Tag: Action Packed

Quick Review – The Heart of the World by Amie Kaufman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Fantasy, Quick Review, Young Adult3 Comments

Publisher: Allen & Unwin Australia (Trade Paperback – 27 August 2024)

Series: The Isles of the Gods duology – Book Two

Length: 424 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Amazon

One of Australia’s leading authors of young adult fiction, Amie Kaufman, presents a cool conclusion to The Isles of the Gods duology with the fun read, The Heart of the World.

Amie Kaufman is an impressive Australian author who has produced multiple entertaining and enjoyable series over the years, mostly in collaboration with other awesome authors.  For example, I best know Kaufman from the intriguing and addictive young adult science fiction trilogy she cowrote with Jay Kristoff, the Aurora Cycle trilogy, which proved to be particularly fun (see my reviews for Aurora Rising, Aurora Burning and Aurora’s End).  Kaufman’s latest body of work has been The Isles of the Gods duology, a great young adult fantasy series that follows several teenage protagonists who find themselves drawn into an ancient war between gods.  This series began last year with the first book, The Isles of the Gods, and has just come to an end with the compelling read, The Heart of the World.

Plot Synopsis:

Magic and sacrifice will collide as lovers and gods, enemies and allies vie for the fate of the world in this heart-pounding sequel to The Isles of the Gods, which Stephanie Garber called deliciously diabolical and full of heart.

When Selly and Leander began their treacherous voyage to the Isles of the Gods, the captain’s daughter and the playboy prince were strangers. But amid talk of war and a deadly attack on their ship, the unthinkable happened.

They fell in love.

Leander’s ritual at the island temple was meant to prevent a war between the gods. Instead, it nearly cost him his life, and drew the goddess Barrica back from exile. Now, as her Messenger, Leander is imbued with her deadly magic, and only Selly’s presence can stop it from consuming him.

But Barrica wasn’t the only immortal roused from sleep. The God of Risk, Macean, was awakened by an enemy all thought dead, and across the sea he’s calling for war.

The fight to save their world will take Selly and Leander from the gilded ballroom of the royal palace to the hallowed halls of an ancient library. Battle lines will be drawn, and bonds will break.

With the wrath of gods and the machinations of power-hungry rulers straining their loyalties, can their love withstand the trials that await them?

The Heart of the World was an exciting and moving book that did an excellent job wrapping up the storylines started in the first book.  Set immediately after the events of The Isles of the Gods, Kaufman presents an intense, character-driven narrative, as the teenage protagonists attempt to deal with the return of gods into their world.  Told from the perspective of five characters, you get some interesting storylines here, including Leander learning to control his power as his god’s Messenger while Selly tries to help him while also learning about the deadly politics of the realm.  Other character storylines of note include the scholar Keegan attempting to determine how to stop the oncoming chaos while also dealing with his many personal issues, the antagonistic Messenger of Macean, Laskia dealing with having power for the first time, and the conflicted Jude trying to determine where he stands in the world.

Kaufman does a great job blending these cool, character-driven storylines together into one compelling and exciting narrative with a very fast pace.  There is an excellent blend of politics, character growth and a deepening of personal relationships, as each of the protagonists react to the changes brought on by the events of the first book.  Things take a more urgent turn halfway through as the warring gods emerge and the characters find themselves desperately caught up trying to stop or control the destructive fight to come.  Featuring a countdown towards inevitable carnage, I liked how Kaufman kept the intensity and stakes of the second half of the book high without showing too much actual conflict and bloodshed, instead relying on compelling character moments thanks to a variety of unique interactions.  The protagonists are forced to overcome the consuming influence of their gods, both of whom want war, as they attempt to save their world, and I felt that the author came up with a well-written and cleverly set up solution to the entire plot.  The book ends on a satisfying and hopeful note, and I really had a fun time getting through this compelling story.

I really liked how The Heart of the World came together, and Kaufman ensures that it is accessible and enjoyable for a range of fantasy fans.  While I would recommend reading The Isles of the Gods first, new readers can probably dive into The Heart of the World straight away without too much prior context, as the author’s descriptive writing style and ability to effectively recap events really helps.  While some of the key fantasy elements from the last book aren’t as comprehensively covered in this sequel, such as spirit magic, Kaufman ensures that all the key features of this universe are well covered.  Indeed, there is a major religious focus throughout The Heart of the World, and it was fascinating to see various characters react to the direct influence and power of the two warring deities.

The resulting story moves at high speeds, and I honestly found myself powering through The Heart of the World every time I picked it up.  It helped that Kaufman made excellent use of quick and sharp perspective changes, and the jump from one short character-focused chapter to the next allowed for some quick plot progression.  As with the prior book in the duology, I felt that The Heart of the World was an excellent fantasy book that would appeal to a lot of readers, not just its intended young adult audience.  In particular, Kaufman sets up a lot of mature and intelligent themes and moments, most of the based around her complex protagonists, which I think will resonate with a teenage audience.  However, older fantasy readers can also enjoy The Heart of the World thanks to Kaufman’s clever writing and intriguing themes.

I also need to quickly highlight the excellent character work contained within The Heart of the World, which I felt helped to turn this sequel into something special.  Kaufman does an outstanding job continuing to explore her five damaged protagonists, and there is some great continuation to the complex character elements set up in the first book.  This includes a compelling look of the romance angle between Leander and Selly, who are forced to deal with major obstacles, including Leander’s sudden uncontrollable power, while Selly is forced out of her comfort zone on the waves and into the deadlier wilderness of court life.  I also loved the storyline of Laskia, who’s experience as her god’s Messenger went in a darker direction, as she struggles with finally having power and the ability to control her destiny after a lifetime of being manipulated by others.  All of the other protagonists have their own unique moments as well, and I really appreciated how all their respective family issues became even more apparent in this second book, as all five of them experience some form of betrayal or disappointment at the hands of their family which they must overcome.  Throw in a particularly entertaining new supporting character in Kiki, a bubbly and unstoppable force of social energy, and the cast of The Heart of the World was particularly strong and resulted in some moving moments.

Overall, The Heart of the World was an amazing new novel from Amie Kaufman that I was glad I checked out.  Providing a great ending to The Isles of the Gods duology, The Heart of the World had a brilliant, character-driven narrative, that is so easy to get lost in.  A fantastic and very fun novel that is worth checking out, especially if you enjoyed Kaufman’s previous work.

Amazon

The Fury of the Gods by John Gwynne

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books3 Comments

Publisher: Orbit/Little Brown Audio (Audiobook – 22 October 2024)

Series: The Bloodsworn Saga – Book Three

Length: 19 hours and 30 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

John Gwynne brings his awesome Bloodsworn trilogy to a truly epic conclusion with the outstanding novel, The Fury of the Gods.

For the last few years one of the most compelling fantasy series has been the Bloodsworn Saga trilogy from acclaimed fantasy author John Gwynne.  This series is set in a Norse-inspired fantasy world shattered by warring gods and now filled with monsters, voyaging warriors and the human descendants of the gods whose power often see them collared and controlled as thralls.  The series started back in 2021 with the impressive read, The Shadow of the Gods, which introduced the main characters and set them on their quests.  I almost missed The Shadow of the Gods when it came out, but I was glad that I didn’t, as it turned out to be one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2021.  Gwynne continued the series in a big way the next year with the excellent sequel, The Hunger of the Gods, which expertly continued the series and ended up also being a top book and audiobook of 2022.  Due to how amazing the first two entries in the trilogy proved to be, I have been eager for to the finale of the trilogy for a while, and I was so happy we got one in 2024.  One of my most anticipated books in the second half of 2024, The Fury of the Gods was everything I hoped it would be and more, and I listened to it the very first chance that I got.

The gods have returned, and all must pay the price!

After centuries of imprisonment following the last great war of the gods, the evil and crazed dragon-god Lik-Rifa has been released and now seeks to rule over the land of Vigrid.  With the cunning rat-god Rotta at her side, Lik-Rifa leads a vast army made up of her monstrous children, as well as ambitious mercenaries and Tainted warriors.  Determined to place the entire continent under her dark rule, Lik-Rifa turns her eyes to the stronghold of Snakavik and moves to destroy the last vestige of resistance against her.

However, not all is lost, as some seek to stand against Lik-Rifa.  Elvar, leader of the Battle-Grim, has killed her father and taken control of Snakavik.  Bound by fate and her oaths, Elvar must balance her new responsibilities as ruler while she plans for war against Lik-Rifa, a seemingly impossible task.  However, Elvar has done the impossible before by resurrecting Lik-Rifa’s hated brother, the wolf-god, Ulfrir, and binding him to her will.  Now her most potent weapon and the ultimate bait for Lik-Rifa, Elvar seeks to use Ulfrir to destroy the gods coming for her.  But even a giant wolf-god might not be enough to win the war, and Elvar needs even more allies to help her.

After scouring a bloody path across Vigrid, Orka Skullsplitter has rescued her son, but still seeks vengeance against Lik-Rifa’s forces.  To that end, Orka reunites with her old warband, the Bloodsworn, and sets them to join Elvar’s growing host.  Made up of deadly Tainted warriors, including their latest recruit, Varg No-Sense, the Bloodsworn have many reasons to fight against the dragon-god’s followers.  Together, the Bloodsworn, Battle-Grim and their various allies prepare to face Lik-Rifa’s army in the greatest battle the world has ever known.  But no-one is prepared for the chaos that is about to engulf Vigrid, as greater threats arise to devour all.

Gwynne continues to impress with this third and final Bloodsworn Saga novel.  The Fury of the Gods was another high-octane, character driven, dark fantasy novel, that takes the reader on a powerful adventure.  Loaded with fantastic moments and amazing action, The Fury of the Gods proved to be an outstanding conclusion to the Bloodsworn Saga, and I had such an awesome time getting through it.

The Fury of the Gods featured a spectacular and captivating narrative that starts off strong and refuses to slow down the entire way through.  Taking off immediately after The Hunger of the Gods, Gwynne effectively sets the stage for the oncoming battles as the various character arcs continue at breakneck pace.  Once again telling the story through the eyes of five distinctive protagonists (Orka, Elva, Varg, Biorr and Gudvarr), you get drawn into their intriguing personal tales as they recount the events they observe.  The first half of the book keeps these protagonists mostly separated, and their various storylines continued in similar directions to The Hunger of the Gods.  Orka is still set on her bloody revenge mission and must overcome her imprisonment by the rat-god Rotta.  Varg and the Bloodsworn journey back from their rescue mission in the neighbouring nation of Iskidan, encountering new threats along the way.  Elvar takes up the responsibility of ruling Snakavik after killing her father and finds herself leading the war against Lik-Rifa.  Finally, Biorr and Gudvarr provide intriguing insights into Lik-Rifa’s camp, as both the conflicted Biorr and the snivelling Gudvarr try to survive the rise of dragon-god in their own different ways.

Gwynne does a good amount of set-up in this first half of the book, and it was nice to see the various characters continue to breathe on their own for a bit, while also amping up the dangerous antagonists.  You once again get quickly drawn into each of the protagonists narratives, and I think that it is a testament to Gwynne’s writing that each of these storylines proved to be as entertaining and compelling as the rest.  Unlike other multiple-perspective novels I have read, I honestly loved every single character perspective in The Fury of the Gods, and I was excited to continue each of them.  Indeed, I find it hard to choose a favourite, as they were all fun while offering something a little different.  That being said, Elvar’s chapters moved the plot along the most, and Gwynne did his best character work with her in this book.

Everything leads up to a particularly epic final half, as Gwynne brings together all five point-of-view characters to the same location for the first time in the series.  With the protagonists spread out on each side of the conflict, you get a great view of the massive extended war as the god-led armies fight it out on several fronts, including in a brutal siege.  Gwynne kept the action going thick and fast here, and there are some great encounters and moments as the various characters meet on the battlefield.  Everything leads up to a massive confrontation nearly two-thirds of the way through, and there are some highly dramatic moments here, especially as the first big-death was a little unexpected.  This major fight ends in an interesting way, although details of it are spoiled a little by the awesome cover above.  This leads to some more fantastic moments, including the final battle between both sides.  The author chucks in a few more tragic moments in this final bit of the book, although I must admit that there weren’t a lot of surprises here, with many of the big reveals well telegraphed in advance.  I also thought that the various revenge arcs cluttered up the plot in a predictable manner, and I wish Gwynne had thrown a twist or two in here.  Still, everything ended on an extremely epic note, and readers who enjoyed the previous Bloodsworn Saga books will come away very satisfied and happy with the finalised character arcs.

As with the previous Bloodsworn Saga novels, Gwynne brings a distinctive style to The Fury of the Gods, which I felt greatly enhanced the story.  The blend of compelling Norse-inspired fantasy elements, great character work, and brutal action makes for awesome reading, and Gwynne presents it all in an accessible and enjoyable way.  I loved how the characters’ dialogue and inner thoughts fell in line with the book’s historical inspiration, and while this style might not be for everyone, elements of it, such as the repetition of certain thoughts and phrases, gives it a real saga feel.  As with the previous entries in the series, Gwynne makes excellent use of multiple character perspectives to tell his elaborate narrative, with his five point-of-view characters helming various chapters.  The split between these five characters worked extremely well, and you get some intriguing alternate perspectives of events that blend well as the book continues.  Gwynne makes excellent use of this split during some of the bigger combat scenes, and the use of shorter chapters when things get particularly exciting allows the reader to quickly switch amongst the action.  Talking of action, Gwynne ensures that the combat in The Fury of the Gods is as bloody and well-written as in the previous books, and his brilliant action scenes are so well described and bring you right into the midst of the fighting.

As The Fury of the Gods is the third and final book in an epic fantasy trilogy, it obviously isn’t the most ideal place for readers to dive into the overarching story, and you really should start at the beginning of the series for the full emotional impact.  However, for those who want to start with The Fury of the Gods, Gwynne does make this book somewhat accessible to new readers.  Between the detailed summary of the prior books, glossary of terms, character lists and the callbacks to the previous events during the plot, new readers can follow The Fury of the Gods easily enough and have fun.  This includes enjoying the full impact of the cool fantasy setting of Vigrid that Gwynne has lovingly set up during the three books.  The clever use of Norse-inspired elements really lends itself to the epic revenge driven narrative that Gwynne features, and the mixture of mythological, fantasy and historical elements proved to be a winning combination.  I still love seeing the various warbands using Viking war tactics against dark dangers and massive gods, and Gwynne really went all out making so many traditional Norse elements, such as weaponry, armour, ships and mentality, seem as realistic as possible.  At the same time, the book’s fantasy inclusions, such as the various monsters and Tainted, the human descendants of the gods, add so much to the story, through their vicious nature, intriguing descriptions, and underlying societal issues.  This was an overall pretty awesome setting, that Gwynne uses to full effect to tell his compelling tale.  I hope that Gwynne returns to this world at some point in the future, and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the younger characters featured here get their own story.

In addition to The Fury of the Gods’ fantastic story and great writing, I also need to talk about the awesome characters.  Throughout the Bloodsworn Saga, Gwynne has put a lot of work into building up his various characters, and by this point in the trilogy you are highly invested in their respective stories.  As such, there aren’t a lot of new figures in this final book, and you generally know what to expect when one of the protagonists’ chapters begins.  However, it still proved awesome to see these figures in action again, and their compelling character arcs and differing personalities deeply increase the impact of the narrative.  Of the main cast, I would say that Elva steals the show the most in The Fury of the Gods.  While she has not always been the most exciting character in the series, this third and final book was where she really shined, primarily because she takes on the role of war leader against Lik-Rifa, and the increased responsibility changes her.  As such, it was outstanding to follow her storyline, and I appreciated seeing how conflicted she got at times, especially when it came to treating the Tainted in her domain.  Due to this, as well as some other badass scenes, Elva was one of the most compelling protagonists in The Fury of the Gods for me, and Gwynne provided an interesting conclusion to her narrative that I felt really worked.

The other four main characters all proved to be brilliant additions to the book, and their perspectives ensured quite an elaborate story.  The dangerous fighters, Orka and Varg, were both solid point-of-view characters in The Fury of the Gods, and I really enjoyed seeing how their respective arcs continued, especially as they were the main avenue to seeing the Bloodsworn warband.  Of all the protagonists, you were most likely to see action with Orka or Varg, and their various bloody sequences were a lot of fun.  That being said, Gwynne went a little light with the character development for these figures in this book, and while they have some moving moments (Orka comes out of her solitude to find people she cares about, while Varg finally cements his place in the Bloodsworn), I felt that Gwynne focused way too much on their respective hunts for revenge, which resulted in some of their stuff getting a little repetitive.

However, Gwynne more than overcomes any minor deficiencies with Orka and Varg through his use of the antagonistic perspective characters Biorr and Gudvarr, both of whom have joined Lik-Rifa’s cause.  Biorr proves to be a complex figure in The Fury of the Gods, and I loved how conflicted he become as his longstanding fanaticism slowly beings to wear away in the face of meeting his gods.  Gwynne did a really great job with Biorr, and his personal journey and attempted redemption made for some powerful moments.  On the other hand, we have the entertaining and despicable Gudvarr, whose chapters I always have fun with.  Gudvarr is an impressively annoying figure who has spent the last two books trying to avoid danger only to find himself getting stuck in progressively worse situations.  However, because he is naturally cowardly, weaselly and vindictive figure, you really don’t feel sorry for him, especially as every bad situation is the result of some failed ploy to gain influence or power.  While Gudvarr is a particularly contemptible figure, it honestly proves impossible not to enjoy his chapters, as they are generally the most amusing in the entire book thanks his snarky inner monologue, the deadly situations he barely escapes from, and the near certainty that he is going to come to a sticky end.  As such, I really enjoyed following Gudvarr and you can’t help but look forward to seeing what dangerous or manipulative situation he finds himself in next.

Finally, I must highlight all the awesome and impressive supporting characters that are featured in The Fury of the Gods.  Gwynne has built up an exceptional and massive cast of characters throughout the series, all of whom add something to book.  I loved seeing the many complex interactions that occurred between all these characters in The Fury of the Gods, and it was fun to see many of them meet for the first time in this final book, especially once all the perspective characters are together.  Highlights include the key members of the Battle-Grim and Bloodsworn warbands, all of whom have gone through so much throughout the trilogy.  Several of the best characters from both bands experience major tragedy in The Fury of the Gods, and it proves hard not the feel for them.  I also need to mention the main antagonists, Lik-Rifa and Rotta, two vengeful gods whose desire for revenge and control move much of the plot along.  I loved seeing the various human and Tainted characters interact with these dark gods, and Gywnne ensured they came across as a massive and dangerous threat.  Two entertaining giant ravens, a fun talking head, and so many other great characters ensured that The Fury of the Gods was a moving and deeply personal read, and I am so glad I got the opportunity to know them during the run of this trilogy.

As with the previous books in the Bloodsworn Saga, I chose to grab The Fury of the Gods on audiobook, which proved to be a particularly awesome way to enjoy this epic read.  Featuring a runtime just under 20 hours, The Fury of the Gods audiobook is a lengthy but highly exciting listening experience, and I found myself powering through this audiobook, namely because the format deeply enhances the intense story and intricate writing.  Narrator Colin Mace, who has lent his voice to the other Bloodsworn Saga books, did another brilliant job with The Fury of the Gods, and his impressive voicework leant some additional impact and gravitas to the book.  Mace perfectly portrays the Norse-inspired fantasy elements of the book, and I really loved how effectively he captured the various hard-nosed characters of the series.  I especially loved Mace’s take on the gigantic gods and other dark creatures haunting the lands, and I felt that the narrator was a key reason why I had so much fun with this audiobook.  Probably one of the best formats to enjoy The Fury of the Gods, listeners will have such an epic time with this audiobook.

With blood, fury and vengeance, the Bloodsworn Saga comes to a brilliant end that I could not get enough of.  The Fury of the Gods was another exceptional read from John Gwynne, and I was so very happy to see how this entire epic narrative concluded.  Loaded with action, excellent fantasy elements, and so many impressive characters, The Fury of the Gods was an outstanding book on its own, as well as an incredible conclusion to one of the most epic fantasy trilogies out there.  One of my favourite fantasy books of 2024, The Fury of the Gods was an excellent read that gets an easy five-star rating from me.

Amazon

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Comedy/Satire, Fantasy11 Comments

Publisher: Orbit (Trade Paperback – 6 August 2024)

Series: Dark Lord Davi – Book One

Length: 395 pages

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Hilarious author Django Wexler presents one of the funniest and most memorable fantasy novels of 2024 with the deeply addictive How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.  Serving as the first book in Wexler’s new Dark Lord Davi series, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was an extremely amusing book that has been on my radar for a while due to its amazing-sounding plot.

It’s a tale as old as time.  An ordinary human becomes trapped in a mythical fantasy realm and is subsequently lauded as the prophesied hero of legend, destined to rule the kingdom and defeat the conquering Dark Lord.  But what happens when the human protagonist gets sick of living and dying as the hero?

That’s the question that falls to Davi, a young woman who has become trapped in a bloody and predictable time loop.  Constantly forced to become the leader of the soon-to-be-destroyed humans of The Kingdom, Davi has tried time and time again to organise an army capable of defeating the oncoming and everchanging Dark Lord, only to fail and die in agony in over 200 inventive ways.  After nearly a thousand years of playing the hero and losing in brutal fashion, Davi has had enough and decides that if you can’t beat them, become them.

Determined to take control of her destiny, Davi sets out to do the direct opposite of every other loop.  If the Dark Lord always wins, then this time Davi will take her place at the top of the winning side and become the new Dark Lord herself.  But first she must pull together a band of followers from the various non-human races of the realm and bring her loyal minions to the Convocation where the new Dark Lord is chosen, far away in lands she’s never even seen.  Standing between Davi and her destiny lie multitudes of deadly landscapes, brutal enemies, and all manner of unique obstacles that a Dark Lord in training needs to overcome.  Armed with her wits, her accumulated knowledge of the world, the ability to use her own death to her advantage, and an insane amount of humorous confidence, Davi may be able to do the impossible and finally win.  But Davi will soon learn that becoming the Dark Lord isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be.

How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was a highly entertaining and insanely captivating read that I honestly could not get enough off.  Featuring a brilliant scenario that Wexler plays to comedic perfection, combined with dark humour and a uniquely insane protagonist, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying is an outstanding novel that I had so much fun reading.

I must admit that I instantly loved the very fun premise of this book which saw the protagonist decide to take on the role of the Dark Lord after hundreds of failed attempts to survive as the hero.  Wexler did an outstanding job setting this idea up in the first couple of chapters of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, and you are quickly intrigued by the combination of a bloody time loop, a despondent, if hyper, protagonist, and the entire change of plan said protagonist embarks upon.  As such, you are completely onboard as soon as Davi starts to implement her plan, and the resulting carnage proves to be highly entertaining and fun.  After multiple bloody failed attempts to start her new turn to darkness, Davi soon begins to get into her groove as the next Dark Lord, recruiting a small band of minions, and taking the first steps to proving she has what it takes to rule.

Davi’s subsequent quest to become the Dark Lord involves an intense adventure arc, as she leads her army through various fun fantasy locations.  Along the way to her destination, Davi engages in different schemes to recruit new followers, especially when she encounters some chaotic communities whose internal strife she is able to exploit.  The story devolves into an awesome combination of intrigue, humorous encounters, fantasy action and personal character growth, as the protagonist becomes more comfortable with the Dark Lord lifestyle.  After several extended sequences at key locations, the protagonist eventually reaches her goal and begins her trials to become the new Dark Lord.  However, nothing at the trials is what it seems, and Davi is forced to deal with multiple enemies from her various pasts to survive.  There are some great moments in this final part of the book, including tragic betrayals, heart-felt romance, intriguing revelations, and some big fights, all of which leads to an interesting open-ended conclusion that will ensure readers come back for the next book in the series.

I had an exceptional amount of fun with How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, and Wexler had a fantastic style that really appealed to me.  Told exclusively from the slightly crazed first-person perspective of the protagonist, readers are treated to Davi’s highly excitable inner thoughts as she recounts her journey to becoming the Dark Lord.  This proved to be a great medium to explore the more complex elements of the plot, and I appreciated how Wexler was able to succinctly dive into time-loop and Davi’s place in it, while also moving the plot along.  The author also introduces a serviceable and intriguing fantasy world the plot of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, which proved interesting to explore.  While a little basic in places, Wexler does feature some excellent concepts here, and readers will enjoy watching Davi explore it with her own unique perspective, especially as she forms new ideas about the supposedly evil wilders (non-human creatures) as she works with them.  While some of these concepts are a little complex at times, everything honestly works extremely well for the entertaining plot, and I really appreciated how effectively the author was able to explore and utilise his fantastic ideas.

While all these great concepts help to craft a unique book, what holds everything together and keeps the reader’s attention is the relentless comedy that Wexler injects into nearly every page of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying.  I really connected to Wexler’s humour in this book, and I found myself chuckling away for large chunks of it.  Thanks to the slightly cracked protagonist, the reader is bombarded with a constant array of jokes, hilarious commentary, and over-the-top moments, as Davi combats the horrors both in front and behind her with humour.  A lot of this humour was driven by the protagonist having a modern, nerdish perspective in a crazy fantasy world, and her reactions ranged from sarcastic to goofy.  Wexler also makes great use of an array of continuous footnotes to tell additional jokes outside the flow of the narrative, or to really expand on an interesting or funny point.  I am a big fan of the use of footnotes for comedic purposes (blame my Terry Pratchett upbringing), and Wexler made it work really well here.  The author also relies on quite a lot of highly adult humour throughout the book, which helped to give How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying an interesting flair.  While I could see some readers not liking how continuously risqué the book got, or how over-the-top the humour is in general, I personally felt that it worked and allowed for quite an amusing, if slightly randy, experience.

Talking of crazy humour, I must highlight the fantastic central protagonist of How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, Davi.  A modern-day and highly nerdy woman who finds herself trapped in this recurring fantasy adventure without any idea of how she got there, Davi is an interesting figure, and you really connect with her as the plot continues, especially as a lot of hilarity is drawn from her outrageous behaviour and thoughts.  Davi is constantly cracking jokes, making sarcastic inner observations and meta commentary, often driven by her modern experiences, and it’s hard not to be amused by her antics.  She also has some great, often ridiculous interactions with the various fantasy creatures she encounters, and I liked seeing her unusual persona connect with these more serious creatures.

While it is easy to get lost in Davi’s comedic persona, the further you get into the book, the more apparent it is that her cracked behaviour has been brought on by the constant trauma from her hundreds of deaths and the accompanying thousand years of experience that she has lived through as part of her fantasy adventure.  The initial exposure to her early trauma and rage at the start of the book gives you enough of a glimpse of this that you appreciate her turn to the dark side, but you see even more of it as the story continues.  A lot of this is because, even after years of watching everyone die, she still cares about the people around her, and the impacts of her decisions start to wear on her.  While she maintains her zany persona for much of the book, a new romance and a dark change in her circumstances towards the end of the book nearly break her, and I felt that Wexler did an outstanding job of trying to humanise her there, especially as she sometimes gives off uncaring, immortal vibes.  Thanks to these deeper personality traits, as well as her comedic nature, I really grew to appreciate to Davi as main character, especially as she is a lot more capable and competent thanks to her experiences, although she still makes some interesting mistakes (never sleep with your minions, everyone knows that).  As such, I look forward to seeing how her story continues, especially as things are likely to get even more out of control for her.

Overall, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler was an awesome book that I honestly found to be quite addictive.  The fantastic central scenario is greatly enhanced by the author’s outrageous humour and clever storytelling, and it allows for quite an outstanding read.  Slick, unique and very, very funny, How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying was one of the more unique fantasy novels of 2024, and if you are in the mood for a great laugh, then this is the book for you.  I personally am very excited to see how the Dark Lord Davi series continues in the future, and the second novel, Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me, is set for release in May 2025.

Amazon

Warhammer 40,000: Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by Gary Kloster

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer1 Comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 9 March 2024)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 11 hours and 47 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Secrets, lies and devils from the past converge around the Dark Angels in this exceptional Warhammer 40,000 novel from Gary Kloster, Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge.

I have been on a real roll with Warhammer 40,000 fiction this year, as books like Da Big Dakka by Mike Brooks, Deathworlder by Victoria Hayward, Oaths of Damnation by Robbie MacNiven and Renegades: Lord of Excess by Rich McCormick have all proven to be exceptional additions the Warhammer canon.  But despite how awesome the above books and others have proven to be, I am still keen for more.  That is why I made sure to listen to a copy of the early 2024 novel, Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by new-to-me author Gary Kloster.  An interesting entry that follows members of the iconic Dark Angels chapter, Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge was a book I nearly didn’t read this year, but I was sure glad that I did.

For over 10,000 years the Space Marines of the Dark Angels chapter have defended the Imperium of Man from all manner of insidious threats, all while keeping their own terrible secrets hidden.  Maintaining watch for fallen members of their order, the Dark Angels are forced to balance their Chapter’s need for secrecy and revenge with their solemn duty to keep humanity safe from the monsters and heretics stalking the stars.  But not every member of the Dark Angel’s inner circle believes that the battles of the past should impact the Chapter’s future.

Lazarus, Master of the Dark Angels Fifth Company, knows the burden that history can have on the soul.  The first Primaris Marine to hold rank within the chapter’s inner circle, Lazarus finds himself haunted by the battle that killed him and forced him to undergo the Rubicon surgery.  Determined to rid the universe of all psykers and the foul forces of Chaos behind them, Lazarus is a dedicated warrior, although one that questions the secrets that impact his ability to fulfill his duty.  That is why, when an ancient beacon located on the planet Reis is activated, the Supreme Grand Master of the Dark Angels, Azrael, summons Lazarus and his Fifth Company to fulfill an old debt of honour.

A thousand years before, the Imperial Knight world of Reis was nearly overwhelmed by a rampaging army of daemons, resulting in the destruction of the planet’s war machine guardians, and only through the intervention of the Dark Angels was Reis saved.  But now, after years of peace, Reis finds itself under attack from a new foe, one that may cause another daemonic incursion.  Determined to ensure the daemons stay in the warp, Lazarus arrives to assess the situation on Reis, but soon discover that not everything is as it seems.  The planet is a hotbed of sinister politics, ancient grudges, and long-buried secrets, all of which conspire to drag Reis closer to destruction.  Forced to navigate the planet’s complex history, Lazarus discovers a terrible enemy hiding deep within the planet’s jungles, one that, like Lazarus, refuses to die.  To save Reis and his brothers, Lazarus must uncover the true hidden past of the planet and understand the origin of the grudge that could turn the Dark Angels against the Imperium they are sworn to protect.

Wow, Warhammer 40,000 fiction is in peak form in 2024 as Gary Kloster deeply impressed me with Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge.  Featuring a particularly complex and captivating narrative that blended awesome action and great characters with a clever and well-written plot, Enmity’s Edge proved to be extremely addictive, and I found myself irreversibly hooked.  Exciting, intense and loaded with all manner of intrigue, Enmity’s Edge is one of the best Warhammer books of 2024 and gets a full five-star rating from me.

I must admit that when I first decided to check out Enmity’s Edge, I didn’t quite know what to expect.  Space Marine focused Warhammer 40,000 novels can sometimes be an overloaded, action slog colloquially known as “Bolter porn”, and I was initially slightly worried that was the direction Enmity’s Edge was going, especially as it started off with an intense war sequence against orks.  However, Kloster instead showcased a remarkably compelling and layered Warhammer 40,00 novel that made excellent use of its Dark Angel protagonists and a unique, secret-laden background setting.  The initial battle serves as a great introduction to the main protagonist, Lazarus, and his command staff, and you get a sense of his tactical skills, as well as his dislike of psykers and the secrets of his order.  This leads nicely to the more complex part of the book, as the reader is introduced to some interesting side characters, as well as the world of Reis, where Lazarus and his company are sent to.

Arriving on Reis, Lazarus discovers a unique world of secrets, lies and hidden history, with the populace attacked by a mysterious fungal infection that has taken over various host bodies.  Quickly diving into the fray to determine the full extent of the threat, the first half of the book sees the Dark Angels essentially taking on the zombies from The Last of Us with an intelligent malevolence behind them, and these unique antagonists prove an interesting alternative to the classic villains of the franchise.  From there the story devolves into an intriguing combination of sequences, as Lazarus attempts to uncover his true opponent, while also dealing with attacks on multiple fronts.  This leads to some compelling and occasionally brutal scenes, including a continued conflict inside an Adeptus Mechanicus base, as well as some other great sequences scattered throughout the planet.  The author spends some substantial time building up some impressive and moving character arcs, as various figures deal with the chaotic events in different ways.

The author does an excellent job building up a great hidden villain who the protagonist must uncover, and the secrets and mysterious surrounding the figure really adds to the intrigue of the story.  While the identity of some of the antagonists are a little predictable, the journey getting there is impressive, and I loved the setup to the answers that Kloster subtly hid through the earlier parts of the book, with the reliance on understanding the past to survive the future being a great recurring theme.  This leads up to a particularly intense and dark final third as the antagonist’s very long-term plot comes to dramatic fruition.  Kloster does a masterful job of building up tension and substantially upping the stakes in the leadup to this, and you find yourself deeply engaged as you wait to see how everything will unfold.  There are some brilliant moments here, including a ton of over-the-top action, some fantastic plot resolutions, and several particularly tragic moments as the protagonists face overwhelming foes.  The overall resolution is very clever and builds on some excellent prior story inclusions and character growth, that Kloster wraps up perfect.  The end result is an awesome, memorable and particularly enthralling standalone story, that really showcases just how cool and complex a Warhammer 40,000 story can be.

I really enjoyed how Enmity’s Edge came together, and I felt Kloster had a great writing style the ensured a powerful and intense story.  His entire complex narrative was a ton of fun from start to finish, and it proved to be well showcased through several compelling protagonist perspectives.  While there is a ton of awesome and intense action in this book, as is required for a Warhammer 40,000 novel (war is in the name for a reason), the focus on a more subtle threat ensured that Enmity’s Edge stood out from the pack.  I particularly appreciated how subtly Kloster set up a lot of key story elements early in the book and they all paid off extremely well, with a great theme on the lessons of the past recurring in an excellent way.  I also must highlight the great new setting of the planet Reis, which Kloster made fantastic use of.  The Warhammer 40,000 universe is home to a multitude of intriguing and unique worlds, but Reis really stood out to me thanks to Kloster’s vibrant descriptions and the clever way the planet’s complex history and disposition played into the narrative.  An Imperial Knight planet (a feudal world governed by mech pilots who take the whole knight thing way too seriously) that has fallen on hard times thanks to the destruction of the ruler’s battle suits, Reis is a hotbed of dark history, lingering secrets, and intense rivalries, covered with useful fungus.  Kloster perfectly introduces and then utilizes this planet throughout the narrative, and you find yourself getting really drawn into the revealed history, especially as it produces a particularly effective and dark antagonist.  These writing elements ensure that Kloster’s captivating narrative pops in the reader’s mind, and I was really impressed with how he presented this excellent Warhammer novel.

In addition to being an outstanding read, I also felt that Enmity’s Edge was an excellent piece of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and one that really emphasizes how clever and compelling a story in this canon can be.  Focusing on the Space Marine chapter, the Dark Angels, Kloster presents a gripping standalone narrative that makes great use of the franchise’s unique features and history without getting too bloated or lore heavy.  Thanks to how effectively the author covers these franchise inclusions, I felt that readers unfamiliar with Warhammer fiction could easily jump into Enmity’s Edge without too much pre-knowledge and still deeply enjoy the plot, especially as it really showcases how cool the iconic Space Marines can be.  More established Warhammer 40,000 fans will naturally get a lot more out of the story, especially as Kloster explored some particularly awesome aspects of the universe.  I personally loved how well he showcased the various squads featured within a specific Space Marines company, and it was fun to have a mixture of troop specializations and vehicles which reminded me of tabletop gameplay at times.  He also does an outstanding job showcasing the Dark Angels, who are one of the more popular Space Marine chapters for a reason.  This proved to be a very strong book for Dark Angels fans, and I appreciated how he veered away from the typical topics you’d expect for a Dark Angels novel (completely focused on the Fallen), and instead showed them facing a fresh foe with some excellent motivations to hate them.  As such, this is a highly recommend read for all Warhammer fans that might also attract a few new readers to the franchise.

One of Enmity’s Edge’s real strengths was the excellent batch of characters that Kloster set the narrative around.  This includes the titular protagonist, Lazarus, Master of the Dark Angels Fifth Company, who proves to be an intriguing central character.  A well-known tactician, secret holder, and one of the few commanding Primaris marines (an upgraded Space Marines) in the Chapter, Lazarus proves to be a great main figure for the plot.  While some Space Marine characters in fiction can be a little one-dimensional, I felt that Kloster did an excellent job turning Lazarus into a complex figure, haunted by his previous battles, concerned about the future of his chapter, and bitter about those friends he has lost to psykers.  There are some great scenes featuring Lazarus throughout Enmity’s Edge, especially as he showed a lot of humanity to a certain point-of-view character, and it was intriguing to see his tactical mind in action.  He also proves to be an excellent foil to the excellent main antagonist of the plot, and they had some compelling scenes together.

Aside from Lazarus, Enmity’s Edge featured a raft of notable support characters, including several major members of the Dark Angels Fifth Company.  I particularly enjoyed the imposing and unfailingly honorable figure of Ancient Jequn, the Fifth Company’s veteran standard bearer.  Jequn has a particularly tragic arc in this book, and I really grew attached to him and his resolve throughout the run of Enmity’s Edge.  Other enjoyable characters included members of Lazarus’s command squad, an Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priest whose technology reflects their obsession with birds, and the various key rulers of Reis.  The antagonists of Enmity’s Edge are also well set-up and utilized, and while I won’t got into too much detail of them here, they had some brilliant sequences, and really enhanced the overall narrative.

However, I felt that one of the best characters in Enmity’s Edge was Learned Ysentrud, an enhanced human of a type found only on Reis called a Wyrbuk, who finds themselves helping the Dark Angels.  Essentially a living repository of knowledge, Ysentrud becomes a key figure in the plot as she provides the Dark Angels with history and insights into Reis that allow them to uncover the plot’s big mystery.  Probably the book’s main point-of-view protagonist after Lazarus, Ysentrud had one of the more relatable character perspectives in Enmity’s Edge, as she finds herself surrounded by the demi-god figures of the Space Marines as they engage in combat.  Not only does Ysentrud’s perspective help to bring readers a little more into the plot, but I really enjoyed the compelling story arc Kloster wove around her as she attempted to find her courage and prove her worth to the Dark Angels.  Kloster’s entire arc around Ysentrud was really well written, and I felt that her complex personal narrative was a particularly strong part of the book.

Those familiar with this blog will be unsurprised that I chose to enjoy Enmity’s Edge on audiobook, which is how I primarily check out all my Warhammer content.  As with most Warhammer 40,000 books, Enmity’s Edge came across extremely well in this format, and you are in for a really good time listening to it.  Coming in with a runtime just short of 12 hours, listeners can get through Enmity’s Edge’s audiobook in no time at all, especially once you get caught up in its fantastic story.  The intense action, elaborate sequences and deep intrigue of the plot is perfectly enhanced by having it read out to you, and I loved hearing the elaborate descriptions of the setting and the unique characters within it.  I was also very impressed by narrator John Banks, who has lent his voice to several Warhammer audiobooks over the years.  Banks did a remarkable job diving into the various characters featured within Enmity’s Edge, and I also felt that his amazing voice lent a lot of gravitas to these figures.  While all the characters are given excellent and fitting voices, I particularly loved his take on the various Dark Angels characters featured throughout the plot.  He gives these genetically enhanced, ancient warriors the booming and commanding voices you would expect, and their emphatic declarations sound really cool here.  I absolutely powered through this excellent audiobook, and I would strongly recommend it as the very best way to enjoy Enmity’s Edge.

Lazarus: Enmity’s Edge by Gary Kloster was another excellent 2024 Warhammer 40,000 novel that I could not get enough of.  Featuring a complex and intense plot of betrayal, secrets and dark history, Enmity’s Edge grabs your attention early and ensures you can’t put it down as you rush towards the end.  One of the best Warhammer 40,000 novels of the year, Enmity’s Edge is a must read of all fans of the franchise, and I really loved its brilliant story.

Amazon

Warhammer 40,000: Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives by Mike Brooks

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer1 Comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 27 July 2024)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 5 hours and 59 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

One of the rising stars of Warhammer fiction, Mike Brooks, presents another exciting, character-focused narrative within the grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe with awesome novel, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives.

Those familiar with the franchise will know that Warhammer 40,000 fiction is on fire at the moment.  There are some very talented authors out there writing exciting and compelling adventures based on the game’s various factions, and readers are finding out just how fun and complex stories written in this universe can be.  Out of all the fantastic authors writing Warhammer fiction in recent years, one of the most impressive is Mike Brooks, who is shaping up to be one of the franchise’s big writers.  A talented fantasy and science fiction author, Brooks has been producing some excellent books in recent years that either focus on unique Warhammer 40,000 characters or one of the game’s non-human factions.  Books like Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, The Lion: Son of the Forest (one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2023), Brutal Kunnin, Warboss and Da Big Dakka (one of my favourite books and audiobooks from the first half of 2024), have been extremely epic, and I am always down for more stuff from Brooks as a result.  As such, I made sure to grab a copy of his other 2024 Warhammer 40,000 novel, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives, which was another interesting and memorable addition to the canon.

In the far future, the fallen and capricious drukhari heal and hold back the grim prospect of death by inflicting pain on others.  The dark streets of their city, Commorragh, run red with blood as millions of prisoners are killed in their gladiatorial arenas to slake their citizens’ bloodlust and need for suffering.  To survive in this brutal city, a drukhari needs to be smart, deceitful or a natural killer, and no killer is more revered in Commorragh than Lelith Hesperax.

A legendary gladiator, Lelith Hesperax has long reigned as the Grand Succubus of the most powerful Wych Cult in Commorragh, her blades having carved through thousands of challengers, potential rivals and alien captives.  But after years of fighting for herself, Lelith has found a new cause to draw blood for.  Abandoning Commorragh, Lelith now fights against daemonic hordes alongside the nomadic cultists of the Ynnead, who seek a different way to survive as a species.  However, while she’s been away, new rivals strike at Lelith’s holdings back at Commorragh.

Warned by the mysterious Harlequins of a rising threat against her, Lelith returns to Commorragh to find that much has changed.  Her Cult of Strife is no longer feared or respected, and many of the city’s inhabitants openly plot against her and her followers.  Shocked at how far her status has fallen in her absence, Lelith knows that the only person capable of causing this much disruption to her empire is the undisputed ruler of Commorragh, Asdrubael Vect.  Forced to contend against the schemes of a master manipulator, Lelith believes that the only way to survive is to remind the city just how dangerous she is.  But with Vect’s web of manipulation surrounding her, can even Lelith cut herself free, especially when her opponent forces her to fight against the only person in Commorragh she doesn’t want to kill?

Mike Brooks continues to showcase just how good he is at bringing the various complex figures of the Warhammer 40,000 universe to life with this exciting new read.  Expertly capturing the legendary drukhari killer, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives was an awesome and captivating read I had a lot of fun getting through.

This latest book from Brooks is a quick but very intense and well-written read that successfully gets into the head of an iconic drukhari character from the games.  Told exclusively from the perspective of the main character, Lelith Hesperax, Queen of Knives moves at an extremely fast pace; after a fast introduction to set up how much Lelith’s life has changed since leaving to work with the cultists of the Ynnead, you are thrust into the action when a bored Lelith is warned about a rising threat back in Commorragh.  This effectively brings the reader back to the main setting, which is for the best, as Commorragh is a particularly awesome location for any Warhammer 40,000 novel.  The protagonist is soon embroiled in a sinister array of intrigue, as it becomes clear that the undisputed leader of the drukhari, Asdrubael Vect, is working against her, and is using a figure from Lelith’s past, Morghana Nathrax, as his catspaw.

Forced on the backfoot in a fight for the first time in her life, Lelith attempts to find a way to counter the moves of her shadowy opponent, while also trying to avoid a fight with Morghana.  This results in some excellent action set pieces and moments of intrigue, as Lelith gets back to her dread drukhari roots.  The fight sequences surrounding the protagonists are sharp, exciting, and necessarily brutal, and I appreciated how well Brooks balanced the action with overlying intrigue and plotting.  The author also spends a good chunk of time diving into the protagonist’s personality and past, and a few well-placed flashbacks help to provide additional emotional attachment and show Lelith’s complicated relationship with Morghana.  Everything leads up to the inevitable confrontation, which goes in some very interesting and emotionally charged directions.  While I felt that Brooks could have added in another layer of intrigue to the protagonist’s final ploy to make the book really stand out, the conclusion of the book was generally pretty satisfying, and Queen of Knives turned out to be an excellent standalone read.

Due to the book being deliberately focused on one iconic protagonist, Queen of Knives does by necessity have a character-driven plot, which revolves around some fantastic figures.  Naturally the most prominent of these is the book’s sole perspective character, Lelith Hesperax, who proved to be quite an awesome protagonist to follow.  Brooks chooses to jump readers right into the midst of Lelith’s current adventure at the start of Queen of Knives rather than immediately focusing on her backstory, which I think worked from a narrative perspective, as it brought readers quickly into the plot.  There is a useful drip feed of information about her past and her nature as the book continues, enough that reader’s unfamiliar with the protagonist can easily enjoy Queen of Knives, while also allowing Brooks to control the audience’s understanding of the protagonist’s motivations and feelings.  Readers soon come to appreciate that Lelith is a complex figure, torn between her love of violence and glory and the new path of redemption she finds herself on with the cult of Ynnead.  As such, Queen of Knives proves to be a key chapter in Lelith’s story, as she returns to her old ways, only to discover a new side to her life and a potential romance.  I loved seeing Brooks’ examination of the protagonist’s various complex layers, and it made for quite a moving book as a result.

The main protagonist is well balanced by several great supporting characters, each of whom have their own unique impact on the narrative.  The two I really want to focus on include new character Morghana Nathrax, a figure from Lelith’s past who develops a real love-hate relationship with the protagonist.  Morghana’s well-balanced admiration and hatred of Lelith ensures that conflict is inevitable between them, even though Lelith wants to keep her alive, and Brooks writes quite a complex relationship between them.  However, my favourite supporting character is the main antagonist of Queen of Knives, the notorious ruler of Commorragh, Asdrubael Vect.  Vect is a particularly awesome figure in the Warhammer 40,000 canon, so it was cool to see him utilised here in Queen of Knives.  Even though Vect only appears in one sequence at the end of the novel, Brooks does an outstanding job building him up as a brilliantly devious figure, effortlessly manipulating all the drukhari in the city, including Lelith and her followers.  You really come to appreciate the fear that all Commorragh has for Vect as the book continues, and his one appearance ensures that you understand why he commands such fear.  I really loved how well Brooks built up these characters, and it made for some awesome reading as a result.

I felt that Queen of Knives was a great Warhammer 40,000 novel, especially as Brooks expertly explores and utilises so many cool lore elements throughout his story.  It proves to be a deeply compelling look at the iconic and always enticing drukhari faction.  The drukhari, or the dark eldar, as older fans may know them, are the Warhammer 40,000 universe’s resident space elf murder pirates, and have a long history in the game.  Despite that, there isn’t a lot of fiction out there about them, with Brooks’s other 2024 novel, Da Big Dakka, being the only recent book to strongly feature their perspective that I can recall, and even then, more focus was given to the ork characters in that book.  As such, it was a real pleasure to have a novel completely dedicated to the drukhari, and Brooks does an outstanding job diving into the faction’s culture, mentality and other vital lore elements.  This includes a fantastic look at the iconic dark city of Commorragh, one of the most dangerous places in the Warhammer 40,000 canon.  A noted seat of deceit, bloodshed and easy death, Commorragh did not disappoint as a background setting from Queen of Knives, and Brooks ensures it plays a key part in the story.  Throw in some other interesting, if relatively brief, looks at the other Aeldari sub-factions (particularly the Ynnari), and there is a lot of interesting lore here for Warhammer 40,000 fans to appreciate.  As such, Queen of Knives is probably best enjoyed by those who already have an established connection to the franchise, although thanks to Brooks’s excellent writing, a new reader could probably come in and enjoy Queen of Knives without too much context.

As with most things Warhammer that I enjoy, I made sure to grab a copy of Queen of Knives on audiobook, which proved to be as epic as always.  The fast-paced plot, intense action and unique characters of Queen of Knives unsurprisingly came across extremely well in the audiobook format, and I really got absorbed into the story as a result, especially when it came to the elaborate depictions of the sinister city of Commorragh.  Coming in with a runtime of six hours, Queen of Knives is a relatively short Warhammer audiobook to get through, and I managed to knock it off quickly once I got stuck into it.  I really enjoyed how Queen of Knives came together, and I particularly enjoyed the narrator Antonia Beamish.  Beamish, whose work I previously enjoyed on the Warhammer Horror audiobook Sepulturum, was really impressive with her narration of Queen of Knives, and I liked her take on the main protagonist.  You really get a sense of the predatory nature of the various drukhari characters that Beamish voices throughout this audiobook, and I felt that these figures were all given fitting and impressive voices.  This great voice work helped ensure that the audiobook was once again the best way to enjoy this excellent book, and you are guaranteed to have a lot of fun listening to Queen of Knives.

Overall, Lelith Hesperax: Queen of Knives was another amazing book from Mike Brooks, who once again showcases his ability to write complex Warhammer 40,000 fiction.  Combining a compelling and intrigue laden narrative with great character work and a particularly distinctive Warhammer 40,000 setting, Queen of Knives was so much fun, and I really powered through it.  A highly recommended read, I look forward to seeing what Brooks will write next.

Amazon

Warhammer 40,000: Double Eagle by Dan Abnett

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Five-Star Books, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer19 Comments

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 1 January 2004)

Series: Warhammer 40,000/Sabbat Worlds

Length: 10 hours and 16 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

The master of Warhammer fiction, Dan Abnett, takes to the skies with the deeply addictive and ultra epic fighter pilot novel Double Eagle.

Readers familiar with this blog will know that I have been extremely damn obsessed with Warhammer fiction the last couple of years, having spent a substantial amount of time reading and reviewing numerous books from the franchise.  Of the many Warhammer fiction authors I have read during this period, one of the most impressive is the legendary Dan Abnett, who has written so many exceptional and powerful books around the franchise, including several series considered to be the seminal texts of the extended universe.  I have had a ton of fun with many of his books, including his brilliant Eisenhorn trilogy (Xenos, Malleus and Hereticus), and he has multiple entries in my current favourite Warhammer 40,000 books list.  However, his best-known series is the iconic Gaunt’s Ghosts books, which I am currently in the middle of reading.

The Gaunt’s Ghosts books are a beloved and key series of Warhammer 40,000 fiction that seeks to give readers a moving look at the lives of the frontline human soldier in this grimdark universe.  Set in an extended, multi-planet campaign, known as the Sabbat Worlds Crusade, the Gaunt’s Ghosts books follow a ragged regiment of soldiers as they attempt to survive the dark servants of Chaos coming for them.  I am having an exceptional time reading the Gaunt’s Ghosts series, and in 2024 alone I have read two particularly epic entries, Straight Silver and Sabbat Martyr.  However, before I dive any further into the series, I decided to read the spin-off novel, Double Eagle, which I have had on my to-read list for a while now.  Double Eagle was an interesting and unique novel that follows members of an airmen wing who were introduced in the fifth Gaunt’s Ghosts book, The Guns of Tanith.  Set after their mission with the Ghosts, Double Eagle follows these pilots, including a few characters from The Guns of Tanith, in a brutal new campaign.

War has engulfed the Sabbat World system as the forces of the Imperium of Man attempt to reclaim multiple worlds invaded by the forces of Chaos.  After years of fighting, the Imperium’s crusade has reached a tipping point, with victory or defeat for the entire campaign hanging on the results of a few key battles.  While the fighting is fierce throughout the system, nowhere is it more desperate than the beleaguered world of Enothis.

After failing to conquer the Chaos footholds on Enothis, the infantry and armoured forces of the Imperium are in full retreat, attempting to traverse miles of hostile terrain to return to safe territory, all while being harassed by relentless enemy aircraft.  With the fate of the planet in the balance, the commanders of the crusade deploy multiple squadrons of Imperial fighters and bombers to Enothis to turn the entire conflict into an air war.  If the Imperial pilots can hold back the advancing tides of Chaos and allow the ground forces to regroup the war for Enothis may be won.  But if the airmen fail, then Enothis and the entire Sabbat Worlds campaign is doomed.

Amongst the pilots sent to Enothis are the elite flyers of the Phantine Air Corps.  Veterans from the recent war to liberate their home planet of Phantine, the pilots of the Phantine Air Corps are determined to do their bit in this new conflict.  But the battle for Enothis will be unlike anything seen before, as thousands of Chaos aircraft descend on the planet, hoping to obliterate the defenders.  Severely outnumbered, can even the dogged Phantine pilots hold back the approaching tide of dark air machines before the planet is conquered, especially with an unnaturally skilled Chaos ace stalking the skies, determined to bring every opposing pilot down in flames?

Just when I think that Dan Abnett couldn’t impress me even more, I go and read Double Eagle.  A brilliant, intense, and exceptionally well-written novel that focuses on a particularly cool aspect of the Warhammer universe, Double Eagle blew me away with its great characters and elaborate air combat sequences.  I had an incredible time with Double Eagle, and it gets an easy five-star rating from me.

I deeply, deeply enjoyed Double Eagle, as Abnett took the brief of a Battle of Britain-inspired Warhammer 40,000 story and applied his usual impressively detailed style and powerful character-driven storytelling to produce an outstanding and addictive read.  Perfectly spinning off from the previous Gaunt’s Ghosts books and bringing the reader to another adventure in the expansive Sabbat World Crusades, Double Eagle has a brilliant narrative loaded with action that goes hard and fast for your feels and refuses to let go once it has you firmly in your grasp.

Double Eagle starts off quickly, getting the reader across the brutal new campaign and the importance of the aerial war that emerges, you are soon introduced to multiple characters and shown some initial awesome sequences with some explosive dogfights.  From there the story moves at a fast but smart pace, as you follow several distinctive and often overlapping character arcs throughout the length of the brutal campaign on Enothis.  You really get dragged into each major protagonist’s story as they attempt to survive the flying war.  There are some excellent battle scenes in this first half of the book and Abnett really shows how epic he can make a fighter pilot dogfight very early on.  The characters each experience some highs and lows in the first half of the book, and it doesn’t take you long to get attached the protagonists and their complex personal tales within the confines of the main story.

However, it is the second half of the book where everything comes together perfectly.  Each of the protagonists experience some version of personal loss or difficulty, and the impact of the war slowly drains them, taking them to some dark places.  Abnett sets up a brilliant underdog narrative around the protagonists, as the massive fleet of Chaos airships seek to crush them.  You can really see the parallels between this narrative and the Battle for Britain at this point, especially as the tired and severely outnumbered Phantine fighters and their local allies attempt to hold back the overwhelming and often Germanic-inspired forces coming for them.  Everything leads up to a massive final confrontation, as the protagonists engage in a series of brutal and drawn-out dogfights and aerial confrontations as we lead up to the finale.  While a couple of the character arcs leading up to this are a tad unsurprising, the way that Abnett writes them makes you love every second it.  The author brings everything to an epic close with continued and captivating action that honestly is impossible not to react to at times.  There are some very powerful moments at the closes, especially when some characters get everything they want, and you come away from Double Eagle wishing Abnett had made this book even longer.

Abnett once again masterfully crafts his compelling narrative together in such an effective way that I honestly just couldn’t stop listening to this book.  Making excellent use of multiple complex perspectives, you are swiftly drawn into the lives of several ordinary soldiers drafted into the deadly aerial war against a massive opposing fleet.  Featuring a range of complex characters arcs, Abnett expertly balances the character-driven plot between the various perspectives, while also featuring an epic war story that hits in all the right places.  Abnett’s use of quick-fire perspective changes works to create an excellent and fast-paced narrative, and it works especially well in some of the novel’s more intense sequences.  Speaking of action, you can’t talk about Double Eagle without discussing the amazing and epic aerial fight scenes and dogfights that make the book so damn distinctive.  Abnett did a remarkable job of harnessing the energy and feel of classic World War II fighter combat and bringing it into the Warhammer 40,000 universe.  Featuring many, many awesome sequences of aerial combat, Double Eagle really feels like you’re in a futuristic Battle for Britain as you witness fights between small groups of fighters fending off mass raids from Chaos forces, as well as sequences from the perspective of Imperial bombers.  The resulting dogfights between advanced fighter craft works so damn well in the context of the story, and you are treated to some truly epic sequences.  I was constantly enthralled by the brilliant aerial combat and flight sequences, and Abnett did an exceptional job expressing the intensities of flight, the ultra-fast pace nature of the combat, and the craziness of a massed aerial battle.  I could have honestly spent many, many more hours listening to Abnett’s descriptions of aerial combat, and there are so many excellent writing elements to this book that drag you in.

Double Eagle also proved to be an interesting and particularly strong Warhammer 40,000 novel that is really going to appeal to a wide range of readers.  Spinning off from the Gaunt’s Ghosts books, Double Eagle is tailor made for fans of the original series, although familiarity with the Gaunt’s Ghosts books isn’t necessary to enjoy this epic book.  While there are a few references, returning characters, and discussions about the overarching Sabbat Worlds Crusade, for the most part any reader can easily dive into Double Eagle and follow the story with no issues at all.  As with most tie-in books in the franchise, Double Eagle is best enjoyed by existing Warhammer fans, who will once again enjoy Abnett’s compelling insights into the canon.  I know that I really loved the exploration of Warhammer 40,000 air combat, and I loved how Abnett explored the physics, as well as the reasons why aerial fighters are still utilised in a universe where space travel exists.  However, I also felt that Double Eagle would serve as a pretty good entry point to any new readers interested in finding out why the Warhammer 40,000 universe is so damn cool.  Indeed, readers who are a fan of aerial focused military fiction or World War II fighter combat fiction can very easily jump into the new world here, as Abnett really presents a tale they would enjoy.  I need to read more Warhammer books from Abnett (I have several currently in my queue), and I currently very excited to read the recently announced sequel to Double Eagle, Interceptor City, which is set to be released later this year.

I found that the writing element that really brought Double Eagle together where the excellent characters at the heart and soul of the plot.  Focusing on several intriguing pilot characters, Abnett dove into the mindset of these flyers and did an amazing job capturing their love of the air and their desire to be the best.  However, as the book continues, you see a darker side to many of these characters, as the toil of war drags them down into their own mental hells.  While it did take me a little while to get across every protagonist, I eventually got drawn into the excellent character-focused storylines that Abnett set up in Double Eagle, and it was great to see the return of several characters introduced in The Guns of Tanith.  This includes the Phantine flight commander, Bree Jagdea, and the bombardier Oskar Viltry.  Jagdea proves to be a great centre for much of the plot, and her steady determination to keep her flight together and survive the various rigors of war, really strike a chord with the reader.  Viltry’s narrative is a little more complex, as the veteran pilot is suffering from trauma after being shot down and captured in The Guns of Tanith.  Certain about his own impending death, Viltry spends much of the book as a morose and depressed figure, until he finds someone worth living for.  Viltry’s storyline proves to be particularly heartfelt, especially as he has a relatively nice romance angle, and I felt that Abnett really captured his trauma and desire for a better life.

Aside from Jagdea and Viltry, Double Eagle also features several other impressive perspective characters who really bring the narrative together.  This includes young Phantine pilot, Vander Marquall, who serves as a major protagonist.  A rookie pilot fighting in his first campaign, Marquall has a massive desire to prove himself.  His obsession with becoming an ace and being respected becomes an overwhelming part of his character, and you find yourself occasionally disliking him, while also simultaneously cheering him on.  Thanks to his interactions with the other characters, Marquall gets some much-needed perspective at times (that scene with his mechanic at the end was brilliant), and I felt he had one of the most complex, dark and relatable storylines in the entire book.  Abnett rounds out the characters with local pilots August Kaminsky, a wounded veteran no longer allowed to fly, and Enric Darrow, a rookie without a plane after getting shot down in the opening scenes by the novel’s big bad.  While parts of Kaminsky and Darrow’s storylines are a little predictable, you really get invested in their various battles, especially as Abnett produces some interesting character moments and interactions for them.  I especially loved the hilarious exchanges between Kaminsky and Jagdea during one fun sequence, and Darrow proves to be a very likeable and determined young character to get behind.  These main characters, plus an excellent supporting cast, were great to follow in Double Eagle, and it will be awesome to continue at least one survivor’s story in the upcoming sequel.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that I ended up listening to Double Eagle on audiobook, as there is frankly no better way to enjoy an epic Warhammer 40,000 novel.  While I always gush about how much I enjoy a Warhammer audiobook, I frankly really need to emphasise just how impressive and exceptional Double Eagle was in this format.  The many, many aerial combat sequences come across so damn well when they are read out to you, and I loved how easily it was to visualise the fast-paced and exceptional flight scenes.  You really get lost in the battles when you listen to them, and I was frankly buzzing the entire time I was listening to Double Eagle.  Part of the reason this audiobook was so damn good was the inclusion of one of my favourite audiobook narrators Toby Longworth.  Longworth has lent his voice to most of Abnett’s Warhammer 40,000 novels in recent years, and frankly the two are a match made in heaven.  The story comes across so effectively in Longworth’s voice, and he really makes every scene, especially the exciting action sequences, that little more epic.  I also really love the fantastic and compelling voices he uses for the various characters.  While a couple of character voices sounded the same as those Longworth used in the Gaunt’s Ghosts audiobooks, I felt that they perfectly fit every figure they were assigned to, and you really get drawn into the matching character arcs as a result.  Frankly this audiobook was perfect, and I had so much fun listening to it.  With a run time of just over 10 hours, the Double Eagle audiobook is very easy to power through, and that is exactly what I did.

With an elaborate, powerful and addictive story about glorious battles in the sky, Double Eagle was a particularly epic Warhammer 40,000 novel that proves impossible not to fall in love with.  Another exceptional novel from Dan Abnett, who once again shows why he is one of the best authors of Warhammer fiction, Double Eagle had me hooked from the very first chapter, and I honestly couldn’t stop reading it until the very end.  This book comes very highly recommended, and I cannot wait to read the sequel later this year.

Amazon

The Last Shield by Cameron Johnston

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy, Five-Star Books4 Comments

Publisher: Angry Robot (Ebook – 13 August 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 376 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

One of the rising stars of dark fantasy fiction, Cameron Johnston, returns with an intense, gritty and addictive novel of revenge, desperation and brutal murder, with the brilliant novel, The Last Shield.

One of the more intriguing authors of fantasy fiction I have enjoyed reviewing in recent years is the outstanding Cameron Johnston, who has deeply impressed me with his small but excellent collection of works.  Since his debut book in 2018, The Traitor God, I have grown to enjoy Johnston’s novels, especially as his first book was a brilliant story of dark magical revenge.  Following up with the awesome sequel, God of Broken Things, Johnston cemented himself as an author to watch, and I have yet to be disappointed by him since.  His third novel, The Maleficent Seven, was a fantastically bonkers read that saw a small town become the unwilling recipients of a band of monstrous defenders when a massive army comes to destroy them.  I had an amazing time with The Maleficent Seven, and indeed all of Johnston’s books, which is why I was so eager for his latest novel, The Last Shield.  One of my most anticipated books of 2024, The Last Shield had an epic and cool plot behind it, and I was so very eager to check it out.

In a world of warring realms and dark magic, the ancient forest realm of Sunweald survives by serving as a buffer country between two far mightier nations on either side of its borders.  A realm of tradition and druidical magic, the heart of the nation lies in Sunweald Palace, where the Lord Regent, and the young heir to the throne reside, guarded by Sunweald’s elite warriors, the Shields.  Rough and old, Sunweald Palace is an impenetrable fortress designed protect the nation’s royal family, as well as safeguarding a massive vault of unspeakably powerful magical artefacts.

Despite its peaceful status, Sunweald finds itself beset by a group of vicious brigands, the Wildwood Reivers, who have made a living stealing away magical artefacts and trading them across the border.  Led by a mysterious witch, the Wildwood Reivers have grown bold, even launching an attack on the royal family.  When word reaches the palace of the location of the brigand’s base, the Shields depart to destroy them once and for all.  However, their mission is a devious decoy, as through treachery, dark magic and deceit, the Wildwood Reivers and their allies manage to take over Sunweald Palace.

With the Shields away and traitors holding the wall, the brigands plan to loot the palace’s ancient vaults and steal every magical artefact hidden within.  However, the Wildwood Reivers face one substantial obstacle to their success, Briar, feared, if hobbled, commander of the Shields.  Despite being outnumbered, wounded and near retirement, Briar is determined to perform her duty and reclaim the palace.  Using her knowledge of the palace’s secret tunnels and ancient corridors, Briar sets about dismantling the invaders in brutal fashion.  But battered, alone and loosing strength, can even a legendary Shield like Briar face the overwhelming odds and lethal magic set against her?

Gosh this was a very impressive and exciting read.  Cameron Johnston has a real flair for fantastically over-the-top narratives, and The Last Shield is some of his best work yet.  A complex and compelling tale of revenge and redemption, The Last Shield was a non-stop thrill ride, and I loved the deeply intense story that emerged.  This was a truly outstanding book that gets a full five-star rating from me thanks to how much sheer fun I had reading it.

The narrative that Johnston pulls together for The Last Shield is extremely awesome, and it can best be described as a gender bent, dark fantasy Die Hard, with some amazing fantasy elements.  An excellent standalone story, The Last Shield was a constantly moving book, which drew me in with its clever plot concept and the promised resulting violence.  Part of the reason the story works so well is the initial setup, which introduces the new intriguing world, but more importantly effectively gets you across the central characters and the main setting of Sunweald Palace.  There are some great early character moments here, especially when it comes to the main protagonist, Briar.  The veteran leader of the Shields, Briar is badly wounded in the opening scenes of the book, which kicks off a great arc for her as she attempts to find her purpose after the injury potentially robs her of her position.  Some other key character arcs and storylines are also introduced here, including around the young heir to the throne, whose brush with death drives him closer to the disapproving Briar as a mentor.  Johnston also takes the time to explore the full extent of the conspiracy to takeover Sunweald Palace, and you grow to appreciate just how dastardly the plot is.  As such, you are well prepared for the chaos and carnage to come, and the anticipation Johnston expertly builds up in first part of the book, really enhanced the overall impact of The Last Shield.

As such, the reader is very much ready to go when the villains initiate their plan around a third of the way into The Last Shield.  The resulting takeover is as dark and brutal as you’d expect, and the reader is well prepared to despise the antagonists and root for any sort of victory from the protagonist.  You don’t have to wait long as the despondent Briar quickly finds herself in the ideal position to fight back and begins her bloody and justified one-woman assault on the invaders.  Johnston initiates a series of intense, powerful and increasingly desperate battles, as Briar encounters greater and great hurdles and opponents as she attempts to save the Lord Regent and stop the looting of the castle’s vaults.  The author expertly ramps up the intensity every confrontation, and you really find yourself more and more off the edge of your seat as the story proceeds and Briar becomes increasingly injured.  There are some brilliantly brutal confrontations all the way to the end, and the author throws in some great twists and major final threats.  I honestly loved every second of the epic second half of The Last Shield, and Johnston wrote an amazing, blood-soaked story.

I felt that Johnston did an outstanding job bringing his cool story to life in The Last Shield, and readers are in for a great time if they check this book out.  The excellent blend of dark action, intriguing fantasy, and powerful characters really worked for me, and I felt that Johnston perfectly blended storytelling elements throughout the entire book.  The writing of The Last Shield is crisp, fast-paced, and well planned out, and it proves impossible not to be drawn into the fantastic scenario and intriguing storytelling.  Cameron does an excellent job exploring the new fantasy world that The Last Shield is set in, and you really get drawn into the bronze-age Celtic setting, and the focus on a small kingdom with some intriguing gender roles.  I particularly enjoyed how Jonston managed to emulate the feel of a classic action thriller like Die Hard or Under Siege and blend it with the dark fantasy setting.  The resulting scenes, which forced a nearly retired badass female palace guard to crawl through the secret tunnels of the castle to save the male reagent while disrupting a magical heist, were so damn fun, and it was a fantastic take on a classic film trope.  It helped that Johnston brought his typical, over-the-top mindset to the action sequences in The Last Shield, presenting the readers with an increasing bloody series of fights as the protagonist unleashed her inner fury.  These scenes of carnage and brutality paired perfectly with the complex narrative and character arcs that Johnston built up, and the resulting book was so much fun.

I need to highlight The Last Shield’s awesome characters which were a fantastic part of the book.  I have mentioned the main protagonist, Briar, a few times already, and frankly she was the heart of The Last Shield due to her intense personality and well-written storyline.  Johnston very cleverly set up Briar’s story at the start of the novel, first showing the warrior in her prime, before hobbling her and forcing her to consider retirement before the main plot kicked off.  As such, the version of Briar we see for much of the novel is a desperate, tired and absolutely pissed-off figure, especially when she realises the many betrayals that led up to both this current assault and her previous injury.  I loved how well Johnston set up this character’s revenge arc, and it was so much fun to see Briar finally get her hands on all the people responsible for her misery.  The author really dives into Briar’s mindset and emotions as the book continues, and it proves very, very hard not to root for her, especially when she is driven to her absolute limit.

While most of the focus of The Last Shield is on Briar, there are several other great characters featured throughout the book who also enhance the story.  The most prominent of these is probably the heir to the Sunweald, Ves, who has excellent parallel character growth to Briar.  Initially portrayed as a young fop, Ves grows due to the sacrifices he witnesses in his name and the brash mentorship of Briar, and he ends up proving himself in his own way.  Aside from that, I really need to highlight the excellent group of villains who Briar finds herself up against.  Featuring a band of traitors, brigands, an assassin and a dark witch, the antagonists of The Last Shield play off the stoic Briar extremely well, especially as each of them enrage her in a different way.  Johnston does a fantastic job showcasing the antagonist’s perspective throughout the course of the story, and their early scenes really work to ensure the reader dislikes them.  I personally loved seeing their point of view once they realised that Briar was loose in the castle with them, and the outrageous sequences of fear, anger and regret that followed are incredibly fun.  These characters proved to be a great boon to The Last Shield’s plot, and I deeply enjoyed the fantastic and powerful storylines that Johnston built around them.

Cameron Johnston continues to greatly impress with his fourth novel, The Last Shield.  An exceptional, addictive and gloriously over-the-top dark fantasy novel that takes inspiration from some classic action films, The Last Shield was pure entertainment and excitement, that I could not turn away from.  With great characters, an awesome setting, and so much damn action, there is something for every dark fantasy fan in The Last Shield, and I cannot recommend it enough.  One of my favourite fantasy books of 2024.

Amazon

Terra Incognita by Simon Turney

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Historical FictionLeave a comment

Publisher: Head of Zeus (Ebook – 12 September 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 407 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Simon Turney continues to explore the Roman Empire with his latest novel Terra Incognita, a fantastic read that proves to be one of the top historical fiction adventure novels of 2024.

Simon Turney, who also writes as SJA Turney, is a fantastic author who has been penning various intriguing historical novels for several years now.  I have enjoyed a couple of his books in the past, including the deeply compelling read, Commodus, which was part of his Damned Emperors series.  2024 has proven to be another good year for Turney, as he managed to also to impress me with the first book in his Agricola series, Invader.  Invader was a very fun military novel that followed the early career of a famous Roman general and his potential involvement with Boudica’s rebellion.  I deeply enjoyed Invader, and I am very keen for the sequel, Warrior, which is set for release in early 2025.  However, before Warrior comes out, I was very happy to receive a copy of Turney’s intriguing novel Terra Incognita.  Providing his own take on a truly fascinating adventure hinted at in Roman historical records, Terra Incognita was an awesome read I was excited to check out.

Rome, 61 AD.  Under the rule of Emperor Nero, the Roman Empire is a wealthy and powerful civilisation covering much of Europe and Africa.  However, Nero is eager to expand the range of his control even further and sets his eyes down the River Nile.  Desiring to conquer the mysterious and reportedly rich lands and kingdoms below Egypt, Nero devises an elaborate plan to learn more about the world beyond his borders.

Under the command of an ambitious tribune, Nero sends two centuries of his elite Praetorian Guard into the African wilds with orders to follow the Nile until they find the source of the river.  If they succeed, they are to offer tribute to the river’s spirits, and ensure favourable waters for any subsequent invasion of the lands that follow.  However, reaching these fabled waters alive will prove to be an arduous journey.

Travelling down the Nile, the soldiers of Rome experience great hardships as they make their way to their empire’s borders.  But even greater challenges wait beyond, as the Romans will have to overcome bandits, hostile kingdoms, disease, inhospitable desert, fierce beasts and the madness of their own commander.  Can the Romans make it to their goal alive, or will the insanity of their Emperor and the impossible mission he’s set for them destroy even these elite soldiers?

Terra Incognita was as an outstanding and epic historical read that I honestly could not stop reading.  Presenting a powerful and deeply compelling narrative of trials, tribulations, and the dark side of ambition and duty in the wilds of Africa, Turney expertly grabs the reader in with his elaborate historical adventure tale and refused to let go.

I really loved the fun and distinctive story that Turney sets up in Terra Incognita, which proved to be particularly captivating and gripping to me.  A fictional account of the two Praetorian centuries the historical record indicates Nero reportedly sent to find the source of the River Nile, Terra Incognita is an exciting, entertaining and occasionally grim book, that just keeps loading compelling misadventure after compelling misadventure.  Told from the perspective of the venture’s two centurions, Sempronius Densus and Claudius Faventinus, you witness the full extent of the expedition through their eyes, from its hopeful if apprehensive start, all the way to its grim conclusion, and you will love every single second of it.

The narrative itself starts off as a classic Roman historical adventure, as it follows its protagonists down into Egypt.  This early part of the book is very much focused on introducing the characters and setting the scene for the adventures to come, and the readers get some fun sights of Roman occupied Egypt, while also experiencing the initial hurdles of the expedition.  However, once they leave Egypt and journey into land owned by the Kushites, Rome’s southern neighbour in Africa at the period, things start to unravel for them, as they come under attack, encounter greater setbacks, and are beset by bad omens.

The second half of the book sees the Romans enter unexplored territory and encounter the world beyond their known borders.  The already tired and demoralised soldiers face a lengthy and grim trudge deeper into Africa, with things getting worse for them the further they get away from home.  Trapped in their mission by their stubborn and seemingly unkillable commander, the book takes on a real Heart of Darkness vibe as their commander’s obsession drives them forward no matter the consequences.  Things continue to get more and more desperate for the protagonists as they continue, and you are constantly on the edge of your seat waiting to see what disaster or intriguing new turn of events they are likely to stumble across next.  After an increasingly tense series of events, Turney brings the reader to a deeply interesting and compelling conclusion, which fit the overall themes of obsession, insanity and a desire to survive perfectly.  This ended up being an excellent and well-crafted standalone narrative, and I had such a brilliant time getting through this elaborate adventure.

Turney is probably one of the top current authors of Roman historical fiction, and he clearly had a lot of fun bringing this elaborate novel together through his great writing.  Written as one continuous and compelling historical adventure, readers are really drawn into the epic tale of exploration and insanity that evolves, and Turney does a wonderful job of blending historical inclusions with a deep and powerful narrative.  I think the author had the right elements of action, exploration, history and personal stories in Terra Incognita, and it’s hard not to get drawn into the constant adventure and the interaction with new obstacles and societies.

In addition to the well-written story, I really must highlight the excellent main characters of Terra Incognita, especially as you see the entire disastrous expedition through the eyes of the group’s two centurions, Sempronius Densus and Claudius Faventinus.  Cast as the group’s sensible, disciplined and stubborn hearts, the two centurions doggedly lead their soldiers on, forced to serve as a buffer between the disgruntled Praetorian Guard, and their increasingly unhinged commander.  While there sometimes isn’t a lot to distinguish between the two centurions, you grow attached to them, especially as they are forced into impossible situations time and time again and are compelled by duty to continue.

However, the best character in the book is easily the expedition’s leader, Tribune Lucius Curtius Lupus.  An ambitious and regal figure, the tribune serves as a great foil to the sensible protagonists in the first half of the book, especially as his bluster, unreasonable orders and lack of common sense ensure that the centurions are forced to work against him to continue.  However, once the Romans find themselves in the African wilds, the tribune really turns into a fantastic character.  Due to a mixture of illness, pettiness and fear, the tribune becomes continuously more detached from the reality of the situation they are in and keeps dragging his mutinous soldiers further down into Africa.  Absolutely driven by obsession, Lupus refuses to stop until Nero’s orders are fulfilled, no matter the cost to the troops, and every action forces his centurions to decide whether to support him or kill him.  I loved the constant battle of duty and practicality that emerged, as the two centurion protagonists attempt to find their line in the sand against the tribune, only to allow him to make more bad decisions.  It also proves quite amusing to see the continued tribulations that the tribune survives, so much so that his soldiers become to believe his mission is blessed by the gods.  It’s hard not to both love and hate Tribune Lupus as the book unfolds, and I felt that Turney’s use of him was perfect, especially as there are some interesting parallels between him and a key figure from Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now.

Finally, I need to highlight the excellent historical inclusions featured within Terra Incognita.  Turney does an outstanding job bringing the wild and uncharted territories of Africa to life through his excellent writing, and you are constantly envisioning the elaborate landscapes and intriguing people that the Romans may have encountered on this expedition.  I also really appreciated how Turney utilised and expanded on details from the Roman historical records as well more modern understandings of the period in his story.  The depiction of several different tribes, nations and kingdoms that likely existed along the Nile at that point in history was fascinating.  I also enjoyed seeing how Turney envisioned the Roman’s reactions to the various crazy creatures, obstacles and unusual people they would have encountered, including crocodiles, hippopotamuses, and some of Africa’s more impassable terrain.  These obstacles also led to some interesting solutions, and I particularly appreciated Turney’s idea for a potential malaria treatment/preventative.  Throw in some great depictions of the Roman soldiers themselves, something the author has a lot of experience showcasing, and this was a great historical book with some unique features.

Terra Incognita was an outstanding standalone book from Simon Turney that provides readers with an awesome historical adventure.  Fast-paced, addictive, and loaded with some fantastic intensity, especially around the great characters, Terra Incognita was an epic read that comes very highly recommended.

Amazon

Quick Review – Confessions of the Dead by James Patterson and J. D. Barker

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Horror, Quick Review, Thriller1 Comment

Publisher: Century (Trade Paperback – 2 July 2024)

Series: Standalone

Length: 454 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Amazon

One of the weirder and more compelling thrillers of 2024 so far has to be the unique Confessions of the Dead by the superstar team of James Patterson and J. D. Barker.

2024 has been an excellent year for both Patterson and Barker, as both authors have produced some excellent books.  Barker wrote the engrossing and highly adult thriller, Behind a Closed Door, while Patterson has continued to release a raft of compelling thrillers cowritten with talented authors, including The No. 1 Lawyer with Nancy Allen and The Murder Inn with Candice Fox.  As such it is unsurprising that the two would come together again this year with another collaboration, this time with the intriguing novel, Confessions of the Dead.  Their last collaboration, Death of the Black Widow, was one of my favourite books of 2022, so I was very excited to read Confessions of the Dead, especially as it featured a particularly interesting plot.

Plot Synopsis:

The smallest towns hide the darkest secrets . . . Drawing elements from the horror genre, this eerie standalone suspense thriller is perfect for fans of Stephen King.

The dead tell no tales . . .

Hollows Bend is a picture-perfect New England town. The crime rate – zero – is a point of pride for Sheriff Ellie Pritchett.

The day the stranger shows up is when the trouble starts.

The sheriff and her deputy investigate the mysterious teenage girl. None of the locals can place her. She can’t – or won’t – answer any questions. She won’t even tell them her name.

While the girl is in protective custody, the officers are called to multiple crime scenes leading them closer and closer to a lake outside of town that doesn’t appear on any map . . .


Confessions of the Dead proved to be an intense and captivating horror/thriller hybrid as Patterson and Barker make the full use of their inventive narrative to unleash death, destruction and horror onto a seemingly innocent small town.  Starting off with a rain of suicidal birds hitting main street, and only getting darker and weirder from there, Confessions of the Dead follows several intriguing characters as they witness their fellow townspeople descend into madness and begin to enact dark and violent acts against each other, all while a mysterious teenage girl silently witnesses their hatred and crimes.  Things get even weirder, when it becomes clear that their town has become fully isolated from the outside world, with shadowy soldiers holding watch from the outskirts of town.  The various storylines soon reveal the dark secrets of Hollows Bend and the young girl seemingly causing the chaos, and you will not be prepared for the full truth that is revealed, and the terrifying implications.

This proved to be a rather interesting and horror-laden story that takes the readers in some surprising directions.  The narrative within Confessions of the Dead is spooky, deeply personal, and occasionally outrageous, as dark deeds slowly begin to sweep the town, turning the innocent townspeople against each other.  Patterson and Barker do a really good job of building up the mystery in the first half of the book.  There are so many intriguing secrets and mysteries lurking in this first part of the book, which are well matched by scenes of horror and human violence.  The fast-paced chapter changes that are such a distinctive part of Patterson’s writing style work wonders in conveying the unusual situation, and I loved how well the plot switched between multiple unique characters, all of whom have some dark secret they are hiding, even if they don’t know what it is.  The authors also add in some intriguing wrinkles to the plot through the use of multiple well-placed interludes that show a point in the future where one of the book’s protagonists is being interviewed by a member of the mysterious organisation keeping the town.  These inclusions really helped to build up tension as they hinted at events to come, while the elaborate setup surrounding the interviews, gave some idea of how serious the situation really was.

Everything leads up to a very intense second half of the book, as Confessions of the Dead’s story gets darker and darker.  Indeed, the authors build together a real horror/thriller vibe for Confessions of the Dead, which I honestly enjoyed, and it was great to see a more unusual and inventive thriller come out of the Patterson production machine.  There is an interesting combination of storylines in the second half of the book, from vigilante townspeople, monstrous killers, and even a Stranger Things/Goonies inspired sideline following a group of the town’s younger residents as they try to investigate the chaos engulfing the lives of their parents.  The authors set up a big and intriguing conclusion to the story, that provides a particularly unique ending that will stick in the reader’s mind.  I did think that Patterson and Barker did perhaps make the ending a little too complicated and meta for its own good, and that certain aspects of the crazy conclusions impacted my overall enjoyment of the book.  Still, this was for the most part a great story, and I had fun getting through it.

Confessions of the Dead was a particularly fascinating and memorable 2024 thriller that I was glad I checked out.  Written by the brilliant team of James Patterson and J. D. Barker, Confessions of the Dead had a wonderfully dark and brutal plot behind it, that allowed for quite the outrageous read.  Grim, intense, and featuring some interesting concepts, Confessions of the Dead proved very hard to put down and it will be interesting to see where these two authors go the future.

Amazon

Warhammer 40,000: Daemonbreaker by Jude Reid

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer3 Comments

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 24 August 2024)

Series: Warhammer 40,000

Length: 7 hours and 27 minutes

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Amazon

Gird yourself in faith, fury and fire, as fantastic author Jude Reid presents her latest Warhammer 40,000 novel, Daemonbreaker, which follows a complex figure as she blazes forth into the darkness of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

After having a wonderful time with Warhammer 40,000 novels like Deathworlder by Victoria Hayward, Lord of Excess by Rich McCormick, Siege of Vraks by Steven Lyons and Oaths of Damnation by Robbie MacNiven, there was no way I was going to stop loving this franchise this year, so I eagerly dove into the cool new audiobook, Daemonbreaker by Jude Reid.  Reid, who really impressed me last year with Creed: Ashes of Cadia (one of my favourite debuts of 2023), presents an intriguing and dark novel that follows members of the Adepta Sororitas, the Warhammer 40,000’s resident nuns-with-guns.

On the battlefields of faith and fury, few warriors in the Imperium of Man can match the battle prowess of Celestian Sacresant Aveline of the Order of the Sacred Rose.  A deadly sister of the Adepta Sororitas, devoted to killing the mutants, witches, heretics and daemons that oppose the Emperor, Aveline is always eager for greater combat, and soon finds the ultimate opportunity she has been waiting for, defending the fortress world of Cadia from the ravening forces of Chaos as they embark on their 13th Black Crusade.

However, before Aveline can join her sisters in the massive battle for Cadia, she has been assigned final sacred duty.  Sent to Orrison VIII, a minor shrine world in the Cadia Gate system, Aveline is tasked with securing the desert world for the Emperor and scouring the forces of Chaos from its surface.

Desperate to find glory on Cadia, Aveline chafes at the slow speed of the mission on Orrison VIII, especially as their primary target, a deranged Chaos sorcerer, is content with playing a slow game of cat-and-mouse with her.  However, when Aveline finally gets her chance to face the enemy, she finds herself confronting a dark foe who knows her name and has a sinister scheme to destroy her and her sisters through her own arrogance.  If Aveline is unable to stop the dark Chaos forces before her, a deadly foe will be unleashed upon Holy Terra that could destroy the heart of humanity as it faces its darkest moment.

Daemonbreaker was a fantastic and compelling Warhammer 40,000 novel that expertly features an iconic faction and looks at the faith and emotions lying beneath their militant surface.  Jude Reid continues to impress with this cool novel and I had an excellent time getting through the intense and exciting story, which seeks to bring to life the figure of Celestian Sacresant Aveline who recently got her own model in the game.

I must admit, before diving too far into this review, that I sometimes found it a little hard to connect with Daemonbreaker at times, primarily because I’ve never been a massive fan of the Adepta Sororitas as a faction.  They’re honestly a little too one-note for me at times, and I never been especially drawn to their fiction as a result.  However, I felt that Reid was able to lift her narrative above some of the inherent limitations of this faction throughout the course of the book.  It helped that Daemonbreaker was a relatively shorter Warhammer 40,000 novel, so Reid sped up the plot, which in turn kept the reader from getting bogged down.  The resulting story is exciting and intriguing, as author quickly sets up the primary plot of the hunt for Chaos on Orrison VIII, while some initial compelling action set pieces help grab the reader’s attention.

The main narrative moves at a quick pace, with the protagonist leading her force into several encounters out in the desert while battling her own emotional turmoil and disappointment.  However, everything in the story changes around the halfway point of Daemonbreaker, when the author decides to throw the entire status-quo of the book on its head.  Thanks to a combination of the protagonist’s mistake and a major Warhammer 40,000 universe event, everything gets substantially more desperate for the protagonists, and Reid goes a little nuclear stacking the odds against them.  While there are a few gaps in the storytelling, the second half of Daemonbreaker is extremely fun and exciting, as the protagonists face impossible odds and encounter the very worst the universe has to offer.  There is a ton of tragedy and some horrifying moments as the reader races towards the end of the book, and it proves harder and harder to put it down as you near the conclusion.  Reid loads up some big final battles that showcase just how grim things can get in this universe, before the expected miracle brings things to a close.  Readers come away from Daemonbreaker feeling pretty satisfied with how things come to an end, although I did feel that part of the plot was a bit thin in places.

Reid has a great handle on writing Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and this is on display again in Daemonbreaker.  There is a notable cutdown in the exposition and Reid brings the reader right into the action and carnage which made it an easier book to get through, especially considering the faction focus.  The various action sequences come across as gritty and powerful, and you can feel the raw emotions of the protagonists as they encounter their dark opponents and the dreadful things they need to overcome.  Reid ensured that this was a concise and well-contained narrative through her use of two point-of-view characters, and I appreciated the excellent alternating perspectives.  Both protagonists were very well written, with the main story around Celestian Sacresant Aveline being the most prominent.  A deadly, if arrogant, sister of the Emperor, Aveline finds her devotion challenged by her own selfish desires and issues, which leads to dark things in the middle of the book.  While I didn’t always connect with Aveline as a character, I felt that Reid wrote a rather good redemption arc around her, and she becomes a lot more likeable and relatable in the second half of the book, especially as she comes to recognise her hubris and flaws.  Recognising these things allows her to fully appreciate her fellow sisters and leads her into the right place for the final arc of the plot to unfold.

Aveline is well balanced by the second perspective character, Novitate Gwineth, a young, keen and determined figure, whose eagerness to become a member of the Adepta Sororitas is drawn from her impending doom.  Reid writes an interesting and unique Warhammer storyline around Gwineth having haemophilia, which ensures that her days on the battlefield and in life are limited.  Wishing to die as a full sister, Gwineth’s keenness becomes a key part of the plot, and I loved seeing her grow into the role she wishes, especially as her innocence and determination are a driver for the rest of the cast.  The rest of the characters within Daemonbreaker are also very fun, if sparingly used.  I do perhaps wish that the author had added in additional perspective, preferably from a villain’s point of view, as I feel that would have enhanced the narrative to a degree, especially to provide some missing plot answers or explain the motivation and plans of the antagonists.  However, for the most part, this was a very well-written story with some intriguing protagonists, and one that I had an excellent time getting through.

The author has really gotten the hang of showcasing the grim and intriguing Warhammer 40,000 universe, and I loved some of the directions and figures that she featured within Daemonbreaker.  I especially felt that Reid does an excellent job examining Adepta Sororitas faction, the Sisters of Battle, within the book.  The various different units and figures of the faction are dropped into the plot fairly seamlessly, and even someone unfamiliar with the Adepta Sororitas unit types can easily appreciate their role in the plot.  I must also once again emphasise that Reid was able to overcome my disinterest in the classic Adepta Sororitas depictions with her clever narrative and compelling writing.  While this was a great Warhammer 40,000 novel, I feel that Daemonbreaker is perhaps a book best left to established Warhammer fans, as Reid does feature some heavy lore elements, and Adepta Sororitas players will probably get the most out of it.  Still, a new reader can easily come along and have a lot of fun with Daemonbreaker, as Reid’s story gets quite intense, personal and brutal.  You may have to ignore the fact that Daemonbreaker mainly written to promote a new model released in the tabletop game, but if you can get past that, this is a book well worth checking out.

Naturally, I ended up grabbing Daemonbreaker on audiobook, as this format is the absolute best way to enjoy a Warhammer book.  I really cannot emphasise how much more epic a Warhammer 40,000 tale comes across when it is read out to you, and I always have so much more fun listening to it.  This is particularly true when it comes to all the epic action, and I felt that the carnage in Daemonbreaker was very strongly enhanced by the audiobook format, with listeners also able to appreciate the compelling characters and intriguing lore while it’s being read out to you.  With a runtime of around seven and a half hours, this is a relatively short audiobook, and one that listeners can really power through, especially when they get caught up in the action and compelling character arcs.

One of the big highlights of this audiobook for me was the fact it was narrated by the appropriately named Faith Alabi, who really dives into the complex Adeptus Sororitas characters with her voice.  Each of the key protagonists is given their own unique voice, and I liked how well Alabi expressed their holy rage, and personal issues.  Alabi’s excellent voice work is cleverly supported by some fun additional audio enhancements, which I thought was a fun way to express some unique elements of the Warhammer 40,000 canon.  For example, the cybernetic figures, such as members of the Adeptus Mechanicus, have a noticeable robotic voice modulation that really tries to capture their machine nature, while communication occurring over vox-casters (radios), are filled with static and sound effects to emulate how the voices would sound in real life.  In addition, certain audio effects give dark and otherworldly voices to the antagonists, such as a particularly booming tone that makes the dialogue of a Chaos sorcerer antagonist that more impactful, or freaky vocal effects that make a major daemon seem even more powerful.  These audio effects work extremely well alongside Alabi’s narration, and I really appreciate the effort the producers made to drag listeners further into the story.  As such, those who decide to check out Daemonbreaker on audiobook are in for a very fun treat and this is such an awesome way to enjoy this fantastic addition to the Warhammer 40,000 canon.

Daemonbreaker was another amazing Warhammer 40,000 outing from Jude Reid, and one I was very glad I checked out.  The author effectively brings the main character to life in this book while also showcasing a compelling and intense Warhammer narrative of sacrifice, tragedy and holy war.  As such, Daemonbreaker is an excellent read for all fans of Warhammer 40,000 fiction, and I cannot wait to see what Reid takes on in the future.

Amazon