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· 1,441 ratings · 317 reviews

Start your review of Shadow of the Conqueror

Video up tomorrow. A lot to say on this one. I need more from the series before I give stars. The setup is great, but I am waiting for the payoff I really hope is there.

This is a difficult review to write.

I'm biased to like the author, based off of his youtube personality/channel.
Because of that, I want to like this novel. However, it is rough, for one minor and one major reason.

This is a difficult review to write.

I'm biased to like the author, based off of his youtube personality/channel.
Because of that, I want to like this novel. However, it is rough, for one minor and one major reason.

Minor reason - the writing still needs editing, or maybe a co-author. As-is, the novel is very often expository, dumping mechanics, systems and seeming "logic asides" all the time. The tone of the written prose is fluctuating wildly, with supposedly heart-wrenching monologue from a character in one line, an utterly neutral aside on some tangent the next line (blood was easy to wipe off, because it's mostly water.... ???? Yes, okay, was it worth to put that information to the reader, in the process completely pulling the rug out of what was intended to be an emotional moment for a character?).

The main character is problematic, to say the least. Supposedly carrying a lifetime of guilt, he constantly flips between short half-page bursts of self-pity, and long multi-page sections of him kicking arse, being the best and smartest and most logical and skilled person... So the self-pitying falls completely flat, because we're never shown that he truly cares about his guilt - going to a room and locking oneself in to sob for 3% of the novel does not compensate for the 97% of "badass" stuff.

The biggest issue, however, that keeps me from rating this novel higher, is the novel's constant obsession with sex and rape. The main character is largely defined by it, almost all of the female characters with more than one line dedicated to them are either trusty homesitting wives (quoting, "with breasts like melons"), religiously obsessed with cooking for their MEN and sexing their MEN, or they are absolutely and utterly defined by having been raped and/or kept for sex trafficking. And, okay, if this had been handled with care, okay... but the way these events are treated - like offhand mentions with no apparent empathy from the characters or author beyond the briefest of lip service - is genuinely discomforting. As a whole, the perspective this novel presents feels extremely callous and uncaring.

I don't know if the author is trying to make some weird point with this novel regarding "traditional" family roles, or historical/fantasy depictions of rape, or if it's something deeper, but... look, this isn't pleasant to read. Not due to graphic violence or anything, but due to the utter lack of empathy and the prevalent use of rape as a plot point with no exploration - or even seemingly awareness - of what it really means.

...more

This is likely to be an unpopular opinion.

I am a HUGE fan of the author's YouTube channel. He does some super in-depth analysis of various medieval and fantasy ideas and medias and I love 98% of what he does.

But this book has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Honestly, I would have rated it lower but I reserve 1-star ratings for books that don't have anything that I like or enjoy. And this book has a little going for it, just not nearly enough to counterbalance the poor elements.

Okay, when I

This is likely to be an unpopular opinion.

I am a HUGE fan of the author's YouTube channel. He does some super in-depth analysis of various medieval and fantasy ideas and medias and I love 98% of what he does.

Okay, when I saw this audiobook was narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading I was really excited to dig in. Those two are a fantastic narration team and have never let me down.

Indeed, the narration is excellent. Kate and Michael both have some awesome voices and incredible control of tempo and vocal inflections.

But the story.

Okay, let me begin with a few praises.

Although in need of a good polish, the prose is smooth and skillful. The characters have a reasonable amount of depth. And the depth of the world building is incredible.

Which is part of the problem.

I don't mean incredible in the sense of being really good, but actually incredible. I can't believe how much of it is actually in the book.

Honestly, there are a LOT of asides that feel like rules entries in a roleplaying game campaign/setting book. It's almost as if this whole story in just from sidebars in such a campaign book.

There's just way more detail about the world and its mechanics than necessary, while a couple of very specific issues that strain my suspension of disbelief are never addressed.

However, there are three prose issues that need to be mentioned.

The frequent (and it is, oh, so frequent!) use of the word "literally" really diminishes the power of the prose and makes it feel amateurish.

While some of the dialogue is good and feels natural, other bits are so clunky and feel so forced I can hardly believe the narrators didn't balk at actually saying the lines.

And the sheer amount of "telling" (rather than showing) in this book was really frustrating, particularly with "action" sequences. The book would have been so much more exciting if so much of the action hadn't been summarized upon its completion. From an author who is a sword enthusiast and a skilled swordsman himself, I was really expecting a lot more detail devoted to the fight scenes.

Now, I have 2 very large issues that almost made me drop the book and get a refund on numerous occasions.

1, rampant (and awkward) sexuality and rape.

There are multiple characters completely defined by their sexual assault, and I'm sorry, but showing a recent rape victim who literally throws herself at every young male available as a "coping mechanism" is so far beyond ridiculous, I don't even have the words to express it.

For an author who claims Mormon values and sensibilities, I can't help wondering if he doesn't include this purely because he somehow got the misguided idea that readers want it.

Here's the thing, books like A Game of Thrones can get away with it because it feels authentic to the world and the situations feel real. Not because fantasy readers particularly want to see it.

Reading those parts in this book felt like listening to a nine-year-old talk about sex. It was super awkward and did not remotely resemble how real people talk about sex.

2, the main character. There are so many issues here, but let me condense the list to a few key points.

The biggest problem is he's a bastard. After being with him for 18 hours I can honestly say there's not one thing about him that I like. Largely because every positive thing presented just rings false.

Other characters describe him as mature, intelligent, and wise beyond his (apparent) years. But what we see in him is the complete opposite. His pride would make Sauron cringe, he's as frivolous and childish as my nine-year-old daughter, and the sheer number of idiotic decisions he makes is mind blowing.

And there's this contradiction. The author goes to great lengths to show us his guilt. He spends pages and pages bemoaning it and at one point the main character spends days locked in his cabin weeping over it.

But at the end of the day, he's still a bastard who raped young girls and killed millions. And he proves himself to still be a selfish, violent man prone to overreacting and dispensing vigilante justice. In some cases with no evidence of guilt.

While in most roleplaying games it's perfectly acceptable to take someone at their word and kill their attacker, in a supposedly deep and complex novel, I expect more realism than that.

Especially when it's from an author who has established himself as a person with a huge amount of attention to detail who spends a lot of time criticizing films and games for very minor lapses in realism.

And yes, the fact that the main character is a master at basically everything he does as well as having more powerful magic than anyone else is a huge problem. Whether there's an explanation or not is irrelevant. How good he is at everything competely destroys any tension that might otherwise have existed.

I feel like leaving out the sex (or writing it with realism and sensitivity) and making the Light Bringer (whose name I won't try to spell) the main character would have solved all of the novel's plot and character problems.

I actually really liked the Bringer as a character. He has a complicated past that isn't fully revealed until shortly before the end. He has a strong sense of honor and justice. And I love that his sense of humor is so out there! He makes a lot of really bad jokes, especially in the beginning, and it's a source of banter with other characters, which I appreciate.

Finally, let's talk about a few of the world elements that I have issues with.

First, the endless universe. Was any thought put into this? As far as I can tell, the entire "universe" exists within around a thousand miles of height, and reaching the "bottom" then drops one from the "top." But there is a sun beyond that somehow.

The whole thing smacks of nonsense to me, and no attempt at an explanation is made, yet almost everything else in the world is explained to the umpteenth degree.

I'm really struggling with the magic system. First and foremost is the fact that light is the source of magic. Maybe it's just me, but that seems absurd to me. And then we spend so much time getting so bogged down in the rules of the magic, and defining everything, and having the main character "discover" things that are supposed to be impossible, that by the time the actual story starts I don't even care how the magic works anymore.

Also, I have a serious issue with the magic that might be considered a spoiler so read the rest of this paragraph at your own risk. At one point near the end of the book the main character "channels light" (invests magic) into amplifying his skill with a sword. Everything magic has done previously has been manipulating physical characteristics or natural forces (such as wind or gravity). Yet somehow he's able to channel light into his "skill." Again, for an author so gung-ho about realism and things making sense, this is extremely disappointing.

Also, the fact that everything else about the magic is so scientific just rubs me the wrong way. Magic should be mystical. Magic should be variable. Magic should not be 100% explained with every rule and mechanic on the table in the first 100 pages. Yes, it's capabilities and limitations should make sense, but it doesn't need that strong a grounding in scientific realism.

I find the sheer amount of technology and tech-speak in the book distracting and irritating. I don't pick up a high/epic fantasy novel to read about technology. I don't want to read about engineering. I don't want to hear about cellular levels, guns, modern political issues, and scientific advances. I want swords and armor and magic and medieval political problems.

My last issue comes down to predictability. For a book that people keep comparing to Brandon Sanderson, I was really expecting a mystery that I couldn't figure out until we came to it and enough complexity to keep me thinking and revising my opinions and ideas of what was really going on.

Unfortunately, there is none of that here. The plot is very linear, very straightforward, and very predictable. Nothing surprised me.

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love this book, there is very little that I enjoyed here and I really can't think of any type of reader that I would recommend this book to.

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Jul 07, 2019 Monique B rated it did not like it

Very disappointed.

I am a fan of Shad's youtube channel, which is very good, but his attempt at novel writing is very poor and disappointing. I wish I could say good things about the characters, but they are annoying. I wish I could say the world was interesting, but it is ridiculously illogical for a person who likes logic so much. I wish the plot was better, but it fails to keep me interested. I wish the writing was good, but it is full of fluff and nonsensical sidebar info that it distracts fr

Very disappointed.

The action is good. Definitely deserves 1 star for that...

This novel needs an editor. It needs to go back to the drawing board and be re-edited and re-released.

The book has an epic scale... but feels like the author is trying too hard to impress people.

My advice? Shad should try his hand at short stories and novellas first. Maybe some "Sword & Sorcery", but keep it short and sweet. Get better at the craft of writing before trying to write another novel.

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DNF (Did Not Finish)
I love Shad's YouTube channel and this was a promising premise, but the novel is annoyingly unpolished and objectionable.

As for the unsavory elements, there are copious references to rape, ravaging and sex trafficking (as well as beastiality).

Gratuitous language include several instances of: d*mn, *ss, *sshole, b*st*rd, and bl**dy, as well as crap, piss, tit and retarded. Which is kind of out of character for an author that wears a shirt saying, "I want you to watch your la

DNF (Did Not Finish)
I love Shad's YouTube channel and this was a promising premise, but the novel is annoyingly unpolished and objectionable.

As for the unsavory elements, there are copious references to rape, ravaging and sex trafficking (as well as beastiality).

This contemporary swearing, along with modern phrases (such as "Don't be a smart*ss"), and a plethora of contractions every page, takes you out of the fantasy setting over and over again.

Sadly, another editor or two were desperately needed to refine all of the writing flaws. In chapter 2, a question ends with a period. There are awkward phrases like "said embarrassedly" or sentences that are just grammatically clumsy:

"Daylen didn't want to explain that once he managed to climb into the blackened thing he didn't want to have to climb out of it only to get into another one."

"Thankful for the windshield he leaned back, trying to recover his breath."

Additionally, many paragraphs are only a single sentence or two (and they weren't ones with dialogue).

"Daylen pulled his coat shut and did up the large buttons running down its front.
Still holding the small sunstone-lined box, Daylen opened it and took out the darkstone with two fingers.
He tossed the box aside."

I did love that women have longsword parasols (can I have one?!), and Shad definitely knows his weapons, so there's that.

However, there are numerous times where the author ignores the golden rule of "show, don't tell" when we get continual info dumps on the kingdom, magic and character backgrounds. A reader should feel like they are dropped into the middle of a world and they slowly unravel clues as it goes along.

For what I read, it was like a choppy and distasteful rough draft, so I returned my kindle book for a refund (a rarity for me).
From now on, I'll stick with Shad's sword videos and the likes of Brandon Sanderson for fantasy reading.

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I wanted to like this novel, I really did. I'm a fan of Shad's YouTube channel, and really love his content. Reading the back-cover blurb, I was excited to read this novel - there's so much potential. But after 30-40 pages (of a 500 page paperback), I had to put it down. The prose is extremely substandard, the worldbuilding is very heavy-handed, leading to infodump after infodump and aside after aside. In those 30 pages I have read, next to nothing happens. And the main character! He wobbles bet I wanted to like this novel, I really did. I'm a fan of Shad's YouTube channel, and really love his content. Reading the back-cover blurb, I was excited to read this novel - there's so much potential. But after 30-40 pages (of a 500 page paperback), I had to put it down. The prose is extremely substandard, the worldbuilding is very heavy-handed, leading to infodump after infodump and aside after aside. In those 30 pages I have read, next to nothing happens. And the main character! He wobbles between self-pity and "I had it better in my day!" old-man-ism. And that could work... except he doesn't seem to have much of an actual personality.

And there is such potential here, too! The world-concept is very Sanderson-esque, filled with magic and airships, and even some industrialization. It's just a shame that the author failed to heed his own advice. This novel should have gone through two or three rounds with an editor. And I mean a true content editor. Shad credits a copy editor and two proofreaders, but their only role is to correct spelling and grammatical mistakes (and I still spotted several, including tense confusion on the second page!)

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Mmkay.

So, first off, I really like the author. Seems like a great guy, fantastic Youtube channel, etc. I hope he keeps writing, and I'll probably give his future work another shot.

Mmkay.

So, first off, I really like the author. Seems like a great guy, fantastic Youtube channel, etc. I hope he keeps writing, and I'll probably give his future work another shot.

I don't want to come off as bashing this book. There were things I really liked - the setting is interesting, the hard magic aspects (darkstone in particular) are engaging and well-thought out, and you can tell that Shad's put a lot of effort into taking fantastical premises to logical and grounded conclusions. He also knows his way around weapons and medieval combat, and I appreciate the realism (even if the action scenes did seem a little too concerned with giving various guards their proper names over getting a good 'flow' going). That's all good.

However, I cannot say that I enjoyed this book. There's a few reasons for that.

1. the Protagonist.

Daylen is by far the biggest problem with the book. His characterization is super inconsistent, as he jumps from bratty teenager to world-weary veteran to cocky swordsman so quickly it gives you whiplash. The character's past is also...not handled well. I've got no issues with villain protagonists (Glokta from First Law is, IMO, one of the best characters I've ever read), but Daylen feels less like a repentant monster, and more like a standard anime badass with a tragic past, who deals with said past by crying in his room for a few minutes every so often, before getting back to glorious ass-kicking. It does not feel like the two sides of his character mesh well at all.

On top of that, I'm not entirely comfortable with the way his character is portrayed. Past aside (and hoo boy, is it ever a past. Guy is basically a fantasy Stalin/Lenin hybrid, and on top of that, he's personally guilty of just about every heinous crime there is. Yes, even those ones), his current actions are...ethically dubious? at best? After being magically de-aged and gaining superpowers because of some handwavium (more or that later), his first response is to go on an ultraviolent batmanesque rampage. He kills. he mutilates. He takes pleasure in killing his targets, often in sadistic ways, even when he is perfectly capable of capturing them alive (none of his targets really stand a chance against him, either). The story justifies this because his targets are all terrible people (who doesn't cheer when a sex slaver gets anally impaled?), and it almost invariably treats his actions as unreservedly heroic. I'll use Glokta as an example again here - the dude's a sadistic, self-pitying monster who tortures (mostly innocent) people for a living, and the story makes sure we know that he's a terrible human being. We root for him because he's hilarious, self-aware, because everyone else in the story is just as terrible as he is, and because his actions - though terrible - are still grounded in his essential humanity. Daylen...isn't that. He's a bad person who claims to know he's a bad person...but whom the story (and most secondary characters) treat like a hero. His actions aren't grounded in understandable human motivations, but rather some vague sense of misplaced idealism (kill your way to a better world!) that makes it seems like he hasn't really changed his core beliefs, just his modus operandi (instead of killing people with a giant empire, let's kill people personally!) It's a little uncomfortable to read, because if I met someone in real life who condoned Daylen's actions (even his current actions), I'd back away slowly.

Also, Daylen comes perilously close to being a Mary Sue. He's a genius in several fields, a master inventor, a master military strategist, and one of the best swordsmen in the world. He's pioneered means of using the more hard-magic magic in ways never before seen in the world. He's extremely good looking, with a ... distinctive...appearance. On gaining magical abilities in a freak accident, he's much better with those abilities than people who have trained with them their entire lives. His only real flaw is his dark past and supposed self-loathing (and I say supposed because for a guy who claims that he'd rather die than live with what he's done, Daylen sure enjoys his life a heck of a lot. Particularly the parts of it where he kills people in gruesome and sadistic ways).

Finally, the book uses the time-honored (not) technique of showcasing Daylen's intelligence not by having him DO anything particularly intelligent, but by making every other character laughably stupid. In particular, the fact that his pretense of being the 'son' of his original self (despite the numerous inconsistencies in his story and his continual 'breaking character' to angrily defend his past actions or yell at people for talking to him like a kid) should have lasted all of 2 minutes before he was called on it. He's identical to his younger self. He's around characters that used to know him. He has nothing and no-oone to support his claim of who he is, and he has skills and knowledge that are physically impossible for someone of his supposed age. In a setting where there is no such thing as magic, I could MAYBE buy that people would not see through the ruse, but he lives in a world where soft magic is a thing, and where one of the 'types' of magic can perform literal miracles. Someone really should have figured it out before the 'dramatic reveal' near the climax.

2. The Magic System

The biggest issue here is that the story is written as though it's a hard magic system story, when the magic system is actually quite soft. I love Brandon Sanderson, and his laws of magic apply here. In particular:

"An author's ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic"

and

" Limitations are more important than abilities".

Shad uses magic to resolve conflicts a LOT. Magic is, in fact, the cornerstone of resolving most of the conflicts in the book. The problem is that while there is a token attempt at defining what magic can do (speaking specifically of lifebringing, as that's the magic system Daylen uses, and the one that is most abused throughout the story), these rules are continually broken, twisted, and rejigged in order to allow Daylen to succeed by the skin of his teeth. A well-written hard magic system puts the reader in a position where it is theoretically possible for them to identify how the conflict might be resolved ahead of time (though great writing means you only recognize the foreshadowing in hindsight.) Clever or creative uses of pre-established abilities are one way to do this well. That's not what happens here.

Early in the book, when Daylen gets his powers, we learn a few things about them. First, that he can only change his own 'attributes'. Weight, Speed, Healing, Strength, etc. Second, he can only apply up to 4 enhancements at once. Finally, he has a limit to how much he can do before he needs to recharge (this limitation never meaningfully comes up, incidentally). And if Daylen solved conflicts with clever applications of those powers, that would be fine. He doesn't. Instead, every time he needs a new power, he stretches the limits of what qualifies as an 'attribute' that can be enhanced. Losing a sword fight? I guess he can enhance his sword skill now. Need to destroy a giant projectile hurtling towards a city? I guess he can enhance his sword to cut through it. These applications of magic don't feel clever, they feel cheap. The logic behind them is...tenuous at best, and they rob scenes of any tension, because why should we be concerned for Daylen when he can probably just enhance his, I dunno, "conflict resolution his abilities", turn into a Level 20 Diplomancer, and talk everyone into leaving him alone forever?

Additionally, while it's not a criticism per se, the 'magical abilities come with all of the necessary safeguards to prevent you from harming yourself' approach takes away from the 'hard magic' aspect of a magic system. If magic is just another set of rules (like physics), why do those rules come with the necessary ancillary safeguards to prevent you from hurting yourself with them (and also, why is it that they sometimes don't, like when Daylen accidentally turns himself intangible and blows up his feet)? Like...to refer to Sanderson again, in Mistborn, each of the 3 magic systems comes from a mixture of the influence of one of the two 'gods' of the setting, Preservation and Ruin. The magic of preservation (Ferruchemy) comes with secondary enhancements to avoid hurting the user (like added strength to go with added weight). Allomancy (the magic of blended preservation and ruin) doesn't come with those safeguards (because it's also a magic of ruin), so it's perfectly possible for an Allomancer to e.g. push themselves too far on Pewter, miss a Steelpush and crash into the ground, or accidentally kill themselves with a misjudged Ironpull. And the magic of ruin (hemalurgy) necessarily harms, damages, and RUINS it's users. Each magic is intrinsically linked to the overarching setting in a way that is readily understandable, while still being 'hard magic' because of it's limitations. In this book, however, the magic is not consistent, not linked to any core aspect of the setting (beyond vague references to 'the light'), and seems to have its' capabilities defined by the needs of the plot, not by any intrinsic limitations in the system itself.

Also, the whole 'de-aging miracle' thing feels SUPER out of place in a book that is at least TRYING to sell itself as a hard magic setting. It almost feels like the story was at one point written with the main character ACTUALLY being Daylen's son, before being partially rewritten to it's current form.

Those are the big two, but to briefly sum up the rest of my issues:

- the humor is grating and corny. Bad humor doesn't become good just because you lampshade how bad it is. Also, modern terminology in a fantasy novel has to be used with care.
- there's a low of unnecessary verbiage and exposition.
- the plot was predictable. I called Ahrek as Rayaten almost as soon as the latter was mentioned, and nothing else was really surprising.
- the treatment of sexual assault was fairly insensitive. Particularly given the protagonist's past. It's not clear why the author needed to include the rape elements at all, aside from shock value or (I'm gonna guess) 'realism' (because yes, this is likely what would happen with a real world dictator with no morality and generally unchecked power). IMO none of the rape elements needed to be included, and the book would have been better without them.
- Daylen's past in general is treated poorly. He's supposedly an unforgivable monster (and indeed, the things he's done would literally be unforgivable in a sane world), but his past actions are always 'justified' or mitigated by circumstances somehow, so the author can dance around the question of whether or not he's actually a monster (he is). Also, the whole 'everyone forgives him and decides to let him join the magical order of knights instead of executing him' at end was super far-fetched. People just...don't react like that. Especially not politicians. There was no reasonable end to that trial that did not see Daylen executed.

Finally, "Sunucles" is a silly name for the magical items in the setting. It feels like a bad pun on 'icicles' that doesn't make any sense at all when you give it 2 minutes of thought. It feels meta and more than a bit silly, and it jarred me out of my suspension of disbelief every time I saw the word.

2/5

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Jul 15, 2019 George rated it really liked it

This is complicated, This book might be the true definition of a guilty pleasure. I enjoyed the book but I had some serious issues with it and I would have to go into serious spoiler territory to explain it all.

Should I?

Oof.
I was looking forward to this book in expectation of some great action scenes - since the author is an expert swordsman. Sadly, instead, I found too many info dumps and lots of inner-monologues, as well as the unnecessary use of modern language not fitting the world the story is set in. Especially with the magic system, the 'telling over showing' tendency got pretty bad and, at times, I felt like I'm reading a rulebook rather than a novel.

The premise of Daylen's character is intriguing, bu

The premise of Daylen's character is intriguing, but Shad didn't manage to give him a recognizable voice. Overall, Daylen is a bit inconsistent: Sometimes smart but easy to anger, and sometimes barely more than an arrogant youth who can't tell his thumb from his pinky - which is especially weird given his origin story. Another negative point is the heavy emphasis on Daylen's past acts of sexual violence, I'm fine with the topic being featured prominently in a book, however, if you do it - do it right. As a criminologist with some background in psychology, a lot of the 'psychological' reactions in the book are rather cringey to read - worst of all the reactions Lyra has when confronted with who Daylen truly is. It honestly seems like her character is there for two reasons only, have a bad-ass female warrior and break down in tears whenever a damsel in distress is needed. That's not how this works, that's not how any of this works.

To be fair here, the world and its lore are pretty cool; as is the magic system - once you got through the rulebook. When Shad hits, what I assume, he wanted Daylen's voice to be, the character is interesting, as is his story, despite him clearly being a bit of a Mary Sue.
I have read several 1-Star books that are much worse than this. Yet, 1-Star means 'I did not like it' and that is true for Shadow of the Conqueror. Get this book in the hands of a professional editor to get the pacing right, flesh out the side characters, and read some literature on trauma and coping. Also, 'show don't tell' needs to be paid much more heed. Especially with his background in all things sword-fighting, there should be some amazing action-scenes in Shad's feather. Maybe try to get a spot with a professional publisher and really give the book the polish it deserves.

I hope Shad keeps practising the craft of writing and finds some success with his next work. Despite my disappointment with his debut novel, I certainly am willing to give him another shot as an author.

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~Highly controversial Book~

OK, so if I had to describe this book, I'd basically describe it as having a very grimdark Cosmere/Sanderson steampunk flavour.

The story is set in the world of Everfall, a world where there is no night and it is constantly day time. The only darkness is from creatures called shades, creatures formed from when people stay too long in the dark and turn to monsters. The Continents and islands are not separated by seas but by air.. the islands are floating.. so separated b

~Highly controversial Book~

OK, so if I had to describe this book, I'd basically describe it as having a very grimdark Cosmere/Sanderson steampunk flavour.

Everfall, is also a world where the world has finally finished reeling from the tyranny of one, Daylen, once known as the Great Bastard, the Scourge of Nations, Dayless the Conqueror. As the names suggest, he was not the nicest of people.

Daylen rose to prominence fighting the shade and made a name for himself, however, he then used his new found fame to overthrow the aristocracy to rule his nation himself. However, he then began to conquer other nations. His decent to evil was not a sudden thing but slowly being consumed by war and conquest his methods grew harsher and his mercy more fleeting when dealing with people who opposed/defied/disagreed him. He slowly began to strip his subjects of freedoms. Think George Washington, turned Napoleon and then turned Stalin.

Eventually rebellion broke out against him, led by a man whom he had wronged. One who turned out to be as smart, as devious and as cunning as himself. The tide only truly turned against him when A legendary order of knights joined against him. In the climactic battle the world believed him dead.

However he survived, living in hiding for 20 years as the world remade itself he lived a miserable life in squalor. However left to plot his revenge he found himself reflecting on his past deeds and almost seemed to awaken his conscience and then his guilt.

However when he finally, in his old age decided to end it all something unexpected happened in his attempted suicide, he regained his youth and awoke with the same abilities the knights who played such a apart in his downfall possess.

What I really like about this book
Is that it is different. I am so tired of the prophesied farm boy set to deliver us from evil. Even 'Anti-Hero' books where the character is meant to be a bad... or at least baddish guy is in fact not actually an anti-hero but a poor misunderstood pup.

This book is not like that. Daylen was a cruel tyrant who has had time to reflect and is as guilty, if not more so than he is being portrayed. It shows a great deal of character and progression from the normal genre troupes of fantasy.

There is a solid magic system and a diverse cast of characters.

I'd recommend this to grimdark lovers, Sanderson fans who could do with a a little less clean.

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An internet friend of mine suggested this one to me just like he suggested the authors youtube channel. Ive been on and off watching the said channel so I thought Id give the book a go as well.

I once heard Brandon Sanderson jokingly say, there are ideologically driven novels out there that depict the people they disagree with in real life as paedophile rapists. This is literally one of those books.

The main character of this book is a guy named Daylen (paedophile stalin) and he was the emperor o

An internet friend of mine suggested this one to me just like he suggested the authors youtube channel. Ive been on and off watching the said channel so I thought Id give the book a go as well.

The main character of this book is a guy named Daylen (paedophile stalin) and he was the emperor of the dawn empire (paedophile soviet union). We are told this Daylen guy is very old. Pay attention to the being told part because he acts just like a 15 year old brat throughout the book. Its just that every other character who meets him tells us he acts old. Maybe they've read the script and thats how they know.

Then there is a political monologue where the lady character yells freedom at societies problems. I suppose that should have tipped me off on what is to come. But to me what wins the prize is the dialogue between a young stalinist woman and Daylen where right after he gives a speech about how the end doesnt justify the means and his old paedophile stalin times were awful because of him murdering a whole bunch of people, I repeat just after saying that, he !!!no shit!!! blows the girls head off out of rage. You might say dear author the girl was part of a terrorist organization. But Daylen didnt know that. He just knew the girl was a stalinist. She did say, they had big plans they were executing just about now. Extremists are usually just hot air, all show and no go. What are the chances of you walking up to a random stalinist and her knowing the details of a world changing terrorist attack hours from execution. But Daylen immediately thinks the threat is legit, kills her and all of her friends. I dont know maybe he read the script too. He then feels sick about how easy it was for him to kill so many so quickly. Not that he killed all those people for no reason.

The more you read, the more you realize that the author isnt simply anti soviet union. He is anti social justice. Also the political messages arent veiled in any way. In the scene Daylen kills the stalinist girl he fumes out of his mouth saying wealth redistribution is theft. Just like that, not much beating around the bush. After all that i went back to my friend and asked him why on earth he would recommend this book to me. As i told him about all the weird political shit in the book, with some back and forth he told me the author was a fan of steven crowder, and to that i said,

that makes sense.

...more

Jul 14, 2019 Joseph rated it did not like it

I really wanted to like this book because I love the world building and the magic system. The main character even has a good back story. There are a few decent characters in the book but overall the development of the main cast is very disjointed and erratic. The action scenes are great! The rest is just really rough.

About halfway through the book I figured out it was self published. I don't have a problem with self-published books but they tend to have some serious flaws. Bad editing, poor layo

About halfway through the book I figured out it was self published. I don't have a problem with self-published books but they tend to have some serious flaws. Bad editing, poor layout of plot and development of characters. A lot of suspension of disbelief is required to follow the book to the end.

This book has all of that.

This book needed the heavy hand of an editor and a publisher willing to work out the glaring problems this book has.

The main character was also the ultimate Mary-Sue. There is justification for him being amazing at everything but it got old really fast.

I feel guilty because I'm usually not this harsh about a book but I felt kind of duped. I watched his video about his book being published and based on the cover art and the people reading the audiobook I thought it was published by a major publisher like Tor. I expected a well polished, well developed fantasy novel. I didn't get that.

Side note: This book has a lot of talk about rape in it. Like, a lot.

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See my full thoughts here: https://youtu.be/LxWGuMja50c

A self-published book from a 1st time author? What could go wrong?!

Okay this wasn't a total loss. The protagonist is amazing, he's a ruthless tyrant that's trying to make up for all the bad he's done over the years. That's way more interesting than some farm boy trying to save the world. The rest of the cast is good too, though nothing groundbreaking.

I liked the setting, I liked the action sequences, I liked how it dealt with rape (that's a

See my full thoughts here: https://youtu.be/LxWGuMja50c

A self-published book from a 1st time author? What could go wrong?!

I liked the setting, I liked the action sequences, I liked how it dealt with rape (that's a heavy subject and this book has some tact with it), so why isn't this a 4 or 5 stars? Well, the story is a steaming pile of shit. It falls into the category of "events just happen without tying together" and then there are 3 separate climaxes. It's a mess, and it results in a bunch of good pieces that don't fit together at all.

As far as first novels go, it's not that bad. But I can only recommend it to those who are interested in the concept of the protagonist or people who really want fantasy in a slightly-modern setting.

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He writes like he talks. In his youtube videos he often gets sidetracked and caught up explaining the details of a certain aspect of the main topic, but his videos don't have a plot to worry about.

He explains how the magic works before even showing the magic! Show me what it can do. Get me curious. Tease me. And only then tell me how it works. Or don't. I really don't need to know how something works if I know what it does. But please stop interrupting every scene with an infodump.

As soon as th

He writes like he talks. In his youtube videos he often gets sidetracked and caught up explaining the details of a certain aspect of the main topic, but his videos don't have a plot to worry about.

As soon as things start to get interesting: infodump! Come on! There's so much promise here. It's a cool world, but let me discover it instead of have it forced on me like the main character of this book repeatedly forced himself on young girls.

UPDATE: Finished the book today and I'm changing my review from 2 to 3 stars, because after about the half way point, the above problems mostly disappear. The Shad has dumped enough info in the first half to feel like we know enough to get through to the end. I ended up mostly liking it.

A good attempt at a first novel, but in desperate need of an editor to polish it up.

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Jul 08, 2020 Hope C. rated it did not like it

I'd really give this negative stars if I could. I'm just here in an attempt to reduce the inflated score. Making your protagonist a genocidal pedophillic rapist who gets away with it, becomes young and handsome, and then everyone forgives?? That doesn't belong in published books. It belongs in long-deleted wattpad stories.

I Want More!

This was an amazing book.
It was highly engaging and I only wanted to read more.
What I really liked was the highly detailed swordfights, which paints a complete picture of how it happens.
The characters are engaging and you actually cheer for the main character even though he is/was "evil".
The main character may come over as a little whiny, but it's not too bad.
I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy with a Higly defined magic system with rigid rules. I came for Shad. I sta

I Want More!

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I don't usually do reviews. But I follow Shad on youtube, and, from what I can see, he likes people to criticize his work. So hopefully, this will be one more data point that he can refer back to.

After reading the reviews, I was conflicted. On his videos, Shad doesn't swear, and he even claims to dislike some oversexualized scenes (such as in goblin slayer), so I was very surprised to find so many reviews complaining about oversexualization. Taking into account the fantasy re-armed series, and

I don't usually do reviews. But I follow Shad on youtube, and, from what I can see, he likes people to criticize his work. So hopefully, this will be one more data point that he can refer back to.

The first issue: the main character's mood swings. He swings from agonizingly repenting something he did to someone's parents to suddenly wanting to punch that person to pulp. This happened more than once, and made me question whether the character actually regrets any of the things he did. Particularly jarring when the character rages against being called a kid (despite having the appearance of a 17 year old, and the temper tantrums of a 5 year old).

Second issue: I don't know if I was rooting for the character or not. Unlike Jeorg in Prince of Thorns that starts off as a bastard but may actually grow on you, Daylen swings too much between repenting his past actions and angrily punching someone for me to think he actually wants to change. I wanted him to succeed, because nearly all of his conscious actions were righteous, and he did do a lot of good. But inbetween he would rage and lose control. This ties with another secondary problem, that his past crimes are way too vague. All we know is he murdered and raped. At the end we learn he murdered near 28 million people. That seems to be way too many people for a late medieval-rennaissance setting.

Third issue: there was a degree of oversexualization. Mentions of rape, breasts, sex trafficking... Way too much focus was given to these. Not to the extent some reviews seem to suggest, but in my opinion is still a bit much.

Fourth issue: the shade. I did not feel that the shade were a threat. Sure, Lyra says they are a threat, Daylen says they cause the night and are a nightmare to defeat, including reporting that a force of 10000 soldiers went to exterminate their stronghold and only 100 survived. But there are only two occasions where they are confronted, and in one of those, an island was supposedly overrun with shade, but the author focused more in explaining how the human allies were defeated than the shade, that nearly vanished once the humans were dead. No mention of their powers was found anywhere, except for the reference to the great shade, that can communicate through lesser shades. Still not threatened.

Fifth issue: the main character reads a bit like a Mary Sue. Despite his mood swings, despite being arrogant and abrasive, despite being violent, he finds stalwart companions. His powers are stronger than everyone else's (but he is not trained, so at least he is not stronger than everyone else). He finds ways of using the powers no one has found out before. He is an expert in everything, from mechanics, to swordfight, smithing. The only thing he seems not to be an expert in is personal relations...

That being said, the book is a very enjoyable read (or listen, if you like audiobooks). The plot is good, the struggles of the main character are well portrayed (albeit undermined by the mood swings), the usage of the powers is very satisfying. As expected, the sword fights are on point (pun intended), and the setting has some innovative and good ideas. I particularly enjoyed the physics analysis of the usage of the powers. The secondary cast was also excellent, being fleshed out in time, but not bogging down the story with all their baggage. The setting was amazing, and gives flat-earthers something to look for. The magic system is well thought out (if a bit overpowered in my opinion), and there is a characterization of the different places.

All in all, it is an enjoyable read that fails in some critical aspects, preventing us from forming an opinion on the character, not because he is conflicted, but because he is unstable. I finished the book not knowing if there is going to be a sequel, but I am eagerly expecting that there will be, as the setting is too good to leave unexplored.

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Before I delve into criticism, I need to mention that, in my view, this book is better written than many of the genre "classics" out there. Old books can get away with so much more, mostly due to the nostalgia factor. Newbie writers are often not treated as favorably. But you can't expect fairness from life.

I enjoyed several things about this story. It was a light read, fairly entertaining. I see a lot of influence from Sanderson (not surprising) but I'd say that's only to the story's benefit. I

Before I delve into criticism, I need to mention that, in my view, this book is better written than many of the genre "classics" out there. Old books can get away with so much more, mostly due to the nostalgia factor. Newbie writers are often not treated as favorably. But you can't expect fairness from life.

I enjoyed several things about this story. It was a light read, fairly entertaining. I see a lot of influence from Sanderson (not surprising) but I'd say that's only to the story's benefit. I'm sure Shad will find his own voice further into his writing carreer. In general, this book accomplished the most important thing: it got me invested in the story, several characters and the world. Can't wait for when the Night falls and we see some Shade action.

The characters I enjoyed the most were the Light Bringer and the purple haired boy. They were great.

Daylen... He was enjoyable... to a point. I am partial to the 'charming bastard' type of character, and I do like my heroes to be competent. His abilities make sense for who he is. But he also reads like two, or sometimes three separate characters. His unrestrained brutality just doesn't make sense. He goes from someone intent on doing good to gruesome mutilation and murder without an in-between stage. It is said that he has anger issues but it never really feels like he does. If he flew into blinding, irrational rage it would make some sort of sense. Further, his savagery complicates his ark from a moral perspective. If violence is a terrible way to solve all problems, why is it so effective? Where are the long term consequences? After sulking for a few 'falls', in the end even the killing of the pirate is treated as a positive.
Daylen's evil, especially his past, fits into his character so poorly that it almost seems to have been caused supernaturally. That would be a good explanation, but it would take away from the story. Either way, Shad is in a predicament here.

The character that was handled the worst was, of course, Lyra. She was indeed only defined by her traumatic experience so many years prior. Somehow I found it hard to believe. Granted, I've never had to go through such trauma but... She is supposed to be an incredibly strong woman in her forties. A knight. One might think she'd have had access to good counseling, if Arrick is a good representation of Light Bringers as a whole. As a military order, the knights must have ways to deal with PTSD as well as recognize it in others. One might think it would be considered a liability in combat and thus not just simply ignored.

Rape as a subject was handled incredibly poorly. It wasn't explored deeply, so it might as well have just been discarded. It was superficial, awkward and even cringe-worthy. I loved the theme of fatherless children and think that Shad should've focused on that instead. It could have been done easily. Daylen could have had countless affairs instead. It's a pretty scummy thing to do and it is not unheard of for women to flock to scummy men in power. If Lyra really needed to be traumatized, she could have been a survivor from some massacre. It doesn't HAVE to be rape that leaves a woman broken. On a side note, it is rather hard to believe that rape is so prevalent in a world where women are taught combat skills and are considered generally competent.

Perhaps one of the problems with characterization in general was the author's lack of empathy for them. Maybe it is presumption on my part, but that's what it felt like. And it does seem like world-building was Shad's main focus. As a result, the scenes that were supposed to be the most hard-hitting barely elicited any emotion from me.

A particular pet peeve of mine is that I hate it when authors make their characters their political mouth-pieces. I hate it when Drizzt does it, and I hate it when Daylen and Lyra do it too. I want to read fantasy, not a news article, for goodness' sake. By the way, I saw others call this story 'grimdark.' I disagree. It doesn't have the dark atmosphere characteristic of the subgenre, moreover, it was entirely too one-sided. It would have been much more complex if Dayless wasn't so universally condemned. If instead of a genocidal madman he would've been simply a ruthless utilitarian. Cold and logical. Make it so that ALL his decisions make sense, and end up having positive results but are almost all incredibly immoral. And then try to argue against that. Wow. Now THAT would be something I would LOVE to read about.

Yet another problem that I'd noticed was in the internal monologues, and even in some dialogues as well: detailed explanations of motivation. As a reader, I'm supposed to infer that, I don't need to be told explicitly. I remember listening to a passage of Dylan's inner monologue and thinking it could be reduced to a 3 word sentence. The dialogue between dying Daylan and Arrick was just ridiculously self-indulgent on the author's part.

My final criticism is in regards to info-dumping. I respect having deep world-building but less is sometimes more. I love detail in general, but my eyes did glaze over while listening to the mechanics of this and that. A lot of telling, very little showing. The entire sub-plot from Daylan becoming young again and gaining his powers to him coming back home, was all about world building and it had very little to do with character developement or advancing the story. It could have been done better, although I did enjoy the magic. Though it would have been great to see Daylan struggle more.

All in all, I'm giving this story 2 stars but I find it fun, promising and I'm looking forward to the sequel. Congratulations, Shad. I hope there are machicolations in the next book. And what about dragons?

P.S. the result of the trial makes no sense. Zero sense. Sorry, Shad.

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I almost never summarize the books I rate here. The reason I'm making an exception is that I don't believe I've ever given a worse rating. I feel I should at least give a brief explanation as to why I'm rating it so low.

In my opinion this is the worst book I've ever finished. Everything from level of writing to the concepts presented within I found wanting. The only reason I finished this book was out of respect to the author who's created a lot of free content on YouTube that I've enjoyed over the years. I felt I had to read his book in it's entirety to give him the fairest possible critique even if it's only to myself and friend group.

(The following paragraph contains a spoiler)
(view spoiler)[There is a lot of the author's religious ideology in this novel and I found some of the disturbing. The Mormon concept of God's light and it's relation to individual morality is in primary focus here. The main character is a rapist and another important character was one of his victims. There are interactions between the two that I found despicable and can hardly believe that anyone could justify, yet the author attempts just that. In one particular atrocious scene depicting the attacker as an additional victim of his own sexual assaults. (hide spoiler)]

The violence and resulting injuries (to primary characters) in this book is to such great excess that it takes any suspense out of the action. You're never concerned that anything will have actual consequences (similar only in my experience to Dragon Ball Z). The majority of characters depicted in this book are one dimensional and neither their actions nor dialogue evoke anything in you. The author rarely shows you anything that would allow you to experience it along with the characters, instead he explains everything informing you of the mechanics of the world in a way that's not nearly as fulfilling.

There were plenty of interesting aspects to the world depicted in this book and that's what saves this from having a one star rating.

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Jul 16, 2019 EJ Edwards rated it did not like it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This review has spoilers for this book and explains my reasoning behind rating a book I enjoyed inspite of its unforgivable flaw. Please do not continue past this point if you are sensitive about certain topics.

I haven't finished listening to the audiobook, I'm most of the way through but I've run into a serious problem. As much as I have enjoyed this book no one seems to have told Shad about the cardinal sin of writing: if it doesn't absolutely have to be rape don't include rape. Neither he nor

This review has spoilers for this book and explains my reasoning behind rating a book I enjoyed inspite of its unforgivable flaw. Please do not continue past this point if you are sensitive about certain topics.

That Shad isn't investigating the consequences of rape culture and has nothing to say on the subject aside from "rape is bad and rapists should be punished horribly" it shouldn't have been included. One whole character is just "badass knight rape victim" and nothing else.

At 14 hours into an 18.5 hour audiobook I can say with confidence the characters need some serious work and aside from the gratuitous use of rape for the cheap effect of accentuating how terrible a character once was needs to go. Other than that it is a solid first book that while it needs more editing it's not the worse thing I've listened to.

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Jul 15, 2019 Harry rated it it was amazing

An excellent read. The plot was a unique design, comparable to the uniqueness of Mistborn. The characters had personalities that made them diverse yet remarkably relatable. The main character himself being the prime example. His living a life that was to end in guilt-laden regret becomes the time-honored tale of sincere remorse springboarding him into the true man that he not only was to become but wished to become. The writing was story-driven with plot reveals that not only surprise but also t An excellent read. The plot was a unique design, comparable to the uniqueness of Mistborn. The characters had personalities that made them diverse yet remarkably relatable. The main character himself being the prime example. His living a life that was to end in guilt-laden regret becomes the time-honored tale of sincere remorse springboarding him into the true man that he not only was to become but wished to become. The writing was story-driven with plot reveals that not only surprise but also tug at the heartstrings as more and more is revealed of the characters' pasts. The physical world itself was original and engaging, opening a myriad of doors to new ideas of both language and story. The only downside to this book was that it was too short.

To anyone who has already explored the magical worlds of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Eragon, or Mistborn and wishes for a brand-new experience and world to dive into, I could recommend no better book.

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Jan 13, 2020 Steph rated it did not like it

When the first named female character is introduced as "a very large woman with breasts the size of melons" you know it can only get worse.

The idea of this book is far better than it's execution. The plot is repetitive and stagnant, which offers no development until page 400 when suddenly there are stakes. Every page before that only serves to tell us how skilled, smart and special Daylen is. He is not given a clear goal, only the broad "do good and fight evil", which makes the story lack direction. It also means his redemption falls flat because he spends most of the book wanting to be good, then killing some people, then feeling guilty and then forgiving himself, only to do it all again in the next chapter. He is caught in a loop which stifles the story as he doesn't change after each plot point but rather returns to his old self.

The philosophy around morality and redemption is only surface-level as there is little nuance when it comes to discussing the actions of the characters. The crimes committed by Daylen are given little to no emotional weight as they are treated flippantly or told clinically in one of the journal entries. For a story so reliant on feeling the immensity of the crimes committed by the main character, the brevity of the genocide, rape and destruction isn't there. If these gut-wrenching moments from Daylen's past were dramatised as flashbacks instead of described in a sentence at the beginning of each chapter, it would have conveyed Daylen's struggle better.

You can tell that Brooks thought a lot about the magic system and world, which is where the problem lies. The magic system is unnecessarily complex and feels very rigid with all of its rules, even though Daylen can do almost anything with magic so it defeats the purpose of having rules. The world is rich with culture and history, but this shouldn't take centre stage. Daylen's story became secondary to showing off the duelling culture, the knights or the religions, which made all this world-building feel empty. If I could feel invested in this story instead of waiting for the plot to finally begin, I would have appreciated the richness of the world. Especially since we spend the first few chapters of the book with Daylen just experimenting with his powers and telling us every rule about the system. Not to mention a lot of the world-building only showed up once then never again.

This book also had a concerning preoccupation with sex and sexual violence. The book wallows in the depravity of sexual abuse and rape in a way which only comments on how women are degraded by men and require saving by men. It doesn't help that two raped female characters are referred to as "creatures" in an effort to ellicit sympathy.

Also, the "Matriology" religion is an unnecessary and patriotising addition. Women are so revered that they're the ones who get to do the dishes isn't critiquing ideology. It is just Patriarchal Christianity with a different name.

One of the only joys I took from this book was replacing the incessant use of diegetic curses within the prose with shit and fuck. It made it far more entertaining and also illuminated how unnecessary they were.
For example, I have replaced all the blackened's in this excerpt:
"Fuck it, so far the Bringer had been right in nearly every fucking thing he had fucking said. Fuck it all!"

I feel like this story has all the potential to be something great, with the character, world and dilemma, but it prioritised showing off Daylen's skills and intellect instead of showing how the worst person in the world can come to the realisation that they are a irredeemable human being.
Another draft and round of editing could have made this book decent.

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Jul 12, 2019 Kyle rated it it was amazing

No spoilers
I love the magic system, and his characterization is very believable. Because of the way magic works here, there is a bit more explanation than other books I have read, but this expanded explanation allows for a deeper magic system and more interesting worldbuilding that pays off later in the book, in my opinion.

The ideas are there, the worldbuilding is there, but the characterization leaves a lot to be desired and the overall project feels like it needed another draft or two at minimum to really cook. Daylen is downright insufferable, and his unending woe-is-me prattling wouldn't be a problem if the execution didn't feel so immature in and of itself. Every time he wept or brought up his recurring offenses, I felt like a Linkin Park song had been added as backing track. While the power system and intrig The ideas are there, the worldbuilding is there, but the characterization leaves a lot to be desired and the overall project feels like it needed another draft or two at minimum to really cook. Daylen is downright insufferable, and his unending woe-is-me prattling wouldn't be a problem if the execution didn't feel so immature in and of itself. Every time he wept or brought up his recurring offenses, I felt like a Linkin Park song had been added as backing track. While the power system and intrigue are also interesting, the constant info dumps undermine the pacing of the narrative. I just don't think it was ready for publication, independent or not. ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have very mixed views on this book and would give it 2.5 stars if that was an option. As I couldn't give that, I've had to go for 2 stars as it's not worthy of 3.

The good
The world building. It is obvious that time and effort has been put into designing the world. The world feels consistent and maintains its own internal logic. It is an interesting setting and one that hasn't been overly explored in fiction. I liked the idea of floating land masses and it does not disappoint. I also enjoyed t

I have very mixed views on this book and would give it 2.5 stars if that was an option. As I couldn't give that, I've had to go for 2 stars as it's not worthy of 3.

The premise itself of a strange redemption arch is an interesting basis for a story, and I can't remember reading one that takes it to such an extreme before.

The book doesn't shy away from difficult topics. This is both a positive and a negative but credit has to given for attempting to bring that dark realism to a fantastical setting.

The side characters, although shallow, are enjoyable and do have a clear voice.

The magic system is a very hard rules based form of magic. I understand how it works and what it can largely do. Personally it felt a little too scientific for my tastes but that might just be because I'm awful
at physics.

The bad

CW. Sexual abuse.

The main character is a mess. He is brilliant at everything he attempts, has the best and most powerful equipment, lacks any real weakness and can master concepts and powers in seconds what others take a life time to achieve. Other characters comment on how remarkable he is several time's throughout the novel. He has no growth beyond the shallow phrases he utters constantly and his actions don't change from start to finish. He is written like a 14 year old punk from a 50s movie rather than the supposed elderly man he is meant to be. He is a sadist who simply changes who he abuses but the story treats it like a real redemption arch. Out of all
The characters in the book, he is the one who I enjoyed the least. This wouldn't have been as much of a problem if he wasn't the central figure who the reader spends most of their time with.

The characters in general all announce their emotions and show them off in an over the top manner. People regularly fall to the floor crying or rage at the slightest provocation. There is no depth to them beyond what they announce their feelings and thoughts to be, which they do often.

The pacing is strange but it isn't a massive draw back. The main external antagonist and danger isn't revealed until 4/5ths of the way through the book and there is no real tension as we know the main character will be able to pluck a power from somewhere and stop whatever threat he faces.

The violence is over the top and reminds me more of a grind house style gore exploration film than the realistic grit I was expecting from the author. If I was reading this without knowing the author I might be more forgiving as it is a style within the book but knowing the author from his channel expected better. The characters kill without restraint but the book throws wave after wave of acceptable targets at them so they can show off their badassery without remorse or moral quandary.

The book also contains a lot of mentions of rape and sexual abuse. Sex in general is mentions in nearly every chapter in the first half of the book and is always done in an immature way but there is just so much rape. The characters enter a new town, there are rapists nearby, they find a ship and it's full of people being trafficked for the sex trade. A good chunk of the middle chapters start with diary entries detailing rape. It's everywhere in the book. It feels like it was added to make the book more dark and gritty but it comes across as obsessive. It's mainly a devise used so that the main character can kill someone without remorse and has an acceptable target to be as violent as possible to without it affecting his redemption arc and as such it feels hollow. By the end you expect everyone the characters meet to either be a rapist or a rape survivor. Of the core five characters 1 is a rapist and the two female characters are rape survivors.

The book also has a few scenes where political ideologies are discussed and whilst it is about in world factions, it is clearly a reflection on the real world. The book handles this with as much tact as it handles emotion and sex. It outright states a point and makes a moral out of it. This could have been done well, with characters reflecting that there are two sides to the story, that not everything is as it first appears and maybe there is nuance in the world but no. The bad political party is bad, the reasons they support it are wrong and if you disagree you are a supporter of genocide. Poverty is no excuse for anger and so what if rape is so common you can stumble into a traffickers ship and then be attacked by rapist pirates, at least we aren't raising taxes or stopping hate speech. Those would be real crimes. Also vigilante justice is great, an all powerful church with power over life and death is the best arbiter of justice and checks and balances are for the weak. The book believes it's stance is pro liberal democracy but actually justifies theocratic paramilitary enforcers and executioners. You could insert the politics of post soviet invasion Afghanistan into the book and it would still fit, Taliban and all ( there is even a matriarchal society where there women are the homemakers should stay and look after the child whilst the men work- can you even imagine such a society!?) This could have been done well if the politics was allowed to have nuance, if the opposition wasn't a straw man and had justifiable reasons beyond fanaticism and if all these conclusions hadn't been reached by the most rational and intelligent man in existence who is right about literally everything in the book.

Conclusion
I started this review with the best of intention, without spoilers and trying to give a fair assessment, but as I typed my memories returned and so it become more of a rant. There is a half decent story in there, and it has the potential to be so much more. The book made promises it did not deliver and so I am let down more than anything else. I did enjoy it though, through all of my issues. As a swashbuckling adventure it is fun and until the last fifth of the book I was excited to read on. But the moment when the main protagonist slices a floating continent in half with a power no one knew existed broke the story for me. With a good editor this could have been a really good first book. It had the makings of brilliant start to the series. In the end the story needs its own redemption arc, as below the tangled mess there is a bright light and does lie at the heart of the book. A large part of me wants to ignore it and leave the series as it is, but if a sequel was realised I would pick it up just to see if the redemption is there.

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Jul 03, 2019 Pyry rated it it was ok

Overall an acceptable first book in a series. The opening grips your attention and the premise is intriguing. Unfortunately Shad is unable to sustain it for very long and after Daelyn's suicide attempt the book is horribly boring until he gets back to his house. The way he gained his powers was so incredulous and their exploration so dull, that only my positive view of the author and the excellent worldbuilding kept me going. My interest was recaptured when describing the magic system gave way t Overall an acceptable first book in a series. The opening grips your attention and the premise is intriguing. Unfortunately Shad is unable to sustain it for very long and after Daelyn's suicide attempt the book is horribly boring until he gets back to his house. The way he gained his powers was so incredulous and their exploration so dull, that only my positive view of the author and the excellent worldbuilding kept me going. My interest was recaptured when describing the magic system gave way to character interaction and story. Exposition still continues to be a little on the nose at times but the world is so interesting that it isn't nearly as bad as it could be. The prose is better than amateur quality but there are still plenty of sentence structures that could have been streamlined and unnecessary words, fire your editor. I mostly focused on the negatives but the book is good and well worth the price.

tl;dr No machicolations 1/5

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Nov 04, 2019 Justin Stojsih rated it did not like it

My gosh this book is awful. I saw a couple of positive published reviews that compared this favorably to Joe Abercrombie's books, so I gave this a shot.

I gave up halfway through chapter two. According to other reviewers here on Goodreads (where I should have checked first!) the author didn't actually hire an editor. It shows in a drastic fashion. As another reviewer put it, this reads like someone describing a D&D campaign, not like a novel. I'm fine with world-building, but this is at the expen

My gosh this book is awful. I saw a couple of positive published reviews that compared this favorably to Joe Abercrombie's books, so I gave this a shot.

I feel bad that I had my local library purchase this so I could read it.

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Very Solid

With the exclusion of some bits of dialogue this was a great read, there were a few moments that I found hard to suspend disbelief for (even within the context of the story) in regards to human behavior. Still a gem though.

Jun 27, 2019 Seana Utber rated it really liked it

As above, can't wait. Great review, you really hooked me! Also so glad your doing this now rather than 6 months ago.. it's still fresh 😊 truly, thank you for this work As above, can't wait. Great review, you really hooked me! Also so glad your doing this now rather than 6 months ago.. it's still fresh 😊 truly, thank you for this work ...more

I like Shad's Youtube channel, and I wish this review was more positive, but the fact is, I didn't like this book at all. First, it seems this book doesn't know what it wants to be, or maybe that Shad is trying too hard to impress and show off, meaning that most of the book feels like a history or physics textbook rather than a fantasy novel. I get the magic system has to be believable, but come on, believable, not realistic. Because it is too realistic. The world building is boring because it j I like Shad's Youtube channel, and I wish this review was more positive, but the fact is, I didn't like this book at all. First, it seems this book doesn't know what it wants to be, or maybe that Shad is trying too hard to impress and show off, meaning that most of the book feels like a history or physics textbook rather than a fantasy novel. I get the magic system has to be believable, but come on, believable, not realistic. Because it is too realistic. The world building is boring because it just dumps all the mechanics and physics on you. It shows rather than tells, and when it tells, if feels awkward and unnatural.
My biggest problem with this book, is it feels like it's written by a sex-crazy person, and it pains me to think that Shad is this way.
It also needs editing. It has a cover made by a professional, yet it seems the editing has been completely skipped.
I kind I feel bad for Shad since he was so excited about this, but this is how I feel about the book. Disappointing, really ...more

As well as being a passionate writer Shad is also a very popular internet personality. His YouTube channel, Shadiversity, has over 650,000 subscribers as of July 2019, where he examines and celebrates fantasy and medieval subjects as well as the occasional instructive video on creative writing.
Shad grew up in the country of Victoria Australia where he was free to make wooden swords and play in ima As well as being a passionate writer Shad is also a very popular internet personality. His YouTube channel, Shadiversity, has over 650,000 subscribers as of July 2019, where he examines and celebrates fantasy and medieval subjects as well as the occasional instructive video on creative writing.
Shad grew up in the country of Victoria Australia where he was free to make wooden swords and play in imaginary fantasy worlds to his heart's content. This love of fantasy and swords has been with him his whole life and he loves bringing the worlds of his imagination into greater reality through illustration, playing tabletop roleplaying games, and writing.
Shad decided to be a novelist in 2007 and begun a dedicated endeavour to learn how to be one to the best of his ability, participating in top creative writing courses and learning from some of the most successful fantasy writers in the world. Over the course of twelve years Shad married, had four children, launched a highly successful YouTube career and wrote the equivalent of nine novels. Most of these books were preparatory works to give shad the practice and ability to write at a professional level, the last book being the one he set out to launch his writing career with; Chronicles of Everfall, Shadow of the Conqueror.
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"You almost seem to be on my side." Ahrek moved so his body pressed against Daylen's. Daylen turned to Ahrek with a look of consternation. "What're you doing?" "Now I'm on your side," Ahrek said with an amused smile. Daylen groaned and walked back to the street." — 0 likes

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