Posted by The opening sets the tone and expectations for a brutal and darker kind of read. The main character, Lior, is a monk/priest in a monastery of sorts. Their order prays through crystals to the gods and most of the brothers hear responses, but not Lior. However, just because you hear the gods doesn’t mean you’re safe. The magic of the crystals can be too much for the human body to handle, and the introduction we get to this world and this character is his brother essentially melted/exploded with light because he had a “failing of faith.” His brothers are sad but it seems to be common place given their reactions, and later on you learn that it is in fact a frequent way a priest dies.
What happens after they die is just as brutal, perhaps even more so. There’s a race/class of people known as the Bonded, and they are resurrected bodies sworn to service to those that revive them. The brothers cut the tongues out, gouge out the eyes, and render them into zombie-like thralls. Lior thinks about the fact that he is fated to become one of these whenever it is that he dies, and that he’ll walk among his brothers as a Bonded. This is a particularly anxiety-inducing thought for Lior.
So, anyway, this lady, Elouan, shows up at the monastery and is all like, “how the fuck are you guys alive? I didn’t think anyone was left out here?” The priests have no idea what she’s talking about, to them things are how they’ve always been, they haven’t seen any creatures that were dangerous enough to make them leave. However, now that they think about it, they hadn’t had visitors in a while. They live out in the woods on the edge of the kingdom’s territory and they’ve been living a life of seclusion and self-sustainment for so long it became normal not to see anyone. Well, their brutal but predictable lives suddenly came crashing down because soon after Elouan’s arrival shit goes wrong. Monsters and void creatures descend on them and a huge portion of the brotherhood is lost, along with thier crystal that protected them from the darkness and void creatures. Now what’s left of the brotherhood have to leave their home and trek to the Queen to see if there’s anything she can do or if they can serve a new purpose. Along the way, it looks like a zombie apocalypse as village after village they come across is utterly destroyed.
The world building in this is intense and there was a surprisingly low amount of exposition given how much world building the reader needs to understand. I really loved the show and not tell style of this author and there’s a ton of Weird Shit going on. There are tentacle monsters, plant monsters, re-animated dead things, all juxtaposed with classic epic fantasy elements like elves, giants and orc like people. It led to a very interesting mix that freshened things up. The monsters are not to be fucked with, either. To have a void larva take hold is way worse than dying, which is why most bodies are either burned or turned into Bonded. There was also a Bonded character who was bound to Elouan and he was super intriguing. He doesn’t act like a normal Bonded where if Lior gives him a command he automatically does what he’s told. This Bonded is occasionally like, fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me. Interesting.
I personally felt like this one had a bit of a slow start because I wasn’t sure where the plot was going until Elouan turned up. Then once things started to get going, around 25%, I started to enjoy myself a lot with it. I also need to invest in the characters first, world and plot second, while this book thrusts world building and plot set up first, and we get to know Lior more as time goes on.
Overall, I enjoyed my time with this one and would recommend it to anyone who likes darker fantasy, quests/trekking stories, brotherhoods/found family, and in-depth world building.
At the time of this review this book is SAFE.