Nethergeist

by Nick Stevenson

For thousands of years, the Emperor Goat, a necromancer so powerful he has declared himself God, has had an iron grip on the universe, causing most worlds to fall into disrepair. In a paranoid city of renegades, the last bastion of humanity holds out against his might. Ayilia, its Regent-Elect, is friendless, single, the ‘wrong’ sex, the ‘wrong’ heritage, and apparently cursed. While attempting to rout a coup, she is selected by outside forces to search for the impending birth site of Al Kimiya, a mage who is said to be the only match for the Emperor. To save herself and her people, she must ally with heretic magi, necromantic freedom fighters, the human-hating, reptilian Krayal, and her sworn foe, the cowardly, lifeless warlord Vespasian. A complex literary fantasy, Nethergeist is a story where the conflict is as much about the characters' inner turmoil as the outward struggle against the maniacal emperor. Featuring intense battles, snappy dialogue, and a world on the edge of ruin, Nethergeist is a fantasy in the vein of Malazan Book of the Fallen and The First Law.

Genres: Fantasy

394 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 12, 2023

Reviews

[Lezlie The Nerdy Narrative · Rating 3 out of 5]

I accepted a copy of this book from the publisher, Rising Action Publishing Collective, in consideration of a review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are subjective to myself as a reader.

Two reasons why I accepted this book for review consideration: the book description mentioned there was a necromancer and an emperor named Goat.

After it's all said and done, what should have caught my attention was "A complex literary fantasy", which I would argue should have said "A complex writing style"

I was looking forward to meeting this powerful necromancer, Emperor Goat. Turns out, he never makes an appearance. This book begins on the world of Etherwolde, taking place after what is known as the Abandonment. So readers only see what the Goat created, then seemingly left behind, forgotten. Later, readers meet those who serve him and carry out his intent, but that's the extent of it.

I would have much rather we started before the Abandonment. I'd like to know where this Goat character came from. How did he get his power? How is it he became a necromancer? How does that work? Where is he now? Why did he come there, enthrall its inhabitants, including the humans who fled there from other places, and then leave them with the dregs of the Lifeless as overseers?

Instead, we're plunged right into a political conflict amongst the citizens of Agathon, the last remaining city of humans. Now, I'm not opposed at starting in the middle where the action is - as long as it gets explained as to how we got there, whether it be through flashbacks or dialogue. I never felt like I was brought up to speed.

Despite starting in what felt like the middle of a series, I did enjoy the plot. Ayilia, the Regent-Elect of the humans in Agathon City is attempting to stop a scheme to remove her from her position, only to receive intel that she is being hunted by the Emperor Goat. He is convinced she possesses the knowledge of where the Phoenix will be reborn - his arch enemy, his nemesis - the only being that can destroy him.

In addition to the plot, I enjoyed some of the characters. Aaron, Kemet, Vespasian and Stilgen were my favorites, Seftus joined them towards the end when he started getting in on the humor. Vespasian was the most interesting and got all the attention as far as growth and development over the course of the story. His storyline, once it crossed over with Ayilia's, really had me turning the pages. He actually made her more interesting.

The element that was the weakest for me was the writing style. Besides the feeling of starting in the middle of a story, this author has a very dense style of writing. I've been reading for 40 years, so I consider myself to have a healthy vocabulary, but this author had me stopping several times in the same paragraph to look up word definitions. That got old real quick. In fact, after 3 chapters, I just gave up because it was taking me forever to make it through a chapter. The chapters themselves were also super long, 25-40 pages.

The ending was AWESOME! It was everything I didn't know I wanted when I started this book.

Even though the author nailed the ending and left a great opening for the next book, it wasn't enough to entice me to power through that style of prose to read the rest of the series.

You can find this review along with other reviews spanning multiple genres at The Nerdy Narrative or if you prefer video format, I do have a BookTube Channel

A heartfelt thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for their support towards my enthusiasm for reading and reviewing!

Special thanks to my highest level Patrons: Ev, Sharon, Andrew, Star, Amanda L., Kate, Gail, Amanda F., Lourdes, Tara, John, Sharon A-B, Ann, Chad K., Ashley E., & Jennifer M.

[mo • lesmotsdemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this novel. In the synopsis, I read « necromancer » and I knew I wanted to discover this book. There are a few points of view but all of them are interesting and none of them slow the story down. The pacing is not the fastest but the plot is full of battle scenes (some of them are quite graphic but I liked that) and war discussions. The universe is as dark as expected and I really enjoyed discovering more and more about it as the story went. And the characters are well-developed, some of them are despicable but interesting nonetheless.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sad to say that this was a bit of a disappointment for me. I appreciated that it wasn’t slow and had lots of action, as well as many interesting ideas. Where it fell short was in the lack of description for pretty much everything. This would have been far better if it was a book two or further on, and the world had already been built. As it is thought though, very little is explained or described and the instances where some things are is in a brief info-dump kind of way. This caused what is a cool idea to feel fairly flat.

Note: arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for honest review

[Pauline Stout · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up from Netgalley because I loved the cover (seriously kudos to the artist it’s absolutely amazing) and the premise sounded interesting. The synopsis sounds like a cross between science fiction and fantasy and horror and I was very much into it.

Starting with a positive I very much liked the fight scenes in the book. They were very well written and I had a clear picture in my head as to what was going on at any one time in the fights. The book is action packed and those scenes happen quite often. It made the book faster paced and I enjoyed reading them.

I unfortunately have more negatives than positives despite me liking the idea of this book. This is apparently the first book in a series but for most of the time I had the distinct feeling that I had jumped into a series at the halfway point and I had missed 1-3 books before hand. Things just happen with little to no explanation before hand. You’re thrown into the book mid events happening and you’re just expected to figure things out on your own. Magic system are unclear, the undead and how they work are very unclear, humanity’s place in all of this is almost as unclear as that. Apparently we migrated to this planet at some point in the past but the mechanics are never explained. There’s a forbearer alien race mentioned occasionally but we know nothing about them. It’s just all a confusing mess.

And speaking of confusing mess, there is way too much plot in this book. The author wanted to write a sweeping space opera but the book is only a little over 300 pages long and it really doesn’t work in my opinion. The book would have had to be at least twice as long as this to fit all of the different side plots in this if they’re explained properly. The female MC is having visions and she may or may not be cursed, the undead are trying to take over the universe, a necromancer has declared himself God, the undead are trying to take over this planet and also there is a coup, a group of raiders is trying to get to the main undead base for reasons, oh and also there’s a reptilian race on the planet too? There was so much happening I had a hard time caring about any of it.

Overall I’m giving this a three because I can see potential in this series. Given a longer book for the second installment that can flesh out and explain some of what happened in this first book I think this can be amazing. I think I do recommend this for adult science fiction and fantasy readers conditionally and I look forward to when the next in the series comes out to see what happens next.

[heidi Sheehan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up from NetGalley as it piqued my interest with the cover and the synopsis.

First, let me start with what I really enjoyed. I really loved the action and fight scenes in this book. I also really enjoy the character of Ayilia. There is some mystery surrounding her and she can fight with the best of her soldiers. Finally, I do enjoy the storyline overall and the potential for what it can turn out to be with the series.

There is a lot of filler and a lot of explaining about different parts of the story which would really take me out of it. The magic system is not flushed out or described well. There are Multiple points of view and we seem to jump to different points of view at random which was a jarring experience. Some parts of the book felt more like an academic read than a book to relax with and enjoy.

I am giving this three stars because I do see a lot of potential in the story and the action is amazing.

[Rachel Bellah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reads like the author is a centaur but instead of part horse he’s part thesaurus and never learned how to use his thesaurus powers for good. Overly descriptive in a way that severely detracts from being able to understand what’s going on. Currently 24% of the way through the book and spend most of my time rolling my eyes at the nonstop deluge of needless adjectives and muttering “this is not a good book” under my breath. If threatened with bodily harm I would not be able to summarize the plot so far. In addition, this book has poor comma hygiene, more than 3 typos so far, and incredibly confusing sentence structure (mostly pronoun hygiene) when dealing with two subjects interacting with each other.
+1 star because it’s great for growing your vocabulary.

[Trina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this novel - I'm not usually a reader of fantasy or genre fiction, but the title and the concept intrigued me. It sounded like a book that would be relevant for our times in more ways than one and it most certainly is. The writing is sophisticated and humorous, and multilayered in its approach to characters and plot. I didn't find it dense at all (it's always a pleasure to read a writer who obviously loves language) and I wonder if expectations around the process of reading have shifted over the years - encountering myriad new words used to be both unremarkable and part of the joy of reading. I'm very much looking forward to the second instalment of this series!

[Asbjørn Skovsende · Rating 2 out of 5]

The world and characters has so much potential, but it feels way to cramped and almost like #2 in a series.