Dawn of Swords

The Breaking World #1

by David Dalglish, Robert J. Duperre

On the young world of Dezrel, brother gods Karak and Ashhur, fleeing their own failed world, recreate mankind in an attempt to make amends. The fledgling race of humanity is guided by the First Families, men and women who will not age so long as their hearts remain devoted to their deities.

But quickly the realms are thrown into chaos by the construction of the Temple of the Flesh, built by exiled children of Karak in the unclaimed land of Haven that lies between the two kingdoms. Those of the Temple refuse to bend knee to either god, no matter the risk. Thus comes Karak’s ultimatum to the people of Haven: destroy the Temple, or he will destroy it himself. But his fellow brother god, Ashhur, will not sit idly by while thousands of innocents die...

Can Jacob Eveningstar, the First Man to be given life and Ashhur’s most trusted servant, prevent the coming bloodshed which threatens the survival of the fledgling human race?

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Fiction, High Fantasy, Dark Fantasy

609 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 14, 2014

Reviews

[The Shayne-Train · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man oh man! This is epic fantasy at its best.

Nearly instantly you are devouring pages. The world-building is smart, almost insidiously so. The prose is beautiful. The combat is well-written with gripping immediacy.

And the characters, o sweet lord, the characters. Some you love from their first paragraph; some grow on you so subtlety that you don't even realize it until you're breathless waiting for their next chapter; and some you goddamn hate enough to want to start tearing pages from the book.

I didn't realize until the afterword that this is a prequel to a larger body of work. I will soon be stuffing EVERYTHING I can find of this world into my head.

[Greta is Erikasbuddy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lately, I have been in a fantasy kinda mood. I'm super sick of lovey dovey junk that I just want some good old fashion blood shed, maybe an underdog to root for, perhaps an OMG moment or two or three, new costume ideas for Cosplay, and then of course... MAN JEWELRY!!



This book has all of that!!

So, you start off on what might be Earth or what might be Jupiter or what might be a jillion billion miles away. There's no telling. They never say what planet we're on and we know there are other dimensions because that's where the dragons are.

Yeah... no dragons... they talk about them like dinosaurs but they're chilling in another dimension probably getting fruity drinks delivered to them by toucans or something.

You learn that a Goddess kinda sorta something a'ruther created these two brother gods - Ashhur and Karak.

Karak is one bad mama jamma. And he kinda reminded me of those dudes off Prometheus.



Well, I say that. You know how those dudes on Prometheus were super tall and god-like? Well, that's pretty much what Ashhur and Karak were but Karak had this out for war and blood and world domination vibe going on that just reminded me more of them.

Ashhur on the other hand reminded me of Gandolf.



So, the story starts and you got these 2 brother Gods and one land is being trampled on by Karak because these peeps are building this sex temple (do I have your attention?) and Karak isn't cool with it so he's sending peeps out there to tell them to tear that hoochie house down. And those peeps are all like "What you talking 'bout, Willis". And Karak's peeps are like, "Fellow dudes, you have 3 moons to tear down these stripper walls or we're gonna get all Old Testament on you!"

The cast of characters are extremely lengthy. I will warn you of that. I actually had to print them out and make notes to keep up with people. But that's expected with fantasy, right?

My favorite character was Patrick. He's a misshapen man-child of a First child of Ashhur. He reminded me of Hellboy.



But not in a cool demon way. No, Patrick has a body that is very bizarre. He's got a hunchback and arms that are too big for his body, and legs that are probably bowed. He fascinated me. In the story you will learn a theory on why his body is made that way and it's very clever. I kept finding myself rooting for him.

And yes, the gods did create children and what I found freaking awesome was that the children got to create their spouse. I mean.... how awesome is that?!!



Elves are also in the story. As are lions that become your jury. The lions were freaking awesome. They know if you are lying or not. .... and if you lie.... om nom nom nom!!!

You find out that not only are the gods super huge and tall but they also possess magical Transformers sword skills. I was all... WHAT THE WHAT?!! When I read that but I thought if Optimus Prime can do it then why can't Gods?



One of my biggest complaints about this book was that I think it should have been a tad bit shorter. But again, that's something to expect when reading a Fantasy Book. And I'm ok with it. The last 30% of the book makes up for that. I will warn you... you will not get much of your daily routine done once you hit that mark. A LOT of stuff happens... and man is it cool!!

All in all.... If you are into "Game of Thrones" type books and like Gods but not you know... Thor and stuff... then you'll dig this.



Also, I think it will be cool if you let your 14+ year olds read this. There are a couple of sexy time scenes but nothing too graphic, and the cussing is pretty minimal.

As for me, I'm excited to read the next one... and until then... I'm going to bone up on my sword fighting cuz you know... everyone is doing it and I don't want to seem like I have no idea what the heck I'm doing ;)

[Jay The Crippled God · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book deserved 3.85/5 stars.

Modern Epic Fantasy is something that is yet to be explored for me and I dive in wearing my scoping critical googles. I took pleasure reading this book and it started with a very energetic begining and the middle plots were like tides of the sea ( ebbing and flowing ) but the plot twist and the ending was what actually turned my entire view of the book.
Aparrently, Huge amounts of thinking were invested in this book and It Shunned my emotions killing every single character in the book but I guess for chronological readers that was expected.

Anyhow, Great Characterization techniques and well implemented story telling.
I can honestly admit that there were some extreme boring and draggy parts but the book is well Crafted.

ps. I took 1.25 stars away from the amazing book's rating due to 3 facts:

1- I am implementing my upgrading Extreme Critical analysis and reviewing techniques.
2- The story behind the plot ( AND I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH ) made me hate the author a lot and my heart felt the unfairness of a lot of things.
3- ( MOST IMPORTANTLY ) I often felt that Gods' shouldn't behave in such mortal manner ( or as if in human guise )



Thank you my amazing readers and I apologize if this is also one of my lame review but I thought that it was some time since I last posted a worthwhile review so this one is dedicated to the lot of you. THA AMAZING YOU <3 ;***** LOVE YALL

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two Gods walking the earth, one, the God of Order, the other, the God of Justice. How perfect of a world that would be. Each Gods people live in their designated lands, to live in peace under their God in this very newly formed world. But as with all humans we are all imperfect. Even with their very Gods to lead them, to answer their prayers to offer guidance and love there will be deceit, betrayal and evil.

The world building was very well done. Every scene was detailed, each building described and scenery laid out to where you could easily visualize and picture yourself in the moment.

Characters and their personalities were built up during the book, so that you weren't forced with pages full of over-lengthy descriptions, you learn more about them as each scene is laid out. And to my surprise there weren't really good vs bad in most. I found myself relating to and understanding their reasons for their actions and sympathizing.

Usually it is easy for me to figure out where a book will lead, but not with this one. In the last chapter my jaw hit the floor. I loved that they were able to surprise me. I would have never guessed it and it was an awesome final chapter.

I highly recommend this book, for those who have followed David's work in the past you will see familiar names and recognize the Gods as well. Yet for those who have yet to delve into his work it will be a great place to start. You will be given the preface that us fans have awaited and lead you to his many other wonderful series that came before.

Favorite quote from Dawn of Swords: "Perfection is a concept, an ideal to be strived for that may never be achieved."

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Audio book version:

Not far in, maybe 25% and pretty disappointed. Looks like a blatant attempt at creationist fiction. Cannot be as we all know creationists are not smart enough to write even a bad book. The Christian moralism/overtones are making my eyes bleed ..

There is even a character called Azariah. This one stands out from the other blatant attempts to imitate the bible … ever hear the unfortunate line “a dingo has my baby”. I never thought I would ever hear that name again in my lifetime. I was wrong.

Guaranteed these authors meet at church. I don’t expect this book will get better, it has a bad, bad. Bad, bad feel ….. 25%-ish in i think and still no real story .. just christian rubbish.

bit further in: ... a lot more christian dogma, drunkards and rapists introduced. Interesting to note the rapist was offered the opportunity to walk free when caught and a young couple who had an abortion were beheaded and put into a nun whorehouse from the sounds of things. The poor raped girl got some money and was happy, she was lucky she wasn't made marry the rapist, I was expecting it as this what the bible says is law.

I am so not going to read/listen this tripe any longer, every character plays out biblical parts, no-one is a person, just playing a set role like a marionette. Crap book only a rabid christian could possibly relate too. Normal people will spend the whole time with their fingers down their throats.

[lauraღ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lol. Okay. Okay.

Last year and this year I read a series by David Dalglish that I really really liked. The Vagrant Gods. Lots of ideas and plotlines that I liked, characters that I fell wholeheartedly in love with, and just a lot of themes that I love to see discussed in high fantasy and D&D-esque worlds. Great stuff. So I wanted to check out some of his backlist, and this series was first on my list, mostly because I could get both the ebook and audio off KU. And like, obviously, it was written some time ago, and writers grow and change and improve over time, so I wasn't expecting this to be EVERYTHING that The Vagrant Gods was, but I also wasn't expecting it to be so, um, bad. And look, I'm not pointing any fingers, and I say this with the greatest of respect, and I obviously can't be sure, but I THINK some of the things I hated about the writing style and the themes and characters might have something to do with the second name on the cover. Lol.

Pretty sure this is going to be either long-winded or boring so I'll stick it under a spoiler cut. I'm also going to spoil the book, probably, but I don't expect or encourage anyone to read this book, so.

I didn't realise before jumping in that this was a prequel series to some of Dalglish's other work that I haven't read yet. I usually prefer to read series of any kind in publication order, rather than chronological order, but since I had no connection with this world at all yet, I didn't mind reading it chronologically. And I'll say this: I was really enamoured with all the ideas behind this book and the creation of the world. We've got brother gods who fled their own world to come to this one, create humanity anew, alongside the original goddess of the world and her people (the elves). Karak is the god of Order in the east, Ashhur is the god of Justice in the west, and they have their own ways of stewarding their people, and different societies and practices have evolved because of it. The book kicks off after a group of people who broke away from Karak build a temple of flesh (lol?) in the midway point between the two lands. Not literal flesh, they're all about bodies and sex and free will and whatever. Both gods live bodily amongst their people, though they're all majestic and larger than life and whatever, which is a premise I do so adore, and I did like how that was represented. Being able to walk down the street and get an audience with god, having lessons and worship with your god... maybe it's the agnostic ex-Catholic school girl in me, but I do so like fantasy world where the gods are tangible parts of people's lives. But anyway, it's mostly only like that with Ashhur, who lives happily amongst his people in socialist paradise, and is also boning Celestia, the OG goddess of the world. Karak, meanwhile, takes a more hands-off approach to governing his people, and at the start of the book, actually hasn't been seen in person for 40 years.

I forget why I started summarising the plot. I don't need to summarise the plot.

My first big problem with the book, a thing that can probably encapsulate a lot of my issues with the book, is that it feels like it's trying to be ASOIAF. Not obviously, not in any ways that really mimic the actual plot of that series, but when it comes to archetypes and just the general vibe? Genuinely felt like ASOIAF lite. There are lots of things that I love about ASOIAF, and this unfortunately seemed to take all the things I hated about it, and then make them worse and less charming. It's going for this grimdark feel, especially with the way women and girls were treated and talked about. Vulfram mentions that his daughter, when she was 9 years old, had been caught trying to have sex with a 13 year old boy, and I immediately had to recalibrate like. 'Oh. This is the kind of book this is going to be.' There's a bunch of incest. (Avila trying to sleep with Crian, admitting to having already slept with their father, and brothers, and one of their sisters.) There's a sarcastic, deformed and disabled character who sleeps with a bunch of women but is actually yearning for love. (Patrick wants to be Tyrion Lannister SO BAD, but he's not funny and he's not interesting.) There's a young girl who travels away from her home, finds out a huge secret, but no one believes her, and then she has to watch her father die in front of her. (Aully is fine, but she's no Arya, and the saccharine tweeny love story did absolutely jackshit for me.) Vulfram is a bit Ned Stark-y, or at least attempts to be, and he's somehow even stupider than Ned. I did have some measure of sympathy for him, but not much.

Here's where I pause to say that maybe I'm being unfair or ungenerous. The fact that the book has so many superficial similarities to ASOIAF means nothing. I'm not super widely read in (I say this kindly and with no malice) dudebro high fantasy. Maybe these are all common tropes and archetypes in fantasy written in this time. Maybe there are a lot of books out there that have similar ideas and whose characters fall into the same moulds. IDK! But I cannot deny that it really really feels like it's cheaply mimicking certain parts of GRRM's series, and especially the first book, AGOT. It just gives me that feeling. A feeling, lol. Am I really going to condemn this book based on vibes? Maybe so. This is a subjective review, you don't need to take my word for it.

There are also all the other things I hated.

A lot of these characters felt functionally empty, like place holders. I just couldn't get myself attached to any of them, and those of them that I WAS kind of fond of, barely got any page time. I'd have liked to spend more time with Bardiya, the gentle giant, or the lesbians. (Not that I'm letting myself get too attached to Rashida and Moira; I'm pretty sure they're gonna end up dying or breaking up and getting shunted into a stupid storyline.) I really liked Soleh, who didn't have the best writing, but was a good example of a flawed and fucked up but really interesting woman. (Creating her husband to look exactly like her god... lmaooooo okay girl.) And then when she and a lot of the other major characters ended up dying near the end, I couldn't even be surprised. They (I'm thinking specifically of Soleh, Vulfram and Crian) felt like characters whose storylines had been created before their personalities; like they had been written to die. (More on this later.)

My biggest beef is with this whole infanticide/abortion thing. Ohhhhhhh boy. Look, I'm not going to complain about the authors putting their views into a book; anyone can do that. I know that me and these two white guys who've never had their bodies/rights be the subject of legislation are staring at each other across a huge ideological divide. We don't agree. Some stuff in the first third of the book made me flinch really hard, but I'm not expecting to gel with them on certain things, or for their characters to change their minds on certain ideas. BUT. BUT. The fact that no one in the book clocks or calls out Karak's massive hypocrisy about ~infanticide~ actually makes me kind of crazy, and part of me just wants to continue reading to see if anyone ever will. Like... it's so stupid. It's so dumb. You claim that because humanity is in its infancy (93 years at the start of the story) human life is really precious, and the creation of said human lives is really important. Okay, cool, I'm with you. So Karak (and Ashhur? I don't remember if we ever got his opinion on this) makes abortion/infanticide one of the gravest sins in his law. Um, okay. Sure. You lost me because a foetus is not a person but fine. Agree to disagree. And so when a 16 year old girl is found to have had an abortion, the suitable punishment is to KILL her 15 year old boyfriend who gave her the drug (HUH?? what was that about life being precious?) and to KILL the old man who procured the drug for them (LIFE??? PRECIOUS?????) And the girl? Oh, strip her naked in public, whip her to shreds, and then condemn her to sexual slavery. No, like we're literally told that she'll be available for the use of any man who wishes, he can do literally whatever he wants to her (human life... so precious...) and any babies she has will be taken from her and given to another family.

Bro. Bro. I know Karak is your god, but you're all free thinking individuals. Does no one see a problem with that? Vulfram pissed me off so so so much, not just because he carried out this punishment on his daughter and his old friend, but he did zero thinking of his own until it was too late. And even then!!!!! He's still convinced that ~the punishment befit the crime~, and he's only tormented about it because it turns out someone tricked them into getting the abortion. What??? No, like, I need someone to realise how stupid this is, how a god could criminalise getting rid of a bundle of cells but be totally okay with killing a 15 year old boy, a wise old man, and sending a girl off to be raped repeatedly for the rest of her life. Not to mention what Karak does at the end of the book!!! He kills hundreds and hundreds of children, of innocent men and women, and then shrugs it off like 'Too bad, their parents should have listened to me.' What about all that precious human life you supposedly care about, idiot???? I started this book thinking that the civil war between the brothers would be presented in a way like, idk, they both have their pros and cons but no one is really right. But uhhhhh?? Apparently Karak is just evil?? Obviously Ashur isn't perfect and his way of governance could use some tweaking, but what am I supposed to take away from this kind of storytelling OTHER than 'Karak is terrible and bad and in the wrong'? And now I really need some or at least one of his followers to notice this. Obviously, with the ending, there's a lot more bad stuff he has going on, but I specifically want THIS hypocrisy to be addressed, because it was churning on my mind all book. Again, I'm not expecting this series to even touch anything approaching a woman's right to choose. I know it's not going there. But Karak is so clearly a picture of those anti-choice politicians who want to criminalise abortion but also, idk, ban free lunches for kids, or get rid of programmes that would benefit poor families. Claiming to care about children, but they clearly don't. The similarity has to be deliberate. It has to be intentional. It has to be. Right????

Pretty sure there was more I wanted to say on the whole abortion thing, but I just made myself mad again, and I kinda forget.

Those were a lot of complaints, so it might be surprising that I do intend to carry on with the series. Okay, okay, stick with me here. The last couple chapters of this were a lot. A lot of things happen. That's when Karak has his big "killing children is bad... but not when I do it" moment. We get a betrayal, which leads into a revelation that Jacob, one of the main characters, has actually been kind of evil all along and working for his own agenda. (Pretty surprising, but like I said, I don't really care much about all of these characters, so it didn't get me where it was supposed to get me.) But there was also this really cool battle, this confrontation between the brother gods. I don't think that we quite had enough build up for it, enough foreshadowing for battle between them, but when it came, it was really epic. There's this moment when Ashhur, full of wrath, is running towards Karak (after Karak kills a bunch of children even though he professes to care about human life so much, no, I will never stop talking about that) and his white rooms start shifting and changing into armour and it's such a cool visual. Especially after he's been always depicted as gentle and loving. And then they fight, and it's really good, really epic.

Well, in the author's note at the end, Dalglish talks about how they went about writing the book and who was responsible for what. Apparently, when he decided to write this series, he reached out to his buddy for some help, and Duperre readily accepted, and apparently had a whole bunch of ideas already, whole outlines, character events. Which I think is so cool and fun (that sounds like something I would do, theorycraft and write fanfiction for my friend's world). But Dalglish also says that that really cool moment that I loved? With the brother gods fighting? That moment was where the prologue for the book was originally gonna start. All the character stuff, and the people who all felt like nonentities and eventually died? Duperre's creation. And I mean this in the nicest way possible, but I think this might have been more successful if Dalglish had just stuck with his original starting point. Lol. I'm sorry, this book just feels like so much FLUFF, especially after knowing this. And I know, I know. I realise this book gives a lot of cool setup and background, and those characters told a story and served a purpose, but I reeeeeeally do feel we could have just jumped straight into the civil war. Or used a different route or different storytelling mode to get there. Because what we got, everything with Soleh and Vulfram and Crian and Aully and Geris (who I forgot about until this moment), feels shoddy and flimsy and useless. Ideas pulled from an idea jar. The ASOIAF idea jar. He made them up, knowing that they were going to die, and it shows.

Which is why I do think I'll carry on with the series. Hopefully from now on, the writing and plotting will feel tighter and more purposeful, because this is the point where Dalglish wanted to start in the first place. I'm also continuing because I really want to see someone call Karak a hypocrite to his face. Genuinely, the more I think about it, the more I think it has to be purposeful. The man is a fucking right wing parody. I just need at least one of his followers to be like 'hey if he cares about unborn kids so much, why'd he slaughter a bunch of born ones?' Please. And to the point I made at the beginning of this review, look, it's not that I necessarily think that Duperre made this book worse than it would have been without him, but... um... I don't know how to end this sentence. But that's not what I think. I just have some amount of confidence that I might like things better, now that the backstory portion of the war is over and done with. The backstory being apparently what he helped with a lot.

This stupid review is so many words long. But I think that's all I have to say. I had some more thoughts about the ending revelations, about Jacob and how he's one of the villains of Dalglish's world, but I forget what I was going to say. Details like the Jacob reveal are why maybe it would have been better to read this in publication order, so I could get the Easter eggs and stuff. But ah well.

Oh, the writing. It was fine. Sometimes a bit too modern sounding? Like, it's fine if the characters curse and stuff, but some dialogue sounded really weird and out of place for this world. IDK. It also really annoyed me that the characters themselves kept referring to the fact that humanity was so young, that they've only spent 90-odd years on the planet. It's just... way too self-aware, for people who are actually living in this world. When the gods or the Wardens say it, fine. But for a human character to say 'humanity is in its infancy'... like, what? It sounds so silly, like they're trying to be anthropologists of their own race before it's even developed. I had a similar annoyance with one of Aully's musings. “This world is so young,” she whispered. “I’m a babe in a land of babes.” Who talks like that? How would you know? You don't have a reference for any other type of world, do you? Or when Patrick says, “We live in a world where the gods walk among us.” Why would he say it like this? This is his norm! Does he know about other worlds where gods DON'T walk among people?

All that to say, there was a bunch of stuff that really took me out of the writing, stopped me from feeling immersed, never let me forget I was reading a book. The characters never felt well integrated, if that makes sense.

I'm sure I could think of more things to complain about, but good god, this is long enough.

Listened to the audiobook as read by Nick Podehl, whom I really really enjoy. There's a lot of characters and a lot of voices in here, and he did a great job making them all distinct. His female voices aren't my favourite, but no one's perfect. And his voice was one my favourite things about the reading experience. Even though I didn't like this anywhere near as much as I hoped, I'll still be continuing the series (for reasons that I discussed under the spoiler cut). So don't be surprised if you see a review for the next book in the series. Hopefully it won't be this long and stupid. And hopefully the book will turn out to be worth it in the end.

Content warnings: a fair amount of murder, blood, and gore, with detailed descriptions thereof. rape, statutory rape (or maybe it's not considered statutory rape in this world, but a 60 year old fucking a 16 year old is... something) whipping.

[Tracy Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Its was good. I'm going ahead and read the next to the series.

[Verily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unreliable narrator feels like Deus ex machina.🫤

[Mary Dallenbach · Rating 1 out of 5]

By all that is holy this book was frustrating. I got this book through Amazon Unlimited. It looked interesting and I started to listen to the narration which is rather good. The book started slow. Keeping track of the large cast of characters was challenging (there were so stinking many). But as I kept listening I was able to follow along. About 25% in it started to get interesting. Patrick was introduced at this point and he was one of the bright spots for me. So I stuck with it but then it just started to get ridiculous. I get that these people, with their gods walking among them, would react differently than most but sheesh. They had doubts about silly things but never about their God and they were never suspicious. Then, because it wasn't bad enough that there was all this subterfuge going on, the authors decided to start killing off the characters that you could actually like. It took a herculean effort on my part to finish this blasted book. I can't tell you how much I complained about how frustrating I found it. I listened to it until the end hoping it would have a justified end if not a happy one (I knew early on there would be no happy ending). I wrote part of this review when I was at 90%. I originally gave it 2 stars but holy cow then I got to the end and had to take it down to one. The ending was for me was a "are you freaking kidding me" kind of ending. I got to the end and honestly felt like I had just wasted several days of my life I would never get back. The worst part is this was only book one. I would have to torture myself through book 2, which I'm sure is only going to get worse, to get to book three which might (and I emphasize the word might) have a decent ending. Not going to happen. I will most definitely not be reading books 2 or 3.

[Pavlo Tverdokhlib · Rating 4 out of 5]

For most of the book, the following short review would've sufficed:

As a fantasy novel, it's average. But so far it's really not a fantasy novel. it's a gigantic thought experiment with a whole bunch of philosophising about free will v destiny, and how human societies inevitably turn to violence.

kind of like ASOIAF in the ridiculous plotting, and so far it seems there's very little good that's happening to the multitude of POV characters.

Then comes the ending...

Holy shit, the book is awesome.

it starts out as a weird thought experiment, then halfway through it gets dark like ASOIAF and "Forge of Darkness" took some crack and spawned an offspring book that delivered untold suffering to its characters for seemingly no reason all of a sudden. Then it went into several "holyfuckthisisepicawesome" scenes, and it ended up with one of the biggest mindfuck revelations I've ever read in fantasy. I'm trying to think when was the last time I was so sidewinded by what an author did since the Red Wedding. And this is a whole other level.

Apparently, this series is the early history of the world Dalglish set his earlier fantasy works on. I don't know if those were any good, but holy crap, I want more of this series.

[Connor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last 40% of Dawn of Swords is worth the price of admission (more on that in a moment). The first 60% was a struggle and since this is a 20 hour book, a long struggle. The book includes a cast of thousands (just joking, hundreds) and each are introduced in enough detail that I could pick them out of a police lineup. I kept wishing the authors would say, “This person is ugly and an idiot, so let’s move on”, but I had to listen to a chapter or two or three to figure it out on my own.

I did end up enjoying the book. There are several twists and one was totally unexpected. Also, I was not expecting a debate on religious faith. This appears to be a central theme and some of it is interesting while some is repetitive. There was also violence and includes head chopping, disembowelments and people being eaten by animals.

I did not use a credit, but opted to pay the everyday low price of $7.34. This is Book 1 of a series and rest may be priced higher. Dawn of Swords ends with very little resolved and I will have to decide if I want to hear more.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some interesting ideas but way to many characters were introduced to fast with not enough time for me to get to know them before the author jumps to another. Also the fact I just didn't like most of the characters in this book.For more than half the book I was wondering were the story was going since it was all about introducing yet another character to the story. Alot of them had bad intentions, were slavishly devoted to their god making them stupid, or wrapped up in themselves to make me want to care about them. Patrick probably is the closest character I liked in the story. It also nagged me that humans hadn't been created that long ago but Karak's domain cities seem to have sprung up and honestly seemed way to far developed for a "new" civilization.

[Ryan Mueller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a bit strange for me. I've read Dalglish's first Shadowdance book and Skyborn. This one didn't feel much like either. For much of the book, it read like a history lesson about his Shadowdance world. It was still interesting, but there were a lot of characters to keep track of, and I wasn't exactly sure where things were going.

However, the end of the book made up for any earlier flaws. Everything came together beautifully at the end, and there were some great action scenes and interesting revelations. Now I want to see where this story is going.

[Ixby Wuff · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the young world of Dezrel, brother gods Karak and Ashhur, fleeing their own failed world, recreate mankind in an attempt to make amends. The fledgling race of humanity is guided by the First Families, men and women who will not age so long as their hearts remain devoted to their deities.

But quickly the realms are thrown into chaos by the construction of the Temple of the Flesh, built by exiled children of Karak in the unclaimed land of Haven that lies between the two kingdoms. Those of the Temple refuse to bend knee to either god, no matter the risk. Thus comes Karak’s ultimatum to the people of Haven: destroy the Temple, or he will destroy it himself. But his fellow brother god, Ashur, will not sit idly by while thousands of innocents die. . . .

Can Jacob Eveningstar, the First Man to be given life and Ashhur’s most trusted servant, prevent the coming bloodshed which threatens the survival of the fledgling human race?

[TM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bumping from 2 stars to 3 stars because of the twist at the end.
I have a couple of criticisms for this book. The first is that it sometimes feels like this was an attempt to replicate The First Law. The second criticism is I am of the opinion the rape, incest, etc in this novel are largely there for the shock value. The little incest plotpoint does not change much in the bigger picture.
The stuff I like include the uniqueness of the idea. This is a novel concept. In addition, I always appreciate it when an author has the guts to make a god a central character.

[Juliet Miskin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philosophical ly interesting

Rating about 3 1/2,.
I sometimes became confused about the characters. The gods were not solid beings, but that was probably on purpose. Fantasy is one my favourite genres; but the plot has to appear to be plausible - at times i did have some trouble with tnis. I did like the philosophical ideas.

[Connie Fogg-Bouchard · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfection sullied

Asher and Karak, brother gods with differing views, are leading their people in paths that will collide. it is that very travel that puts all of the first families in peril. there is, however, a voice in the wilderness promising success of one side over the other. are these lies? the truth?

[Evan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't waste your time

Terribly slow read. The characters are poorly developed and one-dimensional. I haven't left a book unfinished in years, even bad ones, and I couldn't even make it halfway through this book.

[LORI · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly good book!

This book was surprisingly, good, and kept me interested, See I like all kinds of genres. It was sad at times and it was confusing at times, maybe that was just me, but all in all cannot wait to read the second book!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

hate it when my dragon's morning breath crystal triggers a war between an innocent cult of swingers and the gods of ancient times

[Timothy Downs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome origin story!

Every great fantasy world and it’s stories has one. This is the first of three origin stories to the Paladin series, Dancer series, and the Half Orc series. A must read.

[D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, that was a waste of time and money. If I wanted religion, I would have gone to church. Getting a refund. Left a bad taste.

[Daneillia Parchment · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the first part of the series. It was confusing at times but very rewarding at the end.

[Jay Collins · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars, DNF, can't really get into this one right now. Maybe the mood I am in but just not feeling it.

[Carol & Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book

[Connor Bruno · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow start that builds to an exciting ending, lack of realism in his description of travel/weapons/timelines detracts from the immersion.
Ton of names/families to keep track of

[Rayburn Neal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. I have to still dive into the shadow dance series but choose to get this one out of the way and honestly I'd recommend others to do the same. Switching from the half orc series to the breaking world gives a new set of perspectives of past versions of the brother gods, and especially the wardens. Highly recommend even reading this series from the start (maybe better?) always amazing stuff with two great authors.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

War and love, Order and Justice. This is a deep and riveting epic fantasy tells the tale of the two Gods who represent these morals and how they and their people fall to war. The stories of the people on each side of the war evolves and changes as we watch people change. I saw more people die in this book than I had in a long time, honest truth. I love it when, in this case, the authors are willing to kill their characters. Each move and change in the book was well thought-out and the plot twists were surprising.
I cannot even begin to tell you where the story started as compared to where it ended. By the end of the book the characters I swore were my favorites for one resounding reason were either dead or had become radically different. Sometimes when changes that big take place it can be jarring or feel unnecessary. I didn't get either feeling here. The book read almost like a well written bible story? It's hard to explain, and I believe the reason behind that feeling was the setting. With the Gods of the land in such close proximity and mankind only so young (I believe Jacob was 93? So mankind was what, 80 years old?) the scope of the story seemed vast and important.
The cast was vast and diverse, something I'm a huge fan of. I think, overall, I walked away in love with Patrick the disfigured son of one of the First Families. He, above everyone else, was my favorite. Other characters showed great development (Roland, Soleh, Vulfram, poor Geris) and I loved seeing them fall from grace or rising up in the face of adversity. I cannot stress how believable it was, and how much I enjoyed it.
It has been a long time since I enjoyed an epic fantasy this much because of the characters. Often times you loose the characters for the sake of the big overall story, but this was not the problem here. It turned out fantastic, I didn't feel like I was reading a 600 page book, it went much faster than that. I preordered the second book right after finishing the arc, and ordered my own physical copy.

[Sarah-Jayne Briggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I received a free copy of this book from 47North Publishers, through NetGalley, in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I have a few other books by this author on my Kindle, but this is the first one that I've read.

Although this book is revealed to be a prequel to existing books, I still found it fairly easy to follow, though I did think the book suffered a bit from info-dumping. I think it would have been worth having a prologue to this book to explain the backstory a bit more, rather than having it explained right before it becomes relevant.

A lot of the ideas in this book were particularly intriguing ones, such as the First Families idea and the way the first humans created their own perfect mates... though I felt it was a bit unfair that Jacob didn't get that chance.

A lot of the characters were quite interesting and it's always intriguing to see the origin of a villain. I did, however, find that some of the characters' actions were a bit contradictory. There was a bit of a twist at the end, but I was taken quite by surprise by it in the... 'That doesn't make sense. At all.'

I liked the idea of the two gods and I would have liked to see a bit more of their origin. It was interesting to see good and bad characters on both 'sides'. I particularly liked Patrick as a character. He might have been my favourite.

There was a bit of confusion with some of the characters and points of view. By the end of the book, I was able to figure out what was going on, but there were a few too many different perspectives at first.

I particularly liked Aully's and Kindren's relationship. That was, I felt, the romance that had the most realism to it.

I do have other books by this author on my Kindle and at some point in the future, I will definitely read the others I have on here. This is a world I'd like to see more of and characters that were intriguing and well-developed.

This was a good fantasy book and although the idea wasn't an entirely original one, it was an entertaining read that kept my attention throughout.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Epic doorstopper fantasy and a bit of a mixed bag. There's nothing inherently "bad" about this book. I actually enjoyed it and the writing. The central hook is strong, two brother-gods-made-flesh rule over their own separate slices of humanity. One keeps his people is the pacifistic and idyllic paradise and the other in a much more realistic land where political squabbles and dynastic bickering seems commonplace.

Being flesh, people doubt their gods constantly and frequently have direct meetings with them to express this, which is a nice change.

Invariably there's conflict that leads the two lands (and deities) and its various peoples towards war. The book kind of lost me here because like nearly all such fantasy series, it has WAY TOO MANY CHARACTERS. The viewpoint characters are good enough, but with so many secondary and tertiary names being thrown around, it's easy to lose track of who is playing off whom.

A very strong twist ending did make me want to read the second volume though.