God damn it.

I wrote a really long and detailed review and then Goodreads deleted it. Mother fudger.

Anyways, The Scar is ok, quite a bit like Patricia McKillip's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld, but definitely not at the same level as Vita Nostra. ( )

I read this as an audible book and it was ably read by Johnathan Davis.
I was very pleased to finally finish this book.
An extremely egotistical city guard, who doesn't have a decent bone in his body, treats everyone as dirt and an appendage to his glory. He callously kills a young student who gets in his way and who hasn't a chance against him. Someone observes this and curses the protagonist with extreme and all-encompassing cowardice.
So far, so good.
We then observe the total degradation of this man as he realises there is no escape from this curse.
Throw in an evil cult society, a love interest, and the fellow's effort to survive his day-to-day life and a search for release from the curse and that's the story.
It just went on a bit too long for my taste.
Probably 2.5 stars. ( )

I'd recommend this book to lovers of fantasy focused on character growth. I loved reading The Scar. It was unlike anything I've read - truly. The plot was interesting, the characters were amazing (by the end!). I also really enjoyed the writing style, although I think that is something that people either love or hate. The book did take me a few pages to get into it, but I recommend sticking with it. This book slowly and completely took me over my thoughts. ( )

This book came out of nowhere and really wowed. It's considerably better - and considerably more different - than the predictable grimdark, thousand-cast sagas publishers seem to be sticking with.

Egert Soll is an arrogant young soldier, toast of the town and pinnacle of his circle. But a terrible event (avoid reading blurbs as they cover a third of this book, much to my anger), changes his life completely, and he will need all his courage to overcome new, inimical foes.

That plot summary is hopelessly vague and cliched - but I really enjoyed the way this book unfolded its quite touching an humane story, and I don't want to spoil it for anyone else.

The Scar reminded me very much of a fairy tale in terms of its narrative building blocks. Magic curses, old wizards, and, yes, love, all make an appearance. But the way Dyanchenko deals with them - with seriousness, emotion and compassion - made the book really sing.

The characterisation is superb. Egert, and every other character, is believable, interesting and complex. Characters in fantasy novels are often very reactive (things happen to the,) or one dimensional (he's the angry one! She's driven by revenge! Oh, she's the funny one!). The Scar avoid this, given even small characters an internal contrast, and with that comes an almost exciting ambiguity; they react like real people, and their emotions frequently make the decisions for them. The characters (of which there are not many) form the heart of The Scar, and they are a great success.

They are also employed to drive a well structured narrative that provides excellent climax and resolution. I am unsure if this is the case in the novel's original Russian publication, but the book is effectively a stand-alone novel in English, and I was well satisfied with its resolution and overall narrative. Dyachenko has a nice sense of pace that serves up plenty of interest and even excitement without feeling monotone or exhausting.

The fact I genuinely cared about the characters made small, emotional struggles exciting - something far to few fantasy authors understand. Internal conflicts if done well can produce just as much tension it, and there's no need to serve up bombastic violence to get it.

The translation is also good. The prose is softly lyrical without being flowery or affected. It's different enough to be interesting, but not indulgent or strange for the sake of strangeness. It has a clean quality I really appreciate and it was obvious to me this is not Dyachenko's first book.

All in all, The Scar was such a refreshing read from a genre that gets very modish and stale at times. I'm disappointed - but not wholly surprised - it hasn't made more of a splash. ( )

Started to get predictable. Didn't like characters. Author was keeping secrets.