DNF’ed at about 100 pages, because this deeply deeply deeply needed another editing pass. I will not be leaving a star rating because I did not finish it.

I was compelled by the blurb for this and very excited to get lost in a new fantasy world, until I realized that I would be getting lost in the pages and pages of world building and character backstories that don’t add anything helpful for the reader. This problem is worsened by the authors’ propensity for telling emotions instead of showing them. As an example: Mistress Teer’s introduction.

We’re introduced to her in a paragraph that gives a physical description of her and her actions. Andric (the POV character at the time) refers to her as a “woman” and notes that her outfit marks her as a stable master, implying to the reader that he doesn’t know who she is, but he does know her by rank. Two paragraphs later, it turns out Andric knows exactly who she is (Mistress Teer), because he addresses her by name. Why would he have acted like he hadn’t know her before hand? Particularly when the next sentence tells us that she is the person who taught him how to ride. He clearly knows her. We are then informed exactly how Andric feels about her (it’s positive) through a sentence that reads (roughly) ‘Andric always liked and admired Mistress Teer’, before delving into one of the first mentions of this world’s magic system and then a lengthy rumination on Andric’s feelings of inadequacy when compared to his older brother. Don’t we have a crime scene to get to?

The authors are clearly trying to expand the world, but its superfluous information, because if the average reader is anything like me, they’re going to forget most of it immediately without any sort of context for what parts of this information are important. If an author drowns the reader in information, it doesn’t make the world feel more real, it makes it impossible for the reader to sort out what matters and what doesn’t. And so, I don’t remember any of it.

The book then gets dragged down to the point where investigating a crime scene takes 7 pages, but all the mess before that takes 25 pages, including a detailed description of Andric getting dressed, the history of the royal castle, the backstory of his friend Barak, and Andric trying to do some magic. I get that Andric is supposed to be bad at time management, but the other POVs are like this as well. The link to the wiki at the front of the book should have been a warning sign.


So far, the book reads more as someone’s TTRPG setting that they quickly slapped a few character archetypes in to make it work as a novel. It’s a shame, because I don’t hate the world (the way the gods work in this is neat! I was and am curious!), but I have very little interest in trawling through more fluff to get to the plot.

First book for these authors and its definitely a fun ride. Multiple different gods, with matching churches who regularly summon Daemons for use, either in their churches, or for nefarious reasons.

A well thought out plot and story with some twists to keep you fish-hooked. Great pacing imaginative magic and interesting plot.

I am definitely interested in more in this world..

This was a 4.5 star read for me! Don't let the length of this book deter you! This was an incredible read! It is war heavy, there's religion and political intrigue, and occult magic. This book really immerses you into the story.