Days of Shattered Faith

The third in the “Tyrant Philosophers” series, “Days of Shattered Faith” takes us to afar-flung place where the Palleseen Sway doesn’t yet have the iron grip it enjoyed over the characters and places of the last two novels. This provides the author with a marvelous opportunity to show us more of the world and exactly how badly the Temporary Commission for Ends and Means has fucked up perfectly functional civilisations in their greed for magic to fuel their continued expansion.

I love that this book is as immersive as possible with regard to showing you the foibles, practices, and history of Usmai and the Usmiat people, showing you how things work without explicitly explaining any more than is needed to understand the unfolding plot. This naturally also lends to humour when a character not familiar with the practices of the region (they didn’t even read the briefing dossier!) experiences traditions that spring richly from the page while also being utterly alien to a good Palleseen.

The characters are all well drawn, and the author does exceptionally well at giving you each character’s viewpoint in such a way that you can simultaneously sympathise with characters who have diametrically opposing viewpoints, and the ways in which both of them are partially right and wrong at the same time. It’s all very messy and human, and makes for a rollicking good read.

While the book takes the perspective of several characters through the story, everything feels more tightly woven and plotted than “City of Last chances”, although that’s partly because it’s building on the worldbuilding of the previous two novels and everything makes more sense.

It also helps that we see some familiar faces and continuing story threads in this book – though perhaps not ones you might have been expecting!

This novel managed the difficult balancing act of concluding in a highly satisfying fashion while also leaving me wanting more, a frond of tantalising threads carefully teased and left standing proud of the novel’s weft and warp to make me eagerly anticipate the next book.

It’s hard to say much more without venturing into potential spoilers territory, so let me finish this review by simply saying that “Days of Shattered Faith” is a real page-turner, a wonderful escape from the dreariness of autumn or winter to a sun-soaked land full of drama, humour, and a good few characters it’s a delight to despise.

This book is highly recommended for existing fans of the series; I think newcomers will be able to enjoy it as a standalone novel, but a reader who’s read the other books will get far more out of this one.

On a strange tropical island, where the Pals are starting to grow in power, we meet a cast of new faces and a few old ones in a showdown that will bring gods to their knees and could also mean the end of the Palleseen Sway.

Loret is fresh off the boat and arrives in Alkhalend, ready to be a clerk to the Palleseen Resident, Sage-Invigilator Angilly. But Loret isn't much of a clerk and she isn't much of a Pal, or even a Loret if truth be told. Angilly is also not much of a Pal, but she does things to help move the Sway in the direction her superiors want, which is all for the good. But she has managed to get her chosen Prince set up as Heir, until a massive civil war breaks out and throws everything into disarray.

And with some very familiar faces popping up in the middle of the disarray, you can expect chaos to well and truly reign.

This is the third instalment of the Tyrant Philosophers, and it is as brilliant as the previous books. Worth picking up (though if you have not read the other two ((And why haven't you??)) then it may be advisory to do so.

When the Palleseen empire comes to town, they play for keeps, something that the melting pot city of Usmiat finds in this latest entry of the Tyrant Philosophers series by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Days of Shattered Faith. Fans of the first two books will find fun surprise returns, but the meat of this book are the new cultures and people that find themselves unwittingly pitted against the Ends and Means Commission of the Palleseen empire. Perhaps more meandering in its path than before, this entry managed to hook me in all the same with the plight of Usmiat.


Days of Shattered faith starts off on the smaller scale, focusing on Gil, a diplomat of the Palleseen empire, her freshly arrived and suspiciously inept aide Lorut, and Gil’s good friend and heir to the throne of Usmiat, Dekamran. Tides have recently turned for Gil and Dekamran in Usmiat, as the defeat of the Loruthi’s forces and the exile of Dekamran’s warmongering elder brother put them both in positions of power when before they commiserated in the dregs of the court. Usmiat has its own Waygrove (like the one in Ilmar in City of Last Chances) an interdimensional crossing place that here has deposited several cultures that Usmiat has pulled into its orbit – such as the deadly Louse monks (utilised as royal guard) and the Ibeleth lizard folk of the river and their dinosour-like ogrodons. However, as things in the country start to unravel, with a zealous Palleseen Decanter making trouble for Gil and the return of Dekamrans older brother, the plot starts tumbling forward with a momentum leading to something inevitable, even if the zigs and zags threw me off the scent.

Make no mistake, this is a mosaic novel like the previous two – but this time it’s a slower lead up, spiralling outwards as more characters end up involved in the building hurricane of events. There are even several characters from previous books that get more page time than expected, refugees from the Palleseen regime. I’m in two minds about this development – I loved the characters, and was very happy to see more of them, but their heavy inclusion did dilute the narrative force somewhat, as (most of them) try unsuccessfully to keep out of the trouble the other POV characters bring to the city. I feel like the new POVs deserved slightly more spotlight in the later chapters, as their actions and relationships drive the core narrative.

It took a while for the main arc of this novel to crystalise for me, but in hindsight part of me knew what was going to happen all along. The key is the Palleseen, as usual, those Tyrant Philosophers, and their particular brand of colonisation. Gil’s careful dance between furthering their aims while supporting Dekamran and his nation, the secret of why Lorut is so reluctant to go back to the Palleseen archipelago, and the ambitions and schemes of other Palleseen agents in the area, are an undercurrent that slowly turns into a raging river, leading to an impactful finale.

As usual, I love the wry humour of these books, built into a setting with a thin layer of dark absurdity. And the setting is vibrant and dark and multi-faceted, with a multitude of factions and agendas within factions. Usmiat in particular reminds me of cities from old swords and sorcery stories, like Lankhmar, full of religions, pirates, unusual customs, strange beasts and streets full of intrigue.

Days of Shattered Faith was a joy for me to read, and while it didn’t come together quite so cleanly as the other two entries in this series, I’m incredibly excited to read as many more books in this series as Tchaikovsky is willing to write. I think new readers would benefit from reading House of Open Wounds first, but there’s plenty to keep fans of the rest of the series happy.

Rating: 8.5/10