Rating: 10/10
Synopsis:
Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled.
Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield, he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more. For years, death was his only chance to escape. But that is about to change.
The king who sentenced Bershad to his fate has just given him an unprecedented chance at redemption. Kill a foreign emperor and walk free forever.
The journey will take him across dragon-infested mountains, through a seedy criminal underworld, and into a forbidden city guarded by deadly technology.
Review:
Sentenced to die. Impossible to kill. The two main sentences illustrate and summarise this book perfectly. What an incredible journey I’ve just been on. I feel like I’ve gone through an fantasy epic. Like the old days. I’ve related to characters, I’ve seen gore and brutal torture that will remind you of Medieval times, I’ve seen spies and networks of a vast web of power and corruption. How the rich nobles of this world try to manipulate people to fight for them. And boy, was this such a good cast of characters.
You know which character I ended up liking the most? Rowan. That old man was a man of foresight, honor and courage. He represented the goodness in all of us humans. I have a feeling he’s lived through an epic life that I wish Brian would make a prequel about him. I wonder if Rowan had a lover. Then it was Felgor, who turned out to be a more mature version of Jolan. The evilness that is depicted in the Lords of Power, from the Emperor of Balaria to the King of Almira himself, just goes to show how good people are taken in, and then twisted to the roots as they are forced to do acts of terror that they would never wish to do in the first place.
More than that, I sympathised with Bershad a lot man. Poor guy’s been through so much, and yet he’s still a badass taking on the biggest dragons in this world. I love how Brian related the effects of climate change and illustrated into it the fantasy context. There’s an empire that has no proper roads, lets say its Almira, and they worship with mud-totems. One of the most incredible things that Brian did was relate the jaguar/jungles to this European foundation that Almira to me resembles. This is actually more historically authenthic, because when the Spanish settled in the New World, they began to adapt a lot of customs from their Aztec neighbours, and thus the infusion of a new Latin culture integrating the Spanish and the Mexica, so to say, was born. The jaguar is a potent symbol in the Aztec culture, and was worshipped often. So I really liked this.
I don’t want to spoil the plot. It took me 2 days to get started, but man, I did enjoy this. Really buy this book now. Go get it!
Awesome review! I cannot wait to read this. Everyone who has read it has loved it.
Great to hear :DDD
Great review!! Rowan was my favorite too and I cried so much for him and Alfonso 😭😭
This was one of my top favorites of last year and I’m so excited for the sequel next month 😍😍😍
Currently reading the sequel
Its going to be awesome
And yes, poor Alfonso. What did the donkey do?? Rowan as well!
I have it on my August tbr too… can’t wait to see what you think of it….!!!!
And yes… what did Alfonso do… I never thought I would be so upset for the donkey but it was such a heartbreaking scene …
This book was so good. I knew nothing about it, apart from the blurb, and it blew me away. One of the best of 2019, and there was stiff competition that year.
Def. This stands out. You’ll def love book 2 for that matter. It delivers way more and does a lot of good things 😀
And yes, Silas keeps getting his ass kicked :3