Synopsis
In a quiet tower, in a black stone keep, a new era of man had begun…
The Imperial Army has been routed.
Rebellion strikes in the Provenci homeland.
A champion is sent north to serve the Iron Queen with every intent on exacting her demise.
And the Successor of the All-Mother, champion of the known world, discovers her unfathomable powers as she is hunted through the Rapture by assassins of the dark.
As the war strides relentlessly on, and dark secrets hide in the shadows, the ruin of man will come, and it is proven just how far one will go – and how much blood will be spilt – to cling to whatever power they have left.
As the Horns of Grief rise, vengeance shall come, and the world will bleed in chaos…
Review
Grimdark isn’t my most read sub-genre of fantasy. It’s something I can read in small doses between other books. That being said I really enjoyed lots about this book.
It continues on from book one in this militaristic story following the war between Provenci and Tarraz. We get four main POV’s all with different storylines. The story in this one increases the stakes and nothing is held back for these characters. It’s full of revenge, rebellion, military warfare, power struggles, politics, and plenty of monsters and demons that crawl from the shadows. This world is bloody, brutal and anybody’s head could be on the chopping block which made for an exciting story where I couldn’t predict what was going to happen. I enjoyed Cavara’s story, with the Forgotten One and learning about the rapture and all it’s possibilities. Jinx and Eli’s story was interesting and I felt this is where the book added the most heart, as I was just really rooting for them the whole time. I wasn’t expecting the battle to take the whole book but I liked it a lot. Revek continues to be so easily detestable. All the POV’s were different and interesting to follow.
The writing style continues to be a highlight for me and one of the real strengths of this series. I’d love to see what’s next for Doble in his writing career. The style of writing is not too flowery but also has something about it that really makes it stand out from other debuts for me. It’s smooth and easy to follow while also drawing you in so deeply to the story in an entrancing way. Doble does a wonderful job at writing characters too, and especially at showing how everyone of them has both good and bad aspects.
The aspects I felt didn’t work for me were that certain characters continued to have some dialogue and thoughts that felt like ‘villainous monologue’ to me and this was something I didn’t love about book one as well.
A series with lots that really stands out from the crowd. If Grimdark is your thing or you feel like reading something with blood, gore and creatures from your nightmares, then check out this series.
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