Book Review: Black Stone Heart (The First Step On The Obsidian Path) by Michael R. Fletcher

Rating: 9/10

Synopsis

THE FIRST STEP ON THE OBSIDIAN PATH

A broken man, Khraen awakens alone and lost. His stone heart has been shattered, littered across the world. With each piece, he regains some small shard of the man he once was. He follows the trail, fragment by fragment, remembering his terrible past.

There was a woman.

There was a sword.

There was an end to sorrow.

Khraen walks the obsidian path.

Review

Black Stone Heart is a dark, fascinating, disgusting, wonderful, nauseating, intriguing, appalling, gripping, fucked-up, heart-felt, gut-wrenching, bloody and brutal character study about the lengths one will go for power and what they tell themselves to justify it.

Khraen digs himself from his own grave with no memory of who or where he is. His obsidian heart has been shattered and scattered across a world he can’t remember. Piece by piece he’ll put himself back together, his heart and the terrible memories it holds. There was a woman. There was a sword. There was an end to sorrow. Khraen walks the obsidian. Will he find redemption? Or just more blood?

This just might be the Fletcher’s best work to date. All the themes of redemption and the line between good and evil come he’s flirted with before come full circle. Black Stone Heart asks hard questions and promises no answers. What unfolds is a cautionary tale of repeating past mistakes and the consequences of rewriting history.

This story gives us the unique opportunity to learn who he is and what his world is like along side him through his own eyes. Because of…things, Khraen has no memory of who he is, where he’s from or where he is. Neither do we. As he explores, we see the world for the “first” time with him. This makes for a truly engaging read.

Though the situations are extreme, the emotions are real and tethered to humanity. Black Stone Heart is an uncompromising character piece more than anything. We deal with personal identity issues, morality, racism and human nature. Dark humor, intense drama, and a plethora of mysteries, Black Stone Heart is a brilliant start to The Obsidian Path trilogy.