28th October 2023

I’ve been seeing this book and series promoted for a long time, and finally got round to picking up what I thought was the first book.

While it sort of is the first, I discovered that there are actually five earlier novels, but they are more action thrillery, and this is a sort of fantasy spin-off which has expanded to be the real main series.

The character, world, and plot I found really compelling. There’s that classic setup of someone new to the magick world, with tons to learn and intrigue and mystery everywhere. And a bunch of hints throughout that there’s more to learn and more history to uncover.

I really enjoyed a bunch of the interactions between characters, and can easily see this expanding into a rich series and world as the books go on.

I did think though that aspects of the narrative are a bit rough. There are a few places where I felt like something had been missed in establishing or re-establishing a point or a character. There’s a pair of characters whose relationship is entirely unmentioned. There’s a lot brought in, particularly later on, which is clearly referring back to earlier stories, but without enough context to help the new reader.

But that aside, I really enjoyed reading this, and fully intend to continue on to more of the stories.

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