What do you think?
Rate this book
The Gods are Bastards
Evil is rising. The world is rent by strife. The gods have turned away from us. In times past, heroes of sword and sorcery have always risen to turn back the tide of darkness… But what will become of us all, now that swords are obsolete, sorcery is industrialized, and heroism itself is considered a relic of the past?
The times are changing…
Incorporating elements of a Western, a Victorian romance, hints of steampunk and inspiration from the early novels of H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle, all set in a world of classic sword and sorcery, The Gods are Bastards is a genre-blending fantasy epic.
Set in a familiar high-fantasy universe of wizards, dragons and elves, the action takes place roughly fifteen hundred years after the medieval stasis in which most high fantasy is set, during an era much like Earth’s Industrial Revolution. Mass production of enchanted goods has revolutionized all aspects of life, energy weapons have made blades and armor all but obsolete, and the world is connected and illuminated by magical analogues of trains, telegraphs and electric lights. With progress has come social and political upheaval: the scattered feudal kingdoms of yore have been consolidated into a now-precarious Empire, the clerics of various gods have organized themselves into a mighty Universal Church, and the first stirrings of modern education and an Enlightenment ethos have taken root in a young University. On the other hand, dragons are nearly extinct, elves have been herded onto reservations, and the days when a person could make a living as a wandering adventurer are long since over.
It’s a new world, and the people of the Empire must learn to live in it, or fall to ancient threats they have tried to forget…
https://tiraas.wordpress.com/about/
The times are changing…
Incorporating elements of a Western, a Victorian romance, hints of steampunk and inspiration from the early novels of H. Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle, all set in a world of classic sword and sorcery, The Gods are Bastards is a genre-blending fantasy epic.
Set in a familiar high-fantasy universe of wizards, dragons and elves, the action takes place roughly fifteen hundred years after the medieval stasis in which most high fantasy is set, during an era much like Earth’s Industrial Revolution. Mass production of enchanted goods has revolutionized all aspects of life, energy weapons have made blades and armor all but obsolete, and the world is connected and illuminated by magical analogues of trains, telegraphs and electric lights. With progress has come social and political upheaval: the scattered feudal kingdoms of yore have been consolidated into a now-precarious Empire, the clerics of various gods have organized themselves into a mighty Universal Church, and the first stirrings of modern education and an Enlightenment ethos have taken root in a young University. On the other hand, dragons are nearly extinct, elves have been herded onto reservations, and the days when a person could make a living as a wandering adventurer are long since over.
It’s a new world, and the people of the Empire must learn to live in it, or fall to ancient threats they have tried to forget…
https://tiraas.wordpress.com/about/
ebook
First published August 20, 2014
54 people are currently reading
490 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
October 11, 2019
A big sprawling webfiction ensemble piece, best read over a long weekend. (Update: Several long weekends.)
The Gods Are Bastards takes place in a swords-and-sorcery world as it goes from epic fantasy to Western, complete with gunslingers and dangerous trains. There are more than twenty different protagonists; they all speak in distinct voices and hold very different philosophies. Every character, protagonist or not, might surprise you if you let your guard down and start to make assumptions.
On a narrative level, there’s a lot of focus on the interactions between a group of friends, giving an emotional core to a story that spans thousands of years and dozens of cities. We see the machinations of demigods alongside the personal problems of college students, and it all fits together nicely. No one scale overwhelms the others.
The book isn’t over yet, but it’s still worth starting now (since it’s about 400 chapters long, and it’s only going to get longer). There are a few chapters I’ve saved to reread as perfect examples of how to capture a certain emotion, or how to write a fight scene, and I think you’ll find those chapters (or others!) worth the journey.
The Gods Are Bastards takes place in a swords-and-sorcery world as it goes from epic fantasy to Western, complete with gunslingers and dangerous trains. There are more than twenty different protagonists; they all speak in distinct voices and hold very different philosophies. Every character, protagonist or not, might surprise you if you let your guard down and start to make assumptions.
On a narrative level, there’s a lot of focus on the interactions between a group of friends, giving an emotional core to a story that spans thousands of years and dozens of cities. We see the machinations of demigods alongside the personal problems of college students, and it all fits together nicely. No one scale overwhelms the others.
The book isn’t over yet, but it’s still worth starting now (since it’s about 400 chapters long, and it’s only going to get longer). There are a few chapters I’ve saved to reread as perfect examples of how to capture a certain emotion, or how to write a fight scene, and I think you’ll find those chapters (or others!) worth the journey.
April 2, 2020
I've sat with TGAB for several hours now and... wow. I've been comparing it to the Wheel of Time series simply because there isn't much that rivals TGAB for length or worldbuilding and, uh, TGAB wins on every front.
The thing that impresses me is that over more than five years and three million words, the story is hanging together *incredibly* well. Plot threads simply don't get dropped. Setups have payoffs, plot twists are foreshadowed, and Webb never uses two characters when one can do the job. Normally when I read something this long, I have the niggling feeling in the back of my head that the author can't or won't finish what they started. TGAB though? In all three million words (thus far) Webb has left me with no doubt that the story will wrap up in a satisfying and conclusive way.
The thing that impresses me is that over more than five years and three million words, the story is hanging together *incredibly* well. Plot threads simply don't get dropped. Setups have payoffs, plot twists are foreshadowed, and Webb never uses two characters when one can do the job. Normally when I read something this long, I have the niggling feeling in the back of my head that the author can't or won't finish what they started. TGAB though? In all three million words (thus far) Webb has left me with no doubt that the story will wrap up in a satisfying and conclusive way.
June 27, 2018
This is free to read web fiction that's better than the last several books I've paid money for. Great characters, rich world, great story, and lots of funny moments amidst the drama.
August 29, 2023
Note that this is only a review of volume one (books 1-4)
So, this is a web serial set in a world that very much feels like a D&D setting a couple generations after it broke out of medieval stasis – there’s dragons and demigods and thousand year old retired elven adventurers who are all laws unto themselves, and then there’s also a continent spanning hegemonic empire that’s invented magical railways and telegraphs and industrial revolutions. The story specifically follows the freshman class of the Unseen University, a remote institution run by one of the two or three most powerful (former) adventurers alive, educating and connecting the future global elite. The freshman class – including a demigod, the only two paladins in the world, an amnesiac archdemon, and a pirate crown princess – are the protagonists for the better part of the story, bonding and going to classes and sent on absurd field expeditions and generally becoming an incredibly high-powered adventuring party. Each book also has one or two subplots following characters only very tenuously connected to them out in the wider world, more often than not centred around wither Bishop Darling of the Universal Church (former high priest of the god of thieves) or Principia Lockes, conwoman and second most annoying elf alive. I will put my cards on the table now and say these plots are what makes the thing worth reading.
The students are – okay, they start off just, bad, but they do improve over the course of the first few books in terms of how grating they are to read (Book 1 is very heavy on the college soap opera). But they do all have the fundamental issue that, where the other plots largely feel like people embedded in a world with agenda to pursue and complex circumstances to navigate, they all feel like high fantasy superheroes being led along a breadcrumb trail in a world devoid of real threats or meaningful ties outside the university and the occasional specific patron. Or put another way, it is not at all subtle that they are the Protagonists or Reality, which instantly makes me dislike them and want them to fail. But going by what makes popular web fiction I’m fairly sure that instinct is mostly just a me thing.
Special shoutout to Tris, the crusading paladin of the group. As of book one she’s a repressed sheltered army brat who has a whole list of species and religions she thinks should be killed on sight and several historical genocides she wholeheartedly endorses. She has a real arc over the volume, but a big part of it is less challenging the fundamental logic of that than just slowly removing lines from her kill on sight list (but nowhere near all of them). I am not entirely sure how self-aware the book is about this.
The remainder of the book, and by far the better part, is mostly dedicated to sideplots centring Bishop Darling’s byzantine intrigues within the universal church, the politics of the empire’s capital city, and his high forays into high risk tutoring and foster-parenting, and Principia Locke, thieves guild resident underachiever, town ne’erdowell and second most obnoxious elf alive. These two characters are objectively the best, and also they’re allowed to be at genuine risk and thrown into tasks where fucking up is a real possibility and the ultimate resolution is very unclear. The best plot of the entire volume is easily Darling and 3 other bishops being deputized as a black ops force by the (arch)pope and sent to illegally poke around a small town, and they’re all the most insufferable people you’ve ever met stuck sharing an airbnb.
The story plays a lot with western tropes and aesthetics transposed onto he magitech high fantasy setting – the ‘Golden Sea’ is an infinite, impossible to navigate expanse in the centre of the continent, home to nomadic plains elf bands and centaur herds, and the imperial frontier has now pushed right up to its edge, full of things like saloons and sheriffs and marshals and magical trains and gun wand-fights and ten gallon hates. This is very fun, but the moving of the reference period from vaguely medieval Europe to the late 19th century USA makes things certain subtext that’s already unfortunate in standard fantasy downright painful – centaurs, clearly and obviously playing the role the savage indian raiders in some mid-century western, are portrayed as a universally evil culture whose main salient trait is that they will literally rape any prisoners to death, and are stated to have been righteous and heroically ethnically cleansed everywhere but this barbaric frontier. It’s, uh, not great.
Now, I came to this serial as someone who has wasted untold days and hours becoming immersed in D&D, like, Lore, which meant that I was incredibly well prepared because there are so many D&D easter eggs in this I think it might technically be a fanwork like Order of the Stick or something. There’s a Drizzt joke that made me audible groan, and more broadly the entire setting is just very incredibly clearly “D&D 3.5 campaign setting plus 50 years and an industrial revolution’. “Adventurers” were a coherent social class, ‘dungeons’ are a thing, there are profoundly uncomfortable attitudes towards ‘monstrous’ races that live in them, the whole shebang. I mostly found this charming, but it’s a thin line, and I can very easily imagine it being utterly insufferable.
Anyway, this is theoretically a complete volume, but it’s also books one-four of, like, seventeen. In the grand tradition of web serials everywhere, it’s three times longer than it really needs to be, and absolutely littered with plot seeds and foreshadowing which might either pay off in five hundred thousand words or never be mentioned again. I’m honestly not particularly sure how well the volume holds up as a coherent work, separate from everything that comes after – Principia got a complete and well done character arc, but that’s about the only part of it I’d say really works here.
As the first fifth or so of a longer work it did get me to keep going onto book five with barely a breath in between though, so on balance I’d say it works.
So, this is a web serial set in a world that very much feels like a D&D setting a couple generations after it broke out of medieval stasis – there’s dragons and demigods and thousand year old retired elven adventurers who are all laws unto themselves, and then there’s also a continent spanning hegemonic empire that’s invented magical railways and telegraphs and industrial revolutions. The story specifically follows the freshman class of the Unseen University, a remote institution run by one of the two or three most powerful (former) adventurers alive, educating and connecting the future global elite. The freshman class – including a demigod, the only two paladins in the world, an amnesiac archdemon, and a pirate crown princess – are the protagonists for the better part of the story, bonding and going to classes and sent on absurd field expeditions and generally becoming an incredibly high-powered adventuring party. Each book also has one or two subplots following characters only very tenuously connected to them out in the wider world, more often than not centred around wither Bishop Darling of the Universal Church (former high priest of the god of thieves) or Principia Lockes, conwoman and second most annoying elf alive. I will put my cards on the table now and say these plots are what makes the thing worth reading.
The students are – okay, they start off just, bad, but they do improve over the course of the first few books in terms of how grating they are to read (Book 1 is very heavy on the college soap opera). But they do all have the fundamental issue that, where the other plots largely feel like people embedded in a world with agenda to pursue and complex circumstances to navigate, they all feel like high fantasy superheroes being led along a breadcrumb trail in a world devoid of real threats or meaningful ties outside the university and the occasional specific patron. Or put another way, it is not at all subtle that they are the Protagonists or Reality, which instantly makes me dislike them and want them to fail. But going by what makes popular web fiction I’m fairly sure that instinct is mostly just a me thing.
Special shoutout to Tris, the crusading paladin of the group. As of book one she’s a repressed sheltered army brat who has a whole list of species and religions she thinks should be killed on sight and several historical genocides she wholeheartedly endorses. She has a real arc over the volume, but a big part of it is less challenging the fundamental logic of that than just slowly removing lines from her kill on sight list (but nowhere near all of them). I am not entirely sure how self-aware the book is about this.
The remainder of the book, and by far the better part, is mostly dedicated to sideplots centring Bishop Darling’s byzantine intrigues within the universal church, the politics of the empire’s capital city, and his high forays into high risk tutoring and foster-parenting, and Principia Locke, thieves guild resident underachiever, town ne’erdowell and second most obnoxious elf alive. These two characters are objectively the best, and also they’re allowed to be at genuine risk and thrown into tasks where fucking up is a real possibility and the ultimate resolution is very unclear. The best plot of the entire volume is easily Darling and 3 other bishops being deputized as a black ops force by the (arch)pope and sent to illegally poke around a small town, and they’re all the most insufferable people you’ve ever met stuck sharing an airbnb.
The story plays a lot with western tropes and aesthetics transposed onto he magitech high fantasy setting – the ‘Golden Sea’ is an infinite, impossible to navigate expanse in the centre of the continent, home to nomadic plains elf bands and centaur herds, and the imperial frontier has now pushed right up to its edge, full of things like saloons and sheriffs and marshals and magical trains and gun wand-fights and ten gallon hates. This is very fun, but the moving of the reference period from vaguely medieval Europe to the late 19th century USA makes things certain subtext that’s already unfortunate in standard fantasy downright painful – centaurs, clearly and obviously playing the role the savage indian raiders in some mid-century western, are portrayed as a universally evil culture whose main salient trait is that they will literally rape any prisoners to death, and are stated to have been righteous and heroically ethnically cleansed everywhere but this barbaric frontier. It’s, uh, not great.
Now, I came to this serial as someone who has wasted untold days and hours becoming immersed in D&D, like, Lore, which meant that I was incredibly well prepared because there are so many D&D easter eggs in this I think it might technically be a fanwork like Order of the Stick or something. There’s a Drizzt joke that made me audible groan, and more broadly the entire setting is just very incredibly clearly “D&D 3.5 campaign setting plus 50 years and an industrial revolution’. “Adventurers” were a coherent social class, ‘dungeons’ are a thing, there are profoundly uncomfortable attitudes towards ‘monstrous’ races that live in them, the whole shebang. I mostly found this charming, but it’s a thin line, and I can very easily imagine it being utterly insufferable.
Anyway, this is theoretically a complete volume, but it’s also books one-four of, like, seventeen. In the grand tradition of web serials everywhere, it’s three times longer than it really needs to be, and absolutely littered with plot seeds and foreshadowing which might either pay off in five hundred thousand words or never be mentioned again. I’m honestly not particularly sure how well the volume holds up as a coherent work, separate from everything that comes after – Principia got a complete and well done character arc, but that’s about the only part of it I’d say really works here.
As the first fifth or so of a longer work it did get me to keep going onto book five with barely a breath in between though, so on balance I’d say it works.
August 27, 2025
“Magic meets muskets, divine politics meets dryad sass, and every chapter brings a new obsession.”
If I had to sum up The Gods Are Bastards in one word, it would be: addictive. I picked it up expecting something cool and quirky—a web serial with a fun title and some unique flair. What I got was a sweeping epic so rich in world-building, character, and momentum that I found myself staying up far too late, night after night, saying, “Just one more chapter…”
Spoiler: it’s never just one more.
A World Where Magic Evolves — and So Does Society
Let’s talk about the setting first, because honestly, it’s genius. This isn’t your typical medieval fantasy realm. The world of The Gods Are Bastards is going through a magical industrial revolution—think enchanted railways, arcane streetlamps, magical guns, and universities studying theology like it's physics. It’s like Tolkien meets Tesla meets Terry Pratchett.
And the best part? The world isn’t just a pretty backdrop—it’s alive. It’s changing. And you can feel those changes rumble through the story like the thrum of a lightning rail.
A Cast You’ll Never Forget
There are a lot of characters. That might sound intimidating, but trust me—it works. Every single character feels distinct and memorable. Whether it’s:
Principia Locke, the sarcastic ex-thief turned soldier with a mysterious past and razor-sharp wit,
Trissiny Avelea, the stoic, duty-bound paladin learning to think for herself,
Gabriel Arquin, the half-demon former street kid turned divine wildcard,
Or Ephanie, Juniper, Shaeine, Toby, and the rest of the freshman team—you will not forget these names.
They grow. They argue. They screw up. They change. They fall in love, make terrible choices, do the right thing at the wrong time, and wrong things for the right reasons. They feel real.
The emotional depth is stunning—especially as these seemingly disparate characters begin to converge, clash, and bond in ways you don’t see coming.
Dialogue That Snaps and Sparks
One of D. D. Webb’s biggest strengths is dialogue. Characters don’t just speak—they banter, they challenge, they reveal. The conversations are often sharp, hilarious, heartbreaking, or even philosophical. You get political intrigue one moment, a deeply vulnerable confession the next, and a smart-aleck dryad joke two pages later. It’s beautifully balanced.
Themes That Hit Hard
Despite the humor and high-octane action, this story isn’t afraid to tackle big, bold questions:
What happens when gods stop answering prayers?
Can good people work within a corrupt system—or are they better off tearing it down?
How do you reconcile your identity with your destiny?
You’ll find yourself laughing in one scene and seriously reflecting in the next. And that’s what makes this story stand out: it’s fun and thoughtful.
Why You Should Read It
If you're tired of fantasy that sticks to the same old tropes, if you love ensemble casts where everyone matters, if you want a story where divine power has consequences and no one is safe from change—then The Gods Are Bastards is the perfect book (well, web serial) for you.
It’s long. It’s sprawling. It’s complex. And it’s absolutely worth every second you spend in its world.
Final Thoughts
I went into this expecting a good read. I came out with a new favorite.
The Gods Are Bastards is bold, clever, emotional, and endlessly entertaining. It’s not just a book—it’s a journey through a world where magic burns bright, gods are fallible, and even the most unlikely people can change everything.
Do yourself a favor: dive in. And don’t be surprised when you realize you’ve just binge-read 1,000 pages without blinking.
If I had to sum up The Gods Are Bastards in one word, it would be: addictive. I picked it up expecting something cool and quirky—a web serial with a fun title and some unique flair. What I got was a sweeping epic so rich in world-building, character, and momentum that I found myself staying up far too late, night after night, saying, “Just one more chapter…”
Spoiler: it’s never just one more.
A World Where Magic Evolves — and So Does Society
Let’s talk about the setting first, because honestly, it’s genius. This isn’t your typical medieval fantasy realm. The world of The Gods Are Bastards is going through a magical industrial revolution—think enchanted railways, arcane streetlamps, magical guns, and universities studying theology like it's physics. It’s like Tolkien meets Tesla meets Terry Pratchett.
And the best part? The world isn’t just a pretty backdrop—it’s alive. It’s changing. And you can feel those changes rumble through the story like the thrum of a lightning rail.
A Cast You’ll Never Forget
There are a lot of characters. That might sound intimidating, but trust me—it works. Every single character feels distinct and memorable. Whether it’s:
Principia Locke, the sarcastic ex-thief turned soldier with a mysterious past and razor-sharp wit,
Trissiny Avelea, the stoic, duty-bound paladin learning to think for herself,
Gabriel Arquin, the half-demon former street kid turned divine wildcard,
Or Ephanie, Juniper, Shaeine, Toby, and the rest of the freshman team—you will not forget these names.
They grow. They argue. They screw up. They change. They fall in love, make terrible choices, do the right thing at the wrong time, and wrong things for the right reasons. They feel real.
The emotional depth is stunning—especially as these seemingly disparate characters begin to converge, clash, and bond in ways you don’t see coming.
Dialogue That Snaps and Sparks
One of D. D. Webb’s biggest strengths is dialogue. Characters don’t just speak—they banter, they challenge, they reveal. The conversations are often sharp, hilarious, heartbreaking, or even philosophical. You get political intrigue one moment, a deeply vulnerable confession the next, and a smart-aleck dryad joke two pages later. It’s beautifully balanced.
Themes That Hit Hard
Despite the humor and high-octane action, this story isn’t afraid to tackle big, bold questions:
What happens when gods stop answering prayers?
Can good people work within a corrupt system—or are they better off tearing it down?
How do you reconcile your identity with your destiny?
You’ll find yourself laughing in one scene and seriously reflecting in the next. And that’s what makes this story stand out: it’s fun and thoughtful.
Why You Should Read It
If you're tired of fantasy that sticks to the same old tropes, if you love ensemble casts where everyone matters, if you want a story where divine power has consequences and no one is safe from change—then The Gods Are Bastards is the perfect book (well, web serial) for you.
It’s long. It’s sprawling. It’s complex. And it’s absolutely worth every second you spend in its world.
Final Thoughts
I went into this expecting a good read. I came out with a new favorite.
The Gods Are Bastards is bold, clever, emotional, and endlessly entertaining. It’s not just a book—it’s a journey through a world where magic burns bright, gods are fallible, and even the most unlikely people can change everything.
Do yourself a favor: dive in. And don’t be surprised when you realize you’ve just binge-read 1,000 pages without blinking.
October 25, 2025
The Gods Are Bastards is a genre-blending coming-of-age fantasy adventure that feels like a classic tale and contemporary story all at once! What makes it so unique is that it’s part fantasy, part western, and part magical school—all balanced in a character-driven narrative in a slow-burn intricate plot.
The story follows a group of students at a magical university in the Empire of Tiraas—a world where gods meddle in politics and magic is industrialized. Each student comes from a very different background—a pirate princess, a dryad, a dark-elf priestess, and more—and together they’re thrown into a web of secrets, political schemes, and moral dilemmas that go far beyond the classroom. As the empire faces unrest and the gods’ grip begins to slip, the group learns whether to trust each other long enough to survive what’s coming!
The ragtag group of misfits is the real heart of the story. Ruda Punaji is a bold, brash protagonist with a lot of sharp humor that will have readers laughing throughout. Teal Falconer is a much more serious, grounded character who’s always trying to do right even when “right” isn’t the best option to survive! Other crew members include Shaeine, the drow diplomat, who has a good sense of duty and empathy, and Juniper, the dryad, who brings a lot of warmth and heart to the story! The group starts out like a team of rivaling (ragtag) misfits at the magical academy, but as the story unfolds, it evolves into something resembling family. The book has so many intriguing side characters, including Antonio “Bishop” Darling, a charming, morally grey spymaster, and Elilial, the power-hungry Queen of Demons! Relationships and alliances in the story are constantly shifting, which makes this story exciting and unpredictable!
The pacing is deliberately slow-burn, as it’s a character-driven story. The author takes time to develop each thread of the story before tying it into the larger overall storyline of political drama. The mid-section drags a bit, but there’s a lot of character development, and every subplot that is introduced eventually comes together later on—so readers will need to be patient to see the value of everything. The second half has better pacing and higher stakes and a few unexpected reveals. The ending has a lot of emotional intensity and gives readers a sense that a dramatic shift in the world is coming and character arcs are satisfying—but it also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It feels like this book is only one chapter of a larger saga of storytelling—and hopefully a sequel will follow!
This book is perfect for readers who love character-driven fantasy with witty humor, rich worldbuilding, and a pronounced “found family” trope. But anyone who loves stories with magical schools, political intrigue, and morally gray characters should give this one high consideration!
NARRATOR PERFORMANCE (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫)
The audiobook is an immersive, entertaining listen narrated by nonbinary queer narrator E. A. Castillo, whose theatrical experience is evident throughout this audiobook. Castillo does an impressive job handling the massive cast of characters, giving each character their own distinct voices, personalities, and emotional energy. Castile portrays protagonist Ruda with a confident, witty voice that makes the character come vividly to life and practically burst out of the speakers! In contrast, Castillo gives Shaeine a calm, grounded-sounding voice that counterbalances Ruda’s overwhelming presence. Castillo does a great job with pacing the narration, matching the author’s writing—steady pacing during dialogue-heavy scenes and picking up the pace for action or emotional scenes. Overall, it’s an engaging, dynamic performance that elevates the story, makes the wonderful cast of characters come alive, and brings out the book’s sharp writing and humor—making it an excellent format for reading this book!
The story follows a group of students at a magical university in the Empire of Tiraas—a world where gods meddle in politics and magic is industrialized. Each student comes from a very different background—a pirate princess, a dryad, a dark-elf priestess, and more—and together they’re thrown into a web of secrets, political schemes, and moral dilemmas that go far beyond the classroom. As the empire faces unrest and the gods’ grip begins to slip, the group learns whether to trust each other long enough to survive what’s coming!
The ragtag group of misfits is the real heart of the story. Ruda Punaji is a bold, brash protagonist with a lot of sharp humor that will have readers laughing throughout. Teal Falconer is a much more serious, grounded character who’s always trying to do right even when “right” isn’t the best option to survive! Other crew members include Shaeine, the drow diplomat, who has a good sense of duty and empathy, and Juniper, the dryad, who brings a lot of warmth and heart to the story! The group starts out like a team of rivaling (ragtag) misfits at the magical academy, but as the story unfolds, it evolves into something resembling family. The book has so many intriguing side characters, including Antonio “Bishop” Darling, a charming, morally grey spymaster, and Elilial, the power-hungry Queen of Demons! Relationships and alliances in the story are constantly shifting, which makes this story exciting and unpredictable!
The pacing is deliberately slow-burn, as it’s a character-driven story. The author takes time to develop each thread of the story before tying it into the larger overall storyline of political drama. The mid-section drags a bit, but there’s a lot of character development, and every subplot that is introduced eventually comes together later on—so readers will need to be patient to see the value of everything. The second half has better pacing and higher stakes and a few unexpected reveals. The ending has a lot of emotional intensity and gives readers a sense that a dramatic shift in the world is coming and character arcs are satisfying—but it also leaves a lot of questions unanswered. It feels like this book is only one chapter of a larger saga of storytelling—and hopefully a sequel will follow!
This book is perfect for readers who love character-driven fantasy with witty humor, rich worldbuilding, and a pronounced “found family” trope. But anyone who loves stories with magical schools, political intrigue, and morally gray characters should give this one high consideration!
NARRATOR PERFORMANCE (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫)
The audiobook is an immersive, entertaining listen narrated by nonbinary queer narrator E. A. Castillo, whose theatrical experience is evident throughout this audiobook. Castillo does an impressive job handling the massive cast of characters, giving each character their own distinct voices, personalities, and emotional energy. Castile portrays protagonist Ruda with a confident, witty voice that makes the character come vividly to life and practically burst out of the speakers! In contrast, Castillo gives Shaeine a calm, grounded-sounding voice that counterbalances Ruda’s overwhelming presence. Castillo does a great job with pacing the narration, matching the author’s writing—steady pacing during dialogue-heavy scenes and picking up the pace for action or emotional scenes. Overall, it’s an engaging, dynamic performance that elevates the story, makes the wonderful cast of characters come alive, and brings out the book’s sharp writing and humor—making it an excellent format for reading this book!
November 1, 2018
I've been loving everything about this book so far. It has amazing world building that is rich, complicated, and extremely interesting. Half of my excitement in reading this is the expectation of getting to learn new secrets about the world and its history. The characters are also extremely diverse and all interesting and compelling in completely different ways. Even the villains are multilayered and somewhat sympathetic. Likewise some of the good guys are so complicated it's hard to be sure if they really are good guys. The story incorporates just about every genre you can think of including fantasy, sci-fi, western, Greek style epic, and mystery. So far each "book" has had a slightly different flavor and different characters rotate in and out along with the standard core of the class of 1182, but all have been excellent so far. The story has been excellent in every way I can think of and I am always waiting on tenter hooks for the next chapter to release.
January 24, 2025
Truly one of the best stories I've read. Webb manages to hop into the mind of every character seamlessly, showing us the way they think and feel in a convincing and real way that I've never seen another author do. Besides that, the world is so fantastically rich, between the cults, the techno-wizardry, the sheer scope of the world building... It's just incredible, especially considering this was all written basically in his free time for hardly any money. I'm eagerly awaiting the big finale (and I desperately want to hear more from Athan'Khar!!!).
January 14, 2024
Talvern, an age old female elf with blue hair, glasses, and also apparently has an irresistible sexy teacher look opened a school for magic on a hill. She recruits only the best of talents Hogwarts style and abides by no kingdom's rules, and even the gods have to take a step back in this fantasy land.
The writing is superb, professional to a teeth, and smooth as silk. But the storytelling is foggy, like everything is in 3rd person like a dream, and there's no main character.
The writing is superb, professional to a teeth, and smooth as silk. But the storytelling is foggy, like everything is in 3rd person like a dream, and there's no main character.
November 29, 2018
It's great and its free. Word of warning the start isn't necessarily the best, but once it gets off its feet its well worth it.
December 2, 2025
waste of time
December 22, 2025
I'm not the target audience
Want to read
March 15, 2019Multiple main characters and a witty YA book. Not for me atm but it should be great in the future
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews