Synopsis
Ser Edward, an experienced sailor, embarks on perhaps the most daring expedition of the Kingdom of Esenworth so far. His mission is to try to earn the blessing of the Reverend Sven, who is none other than his love’s father, probably the most influential man in the realm. But on his journey beset by fierce storms, he and his men encounter something that could shake to the core not only their faith, but their very concept of the world as well. Meanwhile, far from the oceans, his love, Emma, is trying to disentangle herself from the spider’s web of intrigue and scheming, into which she is being drawn ever deeper by Erick the new king.
And the dark clouds just keep gathering above – ancient beasts, stranger than ever, appear at sea, on land and even in the skies more and more frequently. They roar with a metallic screech, their eyes glow with an unnatural light, their skin hard and rigid as armor.
Can order be upheld in this age blind to divine prophecy, in the largest kingdom of the North, where the monarch’s mind is coming undone just like reality itself?
Our heroes must struggle ceaselessly to understand the hidden secrets of their world and their own origins. But what are they going to do once they have the answers?
Review
“Man is made who he is by his memories and his thoughts.”
Sealed Empire by Norbert Zsivicz is an interesting story that I absolutely devoured in around four days. I’d seen this booked hyped up by a few others and it certainly deserves it.
This is a medieval fantasy that does have a trigger warning. It is dark and gritty in such a way that grabs you and thrusts you through the page right until the very last word. Saying more about the genre itself would be a tad spoilery but the epilogue itself was as surprising as it was intriguing and left me eager for more of this. The prologue to the epilogue was well-described and mysterious and I’m glad that I gave this the meticulous attention that it deserved.
I was reminded of the Horizon games in some aspects of this. There are machines that leave us wondering what is happening and how they factor in to the story. Zsivicz deals with multiple POVs, tense storylines and a brutal history that we have unpacking and nitpicking to work out just exactly what is going on here. I really enjoyed how Zsivicz neatly describes the landscape, the religions and the plot and I was impressed with how everything was handled.
The pacing was well organised also. When I needed an info dump, it was there. When I needed to sit with the characters and process what had happened, Zsivicz sat me down and discussed it all. Whatever I thought this story was going to be, it was not, and this was down to how brilliantly Zsivicz kept me glued to the page with their descriptions and unfolding of the plot. I do want to see more expansion of this world and hope that we hear something soon.
The characters are also as gritty as the story. The journey they go through is dramatically intense and just when I thought a character would do something, something different happened and my imagination ran wild.
Sealed Empire isn’t perfect, there were times that I felt repulsed but this was the authors intention. I urge you to stick with it and marvel at how brilliantly crafted this can be. I’m so eager to see where this goes from here because it is not what I expected at all.
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