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The Watchfire: Scarlet Twilight
There are no heroes in the city of Othage, only survivors. For years, King Callahan the Fifth has ruled his kingdom through fear, an enabling bureaucracy, and an extensive and violent security apparatus. Yet, a secret group of individuals from all walks of life is dedicated to forging a new dawn for the people of Othage. A dawn where they do not fear disappearing in the night and never seeing their loved ones again. This group is known as the Watchfire, and their plots will change the face of their world forever.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 20, 2024
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July 16, 2025
James Brennon paints a portrait of an empire in crisis that is at once brutal and bureaucratic. He then populates it expertly with a collection of characters from varied backgrounds and social classes that make the dangers of the world feel that much more immediate. This is not a lighthearted read, but it is a hard book to put down. I finished it within about a week of just reading it in the evenings. Did it give me occasional nightmares? Maybe. Was it totally worth it? Absolutely.
The story follows multiple perspectives: a young woman left in prison to die of sickness and starvation who escapes with a rekindled sense of vengeance for the kingdom’s rulership, a respected merchant hiding a traitorous secret, an aspiring bureaucrat hungry for advancement at any cost, a skilled assassin who takes special pride in her work – all weaving together to ignite the beginning of what promises to be a much broader conflict.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is that it resists simplifying these complex characters and their motives into a story of mere good vs evil. Aside from the King (who is very very evil), these characters are composed of shades of gray- especially the assassin character whose story I’m quite excited to follow in the remaining books of the series. The Watchfire: Scarlet Twilight asks its audience to consider, not only the ways we resist evil in systems around us, but in how we succumb to it as well. It invites us into a world where absolute power and dauntless hope collide- and, in which, hope may just have chance of winning.
The story follows multiple perspectives: a young woman left in prison to die of sickness and starvation who escapes with a rekindled sense of vengeance for the kingdom’s rulership, a respected merchant hiding a traitorous secret, an aspiring bureaucrat hungry for advancement at any cost, a skilled assassin who takes special pride in her work – all weaving together to ignite the beginning of what promises to be a much broader conflict.
One of my favorite aspects of the book is that it resists simplifying these complex characters and their motives into a story of mere good vs evil. Aside from the King (who is very very evil), these characters are composed of shades of gray- especially the assassin character whose story I’m quite excited to follow in the remaining books of the series. The Watchfire: Scarlet Twilight asks its audience to consider, not only the ways we resist evil in systems around us, but in how we succumb to it as well. It invites us into a world where absolute power and dauntless hope collide- and, in which, hope may just have chance of winning.
Displaying 1 of 1 review