TL;DR Review: Horror-rific grimdark fantasy that will send chills down your spine.
Synopsis:
The third best assassin. A second rate mercenary crew. One terrifying demon.
As Sharaam crumbles under siege, a mercenary crew hires an assassin to kill the king. For Tash, it’s a chance at glory—to be the best blade in the dark Sharaam has ever known. For Pitt, it’s a way to get his cutthroat crew past the Tsarii siege and out of this hellhole, maybe even with some gold to their name. For Iananr the Bound One, it’s a dream of shadows and human blood.
Full Review:
I went into In the Shadow of Their Dying with high expectations. After all, the combination of Anna Smith Spark and Michael R. Fletcher could only yield great things.
And I wasn’t disappointed!
In the Shadow of Their Dying opened immensely strong, with an immediately engaging character voice (“the Third Best Assassin in Sharaaam”), instant immersion in the setting (a city under siege), and a fascinating premise (assassination attempt gone terribly wrong).
I thought I knew from that first chapter what I was in for, but boy was I wrong.
As the pages fly by, things turn from a pretty “classic” grimdark story (everyone’s a greedy, self-serving a***hole) to something far, far darker. Soon, the demons quite literally come out to play, and the dead begin to rise.
In the Shadow of Their Dying kept me utterly on my toes, with no idea of what to expect from chapter to chapter. The grimdark tone kept me solidly anchored in the story even as the bodies started to drop and things continually took turns for the worse and the darker.
Tash was my favorite character of the bunch by far. Amusingly self-aggrandizing and forever egocentric, he deludes himself into believing impossible things about his own greatness despite continually mounting evidence to the contrary.
The other characters—Pitt, Inananr, Gertri, etc.—who take their turn at POV are entertaining, too, but none quite so colorful or ridiculous (in a good way) as Tash.
The world was exactly as grimdark as you’d expect. You are very much there in every dark alley, every seedy tavern, every dusty basement, every pile of corpses (which may or may not rise and try to kill you). The worldbuilding is simple but the writing is so strong that it becomes a fully immersive reading experience. I haven’t been this grounded in a world in a long time, a true testament to the writing skills of these two master fantasy authors.
The horror of it all is very Cthulhic in the best way possible. The time you spend in one character’s head is confusing as all hell, but it’s done cleverly in a way to showcase how foreign their inhuman mindset really is. There’s a lovely sense of body horror to their POV, too—we’re constantly reminded of how much they hate being trapped in human form, and though we only get the barest sense of who or what they are from their diatribes, it’s enough to send shivers down your spine.
I would say the only place the story falls a bit flat is in the plot. The idea is clear from the beginning: Kill the king, end the siege. But when the initial attempt fails spectacularly, the rest of the story tends to meander from scene to scene. Definitely taking the time to develop each character (which I loved), but the result is a lack of a truly breathless epic climax or build-up to grand scenes.
The event which sets off the climactic moment just sort of happens with no real build-up or increasing tension, though it is resolved in true grimdark fashion.
Overall, though, In the Shadow of Their Dying is a masterpiece of horror-ific grimdark, pairing “ancient monstrosities beyond our comprehension” with the classic crew of morally gray characters and a truly gritty, stinking setting.
This story is guaranteed to drag you kicking and screaming through the mud of Sharaaam; a truly memorable reading experience from start to finish.
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