All of Our Sins

by Yuval Kordov

“The mountains became plains, and the seas boiled into deserts.”

So went the earth.

First came the World War, humanity’s suicide. Then came the War against Hell, humanity’s redemption. Esther, the Eternal One, led the way from darkness to light. A new order, by her will.

So went civilization.

For a time. But as history fades and the Eternal One’s yoke tightens, man turns upon man once more. Ancient dreams of independence rise in Cathedral’s shadow. Bastion’s vengeance awakens. War beckons.

And Hell is watching.

Genres: Fiction

348 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2023

About the author

Yuval Kordov is a chronically creative nerd, tech professional, husband, and father of two. Over the course of his random life, he has been a radio show DJ, produced experimental electronic music, created the world of Dark Legacies™, and designed custom mechs with LEGO® bricks.

Reviews

[Nick Borrelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

This is the second book in Yuval Kordov's Dark Legacies inspired world. I enjoyed the first book The Hand of God and thought it was a really cool post-apocalyptic sf thriller that incorporated lost technology effectively into its compelling storyline. Admittedly I enjoy anything that involves lost tech or ancient artifacts, so this series is kind of up my alley so to speak. I was psyched when I saw that book two was coming out on Halloween and so I eagerly requested a review copy and eventually sat down for what I expected would be another wildly entertaining ride.

ALL OF OUR SINS begins in a pretty unique way as it doesn't immediately pick up after the events that concluded the previous book. Rather it fills in a parallel storyline gap that the reader doesn't get to experience in book one. I kind of liked this and thought it was a refreshing way to continue this story, kind of doubling back briefly before finally laying out the new plot with some familiar faces and settings a number of chapters in.

I will say that this book has a lot of the same tension and mystery that I liked so much in THoG. There are moments of intense action and the characters are thrown into a maelstrom of edge-of-your-seat perilous situations. Kordov can really spin an exciting narrative in that regard. At the same time there are also poignant moments where the breakneck pace slows a bit and we get to have some introspective moments with some of the major players. So there is a nice balance and I found that to be a plus.

That all being said there were also some things that didn't work for me in this sequel. I don't know if it is because this is a middle/continuation book but even though there were a lot of things going on, I didn't feel like I got to see the significant progression of the overall plot that I would have hoped for in this one. It might be a bit of a nitpick on my part but I was somewhat dissatisfied with that aspect and even though I enjoyed much of the book, it seemed that there was a strong cliffhanger element and setup for the next entry or entries to come. This was just my personal feeling upon completing the book and others may feel differently.

All in all though I found ALL OF OUR SINS to be a very worthy follow up and I look forward to seeing where things go from here on out. There are so many things to love about this series: ultra cool worldbuilding, mysterious lost technology, and feverish action scenes. I am sure that we are going to be in for one hell of a finish (no pun intended) once Yuval Kordov ultimately wraps this series up. I definitely think he is an up and coming sff author that many people need to take notice of. Check this book and series out, it's a unique breath of fresh air in an oft times trope-filled landscape.

[Jamedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally on JamReads

All of our Sins is the second instalment on the dark science-fantasy series Dark Legacies, written by Yuval Kordov. A direct continuation of what we saw in The Hand of God, keeping the same level of intrigue that made me love its predecessor, putting a big emphasis on creating an oppressive and dark atmosphere, blent with a plot as complex as we had in the first book.

As we could say with the predecessor, this is not an easy to grasp book, as Kordov continues expanding the factions that inhabit this world, especially in that vast space constituted by the wastelands. Kordov's narration style mixes dream like sequences, non linear writing and a prose that is especially vivid, creating images that get burnt into your mind.

There will be moments which will make you wonder if what you are reading is just a hallucination in the mind of the characters, a confusing experience many times but which ends rewarding the reader with many enlightenment moments. While the first part feels like a reintroduction to the world, once we are back on the POV of Mother Rebekah, the plot advances and the friction between factions becomes obvious.

The worldbuilding is simply one of my favourite aspects of the entire series, and the introduction of new factions only reinforces that idea; we are in a dangerous and bleak place, but that won't stop humans (and not so much humans) desire for power. I would have personally liked a bit more of information on what's going in the Motherhood, but I hope that returns in book 3.

If you liked The Hand of God, you will love All of our Sins, a sequel that raises the bar in some aspects that made the first book memorable, a unique blend of genres that works perfectly. I can't wait to see how the story advances in the next instalments.

[Craig Bookwyrm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review available here:

https://fanfiaddict.com/review-all-of...

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come.

[Sarah Balstrup]

*a mildly spoilerish review*

Why I read this:
Following on from the brilliant start to this series: The Hand of God.

My Impression:
I read this at the end of last year, loved the ending, but felt I had missed something along the way. I ended up re-reading Book 1, then came back to Book 2 with these details fresh in my mind. If you’re new to Dark Legacies, I’d recommend reading the books in quick succession.

Book 2 starts in an unexpected place, going back in time to the period of Mother Rebekah’s banishment, revealing a web of connections between Bastion, Hub, New Haven and Cathedral. The book fleshes out what had been skipped over in Book 1, on account of its grand time-scale.

Kordov has become one of my ‘must read’ authors. I love his sentence level details, the recognisable Kordov style and the weighty moral and metaphysical themes that sit beneath the prose. Somehow, he creates a kind of ‘ambient distortion’ in the book that gives his writing a strong sense of mood.

As a reader who connected most with Esther and A11’s chapters in Book 1, I am really looking forward to seeing their stories come together in Book 3.

Craft-Related Notes:
- Disorientation is a core element of Dark Legacies. Spiritual and moral disorientation, the meaninglessness of history and time in a world that has lost its structure. The purgatorial madness that permeates the Deadlands, making it impossible to know what is real. I thoroughly enjoy Kordov’s dissolves into memory, vision and dream. These moments do not feel ‘disorientating’ to me. Rather, the present moment finds its symbolic correlations, a timeless coalescence of moments that contribute to what is happening now.
And yet, I did struggle to remember certain events from Book 1, finding myself searching for orienting details during the opening of Book 2. In my opinion, this effect arises from the inconclusiveness of key scenes, particularly deaths. Did that character die? As Sophus says in Book 2: “He was sure of it…but also not.” As I am reading, I cannot categorise the moment and so I leave it in the ‘grey area’ of my mind. Sometimes I think the invocation of mystery in such scenes is purposeful (e.g. Gauthier’s ring), but other times, I think it would be better to know for sure. At times, it would also help to be absolutely clear of characters’ identities as when they go unnamed they also end up in this grey area. In a few cases story elements were duplicated and I was not sure which one was being referred to (e.g. hangars, battle walkers, Rev Mothers). This uncertainty does not diminish my enjoyment of the scene but it does limit the ability to plot events in my mind. To me, dates are meaningless in SFF books, even if they are included, I simply can’t retain them. In real life, dates have meaning because they relate to something we know (a season, a World War). A sense of before and after is all that is needed to understand the emotional phase that a character is in and what their motivations are. And, when in doubt, a plot summary can be a godsend. Some of my favourite books sent me searching for answers online. e.g. The Darkness that Comes Before.
- In Book 2, I enjoyed Mother Rebekah’s story but did feel that we missed out on the most meaningful time in the transition from Part 1 to Part 2. Here, a key relationship is foreshadowed and then remembered, but we do not get to experience it in real time.
- Re-reading Book 1, I found many sections impossible to skim read because they were so brilliantly written. Descriptions such as that of Esther’s domain (Esther: Blackened Silhouettes) are incredibly evocative, but we do not get to dwell in the scene for long. This is something that I notice in my own writing. I edit right down to the bone and am pleased with what remains and yet I underestimate the reader’s patience. Some lines in Dark Legacies deserve much more time on the page.

Symbolism and Spoilerish Speculation:
Here, I want to list some of the symbolic elements from Dark Legacies that have remained in my mind.
- In interviews, Kordov explains that 7 is the number of religious order. 8 involves a trespass into the supernatural domain. The 8-flamed sun that is the symbol of Cathedral begins to degrade in the cover art of Book 2, symbolising the crumbling of Esther’s mission.
- The story of Abraham and Isaac is related to the key themes of the book, and also forms the core of Dan Simmons’ The Scholar’s Tale (from Hyperion). Esther’s choice to survive at another’s expense and to resist the call of her sister establishes the moral dilemma of the series. With concepts of suicide and God’s punishment at work at the level of world building, characters find themselves confronted by impossible choices - to survive in a corrupted state, to allow death without choosing death (as suicide), to fight evil or to have faith in the good. The Scholar’s Tale provides a parallel in Esther’s sacrifice of the Numbered (children).
Dark Legacies is a world in which a moral compass cannot find its north. Survivors wander the post-apocalyptic landscape because they have not yet given themselves to the Sea of Screams (a writhing demonic mass representing ‘All of Our Sins’). And yet, no one can find their way back to God. The knife is at Isaac’s throat and we wait in that moment of purgatorial pause for an answer.
- We receive fleeting glimpses of a geometric plane (that Kordov touches on in this video: https://www.youtube.com/live/rZDDvP-T...). It can be traversed by human souls, mechanised human hybrids and other intelligences. The colourless planes ascend into light and descend into darkness. They appear to relate to beings in their respective ‘higher’ (holy) and ‘lower’ (demonic) aspects. Reality is simulated from this ground of being. The wrongness of the world of Dark Legacies comes from inter-bleeding of planes. In the world of Dark Legacies, our eyes are open and we see wrongness everywhere. The secret geometries show themselves on the physical plane. The legions of Hell split their containment. But when we enter the geometric plane, we see with the eyes of the soul.
- In order to fight evil one must access the demonic aspect of the self. Passivity leads to an unknowable outcome. Some characters appear to ascend (Miriam and Leah). Rebekah rises only to fall again. The human spirit struggles to maintain its essential nature as it slips into hybridity (demonic or mechanised). Rebekah’s love for her daughter is expressed through slaughter. R-6 longs to hold something innocent in her hands (the cat) but the non-human part of her is too strong. And yet hope is not lost.

[Joshua Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

All Of Our Sins is Yuval Kordov's unexpected follow-up to The Hand of God. Unexpected, because the book surprised me in many ways with how it progressed the Dark Legacies series. Maybe that, in itself, should not have been surprising, given all the ways Yuval defied convention in the first book. The first surprise came right at the start. If you've read The Hand of God, you'll know that it ends in a pretty overt cliffhanger. So I cracked open this book, eager to see how that climactic scene plays out, and...

[insert J Jonah Jameson laughing here]

Did I really think I was going to get such instant gratification with this book? Nay, dear reader. This is a book for the patient. The continuation of the cliffhanger scene comes only after 150 pages, about halfway through the novel. The first book utilizes much non-linear storytelling, and the sequel is no different. Instead, we jump into the backstory of a character who is seen but not named in the first book.

Okay, I'll admit it: this was a tad annoying. But after giving the first book five stars, I trusted Yuval enough to know that if he's backing up in the story, it's to put more necessary pieces into play. By the time I finished this first chunk of the book, I don't know that I could even tell you what game these pieces were playing, but I went along with it, ushered by Yuval's continuously evocative and adept prose.

I suppose now is a good time to mention the structure of the novel. It's broken up into what are essentially four tightly coupled novellas. Each part follows either a single character or a connected set of characters, telling their piece of the bigger picture. What is that bigger picture, you ask?

*processing...*

I think this is my only gripe with the novel, and the reason I rated it a star below its predecessor. This is a very complicated story, told out of order, and in a very compact book. I never wanted to stop reading, but I was often confused about where we are in the timeline, how all the factions relate to each other, and where the story was going. It had been a few months since reading The Hand of God, and a The Story So Far section would have been welcome as a refresher. Instead, I bought the Kindle version of book one and frantically searched for names as they were mentioned to give myself some context.

Even so, a lot of it went over my head, and it wasn't until the final chapters that I realized what Yuval was setting up. Finally, the picture became clear! So let me relay some of it to you, to maybe help you avoid some of the frustration I faced while reading.

This is a story of unlikely allies coming together on the precipice of war, and it begins with a single act of heroic kindness. A boy risking his life to save a revenant mother, someone his clan has good reason to utterly hate. This event sets off not just the story of All Of Our Sins, but also (if my understanding of the timeline is correct) a good portion of what happens in The Hand of God — though we didn't know it at the time. About half the book is dedicated to the perspectives of this boy and the revenant mother as she comes into power in the most unlikely of places.

The other half of the book sees a delegation from Bastion reach the Union of clans (the so-called Scavrats) and a surviving Scavrat reach Bastion. These two factions are becoming more enmeshed and preparing to fight a war against Esther and the Cathedral (whose perspectives are noticeably missing from this book). But betrayal is afoot in all factions, and the perspectives we follow don't know the whole story. Godspeed piecing together what's going on in the background as a reader – I wasn't able to do it until some pretty significant pieces of the puzzle are dropped near the end of the book.

If what you gleaned from this is that it's mostly a set up for the war to come, yeah, I think that's right. As such, there's remarkably little action in the book – I assume the bigger confrontations are being saved for when the war itself is put to page. That isn't to say nothing happens, however. Big shifts in power occur in All Of Our Sins, and true to form, the final chapter instantly made me wish the next book was already out so I can continue the series.

Although the pages of All Of Our Sins are not as chock full of demons and combat as the first book (and one of my favorite characters got almost no page-time), this is still a thought-provoking novel that's delivers on making the Dark Legacies story more complex and haunting. As I neared the end of the book and everything started to come together, I realized that although the story was challenging, it was rather beautifully done. Some of my confusion about the timeline led more to frustration than to the wonder (and horror) I felt reading the first book, but I'm still eagerly awaiting the release of book three.

As Gandalf says, "the board is set, the pieces are moving." I expect the war will truly get underway in the sequel – but then, maybe all I really should expect is that Yuval is going to surprise me yet again.

4/5 ⭐

[Douglas Lumsden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yuval Kordov's superbly written Dark Legacies series, where supernatural demons and mechanized battle juggernauts exist side-by-side, is a great example of what self-published books should be: experimental, creative, and unconventional. All of Our Sins is a terrific second act in this series. It pushes the boundaries and challenges the reader in a way that traditionally published books rarely do.

Rather than picking right up where Book One (Hand of God) left off, All of Our Sins goes back and fills in an important gap from Hand of God. Kordov doesn't tell you he is going to do this. He doesn't map things out for the reader. Instead, he drops you into a scene and expects you to pick up the context as you go. I've found that the best way to read the Dark Legacies series is to take each scene as it comes and appreciate it as a piece of the big picture. When all the pieces are taken together, they form a tapestry, but a frayed and ripped tapestry filled with holes. It can be frustrating if you are expecting something else, but I find the demon-blasted world of Dark Legacies to be none the less beautiful (in its own way) for being incomplete.

All of Our Sins delves deeply into the complex politics of the Dark Legacy world, and we encounter an array of factions within factions within factions. Bottom line is that no one can be trusted, and everyone believes they are on the side of right and righteousness. Of course, that leads to an unstable world, and by the end of this book, the stage is set for a complicated set of conflicts that are likely to unloose demons, bring about an explosive reunion between the witch/priestess Rebekah and her severely damaged cyborg daughter, Rebekah-6, and bring about the (third) end of the world.

I can't wait!

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 - Stars

Holy cats! This has been such an interesting world. The timeline format is a bit odd but if one sticks with the story, it seems to work by the time you get closer to the end of book two here.

Opening:
My Dark Legacies journey began with The Hand of God by Yuval Kordov about a year and a half ago. That one was added to my personal SPFBO-9 TBR list and I really enjoyed it. It seemed a unique world with interesting characters. It's taken me far to long to get back to this series but I'm glad that I finally did.

My effort continues with trying as hard as I can to not just keep adding additional series to my backlog but chip away at those I've already started. I haven't been completely faithful in that effort but I'm still giving it a good go and I can feel good about that.

Pacing:
The pacing with All of Our Sins, was smooth. There is plenty of ebb and flow to this story. I wanted to point out that Yuval's books seem very well edited to me. I don't find any issues with typos or other type of editing issues to trip me up.

I will mention the flow of this storyline is a bit unique. It wasn't difficult for me to keep up, but for readers who might not focus very well things might get a little confusing as the story jumps back in time and then continues again from there to fill in the gaps leading up to events we already read. For me, this really worked well. It gave us different perspectives of events that already happened and I rather liked it. I could see this not being for everyone though.

World Building:
I don't know if I can express enough how much I'm enjoying the world building in the Dark Legacies series. So much so, that I've purchased the two guide books for the d20 tabletop RPG this world is built off of. I'll be sharing a post about them once I have both in hand. I have one of two already. But I digress.

I definitely feel this world has some similarities to a grimdark future world that I'm familiar with. This isn't a bad thing for me. From the politics, the religion, the demon and chaos, or the fact civilization seems to be just barely hanging on, and especially the big mech walking military units, I'm here for it all.

Yuval seems to have a good balance between providing us just enough details to help envision this world but not to the point we start to get bogged down with it all. The nothingness of the deadlands seem to be the most terrifying followed closely to what remains of some civilizations simply because they've retreated below ground. That is nearly as frightening for me.

Character Development:
The characters are also up there both in quantity and quality which seems to be a rare find in a lot of books I read. Cathedral and the Reverent Mothers/Sisters remind me a lot of the Dune Bene Gesserit with its own twists of course. I just find these character awesome, in both stories! Rebekah is definitely one of my favorite characters in this series and especially here in book two.

Julia's chapters took me a bit of time to get into but by the point we start transitioning again to some other character PoV and chapters, I was really getting into her as well. That poor girl hasn't just had some bad luck but her world has been turned upside down more than once! She is definitely one I'm looking forward to seeing the outcome in book three.

There are just so many great characters and I've only scratched the surface with the two mentioned above. From the Union, Cathedral and Bastion there is plenty to grow attached to. Whether you're into the religious, military, leaders, soldiers or something else, there are so many to choose from.

This is honestly one of the reasons I find this world so interesting, the depth of these characters. It's easy for me to take a step back and see some of these characters broken down into races and classes in a game. I don't know quite enough yet about the Dark Legacies world to know specifics but I can see that process working easily.

Closing:
At this point I can't help but feel this world is a bit of a mix of Warhammer 40k and Dune influences, then the storyline itself is pure Yuval and I'm digging it as a big fan of both of those previously mentioned worlds.

Removing those vibes, I'd say if you are looking for a science fiction read where the world is dystopian or post apocalyptic and things seem dire and dark, along with some excellent characters and a unique method or path of telling this story, give this series a try. It's been nothing if not exciting to this point. Now I just need to work book three into my monthly TBR sooner rather than later.

Scoring:
Pacing 4.25 / 5.0
World Building 5.0 / 5.0
Character Development 4.5 / 5.0

[KDS · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been a difficult one to cast a review over. The Hand of God which started the serial, was one of the year’s finest debuts and established the author as a premiere writing talent and the Dark Legacies as one of the most intriguing settings to appear for quite some time. With a unique style, a seamless blend of genres and some brilliant world building, it was let down only by a stylistically different start to the rest of the book and some jarring gaps in the narrative. But, ultimately it gelled together exceptionally well, using multiple pov in a well balanced way to give every character a chance to tell the story from their point of view. In the end, we were left on cliffhanger to be resolved eagerly going into book 2.

Or so I thought.

Book two I will say here, feels a bit of a mess after the high standards of book one, especially in structure. The tight story telling, sweeping world building and balanced point of views are—for me—either gone or changed in a way that severely hampers both progression and pacing. We're left with a lot of padding in this one with no clear direction, almost all of which could have been included in the first book with a bit of tight editing.

The story begins with a jarring rewind to the missing events halfway through book one and is told from the pov of a newish character, saddled with the over used (by this point) parent issues as just about every other gritty protagonist in the series. On the plus side, this helps explain a gaping hole in the first book and introduces a new faction. Unfortunately this was where things started to derail for me, because 70 pages in and we are backwards on the timeline for a character barely referred to again for the rest of the book.

We then move back to the events continuing from book one, but still ignoring the cliffhanger and get a bit more on one of the protagonists. Another continuous pov chunk, but at least has some value in setting up the various politicking factions of the World and leads into an interesting, but entirely predictable mini twist.

150 pages in, we finally return to the cliffhanger ending and its after effects. From here we slowly start to see a return of some of the characters we have followed, a bit more action and whole lot of internal politics, meetings and squabbling. And plans. Lots of plans. The problem for me here was, I had already begun to detach from the long lead back into the story and unexpected boredom was setting in. The rest of the book spends a lot of time setting up internal strife in the factions and a whole lot of questions, to which there is very little pay off—just more wondering what is going on and where we actually being led to. Which I found to be distinctly unsatisfying when spread across an entire book - and in a trilogy, it's the one that should be bearing the load for bridging the story between the set up and the conclusion.

It isn’t entirely a misfire—I’m still a big fan of the highly evocative setting and there’s a fair amount of well conceived fleshing out of some of the societies (although Cathedral seems bizarrely excluded). The writing itself is also of high standard, although it has lost its tight reign of the story to the extent that by the end, the overall narrative has barely progressed at all. It says a whole lot, but actually delivers very little. Whilst some characters feel strangely sidelined or excluded altogether, others get a much needed investment. It’s an odd balance which didn’t work as well as it could have. I do wonder if being a smaller, duology or a longer single book would have benefitted more given how little the story moves forward through two books

I’m still invested in the series and I still have key questions about the world which feel more important than are seemingly dealt with. I want to know more about how Esther set up her new world and I want it to feel high stakes for the world in its entirety, which hasn't necessarily been the case so far. If it can return to the tight storytelling, balanced povs and not get lost in the non-linear style and too much politicking, I believe Dark Legacies can restore itself to a remarkable serial. I feel the story will have a lot of heavy lifting to do in the next book though to progress the story enough.

One thing is for certain, the author is still an incredible writing talent who isn’t afraid of doing things differently and has created a truly magnificent world to base his story in. For me though, book two entertains, but it's reliance on padding means it falls short of the much higher quality set in book one.

[Jon James · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Our Sins follows in the bold, demon-infested footsteps of its predecessor, Hand of God.

This review is spoiler free for All of Our Sins, but spoilers for Hand of God follow!

The book starts by following Rebekah, an exiled Revenant Mother, a sort of battle nun granted supernatural speed and power by the Messiah, the immortal savior of Citadel known as Esther at the beginning of Hand of God. Aimless and alone, she must navigate the Deadlands and the demons that dwell there, as well as the equally dangerous politics of the Union and Bastion.

Next we start switching perspectives between several of the scavrats of the Union and various soldiers and politicians of Bastion to learn about the aftermath of the attack by two God-engines sent by Citadel to eradicate their newly formed alliance. And of course, one of those God-engines is no other than Rebekah-6, deformed psionic daughter of Rebekah, now fully integrated with her mechanical killing machine.

We bounce back and forth between the fallout of the brainwashed AI-driven mech called Aleph's ill-fated "defense" of Bastion from Hand of God, and the scavrats of the Union scrambling to figure out how to keep the various clans together in light of Citadel's attack against them and of their discovery of Bastion. The church in Bastion is no longer content with its role as a single pillar of the triumvirate running the city, and the Union is on the brink of collapse over whether to continue paying loyalty to Citadel - and whether they can afford not to.

As with the first book, the prose is lyrical and often dreamlike, though not at the expense of comprehensibility. Still, it is not a book to skim; you will get the most out of it if you savor the text. And like book 1, All of Our Sins does not spoon-feed the plot to you. It rewards a patient reader who enjoys piecing together the big picture from small glimpses of a very lived-in world.

Like book 1, this follows many different perspectives, though the narrative is more linear in book 2, making the perspective jumps less jarring.

The mechs, as featured on the cover of both books, do not dominate the narrative. In fact, they are only present at all in a handful of chapters. But like well-executed villains such as Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope and Hannibal in Silence of the Lambs, their presence is felt throughout the book despite their minimal screen time.

Book 2 also explores political intrigue much more than Hand of God. We get a deeper view into how the individual clans of the Union operate, as well as how the clans work together to form the Union. We also get to explore Bastion and how the church and military work together, and at times, in opposition.

Its one shortcoming is that All of Our Sins is clearly a middle book in a trilogy. While book 1 was driven first by Esther's prologue and then by the imaginative world building featuring a world forsaken by God, overrun by demon, inhabited by psychic nuns and dysfunctional battle walkers, this book continues where that left off. But as we must wait for book 3 to drop (hopefully very soon!), we are again left without much resolution.

Still, All of Our Sins stands alongside literary science fiction giants like Hyperion, theological sci-fi such as A Canticle for Liebowitz, and military sci-fi like the grimdark Warhammer 40,000 novels by Dan Abnett with equal tenacity. An excellent addition to the incensepunk bookshelf; I can't wait to see what Kordov has for us next!

[E.J. J Doble · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very difficult book to review.

As a follow-up to the incredibly unique, mind bending debut The Hand of God, I had high expectations for this book after being left on a massive cliffhanger. There were competing factions and there was war brewing, with desperation and horror and the threat of the Hellmouth too - things I was so ready to see that explored and explained further in Book 2.

And they were explained more in this book: the prose was murderously immaculate throughout, with beautiful dystopian imagery and tense scenes interspersed with character perspectives and flashback pieces. Every chapter was gripping, and I could hardly take my eyes off the page at times.

If only I had any idea where I was, both geographically and chronologically.

From reading a few other reviews - and the vague blurb - I've come to realise that book 2 starts halfway through book 1, and then jumps to present, and then goes back (but not that far back), and then forward again, and then to present again properly, with different characters in each "part", sometimes multiple. The plotline from the end of book 1, therefore, advanced only about 20% compared to the first book - and most of that plot advancement was spent (as I had for the first 80% of the book) trying to work out what the f*ck was going on.

I appreciate what Kordov was trying to do when writing this book how he did: to link up timelines and explain a greater conspiracy from book 1 that creates massive tension for the inevitable book 3. To that effect, the book is written fantastically, and I had a great time understanding what was going wrong.

But because of the disconnected nature of it - jumping from place to place, from time to time, all the time - I was left feeling confused, completely disconnected from every single character, and just waiting for the "present" stuff to happen so I could work out what was going on.

This book has great prose, built upon fantastic elements from the first book, and had a great finale ready for the book 3, but it was ultimately mired by narrative issues that made it really difficult to follow for me.

[S. Pierzchala · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are new to this series, I very strongly recommend reading the first before attempting this one---you can't just jump in and get your bearings. The story opens with a very long flashback that assumes prior knowledge of events and characters. In fact, the author employs some very Christopher Nolan-like tricks and subtleties with the timeline, but being forewarned is forearmed. Fans will find themselves once again immersed in the high-stakes plotting between the Matriarch and her Revenant Sisters, Bastion and their Church, and the beleaguered Scavrats.

As ever, the prose is exquisite, the world building great, characters crisply drawn, and the sense of dread is masterfully executed. However, be warned: the chapters detailing interactions with demons, and Rebekah-6's suffering at the hands of the Sisterhood, are not for the squeamish.

I also have big questions about where this series is ultimately going, which is one reason I enjoy it so much. It's not just an action saga, but includes enough philosophy to keep my spiritual mind engaged. While we have the trappings of religion shown (ritual, robes, incense, an occasional prayer), we are unclear on the factions' differing world-views. Nonetheless, by this time in the story, I would have appreciated a few more cues (perhaps having the characters discuss theories) on why the true God has abandoned humanity to these demons, and why some people still worship Him despite that, and what this “Messiah” is, etc.

That being said, the ending of this dark installment is pierced by unmistakable glimpses of light. Without an intriguing note of hope at the end, Rebekah-6's horrific plight would be much harder to read than it already is. These crumbs are signs that the author is leading us to a very profound conclusion for the entire series and I am holding my breath to see how he does it. It promises to be well worth the tumultuous ride.

[Esper · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Our Sins continues to knit together the trilogy's densely knitted story through the eyes of multiple players — some new in this book, others familiar. In many ways, it's like witnessing an epic chess match play out but through the eyes of pawns, bishops, and queens. Along the way, you fall in love with new characters, who continue to deepen the Dark Legacies' immensely rich worldbuilding. While in Hand of God, we learned much of Bastion and the Sisterhood's Cathedral, we dive in deep to the Scravrat's Hub and culture in AoOS.

Overall, my favorite aspect of the Dark Legacies books continues to be the uncanny way in which the author seems to connect you directly with the characters' central nervous system, such that you feel every torment they experience while at the lip of Hell itself. What truly separates the author's writing apart is that he deeply understands psychology and the true roots of what causes something to be "terrifying" to the human psyche — and it's not gore or shock value. No, instead, it's loneliness, desolation, fear of becoming unmoored from reality itself, loss, being unloved, and betrayal.

Rebekah-6's character arc in particular keeps melting my cold heart. I so badly want to reach into those pages and give that girl a hug! I also thoroughly enjoyed Mother Rebekah's journey in this novel, and one of her big scenes continues to haunt me... *shivers*

Overall, I recommend the book for its vivid world building, large cast of complex characters, its powerful prose, and its very unique plot.

[Karen ⚜Mess⚜]

⚡🔥 Sweet ass book #2 is also on sale for .99 on Amazon 🔥⚡

[Bookish_Austin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Similar to the first book, All of Our Sins is an action packed, gripping scifi-esque story that will keep readers on the edge of the feet. Kordov has crafted such a unique world that is shown with great imagery and flawless writing, and one that leaves readers hungry for more.

This one starts off around mid way through the first book, and that did have me confused at first. Everyone who has read the first book likely ended up shooken from that cliffhanger of an ending, and I was hoping this one would give us immediate answers. That is not the case, but we do get some important character development and I will never say no to seeing more of the world that Kordov has built.

I know other reviewers have mentioned it, but it is impossible to not talk about how great the prose is. Kordov writes like a seasoned veteran. His style keeps my eyes glued to the page and I am constantly impressed by how tight the writing is. For this to only be his second novel is extremely impressive.

The worldbuilding is another huge highlight for me. One of my biggest goals of this past reading year was to read more scifi and I found myself getting bored quickly as so many stories felt the same. That is not the case with this series, as the author has built something innovative and unique. It is science fiction, but has this post apoctalyptic/dystopian feel that reminds me a bit of Mad Max. Thematically, a focus on parenthood remains front and center, and I love how it is interwoven into a story largely driven by a fight for survival.

Like the first book, this one moves quite quickly, and I was able to finish it in just two sittings. Break neck action is interwoven with more somber, emotional moments in a satisfying way, but unfortunately, this book overall was a step down from the first one for me. This largely comes down to the fragmented timeline, as I often found myself lost. Even though I was enjoying what was happening, I found that there were many times where I didn't know what, when, or how those very things were occuring. As mentioned earlier, this story does jump between various timelines and sadly for me, this left the story feeling disjointed. This also is not an overly long novel, and the result of that is that I felt it did very little to actively progress the main storyline along.

[Andrew Gillsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about Yuval Kordov's debut novel, The Hand of God. It was a masterful blend of sci-fi, fantasy, cosmic horror, and post apocalyptic metaphysics, all told in the wild, vivid prose that is Yuval Kordov's stock-in-trade. TBH, I wondered how on Earth he would follow it up!

Having now read an early copy of the sequel, All of Our Sins, I am thrilled to report that he has not only matched the brilliance of the first book, but exceeded it. Everything that I loved about the series opener was on display in this one as well: the language, the tight storycraft, the characterization, the politics, the creeping sense of dread. What sets this sequel apart is the beat-perfect pacing from the get-go. It is an absolute rip-snorting page turner, start to finish! (Not that this was an issue with The Hand of God! It's just so flawlessly and professionally done in this one that it merits a special callout.)

Because the book is not yet out, I won't discuss the plot, but suffice it to say that it both deepens and expands the post-apocalyptic world of Cathedral, Bastion, and Union. There are some stunningly evocative scenes (as per usual with Yuval), and some unexpected plot twists that will leave your mouth agape.

The hallmark of a great book--especially in sci-fi or fantasy--is that one continues to think about it long after reading the final page. That is certainly true of the Dark Legacies series. I want to keep learning more about this world and its inhabitants (human and non-human!). I want to understand the deep histories and political intrigues of the various factions. I want to know WHY things have gone the way they have gone, almost as much as I want to know what happens next.

Highly, highly recommended!

[W.H. Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of Our Sins is the second book of the Dark Legacies series and continues, with a slight detour, the story from the first book, The Hand of God. The detour I refer to is a treat in many ways because it fills in a part of the story mentioned in Hand of God. I liked the additional information because it gave a better insight of one of my favorite characters: Mother Rebekah.

Like the first book, Yuval Kordov writes each chapter from the POV of one of the characters, giving us a deep dive into their minds and motivations. Although the genre is horror, this book leans more heavily into the political aspects that have driven much of the action. In a world of religion and scarce resources, those in power call the shots and the three main groups in the series are all vying for the top position.

Overall, I am once again floored by Kordov’s descriptive prowess. His ability to weave details into his depictions rivals anyone else I’ve read. Instead of fluff to increase page count, these are important descriptions that really make you feel part of the hellscape the characters are living in.

My only criticism concerns my difficulty in remembering some of the secondary characters and what they did in the first book in the series. Especially in the second half of the book, I felt a bit lost as to who was who and what they meant to the story. I think a Character List at the back of the book with a brief description of each character would really help with that.

Again, I think Kordov is a talented storyteller and I’m looking forward to the third book. The sooner it arrives the better!

[Jake Theriault · Rating 5 out of 5]

As "Act 2" as sequels come (I mean this as a compliment!), All of Our Sins is still filled with the same densely descriptive, evocative prose that Kordov seems to have mastered right out of the gate with his debut, The Hand of God; but in service of setting up a grander, future conflict than any contained within its pages. All of Our Sins is a buffet of character studies and deeper explorations of the players introduced in The Hand of God, while slowly bringing the disparate story threads of the first novel together towards a conclusion I can't wait to get my hands on (give it to me now).

If you enjoyed The Hand of God, you gotta read All of Our Sins, and if you love All of Our Sins, I expect I'll see you here day one of whenever we get the next chapter of these Dark Legacies.

[Brendan Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first book followed a handful of characters, and ended on a cliffhanger, so you would assume this book followed up on that. Instead, for the first half of this book, we shift to a new set of characters, dissipating any excitement over the plot. Not only a new set of characters, but the narrative also jumps back in time to before the events of the first book.

All of that still might work, but the first half doesn't have any real significance to the story of the 1st book. It's just background, explaining the events that led up to the first book. It's like if the sequel to Star Wars: A New Hope was Rogue One, instead of Empire Strikes Back. It doesn't add anything meaningful, it's just background.

[Miguel Azevedo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, my Rebekah.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like a solid follow-up to the first book in the series, the hand of God. who's very similar in style and structure. however, for me, this means it also has an issue with too many disparate characters and groupings. The overarching groups, like Bastian or the citadel were easy to keep track of, but the sub groupings within each, especially when they mingled, got a little tangled for me.

[Burt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh man, this is the book I had to wait months to read…this book did not disappoint. Sometimes when you read sequels it makes you wonder if you want to keep reading the series. This book left me begging for more!!! I thought book one was amazing, book two is 100000% better!!! Have no fear, i have already asked for book three…..here comes more waiting