Book Review: Steel Gods (The Great Silence 2) by Richard Swan


5/5 stars. As Swan continues his fantasy-horror story set in Sova and surrounding lands, he writes a darker tale of the interplay between the real world of our characters and the afterlife. In this novel, the Empress has directed Ambassador Renata Rainer and the investigators of the Arcane task force to discover the truth behind The Great Silence in the ethereal world and find a way to end it. Little do all of the investigators know about what politics are transpiring behind the scenes or that Lamprecht von Oldenburg has not been defeated by Colonel Atanasov, as directed by the Empress, but that Atanasov has other plans in mind.

I enjoy Swan’s writing and think that his skills have improved continually since I have been reading his works. His Empire of the Wolf trilogy is excellent, and I enjoyed time spent with Vonvalt (I also look forward to his upcoming second Vonvalt prequel novella, in conjunction with Grimdark Magazine); however, this trilogy is quickly supplanting that one as my favorite of his work. Von Oldenburg is a fascinating study in the madness that consumes someone interlocked with elements of dark magic, much like Claver in the first series, and demonstrates the horrors that overwhelm the mind. One of the best antagonists in modern fantasy!

If you have not read any of Swan’s novels set in the Sovan Empire, I highly recommend that you start with The Justice of Kings, although one could also start with Grave Empire in this current series. So far, everything that I have read by Swan (5 novels and a novella) have been outstanding!! I look forward to many more novels from him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Book of Fallen Leaves (The Autumn Empire 1) by A.S. Tamaki

Image
  4/5 stars. The Book of Fallen Leaves is the debut novel by Mr. Tamaki. It features multiple points of view from three families that make up the ruling class of this Japanese-inspired world, with the focus on a disgraced brother (Sen) and sister (Kai) whose father tried to overthrow the emperor, and a girl (Rui) from their father’s household servants who was saved with Sen on the night of their father’s death. We drop into this world on the brink of another civil war that will directly involve these two siblings and Rui. At first, I struggled with this story, primarily because of names – I struggle with Asian names and have a challenging time keeping characters straight in my head initially. Once I got the names organized in my brain, the story flowed along nicely, with outstanding prose, and the last hundred pages were an absolute whirlwind of battles, action, and significant events. In addition, we meet demons and gods along the way and discover some interesting reveals about ou...
Read more

Book Review: Daughter of Crows (Academy of Kindness 1) by Mark Lawrence

Image
5/5 stars. Mark Lawrence is one of my favorite authors and this new book reinforces my opinion of his writing. Lawrence started his career with Prince of Thorns, one of the best Grimdark stories I have ever read. In Daughter of Crows, Lawrence creates another Grimdark world filled with dark beings and the people who follow them. This story has three main points of view: girls in the Academy of Kindness, a younger girl kept as a hostage and tortured in a mansion, and an older-aged woman (Rue) who, we learn, once served as a Kindness. The Academy of Kindness trains young women to be the physical representatives of the Furies on Earth, carrying out vengeance on those who violate the rules of hospitality and kindness. Only three girls from each class of 100 survive to become Kindnesses. Lawrence has crafted an entertaining dark story that kept me turning the pages late into the night. I also want to say that it is refreshing to have a main character who represents the oldest generation ...
Read more

Book Review: No Man’s Land by Richard K. Morgan

Image
4.5/5 stars. Duncan Silver and other British soldiers from The Great War arrived home in the British Isles to discover that the Fae have magically regrown the forests of England and have taken over much of the land mass of the islands, destroying less populated towns and farms throughout the country. In addition, these evil Fae have also begun kidnapping children, and Duncan has taken it upon himself to travel into the woods and rescue these children from their captors. This new novel from the author of science fiction stories about Takeshi Kovacs, beginning with Altered Carbon, and Grimdark fantasy novels in the Land Fit for Heroes trilogy, returns to Grimdark fantasy with an alternate British history that is well-written and filled with strange, but intriguing, characters. Morgan is one of the most unique writers working in SF&F today. This is his first novel in seven years, and a story that has been well worth the wait. Some people might be disappointed that he has moved away ...
Read more