• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
FanFiAddict

FanFiAddict

A gaggle of nerds talking about Fantasy, Science Fiction, and everything in-between. They also occasionally write reviews about said books. 2x Stabby Award-Nominated and home to the Stabby Award-Winning TBRCon.

  • Home
  • About
    • Reviewers
    • Review Policy
    • Contact
  • Blog
    • Guest Posts
    • Lists
    • Neurodivergence in Fiction
    • Why You Should Read…
  • Reviews
    • Children’s / Middle Grade Books
    • Comics/Graphic Novels
    • Fantasy
      • Alt History
      • Coming of Age
      • Debut
      • Epic Fantasy
      • Fairy Tales
      • Grimdark
      • Heroic Fantasy
      • LitRPG
      • Paranormal Fantasy
      • Romantic Fantasy
      • Steampunk
      • Superheroes
      • Sword and Sorcery
      • Urban Fantasy
    • Historical Fiction
    • Horror
      • Debut
      • Demons
      • Ghosts
      • Gothic
      • Lovecraftian
      • Monsters
      • Occult
      • Psychological
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves
      • Witches
      • Zombies
    • Science Fiction
      • Aliens
      • Artificial Intelligence
      • Alt History
      • Cyberpunk
      • Debut
      • Dystopian
      • Hard SciFi
      • Mechs/Robots
      • Military SF
      • Space Opera
      • Steampunk
      • Time Travel
    • Thriller
  • Interviews
    • Book Tube
    • Authorly Writing Advice
  • SFF Addicts Podcast
    • SFF Addicts Clips
    • SFF Addicts (Episode Archive)
  • TBRCon
    • TBRCon2022
    • TBRCon2023

Review: Paladin Unbound by Jeffery Speight

July 2, 2021 by Mada Leave a Comment

Paladin Unbound by Jeffrey Speight, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®
Abe Books
Alibris
Amazon
Book Depository
Goodreads

Rating: 10/10

Synopsis

The last of a dying breed, a holy warrior must rise up against a growing darkness in Evelium.
The most unlikely of heroes, a lowly itinerant mercenary, Umhra the Peacebreaker is shunned by society for his mongrel half-Orc blood. Desperate to find work for himself and his band of fighters, Umhra agrees to help solve a rash of mysterious disappearances, but uncovers a larger, more insidious plot to overthrow the natural order of Evelium in the process. As Umhra journeys into the depths of Telsidor’s Keep to search for the missing, he confronts an ancient evil and, after suffering a great loss, turns to the god he disavowed for help. Compelled to save the kingdom he loves, can he defeat the enemy while protecting his true identity, or must he risk everything?

Review

Paladin Unbound is a classic fantasy adventure, full of mysteries, mysterious cults, a warrior that is destined to save the world, and the grudges of Gods echoing for eons. In this novel, I was expecting something more grimdark. Many times, I questioned whether I was reading the epic fantasy trope or was there going to be moments of grim darkness. Suffice to say, this wasn’t the case and it made a break as I often read too much grimdark fantasy these days. You’ll find most of the characters in this novel are courteous, and sometimes perhaps a bit too trusting for my taste. But in the end, what you have is a complete story, right out of the package and it’s absolutely suitable for a children’s novel as well. It has something that grimdark fantasy is missing I think: Loyalty and Integrity. But that’s only my observation and that is an opinion. Nothing else, nothing more.

Umhra, a half-human half-orc mercenary is contracted by Lord Espen Morrow to find out what is going on in Ember Valley and why people are disappearing. This of course draws the Eyre of other mercenaries’ groups that discriminates against Orcs. I think racism is nothing more than jealousy disguised as hate. It stems from insecurity. So, they set out to do this task, and they uncover something more mysterious. Vampires and innocents. I don’t wish to reveal the story further, but I can give you a taste: Jealous Kings, Huge Immense Castles, Catacombs, the Undead, Gods, a cult called the Brotherhood of Resurrection (who are literally the worst people to call themselves a cult as I consider themselves a parody no matter what they think of themselves as high and mighty people trying to resurrect their demon God which, to be honest, is a stupid idea. Very stupid idea. Very stupid.) Actually, half of this novel reminded me of my playing sessions in Elder Scrolls Online. It was basically Castlevania but without so much of the grim darkness that was involved.

Let me be clear, this is heroic fantasy at all costs. And it’s got a traditional LOTR style element to it as well. It is refreshing, but I was hoping we could have seen some more clever stuff from the characters. Yes, it’s still a dangerous world, but the characters acted more on impulse rather than thinking two-three steps ahead for some parts of the novel. This is not always the case, and in many parts, you get quality writing. Sometimes there pacing issues, and sometimes I think scenes could have been shortened. There were many great characters in this novel, and I liked how Umhra managed to navigate a lot of this. Any sane person on his journey would have gone mad when you actually consider what he’ll get up to in the novel. I do say, he has a habit of travelling to Kings to meet them quite often! He is, of course, hiding a bigger secret.

There are powerful stakes, heart-breaking scenes, quality writing prose and amazing combat scenes. I really enjoyed this. It’s a 10/10 from me!

There is also a giveaway going on so do check it out!

Enter the giveaway here!

Direct link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e832e98887/?

Filed Under: Reviews

About Mada

Mada, the Medjay of Faiyum, is a book reviewer of fantasy and sci-fi, mostly fantasy and historical fiction, and passionate about video gaming, a fan of franchises such as Paradox, Total War, Assassin Creed.

Other Reviews You Might Like

Review: Blindspace (Book #2 of The Common) by Jeremy Szal

Review: New Yesterday by Frasier Armitage

Three Mini Reviews in One

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Sponsored By

Use Discount Code FANFI For 5% Off!

Follow FanFi!

Sign up for updates and get FREE stories from Michael R. Fletcher and Richard Ford!

What Would You Like To See?(Required)
Please select the type of content you want to receive from FanFi Addict. You can even mix and match if you want!

FFA Recommends

Get This Book
Get This Book
Get This Book
Get This Book

Recent Reviews

The cover for New Yesterday by Frasier Armitage.

Recent Comments

  1. Adrian M. Gibson on Author Roundtable: Indie Marketing (with Kian N. Ardalan, Ryan Cahill, Aparna Verma & Gourav Mohanty)March 23, 2023
  2. zidane on Review: A Fractured Infinity by Nathan TavaresMarch 14, 2023
  3. Gary Weston on Bender’s Top 10 Fights in Fantasy BooksMarch 14, 2023
  4. David S on My Top 15 Favorite Male Anime Protagonists (So Far)March 13, 2023
  5. Komikinime on My Top 15 Favorite Male Anime Protagonists (So Far)March 11, 2023

Archive

Copyright © 2023 · Powered by ModFarm Sites · Log In