Ascendant

Broken Gods #1

by Noah Isaacs

George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire meets Kentaro Miura's Berserk in this much awaited installment following the events of Heretic, described as "Philosophical and bloody" by ZB Steele, author of Whispers of the Storm.

As one ages ends, another begins—and the hand that passes the torch is drenched in blood.

Born the last son of a lowly House, Emre vowed he would one day make the Solaire name rise again, reminiscent of their majesty of old. His brothers vowed the same, and on their journeys found nothing but their own ends. So when he rescues Queen Serilla from a mysterious assassin in her court, he asks for the only thing imaginable; to join the Army of the Golden Sun, an honor of the realm forever reserved for those of the High Houses. Fighting for the glory of the kingdom alongside companions he never thought to make, one day the castle on the high hill he dreamed of so often might become his, and all shall remember House Solaire.

Born herself fourth in line to the crown of Sarcassi, a series of tragedies has led to now, where Serilla sits upon the throne. Following the assassination attempt at court, she cannot escape the ghosts her father, the king, left behind. Least of all in the dagger-wielding shadow that came for her. As she writes to both the Tower of Cognates and the Grand Arbiter for an end to all this madness, she realizes her only chance at saving herself may be feigning trust in the very men who want her dead.

Genres: Fantasy

551 pages, Paperback Edition

Published October 10, 2026

About the author

Noah Isaacs is an American fantasy and science fiction author of the TALES OF AERYM. He currently resides in Tokyo, Japan, where he received an MSc in astrobiology, and pursues a PhD in the same field.

Reviews

[Kaden Love · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful prose, the political scheming of a Game of Thrones, and the tragedy of Berzerk all in a brilliant flintlock fantasy novel. Isaacs is a stellar new voice in fantasy that all fantasy readers need on their radar.

[Ven · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

First off, thanks to Noah for providing me with an ARC in return for an honest review.

Ascendant is a dark flintlock fantasy with political manoeuvrings, battlefield conflict as well as a twist on some of the more conventional prophecy/chosen-one stories you often see in fantasy.

Straight of the bat, this is a grim and unforgiving world, locked in a cycle of conflict driven by political class systems, religion, superstition and resource scarcity, specifically safe drinking water. The atmosphere throughout is palpable, with a real sense of everyday threat and danger for out point-of-view characters, and is reinforced by the expressive prose throughout.

As for characters, we gave Emre, who is arguably the closes to the main character of the book, the youngest and last surviving son of a fallen house which has fallen from grace, who made a blood oath with his bothers to restore it's place to glory, and now he is the last one left, and his tale very much is focused on the military aspects of setting, and what everyday life looks like, especially as nobles of his standing are not permitted into that section of the military, so he is also dealing with class discrimination alongside everything else.
Serilla is next, the current sitting queen who was never meant to rule, dealing with political scheming of those who would see her replaced while doubting her own ability to rule.
Amina very much gives us an alternative view, seen as a pagan by the faithful, she is a Witch-Surgeon on the run for her life while following the threads of fate only she can see.
Orhan is maybe my favorite of the POV characters, an adviser previously disgraced, dispatched to advise the queen and who is drawn into the political machinations, and of all the characters is perhaps the most humane in many ways.
Finally we have Marcellan, a loquacious free loving barb who is tasked with hunting down a lead to discover a potential illegitimate prince. His chapters were the only ones I didn't enjoy, largely because I rarely vibe with bard characters, and he hit every one of my dislike boxes.
The supporting cast are well realised as well, and flesh out the worlds beliefs and ideologies.

It did take a while for me to really be drawn into the story, but once it started to pull together and mesh it started to draw me in more, and where some of the characters end up genuinely surprised me, and even the ones I had figured out were done in a way that exceeded what I expected.

Overall, this was a great series book one (their is also the novella Heretic set before this which I recommend checking out) full of atmosphere and intrigue, that rewards you for paying attention, and subverts some of the more common fantasy tropes in interesting ways.

[Mosha Winter]

Got to beta read the first chapters of this book and thoroughly enjoyed them!

Noah's characters have aura and his world is unique and fresh. This promises to be a fantastic epic. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

[Shelby Denison · Rating 2 out of 5]

**Thank you to Noah Isaacs for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Expected publication October 10, 2026.**

Unfortunately, this one just fell further and further into the void for me.

After all of the unanswered threads and loose ends from the prequel, I had hoped this book would start pulling some of those pieces together. Instead, a lot of the things that were never properly explained before are still left unexplained here, while even more ideas, characters, and plot threads are introduced.

The story jumps between multiple POVs and a large cast of characters whose paths eventually intersect throughout the world. I actually liked the idea of what this story was trying to build. There are some really interesting concepts, and the world has the potential to feel huge and epic. But so much is introduced without enough context about what it is, why it matters, or why I should ultimately care about it. That made the grand scale of the story feel much less impactful than I think it was intended to be.

The writing style was another big issue for me. The language is extremely flowery, and I think the intention was for it to feel poetic and vibrant, but it often came across as unnatural instead. There were quite a few moments where the prose felt clipped and choppy, which made the reading experience more difficult than it needed to be.

And I have to mention my personal literary nemesis: “They let go of the breath they didn’t know they were holding.”

This phrase was used way too many times, and at this point I genuinely think it needs to be thrown into a fire and never allowed near another manuscript again. It has become such a tired descriptor that every time I saw it, I was pulled completely out of the story.

Overall, I think this book needed some heavy editing and quite a bit more clarification throughout. There are ideas here that I genuinely enjoyed, and I liked the characters and the potential of the world, but the execution just didn’t work for me.

Unfortunately, this was another case of loving the potential of a story much more than the story itself.

[Francisco González · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ascendant – Noah Isaacs
Broken Gods #1

**Obtuve este libro como una copia de lectura anticipada (ARC) de parte de Noah Isaacs. El libro sale al mundo el 10 de octubre de este año.**

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Nacido como el último hijo de una casa humilde, Emre juró que algún día haría resurgir el nombre de los Solaire, para que volviera a evocar la majestad de antaño. Sus hermanos hicieron el mismo juramento, pero en sus viajes no encontraron más que su propia muerte. Así que cuando rescata a la reina Serilla de un misterioso asesino en su corte, pide lo único imaginable: unirse al Ejército del Sol Dorado, un honor del reino reservado únicamente a los miembros de las Casas Nobles. Luchando por la gloria del reino junto a compañeros que nunca imaginó tener, tal vez algún día el castillo en la alta colina con el que tanto soñó sea suyo, y todos recuerden a la Casa Solaire.
---

Comienzo diciendo que este libro no es para mí. No es malo, pero no fue una lectura placentera que me llamara a seguir al acabar cada capítulo.
Parte excelente siguiendo la vida de Emre Solaire, adentrándose en su promesa, sus pasiones y desafíos. Pero sentí que cerca del 30% de avance, el libro cambia bruscamente al cambiar constantemente de personajes (multi POV) que no parecían tener una conexión. Se entiende que todos vayan armando el rompecabezas, pero simplemente no me parecieron atractivas sus historias ni logré encontrar más conexión que la de pertenecer al mismo mundo y los lazos entre ellos.

Mientras leía ansiaba con encontrar más capítulos de Emre, me gustaron mucho esos, por el dinamismo, el conflicto, la superación en su grupo. Pero estos parecían escasear a medida que avanzaba.

Había muchos momentos que encontré confusos, los motivos de los personajes no eran claros y sus acciones y/o pensamientos no se ajustaban a quienes decían ser.

De todas formas, es un libro desafiante y atrevido, con posturas ideológicas que entrechocan, y creo que podría venir una mejora en la segunda entrega.


3,5/5 estrellas

#NoahIsaacs #Ascendant #BrokenGods #Fantasy #books #indie #libros

[Sarah Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ambition gets ugly fast when everyone has a reason to believe they deserve more. Ascendant lives in that space. People reach for power because they’ve been denied it, then start deciding what they’re willing to sacrifice for the chance to finally have it. And that power comes in many shapes and forms. The characters feel painfully real because of it.

There's so much unique worldbuilding I really enjoyed. Status has a physical language - social rank is literally worn in feathers, so you can read someone's place in the hierarchy before they even speak. Arquebuses cut through the old-world fantasy atmosphere, giving the setting this strange mix of ceremony and gunpowder that feels completely natural once you’re inside it.

The relationships make every choice hurt more. Loyalty gets tested. People disappoint each other. Affection survives things it probably shouldn’t.

Each POV carries its own wants and blind spots, and Isaacs lets people be funny or petty without draining the story of gravity. Pulling off that range in epic fantasy is hard, especially on this scale, and the confidence behind it is impressive.

The Cognitar epigraphs became one of my favorite touches. Little pieces of scholarship sitting above chapters full of people proving how slippery certainty actually is. Very effective.

Ascendant feels familiar in the way classic epic fantasy should, but never anonymous. The world has fingerprints. The people make a mess of it. And by the end, enough has shifted that I can't wait to see what Isaacs writes next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Noah Isaacs for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Jake Theriault]

This review original appeared with additional citations on Off The Shelf.

I was provided a digital advance reading copy of this book by the author.

I had a lot of thoughts as I was reading Noah Isaacs’ Ascendant. I wondered how, if at all, the writing of it was influenced by United States intervention in the Middle East. I wondered if the clear invocations of Elden Ring were merely aesthetic flourishes or pointed to something deeper. I wondered how the story would eventually tie in to the events of Heretic (which I reviewed earlier this year). I found myself thinking a lot about Joseph Conrad’s Nostromo, which I read right before this. I thought about Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. And I thought about how it has clearly been a long time since I’d read fantasy, because this is not how I remember it feeling. When, late in the book, one character remarked that, “I would not change any of this,” I desperately wished they would.

In pondering how to present my bottom line here, I think it’s important to outline the complexity of my feelings regarding Ascendant. It is difficult to truly evaluate a story like this, because it is clearly a single piece of a larger whole. It ends on a cliffhanger, and given how the events of this story unfold, it won’t be until the Broken Gods saga is concluded that I can really determine how I feel about it. But I did find Ascendant fascinating. It is less a story that one enjoys (though certainly some will), but rather a story one endures. It is a cruel and oppressive work, filled to bursting with blood, betrayal, and the hubris of man. Where the preceding Heretic ended on a somewhat hopeful note, Ascendant absolutely does not. (I have seen others reference Game of Thrones in comparison, but I have neither read those books or seen the television adaptations, so I cannot speak to any similarities or shared themes between the two.) Ascendant has few characters you can cheer for without reservation, and those for whom you can often end up with a target on their backs. But it was undeniably intriguing, in the same way I found Elden Ring intriguing when I first played it, despite it not necessarily clicking for me at first. It is a fascinating world, and I’d like to see how it all fits together. And like Elden Ring, Ascendant is playing with some very interesting themes that are certainly worth exploring.

As for the nuts and bolts of the story itself, the narrative is split up amongst several POV characters, though the chief point-of-view, and the one in which we spend the most time, is that of Emre Solaire, a young man of disgraced nobility, the last of his line, keen on returning his House to its former glory, come hell or high water. In musing upon the lowly rank of his House, he notes that “grand deeds” will allow him to claim the status his family deserves. But avenues by which to complete such grand deeds are in short supply. He is not a peasant, by any stretch, but even so he is trapped by this world’s rigid class structures. That is until, as if by the hand of providence, while present at the queen’s throne, he stops an attempted assassination. He leverages the gratitude of the court (and pushed along by the conniving of another local noble) to land himself a position in the queen’s Army of the Golden Sun, through whose exploits he hopes to earn the glory and status for him and his House. Emre is begrudgingly accepted into the army, despite his station, but is warned:

“The honor I can see you so desperately yearn for lies out in those fields, but so too do fouler things.”

If Ascendant is most successful in one thing, it is in its presentation of the futility and fruitlessness of war. Much of the overarching narrative of both this book and Heretic involves the grand arc of this epoch of in-universe history—The Age of Cycles. War has marked much of these cycles, war upon repetitious war—with no end in sight. Violence only ever achieves one end in this realm. To paraphrase Hannah Arendt, violence always changes the world, and the most likely change is to a more violent world. The world of Isaacs’ Broken Gods is exactly such a world: a universe wherein violence begets more violence begets more violence begets more violence. Innocence is met in almost every instance with brutality. Sensible minds do exist here, but they are a dwindling minority (in good part because their sensibility gets in the way of those who would wish to do more violence). When one character notes that “Making peace was always the right choice, no matter the happenstance. It just so happened that pride ruled the minds of mortals in place of reason. No number of dead men would bring back a brother. Razing a castle would not rebuild another. There was too much death to be had at the hands of men,” I immediately began to fear for his future. In that same chapter a different character proclaims that the kingdom’s soldiers “should be at home, on the walls of their city, defending their wives and children, their sisters and mothers,” but are instead “dying on some nameless field over the ghost of a bygone age.”

The ghost of the bygone age is an as-yet-undiscovered Well, a spring from which the people of this world receive Wellwater, a vital resource without which myriad people, whole kingdoms, would perish. And thus Emre is marched into a war for resources masquerading as a righteous crusade. The army with whom Emre marches is one fighting in the name of an ancient god, the Dawnmother. In a poignant exchange, one of the leaders of the Army of the Golden Sun, Lord Ezio, tells Emre that he requested a religious detachment for their force, but was denied by the church. “I wrote to them some time ago,” the lord notes, but “They said it was impossible. That favoring one man was condemning another, and no good Child of the Faith could ever do such a thing. They are right, do you not think?” Though not at all analogous to any modern world religion, in this moment I thought of a passage from Jacques Ellul’s Anarchy and Christianity, where he wrote that: “I have never understood how the religion whose heart is that God is love and that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves can give rise to wars that are absolutely unjustifiable and unacceptable relative to the revelation of Jesus.” I thought too of this line from Conrad’s Nostromo, that “Too many kings and emperors flourished yet in the world which God had meant for the people.”

Through the marching, through the battles, Emre receives what he believes to be special revelation from the Dawnmother herself—a deity who, by Emre’s own admission and, presumably, by the tenets of the faith, “expressly forbade killing.” And yet, as his victories mount, his boots become heavy with many remnants of “what was once a man.” I am interested to see where Isaacs takes this thread, because both here and in Heretic, the faith of the Dawnmother is mostly ill-defined; but even so, it feels like Isaacs is making clear—like Ellul wrote in regards to Christianity—that it is a twisting of the Dawnmother’s teachings that has resulted in these ceaseless wars. There is a subtle point toward this idea when one of the more secular, intellectual characters muses that “Knowledge has consumed my life and done nothing but lead me astray, and now I begin to wonder if Faith may not fill in the gaps. When the rulers of men abandon reason for madness, what can we do but pray?”

At one point Emre is tasked with executing a prisoner, after which he remarks that “I killed a man, yet I know not why.” As has been the case through much of modern history, killing in wartime receives a kind of special dispensation. It is claimed to not actually be murder. But this execution feels different. The Dawnmother forbids killing, so how can this be rationalized? Well, in how it might advance Emre toward future glory. During this story at least, there is no room for faith that does wholly embrace violence. As Arendt said, ultimately, all this bloodshed does not soften Emre’s heart. Even as he acknowledges the tragedy he has brought to these foreign lands, that his presence in a conquered city is a reminder to the people of “what was taken from them” and “of what happened to the place they called home,” these revelations do not press him toward brighter paths. Late in the book, as he listens to another soldier recount to him “tales of shepherds and pastures… [and tales] of peace,” Emre inner-monologues that such a life would be “A life of emptiness.” Emre seeks ascension, but spiritually, morally, we can see that this path is not leading him upward, but down into the depths of depravity. Between reading sessions, I was playing a lot of Darkest Dungeon, which has this recurring line I found ominously relevant to Emre’s story: “In time, you will know the tragic extent of my failings.”

How long will it take?

I’ve barely even touched on the other POV characters, but this is a long book with lots of interconnecting threads. I was surprised when I was well into the hundreds of pages and we were still introducing new POVs. My favorite of the new characters in Ascendant is Amina, a Witch-Surgeon on the run after intercepting a series of letters she should never have laid eyes upon. She reminded me a lot of Varre in Heretic (on the run, in it for love, existing on the outskirts of civilized society, walking the razor’s edge between salvation and damnation). I think there’s also something interesting to note here, that—looking at Amina and Varre—the characters into whom Isaacs imbues the most humanity are (in my opinion) the ones furthest removed from the bastardized faith that looms over the narrative. I’m very interested to see how this idea might develop in future entries. (I worry about having written that last sentence, since, having writen something along similar lines in my review of Heretic I should learn to be careful what I wish for.)

As I mentioned in my review of Heretic, this story begins very much in media res. It is a long book, but I felt it could’ve been even longer at the beginning, with maybe a handful more chapters to really let us sit with the characters before the main thrust of the story takes over. Eventually, many of the POVs intersect, culminating in a final series of chapters that ratcheted up the cruelty to just barely within my tolerances for such things. I do not know where the story will go next, only that as I flipped past the last page, I caught myself thinking of this line from Heretic:

“Why kill a peasant when you could kill a king?”

I spoke earlier of the cruelty of this book, and so I was not surprised to learn from Isaacs’ Afterword that this story began as a World War One tale—perhaps the cruelest period of recent history. The starkness and bluntness of the violence in Ascendant is in exactly the same vein as something like Angel Down and its fantastical depiction of WW1 (what might violent man do if given the power of the gods?). I think also, it is interesting to look on the action of this book as being fantastically analogous to WW1, especially when considering some of the other books I read this year. I like to think that all these reviews I’ve written as existing in conversation with one another, so I’d like to look momentarily at Ascendant through the lens of Lewis’ That Hideous Strength. C.S. Lewis was himself a veteran of WW1, and so, having experienced those horrors, ponders in That Hideous Strength (and really through all the Space trilogy) the lengths to which man might go to preserve civilization. Are there any evils that can be forgiven in the name of preserving a way of life? Are torture and murder acceptable in the name of any one nation or people? We can narrow that question as we consider Ascendant. Can we condone evil in the name of saving a kingdom? Of saving a familial line? Or saving a single person? To what lengths will we go, or should we go, to save what we love?

If any of these questions interest you, check out Ascendant.

Ascendant is out Oct. 10, 2026.

[L. Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed Heretic, and the intently developed world being built up within it, so I was very excited to be given the opportunity to ARC read this book, the first in a series.

Ascendant is epic in every way. Epic in scope, in ambition, in worldbuilding, and in stakes. And, suffice to say, it lives up to the gorgeous, alluring enigma that is its eye-catching front cover.

This book is fairly character-led, so I’ll spend a lot of this review talking about the main cast, because they are an engaging bunch worth of investment. Arguably the mainest of the main is Emre Solaire, the youngest son of a shamed house, with but a single feather to his name (in a social system where three feathers is the aristocratic maximum, and one feather is barely better than a commoner). His older three brothers all died in military service to Queen Serilla of Sarcassi, their nation, and Emre shoulders the burden not only of acting as his house’s sole heir, but also in trying to win it prestige once more. His mantra is: “House Solaire dies if I do. So I will not die.” This is quite a lofty ambition to settle upon the conscience of a young man not even twenty, though Emre allows it drive him, motivating him beyond the point of reason. He follows in his brothers’ footsteps by joining the army, serving beneath a tyrannical arsehole and accepting the ill treatment because he hopes, by excelling on his own merit, that he can realise his dream of House Solaire being remembered and revered.

However, an odd voice he attributes to the Dawnmother (this world’s chief deity) begins to whisper of even greater destinies for young Emre, and suddenly his path to prestige becomes a whole lot more complicated. Emre is entirely unsuited to these destinies, but you can’t help but root for him. His desperation to make his brothers’ deaths meaningful and realise the full potential of their family name is an admirable cause, even if Emre is eventually pushed into devious and downright violent actions in its pursuit.

Second is Queen Serilla herself and, like Emre, she is young, unsuited to her role, and desperate to cling on to her title. Originally fourth in line to the throne, historic family tragedies have rendered her the now-queen of Sarcassi, but she is paranoid and untrusting, fearful even when addressing her private council. She acts out of irrational fear, allowing her weaknesses to drive her decisions and often steering her in tyrannical directions. I was captivated by Serilla’s character arc because of this inadvertent tyranny: in trying to uncover a plot to usurp her, she takes drastic action that, when viewed from the outside, is evil and irredeemable. However, because we know how scared Serilla is, how young and out of her depth she truly is, we understand she’s just a struggling young woman surrounded by people willing to take advantage of her power. It’s easy to view her as a villain, but she’s just as much a victim as the people she puts to death.

Orhan is also an interesting character. He’s assigned to be Serilla’s Cognitar (a kind of scholar/advisor) after his previous assignment goes disastrously wrong. Driven by the need to redeem himself for his past mistakes, he applies himself fastidiously to the task of unravelling who’s behind the attempt to usurp Serilla. In his investigation, he’s drawn into rumours of bastard princes and knives in the dark, and finds himself drawing up against the enigmatic Shadowmonger (the shady mastermind who directed assassin Varre in the prequel novella). However, he’s also a very flawed man, rendered reckless and oftentimes blind by his need to prove himself. He follows trails and leads without ascertaining they’re worth pursuing, and acts rashly on new developments before considering where they came from, and whether it’s not some ploy he’s blundering into.

Marcellan is easily the most flamboyant of the five POVs, and the easiest to perhaps misunderstand. A bard in the vein of the Witcher’s Dandelion, he’s a bit of a man whore, happy to foster a reputation for sleeping around, composing songs, and otherwise being quite the fop. However, when Serilla charges him with pursuing a lead in the mystery of a supposed bastard prince who means to oust her, he proves himself more capable than even the reader might credit. Accompanied by a cynical mercenary, Cosimo, and a disdainful religious woman, Mysennia, he sets out on the road from Sarcassi, hoping to prove himself to Queen Serilla. At first, his desire to win her heart might seem like just another notch on his bedpost, but Marcellan is later revealed as having deeper motivations. Beneath his loud and brash exterior is a damaged interior, and one well worth exploring.

The last of the five POVs, Amina, is the one I struggled with the most. I still found her engaging, but her chapters were where the story strayed further into the surreal. As a witch-surgeon, she possesses magical abilities that sometimes make it difficult to tell reality from dreamscape. She’s able to perceive creatures of the Illid (a different plane of existence), and her path seems twined with that of Emre. She’s also Orhan’s niece, and inadvertently privy to information that is now worth her life (or, rather, her death). She doesn’t have as many chapters as the other four, though I appreciated how she was used as a pathway into the more esoteric, magical side of this story and world.

Which brings me neatly onto the matter of the world, and how thoroughly detailed it is. The Lands of the Cycle feels like a living, breathing world steeped in thousands of years of history and brimming with high-stakes conflict. There are multiple nations tangled together, and within these nations exist detailed social classes, interesting governments, and dangerous armies. Sarcassi specifically feels Machiavellian, a worthy successor ot the politicking of A Song of Ice and Fire, with its myriad noble houses, its plots within plots, and its strict social organisation. The idea of the zero—three feather scale, with nobles wearing their feathers on their sallets (helmets) is inspired, and I loved how it drove certain elements of the plot (namely Emre’s desire to earn more feathers).

There’s also the matter of the Wells, which are immense reservoirs of water that sporadically appear across the ages, and which fuel humanity as a whole. People cannot drink water outside of a Well (aside from wine and other minor exceptions), and everyone is given a specific allotment of Wellwater decided by their Wellhearts and portioned out by a Wellwright. These Wells have dictated conflicts over the history of humanity, as nations grapple for control of each Well when it appears. It’s a prime example of an interesting element of worldbuilding carrying immense weight and truly mattering to the plot.

And as for this plot? Well, it kind of has it all. Emre’s is the military aspect, with the big wars, the gritty battles, the boots-in-the-mud perspective. Serilla and Orhan showcase the political machinations. Amina provides the magical backdrop. Marcella injects a touch of worldbuilding as he goes about his travels. There’s the more immediate issue of the attempt on Serilla’s life and the plots surrounding her illegitimate siblings, but there’s also the larger, more looming arcs of Emre’s sinister destiny and the suggestions that this is the end of an age and that with this final Well, the time of plenty is drawing to a close and humanity will enter a dark age.

In all honesty, this book is perfectly suited to fans of fantasy in its myriad flavours. Like epic? It’s got you covered. Enjoy high fantasy? Perfect. Prefer a political edge? That’s all here, too. Love character development? No worries. Would rather a high-stakes plot with the fate of the world in the balance? Absolutely.

Do yourself a favour and check this one out.

Thank you to the author for my ARC copy.

[Saif Shaikh | Distorted Visions · Rating 2.25 out of 5]

Noah Isaac’s First Testament to Broken Gods series kicks off in full-length form with Ascendant. A dark fantasy tale of the bloody path of ambition and the ease at which dreams of power can be manipulated by evil.

This ARC review aims to be as Spoiler-free as possible.

Score: 2.25/5

Read this review and more on my Medium page: Distorted Visions

After hearing a good amount of chatter for the introductory novella Heretics, and my continued desire to prop up newer voices in the indie dark fantasy and gritty fantasy spaces, I picked up the first full-length in the Broken Gods series, Ascendant. I jumped to pick up a review copy, in no small part due to that gorgeous cover art!

For those steeped in the darker corners of epic fantasy, the story beats of Ascendant will feel like well-trod territory. A disgraced fourth-born, single feathered, surviving member of a noble house far from its glory days, Emre is determined to raise the banners of House Solaire, bringing honor to his fallen brothers, and restore his family name. Will his dogged ambition leave him ripe for darker manipulations?

On the other side, we have Queen Serilla, with the crown thrust upon her unready head, forced to reign over a crumbling empire, with knives coming at her from every direction, familiar and strange! With only her guile keeping her alive in a court full of betrayers, will Serilla’s ruthlessness make her worthy of her crown, or drown her reign in blood?

Outside of the two major POVs, Ascendant boasts a wide cast of characters; Orhan the well-meaning scholar turned primary advisor to Serilla hunting down all those who mean the Queen harm while also attempting to protect his witch neice, Amina from harm. Amina must use her dark sorcery to navigate various machinations trying to shape the destinies of key players before it’s too late! Marcellan, a dandy and foppish nobleman is roped into scouring the empire for a new heir, primed to usurp the throne from Serilla.

While these are familiar tropes and character archetypes, author Isaacs has the building blocks to tell a densely intertwined tale of intrigue, betrayal, danger, wrapped together with a darker atmosphere, and of course, plenty of violence!

However, Ascendant proved to be a disappointment on nearly every front. Instead of a grand tale with rich characters and worldbuilding, we get an overwrought, overwritten, underbaked mess. Ascendant is yet another example in the indie dark fantasy space where the author indexed far too heavily on the “epic” part, but used that as a cue for a bloated page-count, repetitive story points, hollow worldbuilding, with pacing that grinds to a halt after brief sputterings of serviceable action set-pieces.

The characters, though numerous, are pale imitations of other notable dark fantasy characters. They are unlikable (and not in a “good way” a la grimdark) and investing for any of them is a chore and utterly unrewarding. The magic system is vague and hand-wavey, feeling more like grease to move the plot forward. The palace intrigue is lackluster, populated with characters hard to root for, bogged down by shoddy buildups and worse culminations causing more sighs and eye-rolls rather than a need of knowing more.

The worst offender (yes, even beyond all the downers mentioned above) is Isaac’s prose style. In efforts to write “heightened” prose with a “lyrical” style, Isaacs pushes clumsy, clunky prose which made reading Ascendant a slog to get through. Only my grizzled determination to never DNF a book pushed me past the finish line, and the climactic big reveals were relieving in the worst kind of way. The author tossed every well-written sentence into the meatgrinder, spitting out passive-voiced, needlessly inverted clauses. This, along with lengthy sections of dream sequences with very little to tell the reader may have felt like a good idea to the author at the outset. However, the execution was dizzying, distracting, and just… wasteful.

I really wanted to like Ascendant. The bones were strong, the ideas had potential, the influences identifiable enough to be enjoyable, riding off themes popularized by Abercrombie, Martin, Cook, and others. But the roughshod mire of the indie space reared its ugly head again, yielding a clumsy product that failed at the mechanical level. A sad example of good art being brought low by bad craft.

Advanced Review Copy provided in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Victory Editing and NetGalley.

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[Shattered Anthologies · Rating 2 out of 5]

After three books by Noah Isaacs that haven't worked for me, I think it's fair to say that I've reached the point where I need to give up on this author. It sounds a little brutal, but unfortunately, that's where I am after reading Ascendant.

What makes this particularly frustrating is that I genuinely wanted to like it. After reading the prequel (3 stars), I thought perhaps the shorter format simply hadn't given Noah enough room to properly develop the world, magic and politics. With more than 500 pages here, I expected those unanswered questions and loose threads to finally start coming together.

Unfortunately, I was wrong. A lot of the things that were left unexplained in the prequel are still unexplained, while the book continues to introduce new ideas, characters and plot threads.

There are certainly some interesting concepts here. The story jumps between multiple POVs and follows a large cast whose paths eventually begin to intersect across a huge world. I could see what the book was trying to build, and there is definitely potential for something epic. The problem was that I rarely had enough context to understand what I was supposed to make of all these different elements, why they mattered or why I should care about them.

That also made it difficult to connect with the characters. This is quite a character-led story, but unfortunately, none of the characters managed to make me invested in what was happening to them. At times, the characters felt so similar that when a POV changed, I wouldn't immediately realise it had happened. That's obviously a problem when so much of the story depends on following different perspectives.

I also struggled with the atmosphere and writing style. I normally enjoy flowery and lyrical prose, but here it often felt too indulgent for my taste. There were moments where the writing seemed more focused on drawing attention to itself than on moving the story forward. Combined with the dense style, this made the pacing feel heavier than necessary and left me feeling rather disconnected from the world.

The setting had plenty of potential, and there are some interesting influences throughout the story. Unfortunately, they never came together in a way that felt particularly fresh to me. I could see the scale and ambition, but I didn't feel immersed in it.

The plot itself also tries to cover a lot of ground. Emre brings the military side, with wars, gritty battles and a very boots-on-the-ground perspective, but I found these sections repetitive. Serilla and Orhan bring political intrigue, though I never became particularly invested in their machinations. Amina provides the magical side of the story, but the magic didn't have the impact I was hoping for, while Marcella's travels offer more world-building but often felt disconnected from the rest.

There are also assassination attempts, family conflicts, questions surrounding Serilla's illegitimate siblings, Emre's destiny and the idea that an age is coming to an end. On paper, there is a lot here to work with. Unfortunately, I never felt the urgency that a story built around such high stakes should have had.

The biggest frustration for me is that I kept seeing the potential. I can understand what the book is trying to do, and I can see why the scale and different storylines might appeal to other readers. But for me, the execution never managed to turn those ideas into something I could become emotionally invested in.

After more than 500 pages, I still felt like I was waiting for the world, characters and larger plot to finally click into place. Instead, I finished the book feeling much the same way I did after the prequel: interested in the potential, but not particularly interested in the story itself.

Verdict: Ascendant has ambition, interesting ideas and the foundations of a huge epic fantasy, but I struggled to connect with the characters, world and plot. After three attempts with this author, I think it's time for me to step away. The potential is there, but unfortunately, this series just isn't working for me.

Thank you to Noah and NetGalley for the review ebook.

[Mylee J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Born the last son of a lowly House, Emre vowed he would one day make the Solaire name rise again, reminiscent of their majesty of old. His brothers vowed the same, and on their journeys found nothing but their own ends. So when he rescues Queen Serilla from a mysterious assassin in her court, he asks for the only thing imaginable; to join the Army of the Golden Sun, an honor of the realm forever reserved for those of the High Houses. Fighting for the glory of the kingdom alongside companions he never thought to make, one day the castle on the high hill he dreamed of so often might become his, and all shall remember House Solaire.

Born herself fourth in line to the crown of Sarcassi, a series of tragedies has led to now, where Serilla sits upon the throne. Following the assassination attempt at court, she cannot escape the ghosts her father, the king, left behind. Least of all in the dagger-wielding shadow that came for her. As she writes to both the Tower of Cognates and the Grand Arbiter for an end to all this madness, she realizes her only chance at saving herself may be feigning trust in the very men who want her dead.

"Some of the men by Loholt’s tent grinned as she passed. Perversion. Jealousy. It mattered not. To be hated was to be a witch. To be desired was to be a woman. Solace came from the stars dancing above their heads, soon to leave a void in the heavens."
- Noah Isaacs, Ascendant

My word, this book was phenomenal. I've already read HERETIC by Noah Isaacs, but this expanded on the world and the stories of the characters within it beautifully. I had the opportunity to beta read an early version of this novel, and it was absolutely compelling, riveting, and entertaining in equal measure. Tangling together a mass of political intrigue, spice, and magic, it made an intriguing narrative of what the characters would do to achieve their goals - and the consequences of the greed they allow themselves to fall into.

Isaacs is a truly skilled author with a great touch for writing unique, interesting characters who seem realer than the pages of his books. It was easy to get attached to Sirella and Marcellan and all the other characters mentioned in the novel. The action sequences were especially hookey, and the worldbuilding was to die for. I can see Isaacs becoming the next Brandon Sanderson and George R.R. Martin in the making! And I cannot wait to read whatever he writes next. 10/10 definitely recommend.

[Entisar Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up
Ascendant pulled me into an ambitious fantasy world filled with political intrigue, assassinations, military conflict, magic, and ancient secrets. I really enjoyed the scale of the story and the sense that there was always something bigger happening beneath the surface. Emre was my favorite character. I loved his determination to restore House Solaire after losing his brothers, even as his obsession with their legacy pushed him toward increasingly questionable choices. Serilla also fascinated me because I could understand her fear and paranoia, even when her actions became brutal. The worldbuilding was a highlight for me, especially the unique social system and the Wells, which gave the setting a fascinating history and purpose. I did struggle with the multiple POVs at times, and some of the worldbuilding and plot threads needed more explanation. The writing also felt overly flowery in places, which occasionally pulled me out of the story. Despite those issues, I was invested in the characters and curious about what comes next.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Harrison Reinke · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional story that has multiple POVs, battles and political intrigue throughout. You all need to check this book out when it comes out this Oct 10th!

[Foxx]

Thank you to the author for this ARC!

I have more thoughts to come but I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for more!

[James Ostrander · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this doesn’t come out until October 10th but I need more people to read this so I can talk about it! I was extremely fortunate to get a hold of this early and I was enthralled for the duration of the book. I’m not someone who is very good at visualizing things but I get a feeling or vibe about books. Everything about this book is so rich and unique that it was so easy to FEEL it. Like there are definitely things that the setting and vibe were reminiscent of, it feels like a darker version of a Guy Gavariel Kay novel with even more fantastical elements. I also started playing Fire Emblem: Fortunes Weave and I don’t know if it’s because I started it at the same time but it feels like a darker version of that as well! The Renaissance-inspired setting with the POVs we get just fits.

I really love a good flowery, lyrical prose but at times it did seem a little indulgent. Which doesn’t bother me but I can see it potentially turning some people off, it does obviously contribute to the richness that I mentioned before. I was all in on the world building and character work and Noah Isaacs does not pull any punches, this will absolutely catch you in the gut!

“House Solaire dies if do. So I will not die”

Then the climax caught me completely off guard and i absolutely love when a book can do that! I am so invested in this world and I am feverishly awaiting book 2! Please read this when it comes out, I need to join some kind of discourse to discuss!