with some tough guy dialog and a little humor. I didn’t want to write just another a fantasy novel, I wanted something that showed characters behaving in what I considered a more human fashion than what we typically see, and I wanted something short, more like the books I came up with in the 1980s. 350 pages and out. No map, no wildly shifting points of view. Just tough guys and fantasy action and the human heart in conflict with itself. And a little humor here and there
If you read it, even if you give up on it, I want to know what you think! Leave feedback! The parts you liked, the parts you didn’t like, and why.
If you’d like to read the book on your Kindle, or the Kindle App (which is quite good), you can buy the book from Amazon. You can also follow the book on Facebook, where I post updates about the sequel.
My friend Manny Vega, an artist, was inspired by the book and did some concepts for Heden after he read the book. I thought they were fantastic.
Those links again;
The book, in PDF form. You can start reading it right now!
The Kindle version, for $4.
Jeff Hewitt · March 24, 2011 at 5:08 am
Hey Matt!
Reading on this right now. I think I’m about 25% through (he’s just gone downstairs to talk to the rats, if my suspicions are correct) and I have to say I’m really enjoying the book so far. I look forward to the rest of the story, and when I finish I’ll add further thoughts. Very engaging, very fresh, so far!
Admin comment by Matthew Colville · March 24, 2011 at 10:33 am
Holy crap I’m glad you like it!
One of the questions I asked Beta Readers was; “Who was Heden talked to in the basement of his inn?” I got a lot of interesting answers.
The answer is revealing in an already-written chapter of the second book!
You have to let me know what you thought when you get to the end! Or if you ever feel compelled to commend on something you read.
kvnsgrrl · September 28, 2011 at 11:31 am
Ohai matt,
Just finished it and think it’s one of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in a long time. Great handling of language, fully-developed characters and enough twists to keep the reader hooked until the last page. I liked how you took familiar elements like the un-men, the semi-religious/military order, the use of magic, etc and used language to make them very real and specific. There are also plenty of hints that deepen this book but also create the promise of other stories, both before and after.
You’d better be working on 2 & hopefully 3 by now!