SYNOPSIS
The Halls of Venn are the seat of both knowledge and power in the great continent of Luna Ruinam. Renia, a scribe with a tragic past, spends her days expertly copying books that do little to satiate her desire for knowledge.
When a fateful commission lands on her desk, she finds herself tasked with transcribing a book coveted by assassins from the southern continent. Its theft throws the scribing halls into chaos and threatens to destroy the fragile peace that exists between their nations.
Haunted by dreams of her past, Renia must learn to master her impulses and awaken her long dormant magical abilities if she is to prevent war.
Fate, it would seem, is eager to grant her wishes. Yet she must risk everything to pursue it, and pay the bloody price it demands.
REVIEW
Thank you Karl Forshaw for providing a complimentary review copy in exchange for an honest review. And thank you to Indie Book Tours for putting this whole thing together. All opinions are honest and my own.
Renia is a dark political fantasy wrapped up in mystery and horror with a dash of sci-fi and steampunk just to spice things up.
Karl Forshaw gripped me right from the start with a mysterious prologue that immediately made me need to know more. I was quickly sucked into the world of Luna Ruinam with it’s fascinating world-building and compelling characters.
We start off with Renia, the titular character, as she finds her inadvertently thrust into a dangerous mystery involving a missing book and deadly assassins. The first act is spent mostly with her, alternating between the present story and her childhood. By the time we reach the second act, the flashbacks are over and it’s full steam ahead into this dark and twisty tale.
While it’s the mystery that gripped me, it’s the characters that kept me coming back. As the book progresses the cast grows, as well as the amount of POV’s. While unorthodox in its execution, it never felt overwhelming or overstuffed. Each POV is introduced organically and with Forshaw’s excellent grasp on character, it was always welcome to get into the characters’ heads.
While this story isn’t one I would call “action-packed”, when the action does happen it is gripping and exciting. The climax in particular was intense and introduced some horror elements that will make your skin crawl. Forshaw writes his action clearly and with a great sense of space, never leaving the reader confused about what is happening.
What really propelled the story for me and kept me turning the pages late into the night was the mystery of who took the book, as well the mystery of Luna Ruinam itself. The world-building is endlessly intriguing and original. Forshaw blends the lore of Luna Ruinam seamlessly into the plot so it never feels like an exposition dump. The magic and history is given to you when you need to know and as it relates to the plot. This means there is still plenty of this world left to explore in future installments.
Reminiscent of Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind in terms of setting and how much world-building we get, Renia is otherwise a beast all of its own. I haven’t read anything else quite like it and I still find myself thinking about it weeks after finishing. With a complex mystery, compelling characters and a fascinating world with plenty of history and lore, Karl Forshaw’s Renia is a fantastic and magical debut that has this reader extremely eager for what comes next.
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