"Better to Live than to Die" was published in the anthology Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues . About this story, author John Gwynne says, "The Banished Lands has a violent past, where men and giants clashed in a war for supremacy and near-extinction for the vanquished. Now men rule the land, giants little more than a memory, lurking in the wilds and dark places. This tale takes place ten years before the events of Malice , book one of The Faithful and the Fallen, within the Darkwood, a great forest that splits the western realms of Ardan and Narvon. It recounts a key moment in the life of a young bowman, Camlin, who is part of the Darkwood Brigands—a moment that has far reaching consequences for the great conflict to come."

Publication Year: 2016