I’ll be brief with this review because this isn’t a book that should be dissected: a solid, fun, weird read. It’s written *cool* in the sense that it’s a simple, linear narrative with some jarring twists and brutalities that throws the world-building, characterizations, dialogue, and story in like ingredients for a stew. I had an absolute blast reading this. Cook tells a demented and violent reimagining of the Tolkien Rings trilogy without bastardizing or overly relying on satire or cynicism. There’s grit here and plenty of believable emotion. I’m not sure where it’s going (because by now I’m at least aware that this series has multiple entries) but I’m happy to let Cook do what he did here in the first novel and give me a wickedly cool and crisp tale/series of tales of unlovable misanthropes at the end of a world. I imagine this would be what the autarch’s wars would read like if Wolfe didn’t focus on Severian’s forays. I’d like to think that Vlad without a sense of humor would appear somewhere in these pages. Regardless of what my thoughts are or the comparisons might be, this is a rugged and quick dirty book full of possibilities and I loved every page.