Calvanni Review — Dawn Paris — December 2103

5 stars

The beginning didn’t thrill me with a few too many names to assimilate and a little bit too much world, but I’m glad I hung on because everything got much more interesting very quickly. There’s a lot of action here, and the three main POV characters are all interesting.

Scytheman Review — Sarah — April 2014

4 Stars

When I first entered to win a copy of this book, I originally thought it was a historical novel set in Ancient Rome. It wasn’t until after I’d actually won it that I realised it was a fantasy. Or science fiction. Or a combination of both.

I like books with swords and sorcery in and have done ever since I started reading the Lone Wolf Adventure game books when I was much younger. Although this wasn’t entirely a unique storyline, it was an interesting take on the whole thing.

Although I was slightly confused with the constant changing of characters at first, I eventually got to know the characters and the storyline. It was good to see how everyone became connected throughout the course of the book.

I did like Cedrin as a character and I particularly liked Marken, too. I liked that the author had the characters actually get hurt and not be amazing fighters – and that they were skilled with certain weapons, but not all.

The descriptions in the book were particularly good. I found it really easy to empathise with the characters and the relationships that developed were good and believable.

There were a couple of humorous moments in the book that came across really well. The idea of the tattoos was quite an interesting one and I would have liked a bit more explanation about what they all meant, though the author did do a good job of imparting that information without actually creating an info-dump.

The book was really intense and kept me reading throughout. Although it was the second in a trilogy, I didn’t struggle with relating with the characters or get too confused about what was going on. I do intend to read the third and first books in this trilogy at some point in the future and I would also check out other books by this same author.

Scytheman Review — Tex Reader — March 2014

4 Stars

I love fantasy adventures, and the characters, world and plot in this one fulfilled all I hoped for. They bill it as a combo of Kill Bill and Dune – well I love both and this indeed runs along those lines.

The plot moves along quickly with the build up of tension and gritty action, and even the world building is intriguing enough to not slow things down. The sword and sorcery, which I love, is top notch. The characters are in-depth and believable. The main protagonists were very likable – I was rooting for them all the way – and the antagonist is multidimensional as well.

This is the second book of the trilogy, and you can definitely read it as a stand-alone; although I think reading Book 1 would probably have made an even richer experience to take in all of what Chris McMahon has created. I’m now anxious to read book 3 (Sorcerer) to see how it all ends.

Scytheman Review — Dawn Paris – December 2013

5 Stars

I really like the characters and storylines here, and the action is good–there are a few style things that bug me, but the story is worth it. I am bummed that I must now save up to buy the third one.