- this was fine! Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. 3.5 stars rounded up?
- the dual narrative was an interesting way to tell the story and the plot was generally engaging! I also really liked the idea of someone telling the story and adding it footnotes and the unreliable narration was also really cool- not something you normally get in fantasy! However, I felt like it did get a bit too convoluted at points- the end few chapters felt a bit like the author going “well… I bet you weren’t expecting this, haha!” Over and over in a way that didn’t necessarily add to the story- I think a lot of the body swapping/this person’s actually related to *this* person instead of the one you thought they were! could have been cut out and the story would have flowed better.
- I didn’t really like the main character. I get he’s supposed to be young and naïve, but his reactions to things got a bit grating over time, especially as he didn’t really seem to grow out of it. I did enjoy the other characters though- Tyentso the most! Talon was also a pretty fun villain.
- the world building was really cool- I loved all of the lore around the gods and the magic. I also loved the dragons! (More dragons please!) I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of returning though. Whenever someone important died it was like “well they’re just going to come back,” and it made some emotional moments feel quite cheap and lowered the stakes a lot.
- not sure if I’ll get round to reading the others in the series, but I’m not opposed to the idea! This was a generally fun time that put a twist on a lot of traditional fantasy “clichés”, even if I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as I wanted to.

3.5⭐s it has some really great moments and some really boring moments

The next big blockbuster fantasy series, at least according to the massive publicity push.

There are three narrative threads switching back and forth, sometimes with lightning speed: there is the present-day, in which our handsome hero, Kihrin, is in prison, telling his story to Talon in first person.

Then we get Talon’s narrative intrusions explaining Kihrin’s past, interpolated with a mysterious narrator who also adds footnotes.

It’s clear that the author is having prime fun with narrative devices; the footnotes veer between mordant-toned commentary and casual worldbuilding nuggets. The result is a snarl of time and place and POV that the reader must constantly adjust to, but there is enough cleverness in the prose, and vivid imagery (sometimes too vivid for my wimpy self) to make it worthwhile-- if one likes this type of fantasy.

And a lot of people will. It’s intelligently written, with wildly inventive worldbuilding stitching together the usual fantasy tropes of kings, demons, wars, and priests doing blood magic, etc.

The book should do super well as there is enough torture, blood, guts, brothel-forced sex, incest, rape, and agony (while still preserving Kihrin’s fabulous looks and nascent powers) to satisfy the Game of Thrones fans who go into fantasy expecting astronomical body counts.

Since this was a preview, ending on a thousand mile drop of a cliffhanger, there is no predicting how this first book of a projected five book series hangs together, but judging by the exhilaratingly wild ride of this glimpse, I expect it will do what its fans want most: entertain.


Preview provided by NetGalley