Tag: Mercenary

The Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy19 Comments

The Malevolent Seven Cover

Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books (Trade Paperback – 9 May 2023)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 373 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Rising fantasy star Sebastien de Castell returns with a bold and highly entertaining new fantasy novel, The Malevolent Seven, that takes several dangerous and dastardly characters on a magical journey of death, deceit and despair which is so much fun to behold.

Magic is power and only the strong can hope to wield it, especially if they can make a profit out of it.  Cade Ombra is a powerful wonderist, a magic user who makes his living as a war mage, selling his services to highest bidder to fight in their wars and kill their enemies, even if his employers are monsters.  Cade has long struggled with the ethics of his job, and when his latest employment ends badly, with Cade framed for murder resulting in a relentless band of holy enforcers hunting him, he knows he needs to find a way out.

Luckily, a lucrative new job is looking for wonderists, and the payment is something he’s always desired, an artefact capable of changing everything about his life.  However, to get paid he needs to do one last very bad thing: kill seven heroic mages attempting to take down a corrupt noble and survive everything that wants to kill him along the way.  Determined to win no matter the cost, Cade and his violent colleague Corrigan set off to claim the reward before any of their rivals can.  But to succeed, they’ll need to recruit five more mages capable of taking down their powerful enemies and who have no moral qualms about killing heroes for money.

So begins a deadly recruitment mission as Cade and Corrigan seek out five mages just as crazy as they are.  But even with a mentally unstable blood mage, a fallen angel, a moral demon knight, a charismatic rat mage and a mysterious jackal, can even this mismatched bad of rogues hope to survive against the seven most deadly magic users on this plane of existence?  However, nothing about this job is as it seems, and Cade and the Malevolent Seven find themselves caught up in a deadly game between gods, demons and monsters, with the fate of the world lying in the balance.

Wow, now this was a very, very fun and addictive novel.  Sebastien de Castell wasn’t an author I was too familiar with before this point, although I had heard good things about The Greatcoats series.  However, I am now going to have to go out of my way to read more of his stuff, especially after reading the epic and entertaining The Malevolent Seven.

The Malevolent Seven was such a great read as de Castell pulls together a dark fantasy reimagining of heroic stories like Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven.  The book starts of strong with a great introduction to the main character, Cade Ombra, the rules of magic in this realm, and the author’s very entertaining and outrageous sense of humour.  Expertly and hilariously told from the first-person perspective of Cade, whose observations about the insane events going on around him adds so much value to the story, you soon get a great sense of what to expect from this book and de Castell does not disappoint.  The story initially focuses on Cade and his friend Corrigan’s efforts in a brutal war for a mad ruler, but things go south when their employer is killed, Cade is betrayed by his fellow wonderists, and a band of ruthless religious warriors, the Glorian Justiciars, arrive determined to hunt down Cade for his use of demonic magic.  Forced to take a new job with Corrigan to save his skin and quickly get out of dodge, the two take up the mysterious contract to kill seven heroic mages in exchange for a powerful artefact, and begin a recruitment drive for five additional mages.

I love a good recruitment montage in heist or action fiction, and this one is pretty damn fun as de Castell writes in a particularly eclectic and insane group of mages for the protagonists to recruit.  Naturally nothing goes as plan, as the two are forced to take along a half-insane junior blood mage who Cade feels responsible for.  Their subsequent recruitment attempts land them in all manner of trouble as they rescue a highly chivalrous rat mage, save a mysterious fallen angel from a pleasure ship, journey to hell to recruit a demon knight, and end up in the middle of a wasteland, chased by everyone.  This recruitment period took up more of the plot than I thought it would, but it works really well to tell a great overall narrative.  Each scene introduces the reader to more of the world and it allows a compelling dynamic to grow between the various protagonists, especially as they grow to understand each other crazy tendencies.  De Castell also builds up several intriguing long-running storylines of manipulation and betrayal as it becomes clear that someone is influencing their mission and has set gods and demons against them.  This middle section of the book is a lot of fun, and I loved how de Castell keeps up the same blend of humour, intriguing character development, and insane over-the-top moments, that really draws you in at the start of the novel.

Everything perfectly leads up to the final third of the book, when the protagonists arrive at their destination.  Of course, as can be expected by the theme of this story so far, nothing is what they thought it would be, and instead they find themselves facing off against a mysterious foe with very different motivations to what they expected.  I loved how de Castell turned the plot a little on its head at this point, as the characters find themselves in the unexpected position of being the good guys.  This leads to some amazing scenes in the final third, loaded with magic, chaotic confrontations and more, all of which is a ton of fun to see.  There is some great character growth as several storylines come full circle, as well as a ton of twists and turns.  I loved some of the epic reveals that came across, and while I saw a few coming, de Castell managed to surprise me in places, which I really enjoyed.  The final twists about why the characters were on the job and who really wins were pretty damn epic and it sets the story up nicely for a sequel, which I am definitely going to grab a copy of.  I loved how de Castell really enhanced the drama in this final third of the book, especially as several character relationships or conflicts come to the boil in some explosive and captivating ways.  This combines really well with the continued craziness of the story and the inherent humour of the plot, and you really get drawn into all the fantastic elements of this book.  The Malevolent Seven ended up being an incredible read, and I managed to power through this entire story in a couple of days and had a ton of fun doing so.

I loved the dark and despairing world that served as the cool new setting for The Malevolent Seven and de Castell has a ton of fun showcasing this new fantasy landscape throughout the book.  Loaded with petty tyrants, warring nobles, and wandering wonderists who dish out death to the highest bidder, this land is the perfect backdrop for the crazy and self-serving narrative, and I loved seeing de Castell’s great characters traverse it causing trouble.  While there are some outstanding locations, including a magically blasted wasteland and several deadly battlegrounds, the highlight of this setting is the complex magical system that the author came up with.  This magical system is primarily predicated on wonderists breaching dimensional barriers and utilising magic that they have an infinity for.  This results in several unique rules and abilities that de Castell did an outstanding job of effectively introducing, and I loved how weird some of the abilities were, especially those that played into the novel’s humour.  Some of the more interesting realms require the magical users to interact with the associated denizens, including this world’s equivalent of angels and demons, all of whom have a stake in the mortal realms.  Several of the best scenes in the book require the protagonist to make dark and forbidden deals with his demonic contact, and the manipulation of the various mystical entities from both heaven and hell becomes a key part of the book.  The author makes sure to utilise all these fantastic and lethal abilities to their full extent throughout The Malevolent Seven and the epic, ultra-destructive battles that emerged, as well as the clever combination of talents, resulted in some amazingly, electrifying sequences.  It will be interesting to see what crazy abilities de Castell brings to the table for the sequel, but it’s going to be good.

The final thing I want to highlight about The Malevolent Seven are the excellent and compelling damaged characters featured throughout the plot.  De Castell really went out of his way to make his main seven protagonists as random, broken and insane as possible, and this really works in the context of this brilliant story.  The main protagonist is point-of-view character Cade Ombra, a wonderist with a secret past whose current magical ability comes from deals with a literal demon (nice guy actually).  Because of this and many other mistakes in his life, Cade is pretty alone and damaged when the story starts, and he is constantly trying to balance his survival instincts and desire for power, with his conscience, something that keeps getting him in trouble.  De Castell builds up Cade extremely well throughout The Malevolent Seven and I liked his constant growth as he tries to do the right thing, even though it usually makes life even harder for him.  The author sets Cade up as a reluctant leader and hero, and it was intriguing to see the dynamics that form between him and the rest of the team fate brings together around him.  The rest of the titular Malevolent Seven are all pretty entertaining and uniquely crazy in their own way, and the range of diverse and entertaining personalities makes for a great overall dynamic to the story. My favourite character in the group was the excessively violent Corrigan Blight, whose thunder magic matches his outrageous personality.  Corrigan served as the straight speaking, highly reactive and trigger-happy organiser of the group, who plays off the more reserved Cade perfectly, especially as they form a unique and fragile friendship.  Other highlights include the highly charismatic and surprisingly noble Aradeus, whose rat magic proves to be highly effective if a little weird, and the novice blood mage Galass, whose spunky personality is only matched by her deadly abilities that are slowly driving her insane.  I loved this impressive and very entertaining cast and I cannot wait to see what happens to them next.

I think it is very clear that I loved The Malevolent Seven as Sebastien de Castell’s outrageous and inventive dark fantasy tale was a real joy to behold.  The great blend of fantastic humour, twisty storytelling, brutal magic and over-the-top characters, works exceedingly well and I loved the witty and extremely fun story that emerged.  The Malevolent Seven is a great read and if you are in the mood for a cool and highly compelling fantasy adventure than this is the book for you.

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The Voyage of the Forgotten by Nick Martell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books8 Comments

The Voyage of the Forgotten Cover

Publisher: Gollancz (Audiobook – 3 November 2022)

Series: The Legacy of the Mercenary King – Book Three

Length: 19 hour and 47 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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One of the very last books I read in 2022 might be one of the very best: the latest epic novel from Nick Martell, The Voyage of the Forgotten, which showcases just how much of an impressive, rising talent this outstanding author truly is.

Since 2020, one of my absolute favourite new fantasy authors has been the very, very talented Nick Martell, who burst into the scene in a big way with his elaborate and compelling The Legacy of the Mercenary King trilogy.  This series started with The Kingdom of Liars, an exceptional book that introduced Martell’s intriguing fantasy world and distinctive protagonist Michael Kingman.  The scion of a formerly great family whose patriarch was executed for a murder he didn’t commit, Michael spent most of The Kingdom of Liars trying to prove his father’s innocence while also finding himself dragged into various conspiracies infecting his home city of Hollow.  I had an amazing time reading The Kingdom of Liars, and it ended up being one of my favourite books, audiobooks and debuts of 2020.  Martell expertly followed his first novel up a year later with the equally incredible The Two-Faced Queen, which continued many of the fantastic story threads from the first book.  However, the stakes were raised even further with the protagonist forced to deal with immortals, dragons, assassins, serial killers and more, all while trying to stop the woman he loves from killing him.  This was another exceptional read, and The Two-Faced Queen was easily one of the best books and audiobooks of 2021.  Naturally, there was no way that I would not read the third and final book in the series as soon as I could.  This third book, The Voyage of the Forgotten, was one of my most anticipated reads of 2022, and I eagerly dove into it just before the year came to a close.

After proving his father’s innocence and restoring his family’s place in Hollow society, Michael Kingman should be happy.  However, the closer he comes to victory, the more tragedy and defeat he suffers.  Not only is the love of his life, Serena, the queen of Hollow, engaged to a merchant prince with his own elaborate agenda, but dangerous conspiracies centred on Michael seem to emerge from around every corner.  His sister is enslaved to an immortal Wolven King who seeks war with his soon to be freed brothers, while his mercenary mentor, Dark, is becoming one of the most dangerous creatures in existence, using his stolen dragon magic to wreak havoc and destruction in the name of love.  However, his true enemy remains Angelo Shade, Dark’s father, who seeks to bring back his dead wife and will burn the world, and everything Michael loves, to achieve it.

Thrust once again into this deadly battle of forces outside his league or ability to comprehend, Michael only has his wits, his barely trained magic ability, and a few dedicated friends to fight against the immortal schemers who have spent years bringing their elaborate plans to fruition.  However, Michael is well used to being outclassed and underestimated by everyone he goes up against, and he resolves once again to make everyone pay to keep those he loves safe from harm.

Gathering his allies, Michael embarks on a foolish quest to fully understand all the world’s secrets that have long been hidden from him and ensure that he has the weapons to survive.  But his course of action will put him at odds with the deadly mercenaries of Regal Company, all three of the ancient Wolven Kings, and even his own mercenary company.  Defeating all of them seems impossible, but that has never stopped him from trying before.  Can even the legendary stubborn Michael Kingman succeed and achieve his goals of becoming a Mercenary King when fate itself seems set against him?  And even if he succeeds, is he willing to pay the terrible price that victory demands?

Wow oh wow, what an epic book.  Nick Martell continues to deeply impress me with his captivating story writing ability as he brings this trilogy to a powerful and momentous end that I was instantly addicted to.  The Voyage of the Forgotten was a truly exceptional read, loaded with amazing characters, elaborate fantasy lore and an intense story that refused to drop my attention.  I can find no higher praise for this book than the fact that I named it one of my favourite books of 2022 well before I had even finished it; the first half was that damn good.

Martell has come up with a pretty epic narrative for The Voyage of the Forgotten, and it is one that I will not forget in a hurry.  However, the first thing that I need to say about the story is: if you haven’t read the first two The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings novels, go back and start at the beginning.  Martell has loaded the entire series with a ton of intricate and interesting lore, and he starts rapid firing back to the events of the last two books extremely early on in the story.  While there is a useful Dramatis Personae, as well as a fun summary of previous events from one of the side characters, which helped to refresh my memory, if you haven’t read the previous books you will get lost very quickly when trying to read The Voyage of the Forgotten.  The narrator is constantly making references to previous events, revelations, or characters who only appeared in the prior books, and it can get a little confusing if you don’t know what he is talking about.  As such, I would strongly recommend reading (or re-reading) The Kingdom of Liars and The Two-Faced Queen in advance, which is a very small chore considering how amazing they are.

Now, if you’re up to speed on the prior books, you are in for a real treat when it comes to The Voyage of the Forgotten’s story.  Told mainly from the perspective of protagonist and calamity-magnet Michael Kingman, Martell weaves together an intriguing, action-packed and character-driven conclusion to the elaborate story he set up in the first two books, which also leaves a lot of room for the larger series to grow in the future.  The author once again primarily utilises a chronicle style from Michael’s perspective, which really helps to tell this unique story, especially as it forces Michael’s chaotic and hilarious personality into the story and made every scene seem that little more entertaining and personal.

The narrative itself starts quickly and effectively, with a series of fun battles, big confrontations, and a horde of vengeful dragons, all of which ensures that the reader is quickly reintroduced to the chaotic main character and the multiple tangled webs and conspiracies that he has found himself involved in.  The story quickly advances to the main issue of this book as Serena Hollow loses her memory, and Michael is forced into an epic quest to find a cure.  This of course leads Michael to fight against the entire world, as everyone is opposed to his quest, and this ends up resulting in multiple intriguing or over-the-top encounters.  At the same time, Michael is constantly trying to unravel the mysteries of the world and his many enemies.  There are some epic scenes and sequences in this first half of the book that I really fell in love with, and Martell has some fantastic writing chops behind him that makes his outrageous concepts really work and come to life.  For example, one of the best sequences in the first half of the book sees Michael trapped in his own mind, forced to experience multiple loops of a historical battle from an ancient time.  The constant death and fighting that occurs over innumerable rotations slowly drives the protagonist mad, which Martell captures perfectly in exquisite detail.  Partnered with this intriguing sequence are several scenes showing an external view of Michael’s body, which has been taken over by a malevolent entity.  This ended up being one of the best moments of the entire book, especially as it has a very fun ending.

In addition to the action, Martell continues to unwind or add to the overlying layers of conspiracies, plots and personal or historical secrets that have always been such a fun part of this series.  Several long-running story threads are finally resolved in the first half of the book, and it is so much fun to see Michael finally get quite a few intriguing answers.  Martell really does not hold back with the revelations in The Voyage of the Forgotten, and the entirety of the book is loaded with characters unburdening their secrets (at least some of them) or discussing the unique history of the wider world.  I absolutely loved every sequence where revelations about this universe and its fun inhabitants came to the surface, and it was fascinating to see how they fit into the wonderful tapestry that Martell has woven throughout this trilogy.  This universe building is further enhanced by a series of great interludes with alternate narrators, which show events outside of Michael’s knowledge and experiences.  Not only do these help to showcase some of the fun supporting characters from the first two books but it also deepens the narrative and shows what schemes his friends, and more importantly his enemies, are up to, which provides some fun foreshadowing.

Everything really comes to a head in the second half of the book as Michael and his companions are thrust towards their destinies.  After several major setbacks and further revelations that show off the sheer scope and intricacies of the story, you and the protagonist are dragged back on the road towards the final epic confrontation.  The author sets all of this off perfectly by finally answering some big secrets that have been bedevilling the protagonist since the beginning, and there is a particularly cool twist that makes you rethink every major event of the first two books.  I really loved how Martell briefly changed the narration around when this big twist is revealed and had Michael address the audience directly to reveal why he never mentioned certain details in his previous storytelling.  This helped to really sell the effectiveness of this major reveal, as well as showcase a previously unseen alternate layer to the character’s personality, and I personally thought that this was bit of pure genius from Martell.  All this leads up to the big final confrontation as Michael finally comes face to face with Angelo Shade, the main architect of his family’s pain, as well as some other surprising foes.  This big conclusion is everything you would want it to be, with some epic moments, utter tragedy and multiple character arcs coming full circle in all the right ways.  While parts of this conclusion do get a bit overly complicated and metaphysical, I felt that it came together pretty damn perfectly in ways that really fit the universe and the controversial main character to a T.  Readers will come away from this conclusion both heartbroken and hopeful, and I felt that it was an exceptional and very on-brand ending to one of the more distinctive fantasy trilogies of the last few years.

I honestly think that Martell wrapped this book up extremely well, and my only major disappointment is that there was not more crammed in, as I would have gladly listened to several more hours of it.  The exceptional narrative, backed up with extensive lore, amazing character development and the very distinctive writing style helped to make this final book really pop, and I was honestly impressed every step of the way.  I was also very happy with how Martell handled the sheer range of extensive storylines that he had set up in the previous books.  My main concern before reading the final book was that Martell would be unable to wrap up every storyline or plot point he had set up.  Indeed, there are still quite a lot of potential storylines and questions that were unresolved by the end of the book, but Martell is clearly setting up a sequel trilogy of some design in the same universe.  Some of the best ongoing storylines have been left to continue in the future, and I for one am very excited for that as I hope to spend many more years getting lost in Martell’s world.  I felt that the author was cleverly selective when it came to which storylines ended in The Voyage of the Forgotten, as he chose to close off the ones connected with protagonist Michael Kingman, while leaving others open.  This ensures that any future stories will probably focus on some of the other characters that Martell has set up in this trilogy, and indeed it is pretty clear who that will be.  I personally look forward to seeing a new take on this universe in the future, and it will be very interesting to see how the narrative continues with a major change in perspective.

One of the things that has always impressed me about The Legacy of the Mercenary King trilogy is the elaborate and well-thought-out fantasy world that the story has been set in.  Its dark and grim nature, coupled with the intricate history, compelling magic system, and diverse people, has always added so much to the story, and this remains true in The Voyage of the Forgotten.  Because he did not shut off this universe completely, Martell was given free rein to continue to expand on his elaborate universe, and boy did he.  The reader is treated to a ton of extra information and history about this amazing world, including some of the strongest glimpses about the mysterious Wolven Kings, the world’s various immortals and other unique creatures, and their long-running battles throughout history.  There are several glimpses of the past thanks to magic, and you really learn a lot about what previously befall many of the immortal characters and how this affects their current motivations.  In addition, several new cities, islands, nations, groups and other great elements are featured heavily in the plot as Michael and his companions explore the wider world and engage on some massive sea voyages.  Martell does a great job of incorporating these new elements or character history into his wider narrative, with the protagonists either spending substantial time exploring this information, or else discussing it with the clear intention that it might become a major detail in the future.  I really enjoyed how many of the previous novel’s mysteries were answered thanks to world expansion featured in this novel, and it is very clear that Martell has a lot more planned for this fantasy world in the future.

Of course, I also need to mention the cool magical system that Martell features throughout The Voyage of the Forgotten, especially as it has some major and extremely clever implications on the plot.  Like the first two books, the main form of magic featured is Fabrication, which forces the user to sacrifice their memories to perform magic.  It is actually quite horrifying to see the consequences of Fabrication misuse, as some of the users forget friends, facts or family, and this is often enhanced by the user’s sacrifice or by the fact that they suddenly lose all concept of someone they’d grown close to.  However, this is nothing to becoming a Forgotten, someone who has completely lost their memories or sense of self, and this is strong explored in this book.  I deeply appreciate the amazing way that Martell utilises this memory loss throughout The Voyage of the Forgotten, especially when it relates to the protagonist, as he often does not remember what he is forgetting, and it is always very heartbreaking when you notice that he, or one of the supporting characters, has forgotten something or someone important.  This darker side of magic is well counterbalanced by the various impressive usages that occur throughout The Voyage of the Forgotten, and there are some rather elaborate battles that take place as a result.  Martell also does a very deep dive into the origins of magic in this novel, and you find out some interesting facts about Fabrication, as well as other magical disciplines that exist in this universe, many of which have been cleverly foreshadowed throughout the trilogy.  I really enjoyed seeing some of the over-the-top magic that was utilised by other characters throughout the various battles, and there are some very interesting moments as a result.  It will be very interesting to see what happens to the magic use in the future, especially considering the major changes to Fabrication theory that occurred at the end of The Voyage of the Forgotten, and I look forward to seeing how Martell continues that intriguing plot thread.

While I can go on about the story, setting, magic and writing, for me the true strength of The Legacy of the Mercenary King books has always been the outstanding and extremely complex characters.  This remains the case in The Voyage of the Forgotten as Martell brings many of his best characters back for a particularly emotional adventure.  There are so many major and dramatic character moments throughout this book as Martell used the end of the trilogy to wrap up multiple character storylines and events.  I really appreciated some of the fantastic development and big character moments that occurred throughout this final book in the trilogy, and fans of the first two novels are going to be very moved by what happens to their favourite characters.

The primary focus of the plot is naturally Michael Kingman.  Martell has done some real wonders around Michael Kingman in the last two books, and he has ended up being one of the most complex characters you are ever likely to encounter.  A highly damaged individual who has had his mind warped by magic, has seen his family destroyed, has been forced to live up to an impossible legacy, and has been kept apart from the love of his life, Michael has had a lot of growing to do in the last two books, and Martell has really laid on the character development.  As such, the Michael Kingman in The Voyage of the Forgotten is wiser and more mature than we have previously seen, although he still has some ways to go.  However, Martell ensures that this growth continues in this final book, as he keeps trying to become a better person, especially when faced with the certainty of his death and the loss of people he loves.  There are some major moments when Michael is forced to face damaging revelations or hard truths and each of them change him in some way, often during a pivotal and well-written scene.  Martell also cleverly includes some great secrets about his past and his life that I thought were pretty damn epic, especially as it answers some major questions about his personal history and why he is stuck in the middle of events.

Despite all this, Michael is still the same cocky bastard that he was at the start of the trilogy and his overconfidence, determination and sheer ability to enrage anyone he comes into contact with is so damn entertaining.  Seeing normally calm and collected characters trying to deal with the Michael problem always result in some of the funniest scenes, and I loved the often hilarious edge that the character brings to much of the story due to his amusing narration.  As such, you find it very hard to dislike Michael, no matter how hard you try, and his unique and heartbreaking tale is one that will appeal to many people.  Martell wraps up much of Michael’s great and intense story in this final book and it was very moving to see some of the dark sacrifices the character is forced to make to save his family and fix some of his biggest mistakes.  I guarantee you will not be prepared for everything that Michael goes through in The Voyage of the Forgotten, but you won’t be able to turn away as Martell does some dark, yet wonderful things, to his best creation.

In addition, quite a lot of the book focuses on major secondary character Serena Hollow, Queen and love of Michael’s life, who has had a turbulent relationship with her Kingman.  This relationship gets even more complex in The Voyage of the Forgotten, especially when Serena becomes a Forgotten without any idea of who she is or what her many responsibilities are.  You see a much more free version of the character in this book, and I found the differences between this person and the vengeful queen of the second book to be very intriguing.  The continued focus on the relationship between Michael and Serena hits extra hard as a result of this loss of memory, and it is fascinating and moving to see them attempt to rekindle what they had.  Honestly, their entire story is pretty tragic in this final book, but I was nice to see a powerful conclusion to their doomed love story and Martell features some damn fine character work when it comes to Serena.

Aside from Michael, The Voyage of the Forgotten features a rich and extensive cast of characters, many of whom are returning from the previous two books.  Standout characters include Dark, the mercenary killer who serves as Michael’s mentor and possibly most dangerous foe, as he attempts to find his own way to bring back the dead.  Dark is a brilliant character, and I love how Martell has written such an edge of menace around him, although by the events of The Voyage of the Forgotten Michael is pretty much immune to it, resulting in some very entertaining interactions.  You also have to love the sinister Angelo Shade as the main antagonist of the book.  Michael’s former foster father and the man responsible for his family’s downfall, Angelo has been an outstanding manipulative bugger the entire way through this trilogy, and I loved seeing more of his games in this final book.  Watching his elaborate plans come to fruition is pretty amazing, and Martell does a good job continuing to show his past and motivations, ensuring his obsession with bringing back his dead wife is mirrored by Michael’s attempts to save Serena.  Other great characters like Naomi, Chloe and Alexis have some fantastic moments in this book as the main supporters of Michael and Serena, and it was great to see some of their storylines.  The rest of the cast make some fantastic appearances as well, although it is interesting that several key characters from the first two novels only had minor appearances, and indeed I was a tad disappointed that some figures, such as amusing immortal nobleman, Charles Domet, were barely featured.  However, it is clear that Martell is saving them up for future entries in this larger series, and I look forward to seeing what happens to them next.  Overall, this was a great cast of characters and Martell should be congratulated on the amazing character work he did.

While I received a massive physical copy of The Voyage of the Forgotten, I chose to listen to the audiobook version of this book when it first came out, and boy was I glad that I did.  I have often said that the audiobook format is the perfect way to absorb vast amount of lore and universe elements (at least for me), and, with all the revelations and expansions that Martell featured here, that proved to be a major boon.  The story came across perfectly in this format, and you can easily visualise the powerful scenes, battles of wits, and some of the more outrageous actions of the characters, as they are read out to you.  It helps that this audiobook was once again narrated by one of my favourite audiobook narrators, Joe Jameson, who has impressed me before with the first two audiobooks in the series, and with his work on King of Assassins by R. J. Barker and the fun Warhammer 40,000 novel, Fire Made Flesh.  Jameson always does a remarkable job with his narration of Martell’s books, and his great tones and pacing help to move The Voyage of the Forgotten along at a fast clip.  However, the main advantage of Jameson as a narrator is the cool voices he brings out for the characters.  While I was not the biggest fan of a couple of his female voices, the majority of his narration was pretty much spot on and I felt that he really showcased the cool personalities and emotions of the key figures.  However, the best voice is saved for the main protagonist and narrator Michael Kingman, who Jameson perfectly encapsulates throughout the course of the audiobook.  Jameson really gets into Michael’s head with his narration and expertly portrays his personality, emotions and thought process.  This great portrayal of the central characters adds so much to overall quality of the entire audiobook, and my enjoyment of The Voyage of the Forgotten as a whole, and I loved every damn second of Jameson’s narration as a result.  This honestly was the best way I found to enjoy The Voyage of the Forgotten, and I very strongly recommend it as a result.  With a run time of just under 20 hours, it does take a little bit of effort to get through this audiobook, however, it is more than worth the effort as you will have a fantastic time.

If this extensive write-up didn’t give it away, I clearly deeply loved The Voyage of the Forgotten.  Nick Martell has wrapped up his The Legacy of the Mercenary King trilogy in an exceedingly epic way, and I deeply enjoyed how the elaborate, powerful, and character rich narrative came to an end.  This is some of Martell’s best work yet, and if you haven’t experienced this amazing fantasy author’s work yet, you are really missing out.  I look forward to seeing how Martell will continue this story in the future, and any follow-up trilogy that will jump to the top of my to-read list the moment it is announced.  In the meantime, make sure to check out this exceptional book, as well as the proceeding two novels in the trilogy, as The Voyage of the Forgotten gets one of the easiest five-star ratings I have ever given out.

The Voyage of the Forgotten Cover 2

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Throwback Thursday – Warhammer: Broken Honour by Robert Earl

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Extended Universe, Fantasy, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, Warhammer6 Comments

Warhammer - Broken Honour Cover

Publisher: Black Library (Paperback – 22 February 2011)

Series: Warhammer Fantasy

Length: 411 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Welcome back to my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.  For my latest Throwback Thursday, I look at a cool standalone entry in the Warhammer Fantasy canon with the 2011 novel, Broken Honour by Robert Earl.

Damn it has been fun getting back into Warhammer fiction over the last couple of years, especially as there have been so many amazing and epic recent additions to the franchise.  I have really been having fun with the huge variety of stories associated with these iconic tabletop games, and while I have been mostly focused on the science-fiction based Warhammer 40,000 novels, I have also been dabbling with the Warhammer Fantasy subgenre.  Set in a chaotic and war-ridden world filled with all manner of creatures from classic fantasy, the Warhammer Fantasy novels contain fun and dark adventures, such as the Gotrek and Felix novels (check out my reviews for Trollslayer, Skavenslayer, Daemonslayer, Dragonslayer and Beastslayer).  I was lucky to recently find several cool Warhammer books in a second-hand shop, and I immediately dived into a particularly fun fantasy novel, Broken Honour, written by a new-to-me author, Robert Earl, who had written various other interesting Warhammer novels.  Set before the 2015 destruction of this setting and the start of the Age of Sigma, Broken Honour was a fantastic and entertaining read with a great story to it.

Chaos has once again invaded the realms of man, this time in the Imperial state of Hochland.  The ravenous beastman hordes are emerging from their deep forest lairs to begin their annual raids of the human settlements to destroy, despoil and feast on the people within.  As the armies of Hochland gather to repel them, they find themselves outmatched and outsmarted at every turn.  A powerful and dangerously intelligent beastman lord has risen to command the herd, and his unusual tactics may spell the end for every human living in Hochland.

As the Hochland baron and his advisors attempt to withstand the new threat advancing towards them, they desperately seek out any fighting men they can find.  Sensing opportunity, mercenary Captain Eriksson, a veteran fighter for sale currently only missing a regiment to command, arrives at the capital.  Keen to take advantage of the current chaos, Eriksson buys the freedom of a large group of prisoners to form a new free company.  Promised freedom and pardons for their crimes if they fight, the prisoners form a reluctant and ill-trained regiment, the Gentleman’s Free Company of Hergig, who hope to avoid the brunt of the battle in the back.

However, Eriksson and his troops soon find themselves in the very thick of the fighting, as those above them seek to use his unit to in the very worst ways.  Forced to contend with ravenous monsters, political intrigue, and a villainous lord with everything to lose, Eriksson and the Gentleman’s Free Company of Hergig will need to come together and hone their skills if they are to survive.  Can this band of rogues, thieves and criminals regain their lost honour and find redemption on the battlefield, or will they find only death and destruction as humanities most bestial enemies come to claim them?

Broken Honour was an awesome addition to the Warhammer Fantasy canon that I had an amazing time getting through.  Earl produced an exceedingly exciting and action-packed read that is essentially The Dirty Dozen in the Warhammer Fantasy universe (it is also comparable to the Last Chancers series from Warhammer 40,000).  Obviously, with a plot like that, I knew that I was going to have a lot of fun with this book, and Earl really did not disappoint.  While the narrative is a tad by the numbers, it is a pretty cool military fantasy narrative that is worked well into the Warhammer Fantasy setting.  The entire story flows really well, with the antagonists introduced up front and the protagonist, Eriksson, and his unwilling soldiers brought in quickly after that.  From there you follow the paroled Free Company as they are dragged from one conflict to the next and forced to contend with overwhelming odds.  As such, the book is loaded with a ton of outstanding action and brutal fight sequences that are guaranteed to keep you entertained.  Earl makes excellent use of multiple character perspectives to tell a deep and wide-ranging narrative, and you soon get dragged into several different character arcs, including several surrounding the antagonists.  Not only do you get to see into the heart of the beastman camp, but there are several brilliant sequences told from the perspective of a villainous Hochland noble who is trying to kill the protagonists.  This all ends up being a pretty exciting and fantastic story, and I found myself getting really caught up in the novel, powering through it very quickly.  Everything comes together really well into a great self-contained adventure, although a couple of character arcs didn’t get the conclusions that they deserved, and some storylines are never revisited, despite Earl leaving the story open for a sequel.  Despite that, Broken Honour was an excellent, easy novel to check out, and you are guaranteed to have a great time reading it.

I really liked how well Broken Honour slotted into the established Warhammer Fantasy setting, and this was a great addition to the overall canon.  Earl focuses his narrative around two particularly intriguing factions from the game here, the villainous beastmen and the human armies of the Empire, specifically from the state of Hochland.  I loved the insight into both, especially the beastmen, and the author really brings them to life in exquisite detail.  You can really feel the monstrous power, the Chaos infused evil and the beast-like mentalities contained within these creatures, and they prove to be excellent and brutal antagonists for the entire novel.  At the same time, there are some awesome insights into the soldiers of the Empire, and I loved the various depictions of their battle tactics and the various regiments.  While Earl does dive into these various Warhammer factions throughout Broken Honour, readers don’t need to know too much about them to enjoy the series, as the author does an amazing job introducing them and explaining what they are, and any fan of fantasy or dark fantasy would have a great time with this book.  Indeed, Broken Honour would serve as an excellent introduction to the Warhammer Fantasy canon for those readers unfamiliar with its details, as the story encapsulates the constant struggles and battles that occur within it, as well as the fun and larger-than-life characters it focuses on.  As such, this is a really good and entertaining Warhammer novel that will really appeal to both established fans and potential newcomers.

I really must highlight some of the great characters featured within Broken Honour, as Earl has come up with a wonderful and compelling group of figures to set the story around.  Most of the plot naturally revolves around the members of the Gentleman’s Free Company of Hergig, who are formed to face the threat within it.  Made up of over 120 former criminals, you don’t get to know all the members, but most of the ones who are featured are extremely fun and very memorable.  The leader, Captain Eriksson, proves to be a canny veteran who can manipulate events and his superiors in his favour to field a force in the war and get a lot of money.  Despite his mercenary attitude, Eriksson proves to have a conscious and builds up a fair bit of loyalty to his men, and this character growth really helps endear him to the reader.  Most of the other named Free Company members are a rather interesting and cool.  The drummer boy, Dolf, for example, proves to be an excellent human MacGuffin in the narrative as political plots revolve around his survival.  Other members of the Free Company that stood out to me include the tired veteran Sergeant Alter, the possibly mad former warrior priest Gunter, and the wily quartermaster Porter, whose moneymaking schemes and remarkable survival ability rounds out the character dynamics extremely well.

While I had fun with these protagonists, the best characters within Broken Honour are easily the baddies, with several great antagonist figures really coming together perfectly throughout the book.  The most prominent of these is Beastlord Gulkroth, who leads the beastman armies in the book.  Empowered by dark magics which have enhanced him even further than the rest of his kind, Gulkroth proves to be an intimidating and compelling figure in the novel, especially as his grasp of strategy, tactics and patience are highly unusual amongst his race.  Gulkroth spends the bulk of the novel balancing this newfound intelligence against his bestial nature, and it proves extremely interesting to see both sides of his personality come into conflict, especially as it impacts how his army attacks.  While Gulkroth is a fascinating figure, the best antagonist is Viksberg, a cowardly noble who was the sole human survivor of the first battle in the book thanks to his spinelessness behaviour.  Despite this, he manipulates the situation to make him appear as a hero and gets promoted as a result, killing anyone who knows the truth of his actions.  This eventually forces him to contend with Eriksson’s regiment, as one of them is a witness to his crimes, and he tries to get all of them killed on multiple occasions.  Viksberg’s continued attempts to kill the protagonists through indirect means really adds to the intrigue and enjoyment of the entire novel, and it was exceedingly entertaining to watch his various plots unfold.  Earl really goes out of his way to make Viksberg as despicable as possible, and you end up really disliking the entitled bugger, especially as he gets better characters killed.  You end up rooting against Viksberg in the hope that he’ll get his just deserts, only to be disappointed when he manages to survive to fight another day, which is both frustrating and extremely fun.  These brilliant antagonists, and all the other characters, add so much to the overall plot of Broken Honour, and I really appreciated the work that Earl put into his various characters.

Overall, Broken Honour by Robert Earl was an awesome and deeply entertaining Warhammer novel that I had a delightful time with.  The straightforward story is very exciting and contains some impressive character arcs that unfold to produce a riveting tale, while also providing all the action and bloodshed I could ever want in the iconic Warhammer Fantasy setting.  While I am a little disappointed that Earl didn’t write any additional novels featuring the characters in Broken Honour, I still had an awesome time with this book and it’s a great read for both Warhammer fans and those general fantasy readers.  Highly recommended!

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The Two-Faced Queen by Nick Martell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy, Five-Star Books22 Comments

The Two-Faced Queen Cover

Publisher: Gollancz (Audiobook – 25 March 2021)

Series: The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings – Book Two

Length: 20 hours and 6 minutes

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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Following his epic 2020 debut, one of the fastest rising stars in fantasy fiction, Nick Martell, returns with the second entry in his The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings series, The Two-Faced Queen.

Last year I was lucky enough to listen to a copy of Martell’s incredible first novel, The Kingdom of Liars.  The Kingdom of Liars was a gripping and impressive fantasy read set in Hollow, a crumbling city surrounded by an army of rebels, which followed the misadventures of the infamous Michael Kingman.  Michael is the scion of the legendary Kingman family, a noble clan of heroes and leaders who have guided Hollow for generations, serving as both supporters to the royal family and a check on their power.  However, the legacy of the Kingman family has been severely tarnished in recent years as Michael’s father was executed for the murder of the heir to the throne.  With their family disenfranchised, Michael grew up as an outcast in his own city, acting out against authority.  This changed when a chance encounter allowed him to investigate who was responsible for his family’s downfall and the death of the prince of Hollow.  While he was eventually able to discover the true murderer, his investigation also resulted in the King’s suicide, which subsequently saw him tried for regicide and sentenced to death.  The end of the book saw him manage to escape his execution, while also setting up several of the storylines for future entries in the series.  I deeply enjoyed the cool story of this first entry in The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings, and The Kingdom of Liars ended up being one of my favourite novels, audiobooks and debuts of 2020.  As a result, The Two-Faced Queen was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021.

Michael Kingman is a dead man walking.  Still accused of killing the King of Hollow, Michael is now under the protection of the Orbus mercenary company, serving as an apprentice under the mysterious mercenary Dark.  However, even with Orbus’s protection, everyone in Hollow still wants to either kill him or use him for their own dark ends.  The deadliest of these is the one person Michael is sworn to protect above all others, the heir to the throne, Princess Serena.  After spending years away, a vengeful Serena has returned to claim her throne and end Michael’s life.  Wielding great power, a lethal attitude and holding the keys to Michael’s heart, nothing will stand in the way of her wrath.

To restore his family’s position, save his home and convince Serena of his innocence, Michael needs to unravel the various conspiracies that have encircled Hollow and uncover the true motivations of the various power players in the city.  However, to succeed, Michael is forced to go up against a magnitude of foes, from the Corrupt Prince, the unhinged Rebel Emperor besieging the city, enraged royal guards, conspiring nobles, a scheming immortal, an insane serial killer, dangerous assassins and his former foster father, the man responsible for all his family’s ills.

But the more Michael attempts to understand Hollow’s hidden past and the dangerous plots surrounding his city, the more it becomes apparent that his is a mere pawn in a very dangerous game.  Immortals, monsters and mercenaries are all present in Hollow, and each of them has their own nefarious designs for Michael and his family.  Can he save everyone he loves before it is too late or has the Kingman family finally breathed its last?  Michael’s rise to become a Mercenary King continues, but who will truly wield power when the dust settles?

Now that was one hell of a sequel!  Martell absolutely crushed this second entry in this outstanding and exceptional fantasy series, producing a five-star novel that is extremely compelling, intense and so damn exciting.  I was absolutely enthralled with this book the moment I started listening to it and I loved every second.  The Two-Faced Queen is easily one of the best books I have read in 2021 and I think that any other fantasy novel coming out this year is going to be extremely hard-pressed to outdo it.

Martell has come up with a pretty incredible and intense narrative for The Two-Faced Queen, one that proves to be extremely addictive and insanely good.  Starting shortly after the events of The Kingdom of Liars, this novel starts fast and hard, with Michael following up on a number of storylines and revelations from the previous novel.  There is already so much going on right from the start of the novel, as the protagonist finds himself surrounded by enemies and conspiracies, both old and new.  While several secrets were revealed at the end of the first novel, there is still so much that Michael needs to understand.  However, as he attempts to learn these additional secrets, he must also try to avoid the deadly attentions of his beloved princess, end the rebellion plaguing the city, restore his family, defy a dangerous immortal, and make up with his betrayed friends.  While this is already a substantial amount of story, Martell keeps adding to it, as Michael also soon encounters a deadly assassin with a contract on him, and a deranged and unnatural serial killer.

While this may seem like too many story elements for one novel, it actually works extremely well, and the reader quickly becomes engrossed in Michael’s various adventures throughout the city.  I loved the inclusion of the serial killer storyline, as not only does it add some fantastic mystery elements, but it also proves to be a gateway to some intriguing world building, revealing more of the dark, immortal forces manipulating events from the shadows.  This storyline also results in several epic action scenes that place the protagonist and his friends in mortal danger from some unusual foes.  I had an outstanding time getting through this complex and well-constructed narrative, especially as every single scene has an intriguing revelation, intense character development or subtle clue to the future of the series.  Several key mysteries and secrets from the first novel are answered, partially or wholly, in this novel, although many more are introduced.  This really helps to keep the reader’s attention focused on The Two-Faced Queen’s plot, and I am not exaggerating when I talk about how addictive the secret-ridden narrative proves to be.  Readers are hammered with large amounts of lore and history in places, so I would recommend reading the first novel in the series, The Kingdom of Liars, before reading this book, although binge-reading this series is hardly a chore.  Overall, The Two-Faced Queen’s narrative is epic story writing at its best, and readers will love this terrific tale.

I absolutely must highlight the awesome and well-developed characters featured within The Two-Faced Queen.  The most prominent is series protagonist Michael Kingman.  Michael is an intriguing and distinctive figure through whose eyes most of the plot unfolds.  I have to admit that Michael was not my most favourite character in the first book, mostly because of his impetuous nature and selfish behaviour at times.  However, it was revealed that the reason for some of his annoying behaviour was due to some magic affecting his memories and personality.  As a result, Michael’s behaviour is substantially changed in The Two-Faced Queen and he comes across as a more considerate figure in this book.  He still has quite a few flashes of recklessness and stubbornness, but many of the rougher edges from the first novel are worn away here.  Still, a lot of people call Michael out for his crap in this book, including his friends and family, and it was great to see him finally heed their words.  There was also some additional exploration of how Michael deals with the legacy of being a Kingman; he is forced to live up to some big expectations.  There is a rather good scene where Michael is exploring the crypt of his ancestors with some of his friends, describing why some of them are famous and others are considered failures because they never achieved anything remarkable but just lived a normal life.  Seeing this, Michael’s friends, both of whom have been some of his greatest critics, start to understand just how much pressure he is under.  I really appreciated the way in which Martell continues to develop his protagonist, and it will be very fascinating to see how Michael’s story continues in the future novels.

Aside from Michael, there is an impressive collection of interesting supporting characters, each of whom have some fascinating storylines, as well as secrets or details from their past which helps to move the story along.  They also have their own motivations and plans to shape Hollow and the rest of the world to their advantage, which results in additional plots and conspiracies that the protagonists have to overcome.  The most prominent supporting character is probably Serena, the titular Two-Faced Queen.  Serena is Michael’s childhood friend and the royal he was sworn to, meaning that he was always destined to be her protector, advisor, and conscience.  However, after the death of her brother and Michael’s family were declared traitors, their relationship effectively ended.  Now returned, Serena is determined to destroy Michael for the apparent murder of her father, even if it leads to her own ruin.  The novel starts up with Michael visiting Serena only to find that she has hand-dug a grave for him, showing her resolve for killing him.  This forces Michael to attempt to change her mind, which is no easy prospect, and results in great calamity.  Naturally, these two characters share thorny romantic feelings for each other, which complicates Michael’s plans to stay alive, as Serena is a major blind spot in his defences.  Their entire joint character arc in this novel is extremely good, and I really appreciated the author’s take on their complex relationship.

Another key character is Dark, Michael’s mercenary master, who, aside from having his own mysterious past and motivations, is the son of Michael’s nemesis, Angelo Shade.  Due to Michael and Dark working together closely, the protagonist learns several of Dark’s secrets, especially those related to his troubled childhood and his encounters with the Heartbreaker serial killer.  While you don’t learn everything about Dark’s past in this novel (Martell is the master of dolling out just enough character detail to keep you interested, while also keeping plenty back for future novels), you do find out quite a lot, and what is revealed is extremely memorable.  Dark has a real dark side to him, no pun intended, and while Michael initially believes that Dark is his ally, he is soon faced with the possibility that he might have placed all his trust in a monster.  This results in a very interesting mentor/student relationship between the two, filled with much conflict and mistrust.  I really enjoyed learning more about Dark in The Two-Faced Queen, and it will be fascinating to see how the rest of his story unfolds in the future.

Other intriguing characters in this novel include Michael’s best friend Trey, who is attempting to forge his own path and take down both the nobles and the rebels, even if this leads him into conflict with Michael.  Trey has a fantastic arc as dangerous antihero in this book, taking control of the city’s criminal element in order to protect its citizens.  While a lot of his hostility towards Michael has ended, Trey and the protagonist still have a strained relationship, although Trey does go out of his way to help his friend.  Despite their friendship, it is clear that there is a major schism between the two planned in the future, which no doubt will result in all manner of pain and regret.  The ruthless immortal Charles Domet is still a firm favourite of mine, and it was fun to see his attempts to manipulate Michael, especially as Michael is now well aware of his true nature.  There are some interesting hints to Domet’s past in this novel, and he is clearly working up to something big.  The ambitious social climber Naomi also returns, although now she is suffering from a bad drug addiction which makes her even more entertaining, especially as she decides to torment Michael through embarrassment.  I also quite liked the expanded use of the chronicler, Symon.  Symon, who is determined to record and analyse every secret of Michael and his family, has taken to stalking them by living at the Kingman family home, and it is always entertaining to see his take on the events occurring before him.  He ends up actually narrating several interludes in The Two-Faced Queen, which are laid out as parts of his in-novel chronicles as part of a very clever and amusing supplement to the main story.  Symon really endeared himself to me in this novel, especially after his insulting descriptions of Michael in his proposed history book, and I deeply appreciated his increased presence.

I honestly could go on and on about the various characters featured within this novel; indeed, I have only just scratched the surface of the support cast in the paragraphs above.  However, it is more than clear that Martell does an excellent job in introducing and developing complex characters, and I loved the detailed and intriguing depictions of them throughout the novel.  Nearly every character featured within The Two-Faced Queen gets at least one big moment, and there are plenty of revelations and compelling backstories that are really cool to uncover.  I will say that you should probably not get too attached to the characters; however, I am very much looking forward to seeing what happens to each of the survivors, especially as Martell has set up some deeply captivating and powerful character arcs around them.

In addition to the fantastic story and amazing character work, Martell has also invested a lot of time in expanding his enthralling fantasy world.  The first entry in The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings did a great job setting up the key elements of Hollow, such as the noble families, the people of the city and the various problems they faced.  This unique setting of a besieged city filled with scheming nobles and set on a world where pieces of a shattered moon fall to the ground was so cool, and The Two-Faced Queen continues to expand on these previous elements, while also adding to the history and geography of the city and its surrounding nations.  Not only do you learn of several outside nations and locations but you also get to see how the key characters of this novel, or their ancestors, have impacted them, as well as the various dangers these realms represent.  However, some of the most substantial world-building revolves around some of the unusual creatures residing in this world, including a range of dangerous and destructive immortal creatures.  In the previous novel we only encountered one immortal (that we knew of), whose plots and schemes were a major part of the book’s plot.  This second novel, in contrast, is loaded with many more immortals, each of whom has their own unique abilities and plans for the world.  Martell introduces the lore around these immortals extremely well, and their various traits and schemes are worked into the plot extremely well.  It sounds like we are going to encounter a whole raft of intriguing and monstrous immortals in the future of this series, and I am very much looking forward to seeing what happens there.  The next book also looks like it will be set in a whole new location, and I will be extremely intrigued to see how that impacts the narrative.

One particular bit of world-building that I really enjoyed was the excellent expansions of Martell’s unique magical system.  The main magic of Hollow is known as Fabrication, which allows its users certain control over certain elements or phenomena at the cost of their own memories.  This is a really cool magical system, and Martell uses it to great effect throughout his novels, ensuring that there is all manner of destruction and manipulation throughout the narrative.  The Two-Faced Queen features multiple new Fabrication types, as Martell introduces unique Fabrications throughout the story, including several that even the protagonists have never heard of.  Examples include a particularly dangerous telekinetic Fabrication, which forces everyone to their knees (perfect for its user), while I was also very impressed with the disturbing blood Fabrication that one of the supporting characters pulled out.  In addition, Martell also introduces some different forms of magic from some of the other countries in his fantasy world.  While you only get to see one or two of these new magical abilities, they are still fun to see and they stand as an intriguing counterpoint to the already established magical abilities.  It looks like Martell is setting up some sort of mystery around the origins of all these different powers and it should prove pretty interesting to see how that turns out.

Martell also does an incredible job fitting the downsides of this magical Fabrication into the plot, as several characters experience memory loss, which affects their plans, reactions and relationships.  This is most obvious in Michael; as narrator, he loses several days of his life, resulting in him being unaware of plans he puts into motion or certain secrets that he learnt in these missing days.  Because the reader does not see these missing pieces of time either, this adds an extra amount of mystery and uncertainty into the narrative, as you try to work out both what is being deliberately hidden from Michael and what he has simply forgotten.  These bigger lapses in memory are a fantastic part of The Two-Faced Queen’s narrative, and it helps to make the flow of this book unique and compelling.  However, you also have to appreciate some of the smaller examples of memory loss throughout the book, some of which are quite heartbreaking in nature as the characters forget elements of their friends and families without realising it.  There is one extremely poignant scene in which Michael confesses to forgetting something very important to him, with the reader only then realises that a certain normal-sounding character description was evidence of memory loss all along.  Some of these subtle details are really impressive, and I deeply enjoyed seeing the hurtful side effects of this magical system.

To enjoy this awesome book, I ended up grabbing its audiobook format, mainly because I had such a great time listening to the first novel.  There were actually two audiobook versions of The Two-Faced Queen, and I ended up grabbing the Joe Jameson narrated version.  Jameson is a fantastic audiobook narrator who has previously lent his voice to amazing fantasy novels like King of Assassins by RJ Barker.  I loved his narration for The Kingdom of Liars last year and I was really keen to continue to listen to him in this sequel.  Jameson has a great voice for this complex fantasy read, and you swiftly become enthralled by the way he narrates the events occurring, as well as the fantastic voices he comes up with for his characters.  All the characters are given a unique voice in a variety of different accents, and each of them really helps to capture the character’s emotions and personality perfectly, whether it is the constant confusion and hurt in Michael, the raging anger of Serena, the cold menace of Dark or the calculating and manipulative voice of Charles Domet.  All this voice work is perfect and spot on and I really appreciated the effort that Martell put into this book.  Despite its runtime of 20 hours, I got through this audiobook in no time at all and I honestly wished it was a lot longer by the end.  This was another outstanding audiobook, and this format comes highly recommended to anyone interested in this fantastic novel.

With this epic and captivating second novel, Nick Martell has cemented his position as one of the best new fantasy authors out there.  The Two-Faced Queen was absolutely incredible, and I loved the complex and addictive story, set in a unique fantasy world.  There are just so many cool elements to this awesome novel and it really does not take long for the reader to become hooked on every single mystery, secret and hidden past that Martell features within this great read.  I cannot wait to see what happens next in this series, but it is already perfectly clear that The Legacy of the Mercenary King books are going to be one of the defining fantasy series of the next few years.

The Two-Faced Queen Cover 2

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The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Science Fiction6 Comments

The Salvage Crew Cover

Publisher: Podium Audio (Audiobook – 27 October 2020)

Series: Standalone/Book One

Length: 8 hours and 21 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Come for the Fillion, stay for the story!  In this review, I check out the wildly entertaining audiobook version of The Salvage Crew, written by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne and narrated by actor and science fiction icon Nathan Fillion.

In the far future, a small salvage crew is about to embark on the mission of a lifetime.  It was supposed to be a simple job: travel to an alien planet and salvage an ancient UN starship.  However, from the very start everything goes wrong.  The three-man team, led by a young and still relatively human computer intelligence, is far from the most effect group, made up of outcasts with some serious personality issues.  However, their incompatibility is the least of their problems, especially once they make planetfall.

The crew quickly discover that their job is going to be far harder than expected.  The planet they have arrived on, Urmahon Beta, is full of all number of problems, such as harsh conditions, a lack of useful resources and unregistered megafauna that could crush them all with ease.  Forced to forge through this unexplored and hostile world to their goal, it soon becomes clear that they are not alone.  A rival crew of dangerous and heavily armed mercenaries made planetfall before them and has the potential to wipe out the crew with little effort.  However, something is very wrong with them, and not everything is what it seems.  The salvage team is about to discover that Urmahon Beta contains a massive secret that has the potential to change all of humanity, if it does not kill them all first.

The Salvage Crew is an interesting and captivating new science fiction novel from author Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, who debuted back in 2017 with the intriguing-sounding science fiction novel, Numbercaste.  I have to admit that I was not familiar with Wijeratne’s writing before The Salvage Crew, and the main reason that I decided to check out this book was because the audiobook was narrated by Nathan Fillion, who I am a major fan of.  However, I am extremely happy that I decided to check this novel out as it turned out to be an excellent read that featured a clever and compelling science story, with some fantastic characters and unique science fiction elements.  This, combined with Fillion’s exceptional narration, produced an impressive novel which I really enjoyed listening to.

Wijeratne has come up with an outstanding story that follows a small team as they try and overcome a series of unexpected dangers and challenges upon an isolated planet.  The author presents a cool and enjoyable narrative for The Salvage Crew, and I liked how it started out with the crew attempting to pull together a base on the planet and gather the resources needed to survive and then complete their task.  Naturally, things quickly go downhill for the characters, as they encounter all manner of challenges and surprises that hit hard and fast throughout the book.  There are a lot of cool and exciting moments throughout the plot, including a fun new version of the Charge of the Light Brigade, and the protagonists experience a lot of heavy and traumatising experiences throughout the book, some of which are quite horrific in nature.  Wijeratne lays all these events out in a compelling and logical manner and the story flows along at a great pace.  Some of this was apparently assisted with a random generator that helped Wijeratne to work out when certain events occurred in the book, which apparently worked out quite well, as I personally wouldn’t have changed the order of anything.  The end of the novel somewhat veers away from the science fiction exploration/adventure elements that defined the start of the book, and it gets quite a bit metaphysical, which could potentially lose some readers.  I myself had a good time following these intriguing plot changes, though, and I liked where the story ended up in the end.  Overall, I really enjoyed the compelling story that Wijeratne featured in this book, especially as at times it could either be wildly funny, extremely exciting or somewhat disturbing.  This blend of cool story elements resulted in an impressive read which is definitely worth checking out.

On top of this impressive science fiction narrative, I also have to point of the great characters that the story is set around, primarily the character of the Overseer.  The Overseer, also known as Amber Rose or OC by his crew, is a former human whose brain was uploaded into a computer and who now exists as an artificial intelligence.  Most of the story is told from OC’s perspective, and he is the primary first-person narrator of the book.  Despite now being a machine, OC is a very human character, with a fun and extremely likeable personality that ensures that The Salvage Crew is a very entertaining read.  Much of The Salvage Crew’s humour and comedy comes from OC’s narration, as he provides the reader will all manner of fun observations and witty jokes, including one particularly charming Jeeves and Wooster impersonation.  OC is also an amateur poet, regaling the reader and the other characters with a series of short poems that help to capture the events or the feelings that flow through OC.  These poems, which are ironically AI-generated (Wijeratne used a computer program to come up with them), add a quirky and artistic side to this character, and they end up having a surprising impact on the overall story.  As well as being a humorous narrator, OC serves as the emotional heart of the book.  Despite the fact that his transformation to an AI was supposed to make him more efficient and less concerned with the fates of his assets, OC is a very caring being, who is extremely protective of his human crew and is determined to bring them all back safe.  Watching him attempt to stay in control and save everyone is very heart-warming and it is extremely hard not to deeply appreciate him as a character as a result.  The events of The Salvage Crew also ensure that OC faces some deep and searching questions about whether he is a machine or a man, and these intriguing self-examinations ended up becoming a major part of the books plot.  I really enjoyed this complex and impressive character, and I had an amazing time seeing how his story arc unfolded.

The Salvage Crew also focuses on three other substantial characters, namely the human crew that OC drops down onto Urmahon Beta with.  These characters, Simon Joosten, Anna Agarwal and Milo Kalik are interesting people in their own right, each with their own unique and damaged personalities that makes them outsiders.  These characters are primarily shown through the eyes of OC, which adds a bit of a slant to their characterisations, although Wijeratne does also include a couple of interludes told from these characters perspectives which expands on their personalities.  These characters add a lot to the story, helping OC to achieve his goal, while also providing some compelling drama to the narrative as their issues and different personalities come to a head.  All three of these characters go through a substantial amount of trauma throughout the book, and they do not deal with it well, breaking down mentally and physically, while also clashing with OC and each other.  Watching these characters struggle to remain alive and sane becomes quite intense at times, and you really cannot help but feel sorry for each of them and hope that they survive the events of this book.  I felt that these side characters provided an interesting counterpoint to the AI character OC, especially as they helped to highlight how much humanity OC has actually lost, despite outward appearances.  The inclusion of these three compelling characters was a great touch by Wijeratne, and it helped to produce an emotionally rich overall narrative.

I also quite enjoyed the excellent science fiction elements that Wijeratne came up with for this cool book.  There are a lot of amazing science fiction inclusions throughout The Salvage Crew, and Wijeratne makes sure to utilise a lot of realistic and practical technologies.  You really get a sense of what a futuristic team of salvagers would experience and what tools they would bring to the table, and I had an amazing time seeing this depiction.  The alien world that Wijeratne utilises as the main setting for this book is also rather cool, and it serves as an excellent challenging location for the characters.  Apparently, Wijeratne used computer models/generators to come up with this planet and some elements of the book, such as what weather the characters experienced, was randomly chosen.  The author also comes up with a much wider universe in which the book is set, presenting the reader with a somewhat grim future, riven with war, over-expansion and planets negatively impacted by greedy, profit-orientated corporations.  This proves to be a bit of a grim view of the future, although it fit the overall tone of the novel extremely well.  Wijeratne shares these additional universe elements slowly throughout the course of the book and it proves to be an interesting counterpoint to the events occurring on Urmahon Beta.  The Salvage Crew also features some deep and fascinating examinations of Artificial Intelligence, as well as some other scientific elements/theories, which, without going into too many details, are quite essential for the plot of the book.  I really enjoyed these cool science fiction elements, and it is clear that Wijeratne put a lot of thought into creating his universe.

As I mentioned above several times, I ended up listening to the audiobook version of The Salvage Crew, which was narrated by the amazing and incredible Nathan Fillion.  Now, I never had any doubt that I was going to enjoy Fillion’s narration of this book and I was not disappointed in any way, shape or form.  Fillion drags listeners in from the very beginning with a very amusing introduction about how he has sanitised his voice for the listener’s protection, and the audience is pretty much in the palm of his hands from there on out.  Thanks to his excellent and compelling narration, the novel moves along on at a quick and exciting pace, allowing the listener to get through the entire story in quick succession and ensuring that there is not a significant lull in the production.  Fillion’s voice is perfect for this great story, and I really liked how he dived into the main character, the former human and current AI, Amber Rose/OC.  Thanks to his quirky personality and fun sense of humour, OC honestly felt like he was specifically written to be played by Fillion, who does an amazing job bringing him to life throughout the audiobook.  I really loved how Fillion portrayed this great central character, and the reader becomes a lot more attached to OC because of this excellent narration.  Fillion also does a good job portraying the other major characters in the novel, although he mostly uses the same voice for everyone, which occasionally made it hard to work out who was speaking.  Despite that, listeners can follow the story perfectly, and it proves to be extremely hard to get lost listening to the story.  The Salvage Crew has a run time of nearly eight and a half hours, and thanks to how awesome this format is, listeners can generally breeze through it in relatively short order.  This is an audiobook you could easily get through in one extended session, and it would be a perfect book to listen to on a long car ride.  I really loved this audiobook, and I would highly recommend this format to anyone interested in checking out The Salvage Crew.  I cannot talk up Nathan Fillion’s narration enough, and to be frankly honest, it ultimately knocked my overall rating of The Salvage Crew up a few points.

The Salvage Crew by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne is an impressive and captivating science fiction novel that takes the reader on a wild ride to the darkest frontier of human exploration.  Featuring an intense adventure on an alien planet that goes horribly wrong, The Salvage Crew makes excellent use of amazing characters, clever science fiction inclusions and a compelling plot to produce an awesome novel that is hard to put down, especially when narrated by the incredible Nathan Fillion.  As a result, The Salvage Crew comes highly recommended, especially in its audiobook format, and I am extremely keen to see what Wijeratne writes next.

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The Black Hawks by David Wragg

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Fantasy11 Comments

The Black Hawks Cover

Publisher: Harper Collins (Audiobook – 3 October 2019)

Series: Articles of Faith – Book One

Length: 12 hours and 9 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Prepare to join the roughest, toughest and most maladjusted mercenary band in the land with The Black Hawks by David Wragg, and excellent fantasy debut that was a lot of fun to read.

Vedren Chel is a minor noble struggling to adjust to his life as a knight and glorified servant to his lazy step-uncle.  Hoping to escape the meaningless existence that has been forced upon him, Chel suddenly finds himself thrust into a great adventure when a mysterious enemy force invades the city he is stuck in, causing panic and confusion all around.  Managing to flee from the chaos, Chel finds himself the inadvertent travelling companion to the useless and cowardly Prince Tarfel, the King’s son and second in line to the throne.

Accompanying Tarfel to safety, Chel hopes to be rewarded with his freedom and the chance to forge a new life.  Instead he finds himself swept up in the dangerous politics of the realm when he is chosen to become Tarfel’s protector and loyal servant.  Forced to accompany the prince back to the very city they just fled, Chel has very little hope for their survival.  His fears prove justified when a force of disguised men attempt to kill them the night they arrive.  Their lives are only saved when a mysterious band of warriors arrive, killing their attackers and then promptly kidnapping them.

Awakening, Chel and Tarfel find themselves under the dubious protection of the Black Hawk Company, a small group of elite mercenaries who have been hired to escort Tarfel to a mysterious destination.  Despite their unconventional tactics and makeup, the Black Hawks are a dangerous and clever collection of killers, which proves useful when several bands of assassins and fanatics associated with the kingdoms corrupt and all powerful church; converge upon the group, determined to kill Tarfel.  Deciding that their kidnappers are the only group with their best interests in minds, Chel and Tarfel accompany the Black Hawks off into the unknown.  Their journey will take them through dangers, both seen and unseen, and lead them into the very heart of the kingdom as they try to remove the corruption from within.  But dark secrets lie in store for all of them at the end of their journey and no one will be prepared for the dangers and betrayals in front of them.

The Black Hawks is an exciting and captivating dark fantasy novel that I had an absolute blast reading.  This debut novel from David Wragg was originally released about this time last year and it serves as the first entry in his planned Articles of Faith series.  I didn’t get a chance to read The Black Hawks last year, but I have been eyeing this novel off for several months now as I loved how fun its synopsis sounded.  I finally got the opportunity to read this book a couple of weeks ago and I am extremely glad that I did, as The Black Hawks proved to be an impressive and entertaining read that I ended up powering through in relatively short order.  Wragg has come up with an excellent novel that combines a compelling and slick story with some memorable characters and a dark fantasy landscape loaded with perils and betrayals.  These, combined with the book’s many intense action sequences, fun humour and several dark scenes, help to create an addictive and amazing read that I quickly fell in love with.

Wragg utilises a fun, fast-paced and compelling narrative to serve as the centre of this great book.  The entirety of The Black Hawks’ plot is told from the perspective of Chel, who is constantly falling into the midst of some world-changing events.  The plot starts off quickly, with Chel quickly finding himself in the company of Prince Tarfel and from there into the middle of a number of conspiracies and plot aimed at eliminating or manipulating the prince.  This ensures that the reader is quickly enveloped in a complex and entertaining plot which sees the protagonists surrounded on all sides by betrayals, conflicting agendas, mortal perils and all manner of conspiracies.  It was really fun and captivating to see how the various storylines turned out, and the author comes up with a number of intriguing surprises and twists to ensure that the story stays quite interesting and fresh.  There was one very major twist revealed at the end of the novel that I was particularly impressed with.  Wragg sets this twist up perfectly, with a number of hints towards it scattered throughout the book.  While I was able predict some of what was going to happen in advance, I was pleasantly surprised with some of the other revelations that came to light, and this beautifully cultivated twist was one of the high spots of the book.  I was also expecting a completely different ending to the novel, perhaps something a tad more light-hearted, but I liked the direction that Wragg took it instead, especially as it means that I will be grabbing the eventual sequel to this novel as soon as possible to see what happens next.  Overall, The Black Hawks contains a really enjoyable and smartly written narrative, and I had an outstanding time getting through it.

One of the best parts of The Black Hawks is the enjoyable and distinctive characters that Wragg has come up with.  The book’s main protagonist is Vedren Chel, who serves as the story’s point-of-view character.  Chel starts off as a fairly typical fantasy character: a young, bored minor noble who finds himself suddenly involved with events outside of his understanding.  However, as the story progresses, he shows himself to be a much more complex character, mainly thanks to his dedication to Prince Tarfel, who he becomes sworn to.  Tarfel is a spectacularly naive and incompetent royal, who is usually completely unaware of the danger that he finds himself in, or the full scope of the conspiracies playing out around him.  Despite recognising how useless Tarfel is, Chel takes his oath seriously and does all he can to protect him, even though that essentially means he gets the crap kicked out of him every second chapter or so.  This dogged loyalty and determination to do the right thing makes him quite an appealing protagonist, and he proves to be a rather resourceful individual who starts to fit in with the members of the Black Hawk company who kidnap him.  This camaraderie with the Black Hawks, something that he has been missing for most of his life, results in several great scenes, especially as he finds himself conflicted in his loyalty to them and to Tarfel.  Overall, his character arc goes in some interesting directions, and it was great to see him grow as a person through the course of the book.  Tarfel also grows a little during the course of the novel, becoming slightly less boorish and a little more capable.  Some of the reveals at the end of the novel have some rather large impacts of Tarfel’s personality, as he completely re-evaluates his entire life, and it will be rather interesting to see what happens to him in the future novels.

While Chel and Tarfel are both great characters to anchor the main plot around, the most entertaining and memorable characters are easily the members of the titular Black Hawk company.  The Black Hawks are a small group of dangerous mercenaries who have banded together after failing to fit in with all the other companies.  Wragg has gone out of his way to create a distinctive band of mismatched rogues to fill the ranks of the Black Hawk company, and there are a number of fun characters introduced as a result.  These members include a grim and taciturn leader with a notorious hidden past seeking redemption, a shadowy archer who has had her tongue cut out, a beautiful but lethal swordswoman, the group’s dangerous and self-serving assassin who is probably going to betray everyone, and a philosophical giant.  While there are a few stereotypical fantasy roles in there, such as with the Black Hawk leader, this turned out to be a particularly fun group of characters.  My personal favourite was Lemon, a short, red-haired human woman with a crude personality, amazing sense of humour and a fascination with her arsenal of axes (essentially a classic fantasy dwarf character).  Lemon is a great entry in the book, especially as she serves as the story’s main comic relief and is generally the most likeable and entertaining character in the novel, especially when she regales the protagonist with her blunt and tasteless jokes.  I really liked the excellent group dynamic that Wragg came up with for the members of the Black Hawks, and while they work together and are friends, there is a real sense of how mismatched the group is as all of its members are more individualistic than a team player.  All of these characters are great and Wragg does an excellent job introducing each of them and ensuring that all of them get their moment to shine throughout the course of the story.  However, he makes sure to keep most of their backgrounds hidden from the protagonist and the reader, ensuring there is a certain amount of mystery and mystique around them.  While certain hints about their past are revealed, for the most part the reader is left in the dark about who these people are and what brought them to the Black Hawks.  I imagine that Wragg plans to reveal each of these character’s full backstories throughout the course of the series and now that I am somewhat invested in them, I look forward to finding out more about their pasts.

In addition to the fantastic story and amazing characters, The Black Hawks features an excellent new dark fantasy world that serves as an awesome setting to this book.  Wragg’s novel features a somewhat desolate fantasy kingdom, ruined by years of constant warfare and ruled over by a corrupted and militant religious order that is desperately clinging to power.  This proved to be a really cool and enjoyable setting for the novel, and readers quickly become intrigued by the chaotic events occurring throughout the landscape.  While Wragg does drop the reader into this setting with any preamble and gets the story going rather quickly, the reader is never really lost about what is going on in this setting, and the author provides the relevant details about the fantasy world when necessary.  This proved to be an excellent overall setting, and I really liked seeing how all the politics and religious strife worked out.  This world also has a lot of potential for expansion, with a number of different nations and regions mentioned throughout the course of The Black Hawks’ story.  I imagine that the series will eventually visit many of these locations in the future, which should result in some interesting and enjoyable storylines, and I look forward to seeing how that turns out.

I ended up listening to The Black Hawks through its audiobook format, which runs for just over 12 hours and is narrated by Colin Mace.  This proved to be an excellent way to enjoy The Black Hawks, and I was able to power through it in only a few days as it was a really easy novel to listen to.  Thanks to Mace’s enjoyable narration, readers will be able to fly through this exciting and fast-paced story without losing focus for a second.  Mace also does a number of excellent voices for the various characters in the novels, capturing the diverse personalities and over-the-top characters really well.  As a result, I felt that this format was an awesome way to enjoy The Black Hawks and the audiobook comes highly recommended.

The Black Hawks by David Wragg was a cool and impressive dark fantasy adventure that I am really glad I checked out.  Thanks to his captivating and action-packed story, distinctive characters and dark fantasy setting, Wragg knocked his debut out of the park, creating an awesome overall read.  I had an amazing time listening to this fantastic book and I am looking forward to seeing how the story continues in the second Articles of Faith novel.

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Knight of Stars by Tom Lloyd

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy1 Comment

Knight of Stars Cover

Publisher: Gollancz (Hardcover – 27 June 2019)

Series: The God Fragments – Book 3

Length: 440 pages 

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Lynx, Toil and the rest of the Cards are back for another rip-roaring fantasy adventure, as the “heroes” of Tom Lloyd’s The God Fragment series prepare to bring all manner of violence and chaos to another unsuspecting corner of their fantasy world.

Knight of Stars is the third book in The God Fragments series, which follows the adventures of Anatin’s Mercenary Deck, a band of skilled mercenaries otherwise known as the Cards, whose adventures have caused havoc across the Riven Kingdom. The Cards are so called as each member of the band are given a card number or description based on a fictional deck of cards from this universe, which corresponds to their rank within the band. This is the third series from Lloyd, who has previously written the Twilight Reign and The Empire of a Hundred Houses series. The God Fragments series has so far consisted of Stranger of the Tempest in 2016 and Princess of Blood in 2017, with each of the book titles referring to the rank one of that particular novel’s major or most significant character.

In this third book, the Cards are celebrating after surviving and getting paid for their previous adventures in the Labyrinth under the city of Jarrazir. However, their last adventure had unexpected side effects as several of the band have also been magically marked by the powerful Dugar artefact they discovered in the Labyrinth. Not only have these marks magically bound many of the Cards together but they have also had unexpected effects on the Deck’s mages, who have found their magical abilities greatly increased.

The Deck’s employer, the dangerous relic hunter and intelligence officer Toil, has found them a relatively simple job in the distant Mage Islands to take over the holdings of a defaulting gang for a powerful bank. With the prospect of good food, sun, booze, bar fights and the chance to let loose in combat, the Cards are treating it like a holiday, especially as it moves them out of reach of several powerful enemies they have recently made. While Toil seeks out allies and resources for her patron city, the company’s mages attempt to research the magical consequences of their time in the Labyrinth.

However, no mission for the Cards ever goes as planned, and the Mage Islands are a very dangerous place to visit. Between the rival mage guilds, the various gangs and the thousands of giant serpentine tsyarn that surround the city, any miss-step could lead to disaster, and none of the Cards are known for treading lightly, especially as their number includes an infamous exile from the Mage Islands who has left many enemies behind. Unsurprisingly, the members of the Deck soon find themselves in conflict with many powerful members of the Mage Islands’ hierarchy. However, the real trouble comes when several of the Cards accidently awaken something dangerous that dwells beneath the islands.

I was initially drawn to Knight of Stars by the cool plot synopsis, but I found the first 50 or so pages, which detailed the actual journey to the Mage Islands, to be very slow and a little hard to follow. This may have been partly because this was my first time exploring The God Fragment series; I have not had the pleasure of reading the first two books in the series. As a result, I spent quite a bit of time trying to come to grips with the story and the large number of returning characters who were featured in the opening pages of the book. While the summary at the start of the book does a great job of detailing the major points of the adventures that occurred in the previous books in the series, this summary only focuses on a few of the main characters. This means that new readers will not have a good basis for several of the important side characters and may struggle to work out who they are. After getting deeper into the book I was eventually able to come to grips with all of the characters, especially as more details about them were released; however, it was easy to become lost when trying to figure out who was who to begin with. It also didn’t help that the real action and intrigue didn’t really start until the characters got to the Mage Islands, as before that they are mostly stuck talking on a couple of barges. There is a brief fight with some elementals, although what they were and the reason for their presence was a bit unclear in my opinion. While I am glad that I continued past it and enjoyed the rest of story, the first part of the book might not be able to hold some new readers’ interest.

While this is not the most ideal start to the book, those readers who persevere will find that Lloyd has created an excellent and highly entertaining novel. The author has done a wonderful job of taking his band of rogues to a deadly new location within his fantasy universe and the allowing them to run wild, resulting in all manner of chaos. The overall story becomes extremely compelling the deeper you get into it, and the last 150-odd pages are pretty darn epic, featuring some big moments with some significant stakes for the protagonists. All of this results in a very enjoyable story, and I ended up have an absolute blast reading this book.

One of the main things that I liked about this book that was the non-stop fantasy action featured within it. It is obvious that Lloyd has a real talent for writing exciting combat sequences, which he uses to his full advantage by featuring a huge number of electrifying fight scenes throughout the course of his book. Many of these amazing scenes feature elements of the unique magical system that Lloyd has created for The God Fragments series, and I particularly liked the mage-guns that were a major feature of the action. Mage-guns are specialised weapons which all the Cards are armed with that fire various magical rounds of ammo to great effect. This includes electrical blast, ice shots, blasts of flame and devastating earth based shots designed to smash buildings and the ground. The author does an amazing job showcasing these unique weapons and the tactics behind them throughout the book, and they really add a whole new element to the combat sequences. While the combat for the first three quarters of the story is really cool, the fight between the Cards and the major opponents that they encounter in the last part of the book are extremely impressive and very ambitious. I would therefore heartily recommend Knight of Stars to those readers who are looking for a good piece of fantasy action, as it is an amazing feature of this book.

On top of the awesome action, the Cards of the Mercenary Deck are pretty fun. I really liked how Lloyd decided to set a story around a group of rough, fun-loving group of frankly oversexed mercenaries, as it makes for a very amusing tale. The story is told from the perspective of several members of the group, including Lynx, the original protagonist of the series; Toil, the secret agent who is funding the group; and Sitain, one of the group’s three mages. The Cards are a fun group of protagonists, most of whom have seen or done too much violence, so they now see the world through a rather cynical viewpoint. Their love for life is quite infectious, and they make for an entertaining group of narrators, with their rude and crude attitudes often coming to the fore. The Cards also have a very unique way of dealing with problems, and it is always fun to follow a group whose master plan involves starting a particularly violent bar fight. Several of the characters have interesting story arcs within this book, especially Teshen, the titular Knight of Stars, who returns to the Mage Islands to face the demons of his past. There are a couple of major developments for some of the characters in this book, and readers should be careful about some upcoming heartbreak. This is a wonderful group of characters, and I really enjoyed seeing how their story progressed in this book.

The location for this latest book, the Mage Islands, is a really cool setting for this action-packed story. The Mage Islands is a brand-new setting, located some distance away from where any of the previous books were set. The Mage Islands is home to a ramshackle city of canals, slums, lagoons and giant sloths as pack animals, and is a great backdrop for all the action and criminal activity that occurs throughout the book. Lloyd does an excellent job of portraying a hot, tropical location filled with all manner of dangers, criminals and pests. However, rather than the usual vast number of tropical bugs and insects, the city is surrounded by a huge swarm of giant monsters, the tsyarn (the monster on the cover). As you can probably guess from the name, the city is also home to a massive population of mages, and the Cards find themselves drawn into a conflict between some of the rival mage guilds. Overall, this was a fantastic location for this enjoyable story, and I look forward to seeing where the Cards end up next.

Knight of Stars is an exciting and captivating third instalment in Tom Lloyd’s The God Fragments series. While I did initially struggle to get into the story, once I stuck with it, I was able to enjoy its compelling plot, amazing action, great characters and excellent new location. This book is worth checking out, and I look forward to reading Lloyd’s future instalments in this series.

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Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy, Five-Star Books, LGBT+3 Comments

Bloody Rose Cover.jpg

Publisher: Orbit

Publication Date – 10 July 2018

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Sensational fantasy author Nicholas Eames follows up his exceptional debut with the five-star novel Bloody Rose, featuring an epic quest storyline which takes its protagonists through a series of wild adventures in a spectacular and large-scale fantasy landscape.

In the human lands of Grandual, mercenary bands hold a celebrity status among the people.  Originally formed to help protect against the horrors of the world, most bands now spend their days touring from city to city, fighting monsters in arenas in order to gain fame, glory and money.  The most famous of these bands is Fable, led by the notorious Bloody Rose, daughter of the land’s greatest hero, Golden Gabe.  Years after her father led a mercenary army to rescue her from a horde of monsters, Rose has reformed Fable with the druin Freecloud, the shaman Brune, the Inkwitch Cura and their booker, the waggish satyr Roderick.  With a massive chip on her shoulder, Rose is determined to take on the toughest jobs and challenges that she can find.

In the city of Ardburg, Tam Hasford is sick of her job slinging drinks at the local pub to the famous mercenaries passing through.  As the daughter of two mercenaries herself, Tam craves adventure, and when Fable rolls into town looking for a new bard, Tam jumps at the opportunity to travel with Bloody Rose and her band.  Gaining a well-deserved reputation for her singing and an accidental reputation as a fighter, Tam receives the moniker ‘The Bard’ and a crash course in the mercenary lifestyle of drinking, gambling, fighting and good times.

But while Tam is having fun in her new role, there is still work to be done.  A massive monster horde has once again left the wilds and is threatening several human cities.  All of Grandual’s mercenary bands are gathering to meet them, all except Fable.  Rose is leading her band in the opposite direction and appears unconcerned with the potential devastation the monsters could cause.  Has Bloody Rose lost her nerve or does she have a far more dangerous quest in mind?  While Fable’s plan to become legends may prove to be successful, they will have far more destructive consequences than anyone could ever predict.

Bloody Rose is the incredible sequel to Eames’s 2017 debut, Kings of the Wyld, and forms the second book in Eames’s The Band series.  Set several years after the events of the first book, Eames switches up the story, focusing on the adventures of Rose and her band of mercenaries, while telling the narrative through the eyes of new point-of-view character Tam.  While there are many tie-ins with the first book, including several of the main characters, Eames has mostly shifted the focus onto a new generation of characters.

Although Bloody Rose is the second instalment in this series, curious readers can easily start their adventure with this book.  This book’s point-of-view character, Tam, never directly experienced the battles of the first entry in the series, and she ends up having quite a few conversations that describe or dramatise the events of the previous novel.  As a result, new readers who start with Bloody Rose will not experience any confusion and will be able to enjoy this story right off the bat.  That being said, readers who start with this book will probably get a hankering to read Kings of the Wyld due to how amazing Bloody Rose is.

This is a substantial piece of fantasy literature with a powerful story that is guaranteed to draw the reader in from the first page.  The huge scope of this story is just remarkable, as what begins as a simple adventure story transforms into an epic battle for the survival of all life in the world.  Much of this scope is the result of the significant number of secondary characters and antagonists that are introduced throughout the book.  It is a testimony to Eames’s skill as a writer that all these characters don’t overwhelm the story, and the reader finds themselves interested in seeing how each these characters ends up.  The use of a brand new point-of-view character to tell this story is a clever move from Eames as it allows a fresh insight into this world of mercenary bands and monsters, moving on from the old veterans that were the focus of Kings of the Wyld.

The author has infused his narrative with a huge amount of humour, most of it quite adult and over the top in nature.  This humorous tone infects quite a lot of the way that the book is told and makes it a very fun read.  There are some extremely funny scenes through the book, from debates about fake cockatrices, to the antics of a drunken satyr, to discussions about the dietary requirements of minotaurs.  While this humour is a key and overwhelmingly fun part of the story, Eames does get deadly serious in several parts of the book when the protagonists encounter dark days.  These darker scenes are felt particularly hard by the reader, mainly due to the sudden shift away from the lighter tone of the rest of the book.  While there are several examples of this throughout the story, I found that the final scenes of this book were particularly intense and had me absolutely captivated.  This clever combination of the outstanding comedy overtones and the gripping dramatic moments works exceedingly well and turns Bloody Rose’s story into one of the best fantasy narratives I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

In addition to the great use of comedy, drama and story, Eames has also packed this book with a significant amount of action and adventure.  The protagonists of this story essentially fight everyone as they adventure across the land, and participate in all sorts of combat, including arena battles with monsters, fights with titanic creatures, large-scale battles and even a few tavern brawls.  All these action sequences work well with the book’s other elements.  Not only do these battles result in some devastating moments but Eames also includes some comedy in these fight scenes, which can prove to be very entertaining.  Readers should also keep an eye out for the fun and inventive combat tactics used throughout this book, which are not only destructive but creative.  Never has red hair been used in battle so effectively.  With as much conflict and combat as you’ll ever need in a book, this is a perfect read those looking for those looking for their next injection of thrilling action and adventure.

Eames has also created a vast world to be the setting for this story, filled with a huge number of fantasy creatures and massive amount of world building lore.  Having such a large and well-established world is essential for a story of this magnitude.  The protagonists do a substantial amount of travel from one end of Grandual to the other, exploring large cities, small towns, barren wastes, massive battlefields and dangerous forested areas.  The author has also filled this story with every classic fantasy and mythological creature one could think of, as well as a few unique creatures from his own imagination.  All these creatures are a great addition to the story, resulting in some very fun battle sequences throughout the book, especially when their a huge number of these creatures in action.  One of the more intriguing races is the druin, the rabbit-eared humanoids created by Eames which used to rule all the humans and monsters of this fantasy world.  There is some fascinating history around the druin which has some significant impacts on the story, as well as gifting these creatures with some cool abilities that come into play in a variety of great ways.

The author has also spent time developing a fantastic band of main characters for the reader to follow on their adventure.  Using his new narrator, Tam, to full effect, the reader is given an introduction to every member of Fable and learns their history and motivations in significant and interesting detail.  A decent amount of time is spent looking at all of the members of Fable and the reader is given a deep understanding of each of them.  Each member of the band is a fairly unique fighter and character in their own right, but together they form a fun team.  Eames really hammers home how close these band members become throughout the book, and the reader becomes attached to the characters as they grow closer together.  This makes any potential harm or trauma they experience particularly hard for the reader to experience, and really adds to the books emotional depth.

With the follow-up to his epic debut, Eames has once again demonstrated why he is one of the freshest and most exciting new voices in fantasy fiction.  This exceptional story is an action-packed bonanza that sees several compelling characters engage in a heroic quest across an impressive fantasy landscape.  With the perfect blend of comedic adventure, epic fantasy storytelling and some dramatic character moments, Bloody Rose is an exceptional and excellent read that is guaranteed to become your new favourite story.

My Rating:

Five Stars

Amazon