'Til Death Do Us Part: A Clairvoyants Novel

by A. Jay

The year is 2344. Nearly forty years ago, the Imperial nation of Vincere declared war on their neighboring Kingdom Morari, long before Prince Nox Obscuris was born. Growing up in such a frightful time became nothing more than a nuisance, as it meant he was often kept safe and sound behind the castle walls while the rest of the country suffered. It is only when he overhears a royal guard from the Reaper unit threatening his father with a terrifying and devastating course of action that makes Nox realize that he must focus his attention on the war effort to stop thousands, perhaps millions, from a brutal death. He makes a risky deal, with the terrifying Reaper in question, to put an end to the war within ten years, or else.

Now racing against the clock, and armed with a mysterious power he does not understand, Nox is determined to keep his end of the bargain and stop as many casualties as possible. However, a young medic soon catches his eye and seems to be as charming as he is mysterious. But wartime is hardly the time and place to fall in love…Or is it?

327 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2023

Reviews

[Meli · Rating 4 out of 5]

To start this review, I generally enjoyed this book. I feel that means a lot coming from a person who normally doesn’t like wartime settings or high (maybe medium?) fantasy/sci-fi, but that got me thinking, and I’m not entirely sure I know who this book is *for.* That is neither good nor bad, but I did find myself wondering who would pick this up if they came across it in the wild.

The setting of this book is intriguing, and I do think the foundation has now been lain for some really interesting exposition in coming books - such as, the existence of magic, how cyborgs work, why are the Reapers like that? Part of my deduction of a star is because I feel like some of this probably could’ve (should’ve, even) been explained in this book, but I understand that drawing a line between informing and infodumping is delicate for every author.

I think every gripe I have with this book can be summed up with the belief that it REALLY would benefit from just one more round of editing. The formatting is a bit jarring, and yet easily fixed. Overuse of words happens frequently. And there are scenes that could really shine with just a little more elaboration/exposition.

It did strike me as odd that every character’s name in this book is kinda giving “genderqueer 20-something in the year 2017” but that’s neither here nor there.

[Christa Boocher · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate saying this, but this book really needs a good copy editor. It has everything one might expect from an amateur writer. To start, it's formatted like an AO3 fanfiction. The double space between paragraphs and the inconsistent indentations are a giveaway. That in itself doesn't hurt the quality of writing, but the book is full of grammatical errors, commas in incorrect spots, run-on sentences, and the overuse of prepositions. Although it wasn't that long, it took me forever to read because my brain struggled to process what I was reading.
I have a hard time critiquing the story itself because it's a very telling vs showing story.
Teleportation is significantly misused. The author has this fully enriched world in their mind, but we hardly get to see it. There is barely any downtime, and teleportation is used as a means of whisking the characters from one set piece to the next.
The worst case of this is the Main character blacking out during a critical moment in the climax and then immediately skipping what directly followed. I want these events described to me in real time, not in retrospect.
When it comes to the characters themselves, there isn't a lot to them because we don't spend any time with them other than Nox, the main character. Who is PAINFULLY naive. His sense of justice makes everything worse for the others around him, which is odd because he's old enough to know better. That's the most significant critique I have of these characters. None of them acts their age. Nox has been a Commander in a long-running war, and he falls for the most obvious setups. There is one specific character who is over a thousand years old and also seems to act like he's 16, rather than someone with that much life experience.

I don't want this to be discouraging. I believe that if this book had more time to develop, were twice as long, and had a copy editor with experience, it could be a great YA fantasy story.

[Am · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nox’s journey is fascinating and his slowburn with Rain is really sweet. I was pretty interested with the magitechnology aspects of it above all. I gave it 4 stars for two reasons a) because I saw a map at the beginning of the book and I was pretty disappointed that for the majority of the book we really didn’t get a chance to “explore,” opting for convenient teleportation spells and b) the set up was a bit too quick for my personal preference. There’s a big deal with the three gods and in the last chapter we just see the main goddess the country prays to die with little impact, and that’s frustrating just because she’s supposed to be this all powerful goddess that dies for the sake of one couple.

I still think it’s a fun book, though, and it has a lot of potential for further worldbuilding. I do want to read the second book at some point.