Author: DorianRaker.

Genre: Fantasy.  

Chapters Reviewed: At the time of this review, seven.

Overall Score: 92/100.

Cover, Title, and Blurb:

-- Cover: I don't feel qualified to judge this cover, given that I'm the one who made it. Uh... good job me, I guess? Seems that I really like the metallic font. For the sake of scoring... oof, haven't run into this issue before. Is it arrogant to just give you full marks on it?

-- Title: The title's meaning isn't instantaneously understandable, but I don't think that that's a bad thing. It creates intrigue for later. I'm assuming some sort of rift between members of the Company, possibly as a result of the threat from the Legate, or possibly just involvement in five different countries/among five different groups-- however it goes, though, I'm excited to find out.

-- Blurb: It's solid. It's the kind of thing that I'd pick up in a bookstore (or off Amazon, given the prices in bookstores these days...) because it definitely has an appeal to fantasy nuts like me-- battles and campaigns, honor and pride, lies and deception... There are country names in there, but they're not confusing and not intrusive. Reading this the first time, I didn't doubt that you'd clarify this world for readers, and that's a promise that you followed through on. More on that later, of course, but well done for a solid blurb.

Score: 5/5.

Grammar:

All right, can I just say Thank God? This is the shortest grammar section I've ever written-- in the very rare case of a grammatical error, it's clearly unintentional and gets corrected promptly. You've a couple here and there with dialogue, but a quick go-through will catch them. Nothing else to say here but good job.

Score: 15/15.

Plot and Overall Entertainment:

Basically, the Chain starts out doing what every business does: looking for loopholes in their agreements. They've made one with a poncy little bastard called the Legate, and they have to defend him from bodily harm even in the midst of a violent attack on the fort they're currently in, unless they can find the justification not to. That's where A Chain Five Ways starts off-- and what a way to start. We're thrown right into the thick of it, right at the beginning of a raid, and so we get to see early on how the characters react in a crisis.

Well, how do they react in a crisis? Let's start with the wizard, Wise. I love this guy's scenes. Battering ram at the gate? No problem. Soldiers getting hacked at on an open field? Let's just make the enemy puke fireflies. And the rest are, for the most part, just the same way sans magic. Their contract is to defend the Legate, not his fort, so he gets whopped over the head and carried out. From there, they carry their charge out of the country and away from the Galli, suffering through horrible weather/geographical conditions and a second (unanticipated and Pyrrhic) battle before getting the Legate over the borderline. Naturally, the man's none too pleased with this turn of events, and swears bloody revenge.

I mean, what can I say? Clever mercs and the threat of revenge and warrior tribes... it flows well, it doesn't let up, and it's dark without being completely swamped in the "look how edgy I am" or "look how much life sucks" style. I'd perhaps like to see a little more emotion from Knock, though-- yes, it's his account of the past, but the descriptions and details are so vivid, so good, that they could truly be brought to life with just a little more from the narrator.

Overall, you've got the set-up of what I think is going to be a full-throttle kind of story, and I look forward to reading on.

Score: 14/15.

Characters:

-- Knock: He's got the lingo of an RAF soldier and the dedicated weariness of a mother of toddlers. As the military clerk, he documents the campaigns of the Company of the Chain, which is what A Chain Five Ways is-- an account (so far) of the beginning of the mess they're about to get into with the Legate. As far as narrators go, he does just fine: certainly a unique one on this site, and his viewpoint has been interesting throughout, full of dark humor and rich vocabulary. As I said in the Plot and Overall Entertainment section, I'd like to see a bit more from him in terms of emotion; yes, the events of the book are history for him, but given his vivid recollection of the details of these situations (understandable, since it's a novel), he'd likely remember how he felt just as vividly.

-- Wise: Yep, still liking this guy seven chapters in. He's creative, devious, and basically the old, medieval version of Kevin McCallister. Really, I think the magic is interesting me as much as the man himself, though-- so there are limits in how much you can mentally handle, and this guy's out here going Biblical-plague mode on the enemy without turning into a drooling mess... and he's a small fish. So I think it'll be interesting to see Wise have to go up against a more powerful person.

-- Top, Whip, Snicker, and Tyro: I don't know much (yet) about the three of them, but it's interesting trying to guess more about them by name and actions. Top's the actual top, leading the Company, and he seems to care deeply about the task even if he appears somewhat distant. Whip, I'm guessing, gets the name from his tongue-- former lawyer, callous-- and Snicker from the cracks he occasionally makes. Tyro's the bigger mystery. Thanks to my old English teacher's word wall, I know the meaning, but whether he chose it because he went from farmer to soldier or for some other reason is unknown. I'll see how they pick up as I continue through the story.

-- The Legate: Pretty nonthreatening in person, but where he's got punch is the family name. It's easy to treat him like nothing, because he has no menace, no charm, and (most importantly) no army; therefore, he has no stopping power. All the same, the Chain make a deadly enemy with him, because while he is a third son, that means there are at least two brothers who are willing to fight for family honor. It'll be interesting to see how far they're all going to go, and how/if the Chain manages to escape the Legate's revenge. You don't seem the type for happy endings.

Score: 12/15.

Overall Notes:

-- I'm generally not a fan of the 'soft' magic system, but I can't help but love Wise.

-- As a history nerd, there are certain things that stand out to me: for instance, how close Galli is to Gaul, but as you said, this is subject to change. As for the rest of it, it's well-researched and pretty historically accurate in terms of tech and all that, which makes for a happy reviewer here.

-- Dark humor. I enjoy it.

-- The descriptions, particularly the ones of war and fighting, are very good and very detailed. 

-- Might want to be careful with Tyro. Etymology puts that one in the 1600s. Actually, now that I look it up, Snicker is 1600s too. Since you haven't really defined a specific year that corresponds with our calendar, I don't think this is a big deal, but if it's something that bothers you... 

-- The comparisons in this are just really funny to read.

-- The chapter endings are usually perfect hooks for the next bit of reading, so nice job there!