This is a fantastic book and I'm so excited to read the next installation. Fantastic character work with great storytelling!

My very first Matthew Ward book, and it did not disappoint!! All you need is thieves, a rebellion, sky ships and a found family to make me happy, The Darkness Before Them has all four, so naturally I'm a fan.

Though I will say that parts of this book were a slight struggle, namely the first 14% until it picked up, and then some middle sections as well, but everything else was smooth sailing (yes, I had to).

I'd call this a slow paced book in general, which I'm normally not a fan of, but the characters won me over so the pacing didn't really matter.

Kat is one of our two main PoV characters, possibly my favourite, although Damant (the other PoV character) won me over first. At the start, Kat loses her girlfriend Azra after a heist gone wrong, and her whole life gets turned upside down as a result.

Some might say she doesn't have a personality beyond being Azra's girlfriend, but in my opinion she kept working on herself while working through her grief AND trying to stay alive when the world wanted her dead. She's done enough, let my girl be!!!

I love the way she looks after Yali, her banter with Tatterlain, the mutual jabs she and Vallant take at one another, and how she genuinely cares about the rag-tag crew she found herself amongst.

Kat is also a lesbian, and I really appreciate that, because she's not only the main character, but I haven't seen anything wrong with the rep itself. Hopefully it'll stay that way in the future books.

Now Damant, I'll be completely honest and say that it was his full name that got me. Don't know why, it just did. And just like that I was ready to sail away to Damant-ville.

I enjoyed seeing his whole world crumble before his eyes, as he learned the family he was so loyal to were the real villains. Not that I wanted him to suffer, mind you!!!

If you're big on politics, you'll love this. We get the bulk of it from Damant's PoV, a lot of scheming a lot of backstabbing, all that good stuff.

Although I think it would've been better to delay the politics a bit until we got to know the characters better, instead of throwing us into the fire. I was sitting there going "now why is this important", "why do I need to know this" etc, and it DOES make sense at the end, but it can be overwhelming.

There's a lot of worldbuilding going on throughout the whole novel, once you get the hang of it, it's not that difficult, but I think it's a part of why I struggled at the beginning.

I wish the magic system was as vast as the worldbuilding, because I kind of get it, or parts of it, but I'm still not 100% sure how exactly it works. I am looking forward to seeing what else Kat can do, after that ending.

Speaking of, it was a great ending that succeeded in clearing up some things and telling one complete story. Of course there's still more to go, but it's very satisfying.

One last thing, there was a twist in this book that could put many thriller authors to shame. I haven't been that surprised in a while. Good job Mr Ward.

*Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review*

The Darkness Before Them is the first book in a new series by Matthew Ward. The paced of the story was slow to start as the author introduces us to the world and characters. It does pick up due to the plot twists, plenty of action which drives the story forward keeping you engaged.. The world building was well handled, not too much information over-load. The character development, political intrigues and the scheming are the standout. The standout character was Kat, I enjoyed her growth, which showed a steady arc throughout the story, also watching learn about her personal and individual motivations. I also really appreciated the dual POV so that you can see the story unfolding from both sides, especially the way in which each plot line intersected at the end was really satisfying to read and well handled. Overall, this book was an enjoyable read; the world has a lot of great potential, and I'm interested to see where it goes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the e-ARC of The Darkness Before Them.

Oh my goodness, I’m not quite sure where to start with reviewing Matthew Ward’s latest fantasy. He’s created a dark and gloomy world ruled by an immortal king where the land is threatened by a mist that sucks the life out of everything. His characters are, with very few exceptions, just plain bad or at best morally grey. Add to that a huge amount of political intrigue with nobody quite sure whose side anybody is on and you have a recipe for an engrossing, complex fantasy. And there are sky ships too!!!
The main protagonist of the story is Kat who we meet as she is planning the biggest theft in history. The theft goes wrong and, as a result, she becomes involved in the rebellion against the city’s ruling families. To counter balance her point of view, we have Damant, who is Castellan to the ruling Bascari family and completed devoted to the family and his duty.
I loved the world building in this especially the city of Tyzanta which has grown ever upwards, building on top of what has gone before. The magic system is a novel one to me where souls can be captured and used to power golems and devices as well as create medicines and poisons.
The plot is just basically an unfair regime which a rebellious element is trying to overthrow but Matthew Ward has created something that feels different and new in this new series.
It’s not an easy read. At some points especially early on, it became quite a slog to get through a couple of the chapters. I got a bit confused with who everybody was on more than occasion too as there are a multitude of characters. However, the final third of the book delivered as much drama, plotting and excitement as I could have wished for and I certainly want to read the next instalment to find out where this story goes next.
Huge thanks to Net Galley and the publishers, Little Brown Book Group for providing my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is a solidly-written fantasy book, the first of a series by a new (to me) author, and it has lots to recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre. Unfortunately, I can't say that it particularly grabbed me beyond that.

Our story is set in a world with an immortal king, with ruthless noble houses throwing their weight around - a major technology, used particularly to ensure that said king and nobility keep both their wealth and their power, is the use of spirits as both alarm systems and enforcers. Our protagonist (Kat) is a thief whose father was involved in researching those systems and who has a tattoo he created which allows her to affect and sometimes control them. After her father's death, she found herself in dire straits and ended up stealing for a living before she gets dragged into a conspiracy against the state that she's not particularly interested in.

There's some very nice world-building in this book, with a magic system that's slightly different to what I've seen before, and in general the characterisation is pretty solid too. At times the pacing is a little uneven, which made some sections drag, and I couldn't really find it in myself to care about what happened to Kat. The prose is a bit over-blown too for my liking. None of these things are a good sign at the start of a trilogy? All in all, worth my time as a reviewer but not a book I would be coming back to at any time and I doubt I'll make much effort to pick up the next in the series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.

The Darkness Before Them is the initial novel in the epic fantasy The Soulfire Saga series, written by Matthew Ward. From the start, Ward proposes an overly complex worldbuilding, woven together with political intrigues, epic action and a plot that doesn't stop surprising the reader; creating a story that keeps you glued to the page.

The novel starts explosively, in the middle of action, following Kat (Katija) and her girlfriend Azra, trying to steal the biggest prize in the entire kingdom of Khalad, in order to pay the debts Kat's father left to her; however, plans have a difficult encounter with reality, failing and getting caught. Kat is sent to death, but fate's intervention changes all, putting her in the middle of a rebellion against Khalad and its tyrannical system.

While Kat's story takes most of the narrative weight, Ward introduces a second POV, Castellan Damant, giving us an insight into the dysfunctional Bascari family, rulers of a province, which helps us to understand the reality behind the Fireblood, the ruling class of Khalad. It slowly prepares us for the revelations that will end intertwining all the plots together.

Ward's worldbuilding is extremely ambitious, featuring a vivid world, with an unusual magic system based on extracting power from souls. The kingdom of Khalad is heavily skewed towards favouring the Fireblood, the nobility that is the ruling class under the power of the immortal king; lower classes barely survive in poverty. The Veil, a supernatural mist, is threatening to engulf the land.

There's a complicated equilibrium between the prose and the pacing, as sometimes this book can be felt as slow, due to Ward's writing style; but it balances with thrilling action scenes and tense moments (especially the sky battles are incredible).

If you are in the look for a great epic fantasy novel, which sets the world for a really ambitious plot, The Darkness Before Them is an excellent choice for you. Can't wait to see how Ward continues the Soulfire Saga!

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐝
These are dark times for the kingdom. As the magical mists of the veil devour the land, the populace struggle beneath the rule of the ruthless noble houses and their uncaring immortal king. Kat doesn’t care about any of this. A talented thief, she’s pursuing one big score that will settle the debt that destroyed her family.

No easy feat where indentured spirits hold vigil over every vault and treasure room. Kat has a unique ability where she can speak to those spirits and even command them. And she has no qualms about using her power to her advantage. She just wants to be free. But as rebellion rekindles and the war for their furniture beings, everyone will have to pick a side.

Let me introduce you to world ruled by a dangerous immortal king, where souls are the source of all magic and a supernatural mist threatens to engulf the land. If that doesn’t intrigue you enough then let’s add a morally grey heroine, high stakes that tilt between life and death, and an uncanny ability to talk to the dead. I’m sure your intrigued now. This is the first book in a exciting new trilogy that I’m definitely keen to continue.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘓𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘱 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘣𝘺 𝘔𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘸 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘥

"The Darkness Before Them" is the first chapter of "The Soulfire Saga," an adult epic fantasy trilogy written by Matthew Ward and currently in progress.

This is a book about which I had high expectations, thanks to the charming cover and the decidedly intriguing plot! And I was not disappointed! I loved this novel from beginning to end, despite the various flaws present. Compelling, adventurous and powerful, it kept me glued to the pages. I was won over by the magnificent, complex and interesting world building, at times far too dense in the information given. The captivating, brisk and evocative writing convinced me, as did the rather vivid and pleasant descriptions. The plot proceeds full of action, intrigues, mysteries, subterfuge, deceptions and secrets. I admit I felt some slower and heavier moments here and there, but overall it absorbed me. The two protagonists, with their respective third person povs, intrigued me a lot. They are morally gray, complex, and troubled characters, well characterized and with excellent development. Even the secondary characters, some more and some less, pleasantly satisfied me! What else can I say? I can't wait to read the sequel!

All in all, this is a great start to a series that I recommend to lovers of epic fantasy!

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I wish you could have heard me trying to describe "The Darkness Before Them" to my husband... What started out as sentences aborted after one word morphed into sound effects. I can't accurately tell you how much I *LOVED LOVED LOVED* this book without using expletives so you'll just have to read it for yourself. Perfect writing, perfect setting, perfect (and not-so-perfect) characters, and more jolts in the plot than I've ever had in one single book. My book of the year, for certain.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

How best to start telling us a huge epic tale? Shall we start really small with a young farmhand; young hobbit and a birthday party; or shall we really plunge you into the deep end and require you to re-read the book with a helpful guide (there are some really keen fans of the latter). There are pros and cons of both approaches; but I think Matthew Ward in their engrossing new epic fantasy novel The Darkness before Them has a huge, ancient, sprawling magical tale full of amazing sights and ideas but knows how to find some useful entry points to allow us gentle readers to explore without being overwhelmed and there are a host of treats in store.

Katija preferably known as Kat in relatively young life has known the highs and lows of life in the huge and massive city of Tyzanta. Once she and her father were close to the Fireblood nobles, but his various debts and early debt soon cast her down to Undertown – home of slums; poor, criminals and their ruling crimelords. All Kat does have is a unique magical ability to tune and shift her tattoo to connect with the many magical energy sources used in life that can open doors; power machinery and evade detection. Thanks to her friend and lover Azra Kat’s ability has led her to criminal life and now they sweep along Tyzanta’s rooftops on their way to a big score. One where danger, death and huge changes in Kat’s life await.

Ilshan Damant is the Castellan of Tyzanta’s technically ruling family the Bascari. Its Countess though is in poor health; her children hate each other, and other families and crime gangs are circling around. Kat’s team and their criminal enterprise are about to unleash havoc on them and plunge the family into more turmoil and betrayals. Damant must try and work out who is hiding their malice and ambition before the Bascari family face ruin and likely execution by their own rulers.

I’m quite impressed how Ward has worked out where is the best place for this story to start as its in many was the culmination of a millennia old tale covering the entire land of Khalad. What we get initially are two plot strands that appear fairly simple – Kat is a thief working with rogues to make a huge score. Let’s just say it doesn’t go to plan but what it does do is allow us to throw lots and lots of terms that initially make no sense but as we are on a gripping heist mission allows us to settle into the way that magic and technology work as well as finding out how these events give Kat her motivation for the rest of the book. While Tyzanta looks the traditional huge fantasy city one aspect that feels new is here souls can be captured or fragmented and used to power devices; creates medicines and guard buildings. We find that stretches more and more across the novel to include even guards and huge devices. Its intricate, smart and raises all sorts of questions about why souls and what does that really mean for the people of this land.

With Damant’s storyline he is almost the crime investigator as he deals with the aftermath of what Kat does but in reality, his storyline is more a tale of political intrigue. A noble (or as we find meeting the Bascari pure ruthless and toxic) house under attack. With the Countess’ feuding children, we have lots of suspects and we get to see how close Nobles and Crime Lords mix – and share many traits. But this storyline here allows us to also explore the bigger world. Here we will find the concept of Khalad ruled by an immortal and by the sounds of it a pretty ruthless royal – The Eternity King who battles magical force on the edge of Khalad known as the Veil that is encroaching on the land and when it meets living flesh soon destroys it. We also start to realise that there are groups of people who have had enough of the Nobles and their corrupt lifestyle. Tyzanta is we find but one part of a bigger war fought in battles; spying and treachery where many forces seek more power. This story is indeed getting epic fast

The storylines diverge and meet up again and again with Kat’s initial adventure at the start the catalyst creating changes to this world that only needed one push to unsettle it. For Kat we have someone who finds themselves now of value to the rebel forces. Both due to her own exploits and her unique ability to bend these magical devices to her will. Prepare for flying ships; magical beings and hard-won raids with a great deal of peril and mystery to envelop them. Ward is quite ruthless with his cast so we start to realise anyone can meet a usually nasty ending which keeps us on our toes too! Damant’s storyline recombines with Kats too and adds to both a sense of exploring why these Nobles may need to be stopped and that the rebels themselves are not above making attacks that endanger civilians and their own forces all for the ‘greater good’. All the while a bigger disaster awaits these petty humans which becomes more and more evident in the final stages of the book. There a series of revelations and unexpected appearances open the story to an even bigger plotline and raises many questions about the magical sources being used and exploited.

The Darkness Before Them is an epic imaginative ride of an epic fantasy tale exploring what is the right thing to do. A novel that settles us in gently before releasing us at high speed on a crisscrossing rollercoaster of plots, revelations and characters that we really want to see survive to the end of the book. I was very impressed by the story’s choices – our opinions of people will shift as we get to know them; it is an inclusive world and Ward carries into it their trademark use of magic, technology and mythology to create something quite fresh. I am looking forward to seeing where the Soulfire Trilogy takes us and heartily recommend it for those seeking an epic read in the winter months.

I have tried and DNF the author's first series because of the same problems i had on this book as well but the only difference is that i finished this one.

The story is about Kat, and her girlfriend plan to rob the biggest prize in the kingdom of Khalad, and if successful pay off her late father's debts and live free. There's a lot going on in this book, and at times, it felt like a bit of a slog. With a lot of world building and description, that wasn't really necessary.

Also, the book is filled with political intrigue which i believe would be better to read if you know the characters well enough. Thats where my huge problem came too. The character study was very low and for me characters are the main thing for enjoying a good story.

There was good actions and world building and plot moved quite slow some places and very fast some places but nothing can't be connected to a good character and no one to root for.

Thanks Netgalley for this book and helping me review this.

Underwhelming and I couldn't quite account for the magic system. I didn't feel for a character and the story itself felt out of place. This is great for those wanting political intrigue but I felt that's where my interests stopped.

The Darkness Before Them is the first book in a new series by Matthew Ward. I had read The Legacy Trilogy and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to this.
The story kicks off with plenty of action as the main protagonist, Kat, and her girlfriend plan to rob the biggest prize in the kingdom of Khalad, and if successful pay off her late father's debts and live free.
There's a lot going on in this book, and at times, it felt like a bit of a slog. With a lot of world building and description, that wasn't really necessary. But I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did.
With a dual POV , the other comes from Damant the Castellan to the Bascari family.
It's a story full of political intrigue with a complex magical system and some great characters. I found Kat pretty annoying at the start, but as her character developed, she grew on me. I didn't see the twist or the reveals when they came.
Will definitely read the next book.
Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for the ARC.

Fantasy, epic adventure. Interesting start. I then found the story became heavy and didn’t seem to go very far. But perseverance paid off as the action heated and the ending left me wanting to read the next book. My favourite character was Yali, she brought the most humour into the story and went from threatened to threatening. Thank you to Little, Brown Group Uk and NetGalley for the ARC. The views expressed are all mine, freely given.

The premise of this book appealed greatly to me - a rebellion against an immortal cruel king, yes please! Had trouble getting into it, absorbing the glossary as if educating myself in a new language. While i found Kat a rather monotone heroine with more to be desired, I really enjoyed the rich tapestry of the world in which she operates. Engaging, tense and doesn't spare on political and social commentary, I am definitely awaiting how this series continues to unfold.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy. I have read the author's Legacy series and was looking forward to reading this new book. I do think there are some pacing issues in the first half of the book but the characters and intricacies of the plot were excellent. I would have liked a little bit more in the way of the magic system/fantasy elements but that's a personal preference. The events of the ending do make me want to read the next instalment. Recommended for those that like books with lots of political intrigue and found family.

My first Matthew Ward but definitely not my last. Excellent world building, compelling characters and a plot I could easily get invested in.

Really enjoyed this. A solid epic fantasy with great world building, an excellent premise and fun characters. I'm not happy about some of the dangling threads but that's just made me more eager to read the next book. Great fun and did what it said on the tin.