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Swords and Saints #1
The Cleansing Flame
A sword of green glass.
A key that opens passages between the worlds.
The nameless warrior has nothing else. No allies, no armor, not even the memory of how he came to be trapped within this dying land, pursued across a red waste by the monstrous Shriven.
But all hope is not lost. There are other survivors amidst the desolation, holding clues as to where he has come from and what he must do: Amara, the Red Sword of her tribe, a beautiful and fiery swordswoman obsessed with destroying the demons that plague her people, and Valyra, a young sorceress who can weave the broken threads of this reality into something whole once more.
Together they will try to resist the evil that stalks the wastes. But this world is only one among many, and in order to unravel his mysteries the warrior must find the doorways which will allow him to stride between the stars and pass into even stranger lands . . .
The Cleansing Flame is for readers over the age of 18. It contains a harem and explicit situations.
A key that opens passages between the worlds.
The nameless warrior has nothing else. No allies, no armor, not even the memory of how he came to be trapped within this dying land, pursued across a red waste by the monstrous Shriven.
But all hope is not lost. There are other survivors amidst the desolation, holding clues as to where he has come from and what he must do: Amara, the Red Sword of her tribe, a beautiful and fiery swordswoman obsessed with destroying the demons that plague her people, and Valyra, a young sorceress who can weave the broken threads of this reality into something whole once more.
Together they will try to resist the evil that stalks the wastes. But this world is only one among many, and in order to unravel his mysteries the warrior must find the doorways which will allow him to stride between the stars and pass into even stranger lands . . .
The Cleansing Flame is for readers over the age of 18. It contains a harem and explicit situations.
259 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 9, 2019
176 people are currently reading
204 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
May 24, 2019
Where do I start, well with the good I guess. The writing is decent, albeit present tense is a daring choice and not one I'd say is working out all that well. The dialogue flows decent, the story itself does as well and the author has clearly put in some thought into his world building.
With that, we come to the negative.
1. The MC. The MC has no real personality. Part of this is because he's an amnesiac. Part of it is because he's wildly inconsistent. At one point he cuts through a bunch of villains so fast people can barely follow him, at the next point a random mook is so quick in the throw he can hardly follow them.
He also lacks motivation. Why is he here? What is his goal? Why is that his goal? He meets people and decides to just go along with them getting out of the desolate world. He then looks for those same people because he told one of them he'd look out for her daughter. He makes no real decision of his own, expresses no real motivation and even his amnesia doesn't seem to really bother him. This is hugely detrimental.
2. The story. While it flows well, it seems to lack direction. There is no goal, no real development, things just happen and the MC gets caught up in them.
3. The MC has plot armor thicker than a modern main battle tank. Which is good because his competence keeps varying wildly. He gets captured in the story OVER and OVER again and by all rights should've died the first time. There was no reason to leave him alive at that point, nor at any later point in the story. Yet all the villains seem to suffer from incompetence and stupidity when the MCs survival hinges on it.
MC stumbles through the wastes, barely achieves anything during the fight and gets bailed out by the first group. MC hooks up with some other folks after losing the first group, hires on as guard and promptly gets knocked out via poison dart. Said people who proclaimed their ulterior motives towards his female travel companion then capture him rather than kill him and also conveniently postpone carrying out their plans for her.
Shortly after MC gets captured yet again. By some random mooks. Once again there are zero reasons to let him live, yet the bad guys decide to do so anyway.
The MC is an utter and absolute incompetent who stumbles from idiotic mishap to idiotic mishap being spared solely because the story requires him being alive. It happens so often it completely broke my willing suspension of disbelief. He's the Princess Peach of main characters.
You'd think he'd wise up eventually, learns from this and acts smarter in the future. You'd be wrong, terribly wrong. At one point he and his newest companion go out to get breakfast. When she brings her weapon along he makes fun of her, asking her whether "she expects breakfast to put up a fight". They're at this part in one of the seediest parts of the city they're in, everyone carries their weapon with them and quite openly and there are ZERO reasons to leave his weapon behind. He does so anyway, disregarding that said companion is an open invitation to anyone to challenge him to a fight to the death over her, that someone might very well steal his extremely valuable sword while they're gone or they might get into a scrap.
Guess what inevitably happens? The author seems to mostly force the MC to hold the idiot ball so he can show off how badass the new girl is. Which to me, screams bad writing. While also making the MC unintentionally unsympathetic.
With that, we come to the negative.
1. The MC. The MC has no real personality. Part of this is because he's an amnesiac. Part of it is because he's wildly inconsistent. At one point he cuts through a bunch of villains so fast people can barely follow him, at the next point a random mook is so quick in the throw he can hardly follow them.
He also lacks motivation. Why is he here? What is his goal? Why is that his goal? He meets people and decides to just go along with them getting out of the desolate world. He then looks for those same people because he told one of them he'd look out for her daughter. He makes no real decision of his own, expresses no real motivation and even his amnesia doesn't seem to really bother him. This is hugely detrimental.
2. The story. While it flows well, it seems to lack direction. There is no goal, no real development, things just happen and the MC gets caught up in them.
3. The MC has plot armor thicker than a modern main battle tank. Which is good because his competence keeps varying wildly. He gets captured in the story OVER and OVER again and by all rights should've died the first time. There was no reason to leave him alive at that point, nor at any later point in the story. Yet all the villains seem to suffer from incompetence and stupidity when the MCs survival hinges on it.
MC stumbles through the wastes, barely achieves anything during the fight and gets bailed out by the first group. MC hooks up with some other folks after losing the first group, hires on as guard and promptly gets knocked out via poison dart. Said people who proclaimed their ulterior motives towards his female travel companion then capture him rather than kill him and also conveniently postpone carrying out their plans for her.
Shortly after MC gets captured yet again. By some random mooks. Once again there are zero reasons to let him live, yet the bad guys decide to do so anyway.
The MC is an utter and absolute incompetent who stumbles from idiotic mishap to idiotic mishap being spared solely because the story requires him being alive. It happens so often it completely broke my willing suspension of disbelief. He's the Princess Peach of main characters.
You'd think he'd wise up eventually, learns from this and acts smarter in the future. You'd be wrong, terribly wrong. At one point he and his newest companion go out to get breakfast. When she brings her weapon along he makes fun of her, asking her whether "she expects breakfast to put up a fight". They're at this part in one of the seediest parts of the city they're in, everyone carries their weapon with them and quite openly and there are ZERO reasons to leave his weapon behind. He does so anyway, disregarding that said companion is an open invitation to anyone to challenge him to a fight to the death over her, that someone might very well steal his extremely valuable sword while they're gone or they might get into a scrap.
Guess what inevitably happens? The author seems to mostly force the MC to hold the idiot ball so he can show off how badass the new girl is. Which to me, screams bad writing. While also making the MC unintentionally unsympathetic.
July 17, 2020
Alec Hutson is a masterful world builder, and he does not let down with his new book. If you are a fan of his Raveling Trilogy you will definitely love The Cleansing Flame. He has created an utterly convincing world(s) filled with the magical, grounded characters that you've come to expect from Alec's stories. Though it is different in tone and style than the Raveling it is no less compelling. Talin's adventures span such a wide, imaginative variety of places that it's hard to keep yourself from turning the pages to find out what happens next. Throw in a mystery, a magical sword, and memorable allies and you have a must-read new series. I highly recommend it and can't wait to finish the trilogy!
September 27, 2021
That was brilliant, fantastic worldbuilding, excellent plot, setting and really great characters a highy entertaining story, very imaginative, full of sword swiveling action, a well written out and out fantasy story that you will love from start to finish, the main character Talin is an amnesiac that stumbles from one fight to another and from one world to another, Talin no longer remembers the purpose to his quest, his journey is chaotic and quite disturbing, but the most interesting thing is that Talin despite his amnesia manages to make deep connections with the people he encounters and deeper than others, from a soft kind hearted, but a little bit absent minded scientist and his rebellious daughter, to an aloof warrior woman with a love of martial combat and combating between the sheets, he encounters a multitude of intriguing characters and some very sinister ones, lots of monsters and creatures bent on the destruction of their world, there is a few explicit sex scenes that some readers may not like, hopefully we find out in book two how he got his amnesia, a absolute fun read with lots of potential to be a really good series, the narration by Angelo Di Loreto is brilliant, highly recommend...😁
February 23, 2019
Good Story but Too Much Unexplained
So Talin becomes aware on a planet, fights some bad guys and befriends a small tribe of people. He sleeps with Mom and starts to fall for daughter, Valyra.
As luck would have it he has a magic gee-saw that will help them all escape from this dying planet.
We never find out anything about why he was there or had the gee-gaw (key).
He is searching for the tribe who also came through the same gate into this new planet, but they've been scattered, and in a primitive world its very hard to find a few people who could be anywhere on a world you don't know.
On the new planet, he makes some interesting friends and has a few good fights. First he meets and befriends Bella and Poz, the itinerant scholars (Daughter and Father).
Then to save them (hopefully) he fights a big lizard dude, which earns him a new party member, Deliah, who is a Martian (red skin), who choses her mates based on their prowess in battle. Don't worry, you'll be replaced by whomever kills you if that should come to pass.
Now he's rescued Bella, but Poz is taken by agents of one of the fourteen Trusts that run the main cities in this world. So he goes to save him (and some sparkly gunpowder), and a lot of people die, (most not at his hand). He meets a variety of high-placed politicos including a few of the trust leaders, and their elite agents. He finds one of the tribe members (yay!) but its the one who hates him, so he has to get killed.
A good mixture of clever and well described otherworldliness. The picture of the ancient colossal war golem that just sat down and died, and was reused as the superstructure for an entire inn, would make a great scene in a movie.
Although decently executed, I'm not a big fan of a world where the main protagonist knows nothing, and the rules can change as they are being discovered.
So Talin becomes aware on a planet, fights some bad guys and befriends a small tribe of people. He sleeps with Mom and starts to fall for daughter, Valyra.
As luck would have it he has a magic gee-saw that will help them all escape from this dying planet.
We never find out anything about why he was there or had the gee-gaw (key).
He is searching for the tribe who also came through the same gate into this new planet, but they've been scattered, and in a primitive world its very hard to find a few people who could be anywhere on a world you don't know.
On the new planet, he makes some interesting friends and has a few good fights. First he meets and befriends Bella and Poz, the itinerant scholars (Daughter and Father).
Then to save them (hopefully) he fights a big lizard dude, which earns him a new party member, Deliah, who is a Martian (red skin), who choses her mates based on their prowess in battle. Don't worry, you'll be replaced by whomever kills you if that should come to pass.
Now he's rescued Bella, but Poz is taken by agents of one of the fourteen Trusts that run the main cities in this world. So he goes to save him (and some sparkly gunpowder), and a lot of people die, (most not at his hand). He meets a variety of high-placed politicos including a few of the trust leaders, and their elite agents. He finds one of the tribe members (yay!) but its the one who hates him, so he has to get killed.
A good mixture of clever and well described otherworldliness. The picture of the ancient colossal war golem that just sat down and died, and was reused as the superstructure for an entire inn, would make a great scene in a movie.
Although decently executed, I'm not a big fan of a world where the main protagonist knows nothing, and the rules can change as they are being discovered.
October 21, 2024
After reading The Raveling: The Complete Saga, I was excited to start this new books series by Alec Hutson. This book was complete disappointment. It was not as well written as the previous trilogy. The book was hard to to get into, the pacing left something to be desired. The world building and characters were not all that interesting, in my opinion. The book is written in the first person which I do not much care for.
Again, Alec uses large, obscure, or archaic words. There is some foul language, it is not excessive but unnecessary, in my opinion. I feel, if you frequently use large words you should not need to use foul language as your vocabulary should be expansive enough to get your point across without it. The books are not sexually explicate. so, other than some inappropriate language, these books are suitable for anyone.
Again, Alec uses large, obscure, or archaic words. There is some foul language, it is not excessive but unnecessary, in my opinion. I feel, if you frequently use large words you should not need to use foul language as your vocabulary should be expansive enough to get your point across without it. The books are not sexually explicate. so, other than some inappropriate language, these books are suitable for anyone.
June 4, 2023
I gave it 5 stars because I don't know if the novel is very short or so interesting that the pages flew by until the end.
I love how Alec's books are fast paced and easy to read while also being interesting with cool characters and interesting if over-adventurous worlds. He does not bore or confuse the reader with complex world building, and I appreciate that. This is what I loved about The Raveling trilogy (even though Book III in that series left a lot of loose ends).
Book II, The Twilight's Empire is already making me chuckle hard and I have only dropped it long enough to eat and type this update.
I love how Alec's books are fast paced and easy to read while also being interesting with cool characters and interesting if over-adventurous worlds. He does not bore or confuse the reader with complex world building, and I appreciate that. This is what I loved about The Raveling trilogy (even though Book III in that series left a lot of loose ends).
Book II, The Twilight's Empire is already making me chuckle hard and I have only dropped it long enough to eat and type this update.
November 22, 2020
The author has some definite talent and a way with worldbuilding, and he’s put forward an interesting story that draws the reader in. From the very first chapter, when readers are introduced to a mystery warrior without knowledge of his past, traveling from dimension to dimension, meeting their different denizens and being drawn into their problems, from a post-apocalyptic land of barbarians and monsters to a fantastic world on the verge of a high-tech revolution. I’m interested in seeing more.
March 6, 2021
This story is full of promise but the execution was off for me. It starts off strong but as it shifts into the next section you lose the characters and a whole new set of characters besides the H are introduced. The fact that the H keeps getting caught in TSTL moments was a bit frustrating but I did enjoy the story and will listen to the second part. It looks like there will not be a 3rd part so I hope there is some closure in the next book.
March 21, 2021
I ended up liking this a good bit more than I thought I would based on the first few chapters. It's not the epic that The Crimson Queen is, no, but it isn't trying to be.
It's a fast-paced, action-packed, and fun-filled read. Once it really got moving, I breezed to the end in no time.
Fun twists. Really cool creatures and inhuman races. Quite solid fight scenes. The small romantical stuff didn't do anything for me at first, but I even ended up enjoying that part of it by the end overall.
It's a fast-paced, action-packed, and fun-filled read. Once it really got moving, I breezed to the end in no time.
Fun twists. Really cool creatures and inhuman races. Quite solid fight scenes. The small romantical stuff didn't do anything for me at first, but I even ended up enjoying that part of it by the end overall.
February 10, 2019
It's ok but nothing spectacular.
The story is ok but I wanted more depth in the characters. The MC has no memory but a lot of combat training. The female characters are ok but still need a lot more depth and development. The concept is ok in that it is a stargate type of series. Overall the book needs more depth in the characters but it was ok.
The story is ok but I wanted more depth in the characters. The MC has no memory but a lot of combat training. The female characters are ok but still need a lot more depth and development. The concept is ok in that it is a stargate type of series. Overall the book needs more depth in the characters but it was ok.
April 24, 2019
Good start, needs more depth
An amnesiac swordsman stumbles upon an enclave in a dusty doomed world and somehow starts a series of events. This book started out with such promise, but somehow missed the mark. Two-dimensional world-building, characters and plot. It was difficult to discern the premise of the story. Will read the next installment to see if it improves.
An amnesiac swordsman stumbles upon an enclave in a dusty doomed world and somehow starts a series of events. This book started out with such promise, but somehow missed the mark. Two-dimensional world-building, characters and plot. It was difficult to discern the premise of the story. Will read the next installment to see if it improves.
January 25, 2023
The story really wasn't for me. Aside from the main characters' questionable sleeping habits (I'm pretty sure he has a hook up every night of the short times pan covered) and the frequent use of swearing, I found the plot just wasn't the most engaging. Events in the prolonged didn't seem justified until the very end, where they were tied in as almost an afterthought.
January 10, 2019
More questions than when I started
Without spoiling it, don't go in expecting to learn or understand what is happening or why or any of the other questions. Your just along for the ride and just as clueless as the amnesiac even after finishing
Without spoiling it, don't go in expecting to learn or understand what is happening or why or any of the other questions. Your just along for the ride and just as clueless as the amnesiac even after finishing
January 21, 2019
Don't bother
The author claims to love in a bookstore. One would think the author would have knowledge about books. One would be wrong.
This is written in present tense. Hard pass on this book and author.
The author claims to love in a bookstore. One would think the author would have knowledge about books. One would be wrong.
This is written in present tense. Hard pass on this book and author.
March 17, 2021
Actual rating 1 star
This story goes nowhere, the protagonist serves no purpose other than perhaps to dazzle on occasion. This entire book reads like filler episodes in a still-developing animated series.
This story goes nowhere, the protagonist serves no purpose other than perhaps to dazzle on occasion. This entire book reads like filler episodes in a still-developing animated series.
June 30, 2024
Overly inventive to the detriment of the story
An intriguing world build but the sheer variety overwhelms the story. His Raveling series is a much better read. But since that was good I’ll soldier on in the next book.
An intriguing world build but the sheer variety overwhelms the story. His Raveling series is a much better read. But since that was good I’ll soldier on in the next book.
October 29, 2022
So underrated and deserves so much more recognition. This is a grand book with epic consequences. Truly outstanding.
November 30, 2022
DNF: 2%
I actually don’t mind smut all that much, for example I really enjoyed Dungeon Core. However this borders on juvenile levels of smut. Nothing really interesting at all.
I actually don’t mind smut all that much, for example I really enjoyed Dungeon Core. However this borders on juvenile levels of smut. Nothing really interesting at all.
September 6, 2023
fun
This is a fun story along the lines of a 007 flick with the dashing womanizer solving a mystery while saving the world.
This is a fun story along the lines of a 007 flick with the dashing womanizer solving a mystery while saving the world.
Read
September 12, 2023Silly but fun too
I couldn't help but like this, it is old school adventure with an anti hero, lizard people and monotone warrior women, what's not to like
I couldn't help but like this, it is old school adventure with an anti hero, lizard people and monotone warrior women, what's not to like
August 17, 2024
Interesting world, but the book is a harem story - the main character tries to bang (or bangs) literally every female character in the book. Dropped.
January 24, 2019
This book has mark of the beginning of an epic. Loved this book very much, now just eagerly waiting for the next book.
Worth a try.
Worth a try.
June 5, 2019
Lighter, edgier, and faster-paced than his epic, The Crimson Queen, Hutson has begun a fun, action-packed portal fantasy series that continues to showcase his knack for building interesting characters and worlds. Looking forward to the next installment.
October 19, 2019
Great book. Very nice world building, good characters and dialogue. Some very impressive moments. I particularly liked the poelthari, I hope next books have more moments like that.
The villain was lacking. Way too petty. I hope he doesn't come back. I think there's a couple of sex scenes, so if you are offended by that you probably won't like those parts too much, and you can skip them easily enough; but if that's what you are looking for, there are greener fields elsewhere.
The villain was lacking. Way too petty. I hope he doesn't come back. I think there's a couple of sex scenes, so if you are offended by that you probably won't like those parts too much, and you can skip them easily enough; but if that's what you are looking for, there are greener fields elsewhere.
July 21, 2020
Advertised as "The Cleansing Flame is for readers over the age of 18. It contains a harem and explicit situations" it never lived up to those promises. Dropping any pretense of being a harem very early on.
After not doing as well as the author hoped, he seems to have decided to rebrand it as the mediocre sword and sorcery it was all along and attempt to peddle it to a general audience.
After not doing as well as the author hoped, he seems to have decided to rebrand it as the mediocre sword and sorcery it was all along and attempt to peddle it to a general audience.
January 3, 2021
The Cleansing Flame (Swords and Saints Book 1)
As always Alec Huston delivers an engrossing tale. Interesting characters, world, and magic. From amnesia to trying to save the world.
As always Alec Huston delivers an engrossing tale. Interesting characters, world, and magic. From amnesia to trying to save the world.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews