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A Traitor's Path: The Scrolls of Azbel Book 3
The Trials Ahead May Claim Them If They Don’t Kill Each Other First.
Dispirited and battered, Maluem and company find themselves adrift, their crippled vessel sinking, a plague nation their only harbor. As they venture into the very heart of an unfolding apocalypse, the diverging goals of their eclectic crew threaten to sever the threadbare ties binding them together. With the stakes escalating by the pulse, drastic actions may be required if any of them are to survive. Will Maluem find the strength and resourcefulness within her to pull their fragmenting party back together? Or will the swarming chaos devour them one by one?
Dispirited and battered, Maluem and company find themselves adrift, their crippled vessel sinking, a plague nation their only harbor. As they venture into the very heart of an unfolding apocalypse, the diverging goals of their eclectic crew threaten to sever the threadbare ties binding them together. With the stakes escalating by the pulse, drastic actions may be required if any of them are to survive. Will Maluem find the strength and resourcefulness within her to pull their fragmenting party back together? Or will the swarming chaos devour them one by one?
739 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 15, 2023
About the author
J.B. Mangold
3 books4 followersI was born in New Jersey, the second son and youngest of five. We soon moved to Western New York where I attended public and private school, entering the military directly after graduating High School. I served in the U.S. Army for six years, four in Special Ops, touring much of the Middle East, some of Europe, and a bit of Central America. Upon exiting the military, I attended college at Georgia Tech, earning a degree in Industrial Design and finishing at the top of my class. I worked for twelve years crafting playgrounds for both commercial and back yard applications, designing everything from the units and accessories to the plans explaining how to build them. Currently I am a supervisor in a Test Lab, overseeing prototype builds and part analysis. The greatest joys of my life are my writing, my twelve dogs, and my wonderful wife.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 24, 2025
3 Stars = A Book Worth Reading
"A Traitor’s Path" represents a series on the upstroke. Though not perfect, there have been improvements in consistency, plot structure, and the technical aspects of writing. The characters have also improved dramatically, for although some of the supporting cast is still a bit wooden, the development beats of the main characters are well-structured. A good example is Cruentous who transitions from simply being an ill-mannered war machine to the best character in the novel (though Volo might give her a run for her money). Parts of the story told from her perspective seize the opportunity to flesh out her backstory and explore her values and personal struggles. The world also sees a significant upgrade with the introduction of two unique lands. The first, a disease-ravaged, post-apocalyptic husk of a continent, stands in stark contrast to the places we have seen in the previous two books. The second is similar to Santilis or Enox, but the interplay between technology and magic is more seamless than in other locations, and there are several new races including a successful version of the immortality-via-machines some people in Santilis were attempting. Taken together, these details create the most iconic country of the series. Finally, the ending of the story stands above those of the previous installments. Maluem’s goal, to acquire the next part of Dorjakt’s scythe, dovetails nicely with objectives arising from the second half of the book, making these final scenes feel like an organic extension of the rest of the story. The action is tense, problem-solving is clever and exciting, and there is a nice little twist at end. Based on marked improvements across the series, I have no problem declaring this to be the best book of the series so far, a trend I hope continues in the fourth (and final?) installment.
"A Traitor’s Path" represents a series on the upstroke. Though not perfect, there have been improvements in consistency, plot structure, and the technical aspects of writing. The characters have also improved dramatically, for although some of the supporting cast is still a bit wooden, the development beats of the main characters are well-structured. A good example is Cruentous who transitions from simply being an ill-mannered war machine to the best character in the novel (though Volo might give her a run for her money). Parts of the story told from her perspective seize the opportunity to flesh out her backstory and explore her values and personal struggles. The world also sees a significant upgrade with the introduction of two unique lands. The first, a disease-ravaged, post-apocalyptic husk of a continent, stands in stark contrast to the places we have seen in the previous two books. The second is similar to Santilis or Enox, but the interplay between technology and magic is more seamless than in other locations, and there are several new races including a successful version of the immortality-via-machines some people in Santilis were attempting. Taken together, these details create the most iconic country of the series. Finally, the ending of the story stands above those of the previous installments. Maluem’s goal, to acquire the next part of Dorjakt’s scythe, dovetails nicely with objectives arising from the second half of the book, making these final scenes feel like an organic extension of the rest of the story. The action is tense, problem-solving is clever and exciting, and there is a nice little twist at end. Based on marked improvements across the series, I have no problem declaring this to be the best book of the series so far, a trend I hope continues in the fourth (and final?) installment.
Displaying 1 of 1 review