The publishing trend in trilogies has pushed authors to think in terms of a three-act story, rather than writing three individual books, and that is quite apparent with James A. Moore's <em>The Last Sacrifice</em>, the first book in a new trilogy.

A race of people, known as the Grakhul, are immortal servants to ancient gods. In order to keep the gods content the Grakhul will often provide for human sacrifices. But the Grakhul may have made a mistake when they chose the family of Brogan McTyre - one of the toughest warrior families ever. Brogan won't take this lying down and his fight to protect his family has him re-thinking the purpose of the gods. But the gods have been ingrained in the culture and it's not easy to convince the population to challenge everything they've known.

The story is at once a tight, immediate story about Brogan and his family as they are pursued and they try to make sense of the order of the gods, and it's also a grand story with the gods keeping a balance between order and chaos. I really appreciate this sort of book that can be about something personal and have epic complications.

Moore's writing is smooth and the book is full of action and it moves swiftly from moment to moment, keeping the reader entranced.

But once the book is done and the reader reflects on the story we realize that there isn't much here <em>except</em> the action. The basic plot, as defined above, is laid out for the reader about two-thirds of the way through the book. That's right ... the plot of the book is finally revealed just when it should be reaching its peak. It does this because this isn't really a self-contained book. This is the set-up for the next book, which will hopefully actually give us more of a story.

Given Moore's ability to pull the reader in, this should be a fun, exciting series, but if you want to read an exciting book (singular) then you might want to look elsewhere. This will be a commitment to a trilogy at least.

Looking for a good book? <em>The Last Sacrifice</em> by James A. Moore is an exciting beginning to a series, but you will need to commit to the entire run in order to get the actual story.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Sacrifice is a splendid tale of vengeance and defying the gods. Just like the author's epic tale of <i>Seven Forges</i>, The Last Sacrifice is an enthralling fast-paced book with ass-kicking characters who could only grow stronger as the series progresses. With that, I'm waiting for the day the characters will truly shine and I bet the character development will be awesome for I know the author will not fail me, for he didn't in my now beloved Seven Forges series.

But then, I happened to come across the premise for The Last Sacrifice. Brogan McTyre, a warrior whose family gets sacrificed to appease the Gods, now decides to take the battle to entirely new level. He defies the Gods and challenges them. And this act has catastrophic consequences on the entire world, the angry Gods raining down hellfire and damnation on everybody. This sounded like one hell of a plot-line. Angry gods, their pets called Undying and some stubborn fool of a warrior, who doesn't know where to draw the line.

But when I actually started reading The Last Sacrifice, the first few chapters were a headlong rush of blood to the head. Brogan and his battle-scarred group of war mercenaries, on their way back home discover that his entire family has been taken away by the 'Grakhul' - messengers of the Gods in the mortal realm - to be sacrificed. Brogan, crazy with grief and anxious to save them, sets out to the very end of the world, to save them, aided by this group of loyal warriors, all of whom have fought and survived together, led by his best friend, a quiet and enigmatic man called Harper who has been the only mortal to have 'interacted' with this group called Grakhul. You would expect this quest to last over at least a hundred pages, in the traditional form of any 'fantasy' book. But the pace of the book takes you by the scruff of your neck and pushes your nose to the grind-wheel as things take flight.

The quest ends in a disaster in just over a few pages but Brogan's act of defiance in having stopped this sacrifice to the Gods ( and hence, the name The Last Sacrifice) angers the Gods and sets out a violent cataclysmic chain reaction that sees cities and empires being destroyed through floods, torrential rains, earthquakes and landslides. Brogan further defies them by kidnapping the entire race of 'Grakhul', pale-skinned northerners who are responsible for the sacrifices - and selling them off in slavery. The Undying or He-Kisshi, servants of these Gods, winged creatures of horror that defy explanations, are set out to retrieve the Grakhul. Bringing into the conflict, Slavers who had bought the 'goods'. And to make things complex, two of the intended 'sacrifices' escape from the Undying, grievously wounding one of the He-Kisshi that sets off a track for a personal vendetta.

All in all, it's certainly a combustible explosive mix of things that go around here, in this bleak, grim but gloriously realized world (Think of the Highlands of Scotland being ruled by dark violent whimsical Gods!) that James has created for the Tides of War. The pacing is just relentless Well, with a wide array of characters and the whole bloody world heading off the cliff you wouldn't expect less. While not preachy or heavy-handed, James touches upon thought-provoking stuff throughout this violent and darkly fantastic sword-and-sorcery drama - Like good men forced to do evil stuff in a world that's coming to an end. There are side-stories here that may well spin off another heavy tome of dark fantasy but James keeps it reined in, focusing on, chiefly - yes Brogan and his quest to kill Gods that took away his family but also on the other sub-plots that round off the apocalypse coming to a head.

If I had to pick some faults, then it would have to be with the wide array of characters, While we focus on Brogan's struggle, there are countless other plot-lines that seemed to distract. And not all of them tying in with the major story-arc. There are character names that seem too similar to each other and leading to fair amounts of confusion. The POV's switch around randomly and we don't get to spend enough time with each, except perhaps Brogan. Like for example, I would have loved to get inside Harper's head, a man given to smiles and a supernatural sense of calm in the middle of chaos. The slavers' angle really didn't gel so with me but comes with a gut-wrenching twist by the end that sets up for some amazing things in the series to come. And so with Myridia and the Grakhuls, making their way to the prophesied destination. But this is a tale where there are no 'heroes'. They are all 'humans', flawed to a fault and with well realized motives for all their actions. Even so, with the Undying!

To sum up, James throws in elements of horror, dark fantasy, low magic and some amazing world-building into this boiling mix that somehow seems to work. Spinning off the staid old genre story-lines into a new direction with this epic take on God versus Man, The Last Sacrifice is a solid start to the sordid grim-dark tale documenting the end of a bleak violent world. The lines between heroes and villains blur as Gods seek to end the world.

The Last Sacrifice is one of the most original and entertaining works of fiction that I've ever come across. Moore just keeps getting better and better. I can't wait to read more set in this universe.

A dark tome of grimdark fantasy, The Last Sacrifice is a story that begins with the kind of epic journey that would end any other book. Instead of taking an entire novel to breach the forbidden lands, confront the servants of the gods, and reclaim his family, Brogan McTyre does all that in the first few chapters. That his quest doesn't end well shouldn't come as a surprise, but just how much damage his intervention causes is staggering.

James A. Moore offers up a story where the threat of divine retribution is a foregone conclusion. Having been denied their sacrifice, the gods immediately set about destroying the world, erasing one land after another in a catastrophic torrent of storms, earthquakes, floods, and landslides. All they want is the men who foiled them for a replacement sacrifice, and the servants that were stolen from them. Unfortunately, Brogan and his men aren't about to give themselves up, and the slavers to whom they sold the servants aren't about to give up their high-priced goods.

This is a fast-paced, violent, imaginative read with some deep philosophical roots. It's not blatant or heavy-handed, but there are questions of ethics and morality throughout. Good people do horrible things for good reasons, and more than once we're forced to confront the laws of man versus those of the gods. Just about everybody understands why Brogan broached the forbidden lands, and even kings admire him for defending his family. Similarly, not even the doomed family who helps them can blame the two slaves who escape their divine captivity. As unfortunate circumstances lead to difficult choices, however, the story gets rather muddy.

The characters here are all well-drawn, carefully constructed individuals with real personalities and genuine motives. Even the servants of the gods are permitted 'human' roles, forcing us to sympathize with both sides of the battle. As for the wraith-like Undying, they are a supernatural horror to be reckoned with, monstrous forces of divine wrath who are fully-fleshed characters on their own. Although we never see fully within their cowls, what we do see, hear, and feel is enough to add a very Cthulhu-like edge to the horror side of fantasy.

At this point I have no idea where The Last Sacrifice is headed, or how Moore can possibly resolve all the conflicts without betraying the sacrifices involved . . . and I love it. This is a story that turns the genre story arc on its head, mixes up the motives of heroes and villains, and muddies the waters of divine intervention. A fantastic, surprising start to a major new series.

I was excited to receive a copy of The Last Sacrifice from NetGalley since I’ve been curious about James A. Moore’s The Blasted Lands series for some time. Rather than catching up on that one, I decided that his new series would be a great place to start.

The premise of the book was something that really appealed to me and the story started out quite dramatically. However, after the initial wow I struggled to maintain a level of interest that made me want to keep turning pages. I think the biggest reason for this was that the character really didn’t resonate with me at all. I could have cared less for them, but not by much and this left me feeling ambivalent towards the book overall. As a result, I ended up skimming and skipping through the last 40% of the book just to finish it. I hoped that as I stopped and read further in, I would find something to really catch my attention and make me want to read in earnest. Alas, there were some moments of interest, but they passed quickly.

Overall, I wasn’t really impressed with this book, which I really hate to have to say. Negative reviews aren’t fun to write (especially if you’re trying to be professional) and I know books are a labor of love and can be intensely personal. I most likely won’t continue on with this series, but I’ll give Moore’s The Blasted Lands series a try because I’ve heard some positive reviews, plus I always thought the covers were cool.