Shadow of the Conqueror

Chronicles of Everfall #1

by Shad M. Brooks

Who better to fight back the darkness of the world than the one responsible for most of it?

Daylen, once known as the Great Bastard, the Scourge of Nations, Dayless the Conqueror, has lived in hiding since his presumed death. Burdened by age and tremendous guilt, he thinks his life is coming to an end. Unbeknownst to him he's about to embark on a journey towards redemption where his ruthless abilities might save the world. Many battles await with friends to be made and a past filled with countless crimes to confront, all the while trying to keep his true identity a secret.

Indeed, it might be too much if not for the fabled power awaiting him.



Everfall is a world of perpetual day where the continents float in an endless sky. If one jumps from the continent they will fall for many hours before returning to the same place from which they fell. Skyships rule the air powered by shining sunstone and industrial darkstone. A legendary order of knights bears mystical powers which they use to hunt out the dreaded Shade, monsters that regular people turn into if trapped in darkness for the length of a fall.
It is a world of enchanted swords, merciless monsters, mystical knights and hard magic, filled with tales of wonder and adventure.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, High Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure, Action

504 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2019

About the author

As well as being a passionate writer Shad is also a very popular internet personality. His YouTube channel, Shadiversity, has over 650,000 subscribers as of July 2019, where he examines and celebrates fantasy and medieval subjects as well as the occasional instructive video on creative writing.
Shad grew up in the country of Victoria Australia where he was free to make wooden swords and play in imaginary fantasy worlds to his heart’s content. This love of fantasy and swords has been with him his whole life and he loves bringing the worlds of his imagination into greater reality through illustration, playing tabletop roleplaying games, and writing.
Shad decided to be a novelist in 2007 and begun a dedicated endeavour to learn how to be one to the best of his ability, participating in top creative writing courses and learning from some of the most successful fantasy writers in the world. Over the course of twelve years Shad married, had four children, launched a highly successful YouTube career and wrote the equivalent of nine novels. Most of these books were preparatory works to give shad the practice and ability to write at a professional level, the last book being the one he set out to launch his writing career with; Chronicles of Everfall, Shadow of the Conqueror.

Reviews

[Elijs Dima · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a difficult review to write.

I'm biased to like the author, based off of his youtube personality/channel.
Because of that, I want to like this novel. However, it is rough, for one minor and one major reason.

Minor reason - the writing still needs editing, or maybe a co-author. As-is, the novel is very often expository, dumping mechanics, systems and seeming "logic asides" all the time. The tone of the written prose is fluctuating wildly, with supposedly heart-wrenching monologue from a character in one line, an utterly neutral aside on some tangent the next line (blood was easy to wipe off, because it's mostly water.... ???? Yes, okay, was it worth to put that information to the reader, in the process completely pulling the rug out of what was intended to be an emotional moment for a character?).

The main character is problematic, to say the least. Supposedly carrying a lifetime of guilt, he constantly flips between short half-page bursts of self-pity, and long multi-page sections of him kicking arse, being the best and smartest and most logical and skilled person... So the self-pitying falls completely flat, because we're never shown that he truly cares about his guilt - going to a room and locking oneself in to sob for 3% of the novel does not compensate for the 97% of "badass" stuff.

The biggest issue, however, that keeps me from rating this novel higher, is the novel's constant obsession with sex and rape. The main character is largely defined by it, almost all of the female characters with more than one line dedicated to them are either trusty homesitting wives (quoting, "with breasts like melons"), religiously obsessed with cooking for their MEN and sexing their MEN, or they are absolutely and utterly defined by having been raped and/or kept for sex trafficking. And, okay, if this had been handled with care, okay... but the way these events are treated - like offhand mentions with no apparent empathy from the characters or author beyond the briefest of lip service - is genuinely discomforting. As a whole, the perspective this novel presents feels extremely callous and uncaring.

I don't know if the author is trying to make some weird point with this novel regarding "traditional" family roles, or historical/fantasy depictions of rape, or if it's something deeper, but... look, this isn't pleasant to read. Not due to graphic violence or anything, but due to the utter lack of empathy and the prevalent use of rape as a plot point with no exploration - or even seemingly awareness - of what it really means.

[Daniel B.]

Video up tomorrow. A lot to say on this one. I need more from the series before I give stars. The setup is great, but I am waiting for the payoff I really hope is there.

[Kevin Potter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is likely to be an unpopular opinion.

I am a HUGE fan of the author's YouTube channel. He does some super in-depth analysis of various medieval and fantasy ideas and medias and I love 98% of what he does.

But this book has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
Honestly, I would have rated it lower but I reserve 1-star ratings for books that don't have anything that I like or enjoy. And this book has a little going for it, just not nearly enough to counterbalance the poor elements.

Okay, when I saw this audiobook was narrated by Michael Kramer and Kate Reading I was really excited to dig in. Those two are a fantastic narration team and have never let me down.

Indeed, the narration is excellent. Kate and Michael both have some awesome voices and incredible control of tempo and vocal inflections.

But the story.

Okay, let me begin with a few praises.

Although in need of a good polish, the prose is smooth and skillful. The characters have a reasonable amount of depth. And the depth of the world building is incredible.

Which is part of the problem.

I don't mean incredible in the sense of being really good, but actually incredible. I can't believe how much of it is actually in the book.

Honestly, there are a LOT of asides that feel like rules entries in a roleplaying game campaign/setting book. It's almost as if this whole story is just from sidebars in such a campaign book.

There's just way more detail about the world and its mechanics than necessary, while a couple of very specific issues that strain my suspension of disbelief are never addressed.

However, there are three prose issues that need to be mentioned.

The frequent (and it is, oh, so frequent!) use of the word "literally" really diminishes the power of the prose and makes it feel amateurish.

While some of the dialogue is good and feels natural, other bits are so clunky and feel so forced I can hardly believe the narrators didn't balk at actually saying the lines.

And the sheer amount of "telling" (rather than showing) in this book was really frustrating, particularly with "action" sequences. The book would have been so much more exciting if so much of the action hadn't been summarized upon its completion. From an author who is a sword enthusiast and a skilled swordsman himself, I was really expecting a lot more detail devoted to the fight scenes.

Now, I have 2 very large issues that almost made me drop the book and get a refund on numerous occasions.

1, rampant (and awkward) sexuality and rape.

There are multiple characters completely defined by their sexual assault, and I'm sorry, but showing a recent rape victim who literally throws herself at every young male available as a "coping mechanism" is so far beyond ridiculous, I don't even have the words to express it.

For an author who claims Mormon values and sensibilities, I can't help wondering if he doesn't include this purely because he somehow got the misguided idea that readers want it.

Here's the thing, books like A Game of Thrones can get away with it because it feels authentic to the world and the situations feel real. Not because fantasy readers particularly want to see it.

Reading those parts in this book felt like listening to a nine-year-old talk about sex. It was super awkward and did not remotely resemble how real people talk about sex.

2, the main character. There are so many issues here, but let me condense the list to a few key points.

The biggest problem is he's a bastard. After being with him for 18 hours I can honestly say there's not one thing about him that I like. Largely because every positive thing presented just rings false.

Other characters describe him as mature, intelligent, and wise beyond his (apparent) years. But what we see in him is the complete opposite. His pride would make Sauron cringe, he's as frivolous and childish as my nine-year-old daughter, and the sheer number of idiotic decisions he makes is mind blowing.

And there's this contradiction. The author goes to great lengths to show us his guilt. He spends pages and pages bemoaning it and at one point the main character spends days locked in his cabin weeping over it.

But at the end of the day, he's still a bastard who raped young girls and killed millions. And he proves himself to still be a selfish, violent man prone to overreacting and dispensing vigilante justice. In some cases with no evidence of guilt.

While in most roleplaying games it's perfectly acceptable to take someone at their word and kill their attacker, in a supposedly deep and complex novel, I expect more realism than that.

Especially when it's from an author who has established himself as a person with a huge amount of attention to detail who spends a lot of time criticizing films and games for very minor lapses in realism.

And yes, the fact that the main character is a master at basically everything he does as well as having more powerful magic than anyone else is a huge problem. Whether there's an explanation or not is irrelevant. How good he is at everything competely destroys any tension that might otherwise have existed.

I feel like leaving out the sex (or writing it with realism and sensitivity) and making the Light Bringer (whose name I won't try to spell) the main character would have solved all of the novel's plot and character problems.

I actually really liked the Bringer as a character. He has a complicated past that isn't fully revealed until shortly before the end. He has a strong sense of honor and justice. And I love that his sense of humor is so out there! He makes a lot of really bad jokes, especially in the beginning, and it's a source of banter with other characters, which I appreciate.

Finally, let's talk about a few of the world elements that I have issues with.

First, the endless universe. Was any thought put into this? As far as I can tell, the entire "universe" exists within around a thousand miles of height, and reaching the "bottom" then drops one from the "top." But there is a sun beyond that somehow.

The whole thing smacks of nonsense to me, and no attempt at an explanation is made, yet almost everything else in the world is explained to the umpteenth degree.

I'm really struggling with the magic system. First and foremost is the fact that light is the source of magic. Maybe it's just me, but that seems absurd to me. And then we spend so much time getting so bogged down in the rules of the magic, and defining everything, and having the main character "discover" things that are supposed to be impossible, that by the time the actual story starts I don't even care how the magic works anymore.

Also, I have a serious issue with the magic that might be considered a spoiler so read the rest of this paragraph at your own risk. At one point near the end of the book the main character "channels light" (invests magic) into amplifying his skill with a sword. Everything magic has done previously has been manipulating physical characteristics or natural forces (such as wind or gravity). Yet somehow he's able to channel light into his "skill." Again, for an author so gung-ho about realism and things making sense, this is extremely disappointing.

Also, the fact that everything else about the magic is so scientific just rubs me the wrong way. Magic should be mystical. Magic should be variable. Magic should not be 100% explained with every rule and mechanic on the table in the first 100 pages. Yes, it's capabilities and limitations should make sense, but it doesn't need that strong a grounding in scientific realism.

I find the sheer amount of technology and tech-speak in the book distracting and irritating. I don't pick up a high/epic fantasy novel to read about technology. I don't want to read about engineering. I don't want to hear about cellular levels, guns, modern political issues, and scientific advances. I want swords and armor and magic and medieval political problems.

My last issue comes down to predictability. For a book that people keep comparing to Brandon Sanderson, I was really expecting a mystery that I couldn't figure out until we came to it and enough complexity to keep me thinking and revising my opinions and ideas of what was really going on.

Unfortunately, there is none of that here. The plot is very linear, very straightforward, and very predictable. Nothing surprised me.

Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love this book, there is very little that I enjoyed here and I really can't think of any type of reader that I would recommend this book to.

[Hope C. · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’d really give this negative stars if I could. I’m just here in an attempt to reduce the inflated score. Making your protagonist a genocidal pedophillic rapist who gets away with it, becomes young and handsome, and then everyone forgives?? That doesn’t belong in published books. It belongs in long-deleted wattpad stories.

[Chelsea · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF (Did Not Finish)
I love Shad's YouTube channel and this was a promising premise, but the novel is annoyingly unpolished and objectionable.

As for the unsavory elements, there are copious references to rape, ravaging and sex trafficking (as well as beastiality).

Gratuitous language include several instances of: d*mn, *ss, *sshole, b*st*rd, and bl**dy, as well as crap, piss, tit and retarded. Which is kind of out of character for an author that wears a shirt saying, "I want you to watch your language."

This contemporary swearing, along with modern phrases (such as "Don't be a smart*ss"), and a plethora of contractions every page, takes you out of the fantasy setting over and over again.

Sadly, another editor or two were desperately needed to refine all of the writing flaws. In chapter 2, a question ends with a period. There are awkward phrases like "said embarrassedly" or sentences that are just grammatically clumsy:

"Daylen didn't want to explain that once he managed to climb into the blackened thing he didn't want to have to climb out of it only to get into another one."

"Thankful for the windshield he leaned back, trying to recover his breath."

Additionally, many paragraphs are only a single sentence or two (and they weren't ones with dialogue).

"Daylen pulled his coat shut and did up the large buttons running down its front.
Still holding the small sunstone-lined box, Daylen opened it and took out the darkstone with two fingers.
He tossed the box aside."

I did love that women have longsword parasols (can I have one?!), and Shad definitely knows his weapons, so there's that.

However, there are numerous times where the author ignores the golden rule of "show, don't tell" when we get continual info dumps on the kingdom, magic and character backgrounds. A reader should feel like they are dropped into the middle of a world and they slowly unravel clues as it goes along.

For what I read, it was like a choppy and distasteful rough draft, so I returned my kindle book for a refund (a rarity for me).
From now on, I'll stick with Shad's sword videos and the likes of Brandon Sanderson for fantasy reading.

[dohaal · Rating 1 out of 5]

An internet friend of mine suggested this one to me just like he suggested the authors youtube channel. Ive been on and off watching the said channel so I thought Id give the book a go as well.

I once heard Brandon Sanderson jokingly say, there are ideologically driven novels out there that depict the people they disagree with in real life as paedophile rapists. This is literally one of those books.

The main character of this book is a guy named Daylen (paedophile stalin) and he was the emperor of the dawn empire (paedophile soviet union). We are told this Daylen guy is very old. Pay attention to the being told part because he acts just like a 15 year old brat throughout the book. Its just that every other character who meets him tells us he acts old. Maybe they've read the script and thats how they know.

Then there is a political monologue where the lady character yells freedom at societies problems. I suppose that should have tipped me off on what is to come. But to me what wins the prize is the dialogue between a young stalinist woman and Daylen where right after he gives a speech about how the end doesnt justify the means and his old paedophile stalin times were awful because of him murdering a whole bunch of people, I repeat just after saying that, he !!!no shit!!! blows the girls head off out of rage. You might say dear author the girl was part of a terrorist organization. But Daylen didnt know that. He just knew the girl was a stalinist. She did say, they had big plans they were executing just about now. Extremists are usually just hot air, all show and no go. What are the chances of you walking up to a random stalinist and her knowing the details of a world changing terrorist attack hours from execution. But Daylen immediately thinks the threat is legit, kills her and all of her friends. I dont know maybe he read the script too. He then feels sick about how easy it was for him to kill so many so quickly. Not that he killed all those people for no reason.

The more you read, the more you realize that the author isnt simply anti soviet union. He is anti social justice. Also the political messages arent veiled in any way. In the scene Daylen kills the stalinist girl he fumes out of his mouth saying wealth redistribution is theft. Just like that, not much beating around the bush. After all that i went back to my friend and asked him why on earth he would recommend this book to me. As i told him about all the weird political shit in the book, with some back and forth he told me the author was a fan of steven crowder, and to that i said,

that makes sense.

[Spencer Gillespie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mmkay.

So, first off, I really like the author. Seems like a great guy, fantastic Youtube channel, etc. I hope he keeps writing, and I'll probably give his future work another shot.

I don't want to come off as bashing this book. There were things I really liked - the setting is interesting, the hard magic aspects (darkstone in particular) are engaging and well-thought out, and you can tell that Shad's put a lot of effort into taking fantastical premises to logical and grounded conclusions. He also knows his way around weapons and medieval combat, and I appreciate the realism (even if the action scenes did seem a little too concerned with giving various guards their proper names over getting a good 'flow' going). That's all good.

However, I cannot say that I enjoyed this book. There's a few reasons for that.

1. the Protagonist.

Daylen is by far the biggest problem with the book. His characterization is super inconsistent, as he jumps from bratty teenager to world-weary veteran to cocky swordsman so quickly it gives you whiplash. The character's past is also...not handled well. I've got no issues with villain protagonists (Glokta from First Law is, IMO, one of the best characters I've ever read), but Daylen feels less like a repentant monster, and more like a standard anime badass with a tragic past, who deals with said past by crying in his room for a few minutes every so often, before getting back to glorious ass-kicking. It does not feel like the two sides of his character mesh well at all.

On top of that, I'm not entirely comfortable with the way his character is portrayed. Past aside (and hoo boy, is it ever a past. Guy is basically a fantasy Stalin/Lenin hybrid, and on top of that, he's personally guilty of just about every heinous crime there is. Yes, even those ones), his current actions are...ethically dubious? at best? After being magically de-aged and gaining superpowers because of some handwavium (more or that later), his first response is to go on an ultraviolent batmanesque rampage. He kills. he mutilates. He takes pleasure in killing his targets, often in sadistic ways, even when he is perfectly capable of capturing them alive (none of his targets really stand a chance against him, either). The story justifies this because his targets are all terrible people (who doesn't cheer when a sex slaver gets anally impaled?), and it almost invariably treats his actions as unreservedly heroic. I'll use Glokta as an example again here - the dude's a sadistic, self-pitying monster who tortures (mostly innocent) people for a living, and the story makes sure we know that he's a terrible human being. We root for him because he's hilarious, self-aware, because everyone else in the story is just as terrible as he is, and because his actions - though terrible - are still grounded in his essential humanity. Daylen...isn't that. He's a bad person who claims to know he's a bad person...but whom the story (and most secondary characters) treat like a hero. His actions aren't grounded in understandable human motivations, but rather some vague sense of misplaced idealism (kill your way to a better world!) that makes it seems like he hasn't really changed his core beliefs, just his modus operandi (instead of killing people with a giant empire, let's kill people personally!) It's a little uncomfortable to read, because if I met someone in real life who condoned Daylen's actions (even his current actions), I'd back away slowly.

Also, Daylen comes perilously close to being a Mary Sue. He's a genius in several fields, a master inventor, a master military strategist, and one of the best swordsmen in the world. He's pioneered means of using the more hard-magic magic in ways never before seen in the world. He's extremely good looking, with a ... distinctive...appearance. On gaining magical abilities in a freak accident, he's much better with those abilities than people who have trained with them their entire lives. His only real flaw is his dark past and supposed self-loathing (and I say supposed because for a guy who claims that he'd rather die than live with what he's done, Daylen sure enjoys his life a heck of a lot. Particularly the parts of it where he kills people in gruesome and sadistic ways).

Finally, the book uses the time-honored (not) technique of showcasing Daylen's intelligence not by having him DO anything particularly intelligent, but by making every other character laughably stupid. In particular, the fact that his pretense of being the 'son' of his original self (despite the numerous inconsistencies in his story and his continual 'breaking character' to angrily defend his past actions or yell at people for talking to him like a kid) should have lasted all of 2 minutes before he was called on it. He's identical to his younger self. He's around characters that used to know him. He has nothing and no-oone to support his claim of who he is, and he has skills and knowledge that are physically impossible for someone of his supposed age. In a setting where there is no such thing as magic, I could MAYBE buy that people would not see through the ruse, but he lives in a world where soft magic is a thing, and where one of the 'types' of magic can perform literal miracles. Someone really should have figured it out before the 'dramatic reveal' near the climax.

2. The Magic System

The biggest issue here is that the story is written as though it's a hard magic system story, when the magic system is actually quite soft. I love Brandon Sanderson, and his laws of magic apply here. In particular:

"An author’s ability to solve conflict with magic is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to how well the reader understands said magic"

and

" Limitations are more important than abilities".

Shad uses magic to resolve conflicts a LOT. Magic is, in fact, the cornerstone of resolving most of the conflicts in the book. The problem is that while there is a token attempt at defining what magic can do (speaking specifically of lifebringing, as that's the magic system Daylen uses, and the one that is most abused throughout the story), these rules are continually broken, twisted, and rejigged in order to allow Daylen to succeed by the skin of his teeth. A well-written hard magic system puts the reader in a position where it is theoretically possible for them to identify how the conflict might be resolved ahead of time (though great writing means you only recognize the foreshadowing in hindsight.) Clever or creative uses of pre-established abilities are one way to do this well. That's not what happens here.

Early in the book, when Daylen gets his powers, we learn a few things about them. First, that he can only change his own 'attributes'. Weight, Speed, Healing, Strength, etc. Second, he can only apply up to 4 enhancements at once. Finally, he has a limit to how much he can do before he needs to recharge (this limitation never meaningfully comes up, incidentally). And if Daylen solved conflicts with clever applications of those powers, that would be fine. He doesn't. Instead, every time he needs a new power, he stretches the limits of what qualifies as an 'attribute' that can be enhanced. Losing a sword fight? I guess he can enhance his sword skill now. Need to destroy a giant projectile hurtling towards a city? I guess he can enhance his sword to cut through it. These applications of magic don't feel clever, they feel cheap. The logic behind them is...tenuous at best, and they rob scenes of any tension, because why should we be concerned for Daylen when he can probably just enhance his, I dunno, "conflict resolution his abilities", turn into a Level 20 Diplomancer, and talk everyone into leaving him alone forever?

Additionally, while it's not a criticism per se, the 'magical abilities come with all of the necessary safeguards to prevent you from harming yourself' approach takes away from the 'hard magic' aspect of a magic system. If magic is just another set of rules (like physics), why do those rules come with the necessary ancillary safeguards to prevent you from hurting yourself with them (and also, why is it that they sometimes don't, like when Daylen accidentally turns himself intangible and blows up his feet)? Like...to refer to Sanderson again, in Mistborn, each of the 3 magic systems comes from a mixture of the influence of one of the two 'gods' of the setting, Preservation and Ruin. The magic of preservation (Ferruchemy) comes with secondary enhancements to avoid hurting the user (like added strength to go with added weight). Allomancy (the magic of blended preservation and ruin) doesn't come with those safeguards (because it's also a magic of ruin), so it's perfectly possible for an Allomancer to e.g. push themselves too far on Pewter, miss a Steelpush and crash into the ground, or accidentally kill themselves with a misjudged Ironpull. And the magic of ruin (hemalurgy) necessarily harms, damages, and RUINS it's users. Each magic is intrinsically linked to the overarching setting in a way that is readily understandable, while still being 'hard magic' because of it's limitations. In this book, however, the magic is not consistent, not linked to any core aspect of the setting (beyond vague references to 'the light'), and seems to have its' capabilities defined by the needs of the plot, not by any intrinsic limitations in the system itself.

Also, the whole 'de-aging miracle' thing feels SUPER out of place in a book that is at least TRYING to sell itself as a hard magic setting. It almost feels like the story was at one point written with the main character ACTUALLY being Daylen's son, before being partially rewritten to it's current form.

Those are the big two, but to briefly sum up the rest of my issues:

- the humor is grating and corny. Bad humor doesn't become good just because you lampshade how bad it is. Also, modern terminology in a fantasy novel has to be used with care.
- there's a low of unnecessary verbiage and exposition.
- the plot was predictable. I called Ahrek as Rayaten almost as soon as the latter was mentioned, and nothing else was really surprising.
- the treatment of sexual assault was fairly insensitive. Particularly given the protagonist's past. It's not clear why the author needed to include the rape elements at all, aside from shock value or (I'm gonna guess) 'realism' (because yes, this is likely what would happen with a real world dictator with no morality and generally unchecked power). IMO none of the rape elements needed to be included, and the book would have been better without them.
- Daylen's past in general is treated poorly. He's supposedly an unforgivable monster (and indeed, the things he's done would literally be unforgivable in a sane world), but his past actions are always 'justified' or mitigated by circumstances somehow, so the author can dance around the question of whether or not he's actually a monster (he is). Also, the whole 'everyone forgives him and decides to let him join the magical order of knights instead of executing him' at end was super far-fetched. People just...don't react like that. Especially not politicians. There was no reasonable end to that trial that did not see Daylen executed.

Finally, "Sunucles" is a silly name for the magical items in the setting. It feels like a bad pun on 'icicles' that doesn't make any sense at all when you give it 2 minutes of thought. It feels meta and more than a bit silly, and it jarred me out of my suspension of disbelief every time I saw the word.

2/5

[Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 20%. Amateurish, unedited garbage. Glad to see that Shad grew tired of being a laughingstock in the HEMA community and wanted to be one for the literary community as well.

[Michael Mazzaferri · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this novel, I really did. I'm a fan of Shad's YouTube channel, and really love his content. Reading the back-cover blurb, I was excited to read this novel - there's so much potential. But after 30-40 pages (of a 500 page paperback), I had to put it down. The prose is extremely substandard, the worldbuilding is very heavy-handed, leading to infodump after infodump and aside after aside. In those 30 pages I have read, next to nothing happens. And the main character! He wobbles between self-pity and "I had it better in my day!" old-man-ism. And that could work... except he doesn't seem to have much of an actual personality.

And there is such potential here, too! The world-concept is very Sanderson-esque, filled with magic and airships, and even some industrialization. It's just a shame that the author failed to heed his own advice. This novel should have gone through two or three rounds with an editor. And I mean a true content editor. Shad credits a copy editor and two proofreaders, but their only role is to correct spelling and grammatical mistakes (and I still spotted several, including tense confusion on the second page!)

[James Frenkz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another untalented Youtuber wades into the literary field to guaranteed success and loving asspats from people who crave the attention of ecelebrities. A big fat yawn from me. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge the guy for trying and he seems like a nice feller (minus the obsession with rape, we'll get to that in a second) I just feel like unmerited praise should beget harsher critique.

The prose in this is pretty bad, honestly. A certain clumsiness that definitely bespoke of an amateur. This is usually something I'm a bit forgiving of with self-published authors because I'm a firm believer that good prose is as much a product of an editor as it is a writer, but with Shad's resources I definitely felt like he should have sprung for a better editor or for someone to give him some tutelage on how to make the words really sing. At best it's serviceable, but it's less than serviceable a significant amount of the time.

World is interesting enough, but I have a long standing history of not really giving a fuck about worldbuilding in particular. I thought the concept of the everfall was kind of cool, it always being daylight was neat. I liked how this impacted the vernacular of the culture without being quite as cringe-inducing as fake fake vernacular usually is.

"Storm it!" Said Bramblesniff "The excelsiors shine a darkbrood on your farfenuggin!"

Where the book gets weird is its central protagonist, and people have talked about this a lot. It was definitely a... brave move to make Dalen superHitler on steroids, responsible for millions of deaths and pedophilic rapes (as if the death wasn't enough). It was kind of stupid to give him a redemption arc and make him Gary Stu material, though.

The plot hook here is that he gets a second chance to redeem himself in a young man's body. This is a way for him to be the best at absolutely everything without needing to actually struggle, develop or learn. He's the best tactician, warrior, inventor, airship pilot, whatever the plot needs him to be good at. A lifetime of training and study can probably make you exceptionally good at a couple of things, but not all of the things, and Dalen was also an evil emperor at some point living a super hedonistic lifestyle so I have no idea how he acquired all these skills. Given his history I'm also going to assume he's the best rapist.

There it is again, I swear I'm not bringing it up just to be squicky. The obsession with rape is really off-putting here. I'm cool with dark material in fiction, don't get me wrong, I feel like everything has its place. I'm not the kind of guy who feels like severed heads and murder is totally fine to include in every piece of media ever but sexual assault is too taboo a subject to tackle. However I do believe it is one better off used in moderation and definitely not levied at the feet of the guy who we're going to be following around for 500 odd pages. Sexual assault, forced prostitution, copious amounts of rape, these things come up way too often for it to feel like anything other than fetish material.

Ultimately this is where the novel breaks, with the central protagonist not only being generally insufferable -- with his sudden turn to good being kind of hard to believe in and of itself -- but with the world and the characters around him bending in an unbelievable way to accommodate his 'redemption'. His best friend eventually learns his true identity, this should be a complete breaking point for the relationship of these two characters, irreparable damage that should take an entire book or so to patch up into an 'okay' state, given the nature of what he did to this friend of his in the past life. But, much too soon, Dalen is forgiven because he's a good guy now.

Don't worry guys! Megahitler says he feels BAD about it and that he's doing good now! Disregard the rape and murder of your families, forgiveness is what will win the day today!

The scale is really what's off here, if Dalen's crimes were dialed back a little then maybe this would have swung, but it wasn't so it don't.

[Miouhaneun · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this book for the podcast and YouTube channel Unresolved Textual Tension's bookclub. These are my thoughts:

Shadow of the Conqueror strikes me as a very ambitious project that attempts to tackle deep, complex questions of identity from the point of view of someone who has done terrible things for a greater purpose;
Are we more than our actions?
Can a person truly change?
Can there be a greater purpose to suffering?
Is redemption within reach?
The answer the book then delivers to us is as follows: “Yes, if you were a certain kind of person to begin with.”
Throughout the book, we observe Daylis “atone” for his old crimes by committing new horrific crimes. He frames these actions as a dispensation of justice and claims his punishments are lawful, but Daylis/Daylen does not truly have the institutional authority to implement this sentencing. Daylen himself argues that by virtue of his powers—the powers we later learn that anyone can come into possession of which makes this argument null and void—he has been granted authority by proxy. This is the first time we encounter the logical fallacy that drives this entire narrative, but not the last.
Through his sidekick Ahrek, we learn that each person has a light within them which derives from the force I from hereon shall refer to as God. Daylen discovers that despite the horrors he has done, he has always had a strong light within him, whilst seemingly normal people leading quiet, inoffensive light can have a dim light within them. This is because Light is not a manifestation of a person’s goodness, but a manifestation of their capacity to see what they think is right and to act accordingly.

“But wait, Shad, does this mean that the greater your capacity for fanaticism you are, the more blessed by God you are?”



Shad M. Brooks pleads the fifth.

Since the author is silent on the matter, the conclusion of this conversation that we are left with is—No, light is not a measure of goodness or capacity for goodness, but of believing your actions are justified. An interesting concept, by all rights.
Unfortunately, this idea runs head-first into a logical fallacy a few chapters later when Daylen and Ahrek run into some sky pirates, and Daylen decides to “look for their Light” to discern which of the pirates are worthy of a second chance, and which should face a swift, brutal death for their alleged crimes.

“But wait, Shad, isn’t Daylen redeeming himself from his crimes by dealing out lawful justice? If all the pirates are guilty of the same crime should their punishments not be identical, regardless of their inner light? Which criminals are allowed to break the law and commit crimes, and which ones aren’t again? And did we not conclude that your inner Light was -not- a measure of your inherent goodness, in which case it is not an appropriate means of deciding who deserves a second chance? Also, if this Light is derivative of God, who is Daylen to decide who has enough light in them to get a chance to redeem himself when by virtue of his actions Daylen’s evil overshadows that of most of these pirates?”



Shad M. Brooks pleads the fifth.

Here we arrive at the death sodomy scene, which is a fair, reasonable punishment because the man has almost no inner Light (in other words he knew his actions were wrong) and because Daylen felt like it at the time (and his light is stronger).

“But wait, Shad, does this mean that so long as you believe your evil actions are justified, they are? If you have ten men before you, nine out of which have a dim light whereas one has a strong, bright light; they all commit mass murder and the ones with the weak light knows it is the wrong thing to do but they must do it to achieve their ambition, but the man with the bright light thinks he is justified in doing this to achieve his ambition. The outcome for all the people hurt are the same in each instance. All the men continue to hurt and kill people later, nine of them knowing their actions are wrong, the tenth thinking he’s right. Nine of these men do not deserve the chance to redeem themselves by killing even more people—sometimes just on a whim—but one does because his inner Light is strong? In other words, you are born good or bad; if you’re good but do bad things you’re worthy of redemption just because, but if you’re bad and do bad things that’s bad and you deserve to die..?”



Shad M. Brooks pleads the fifth.

At this point, I want to reiterate the symbolism of impaling someone on a phallic object to exert pain, torture and eventually, death. Is this symptomatic of something in the character Daylen’s psyche? The author’s? Simply something the author picked because it sounded cool? It is not for me to decide, but if we were to look at this as a crime (which it is since it happened entirely outside the frame of the law Shad and Daylen himself had set up) it would be impossible to dismiss the sexual element to the punishment. Evisceration or disembowelment would serve the purpose of instilling that torturous horror in the victim, so the choice of a stake appears to be symbolic. If Daylen could count precognition to his many gifts, I would say the punishment was symbolic of the crime, but at this point in the story, Daylen does not know the full width of Blackheart’s crimes and I would say the modus operandi is indicative of a deeply seated sexual rage. If the victim was a woman, I would say Daylen (or the author) wanted to penetrate the victim with their penis, and knowing the victim would not have “allowed them to” brings on a powerful rage in which the perpetrator uses a phallic symbol to obliterate the object of their desire.
The book is very concerned with women’s innocence and the taking of that innocence. Rape is condemned, but I would like to direct some attention to the framing of rape as a concept. I would say rape is a violation of the person’s right to bodily autonomy, an assault on their mind and body, a crime. The book however frames it as an act that steals a woman’s (a girl’s) innocence. So, innocence is a commodity that can be taken away, leaving the woman or girl to exist without it. In other words, and reflected through the book’s apathetic treatment of these despoiled women, rape is bad because it takes away something that is the right and property of the girl’s husband. Once despoiled of it, she has less to offer him. This is rather clearly reflected in the sentiments Daylen expresses towards the women he himself raped and despoiled—he feels regret because they were worthy of his respect before he ruined them—versus the trafficked girl who tries to entice him sexually in order to earn a place at his side—towards which he expresses disgust.

The next major event I’d like to shine a light on to highlight this book’s conceit is Daylen meeting the leader of the Dawn-organisation. She is a young revolutionist who still believes in the vision for Daylen’s Stalinist Russia—I mean the Dawn Empire, a system that caused the deaths of some seventeen million people. Now I want you to picture this scene and remember that Daylen has a strong light, a strong capacity for goodness, that is why he gets to run around killing these people justly, correct? Because his light is so strong and he wants to do good. Now he looks into the soul of this woman, and to his shock he sees that she too has a strong Light and in her heart, she wants to do what she thinks will be for the greater good. So he kills her.

“But, Shad, wasn’t the strong inner light a measurement to decide who deserves to live and have a chance to atone for their sins? Oh, so since she wasn’t willing to change then and there she wasn’t worthy of the chance? But why didn’t Daylen ask all those criminals and all those pirates if they wanted to atone for their sins before he killed them then? And how come they both think they are killing people for the greater good, but she is wrong and he is right—how does he know? If he doesn’t know, is he truly changing and making amends, or is he just continuing to do what he did before, which is killing people because he thought it necessary?”



Shad M. Brooks pleads the fifth.

Lastly, I would like to mention the point that Ahrek finds out that Daylen is Daylis, and Ahrek reveals himself to be the leader of the rebels, sworn to kill Daylen as revenge for Daylen murdering Ahrek’s family. Previously in the story, we have found out that Ahrek shines very brightly but there is also a deep darkness in him. But curiously there is no talk of there being a deep darkness in Daylen..? At this point we must ask ourselves why not, when it is implied the darkness in Ahrek is regret, grief and hatred, feelings Daylen all through the book has allegedly been suffering from as well.
Anyhow, here we arrive at the last thematic punch of the story, because Ahrek defeats Daylen in a duel to the death, and as he is about to deliver the killing blow Daylen says they are the same, Ahrek and he, and that no revenge will bring their loved ones back. So Ahrek not only forgives his family’s murderer, he accepts his friendship and joins him.
Not only would I like to dispute the claim that Ahrek and Daylen are the same, but I would go so far as to argue they are opposites who found themselves in the same situation. They handled it differently, one lived well in service of others and even spared his family’s killer, whilst the other executed people left and right including his family’s killer, torturing people on a whim and raping children.
This presentation of forgiveness, not simply as something you do for your peace of mind so you can move on from the trauma and heal, but as an endorsement of your fellow man and by taking him into your heart you come closer to God, is something I can only view as an expression of deeply Christian beliefs. This is odd since the book on the surface appears to exist entirely independently of the religion we know as Christianity.

I really could go on but I’m out of time so I will finish with this: The implication that as their rapist, at least Daylen gave some of his rape victims something valuable—a child. And the presentation of those women as happier and less traumatised than the ones who did not conceive is unfortunately just the author using the book as a mouthpiece to express his view on abortion.

[Joseph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book because I love the world building and the magic system. The main character even has a good back story. There are a few decent characters in the book but overall the development of the main cast is very disjointed and erratic. The action scenes are great! The rest is just really rough.

About halfway through the book I figured out it was self published. I don't have a problem with self-published books but they tend to have some serious flaws. Bad editing, poor layout of plot and development of characters. A lot of suspension of disbelief is required to follow the book to the end.

This book has all of that.

This book needed the heavy hand of an editor and a publisher willing to work out the glaring problems this book has.

The main character was also the ultimate Mary-Sue. There is justification for him being amazing at everything but it got old really fast.

I feel guilty because I'm usually not this harsh about a book but I felt kind of duped. I watched his video about his book being published and based on the cover art and the people reading the audiobook I thought it was published by a major publisher like Tor. I expected a well polished, well developed fantasy novel. I didn't get that.

Side note: This book has a lot of talk about rape in it. Like, a lot.

[Slick · Rating 5 out of 5]

~Highly controversial Book~




OK, so if I had to describe this book, I'd basically describe it as having a very grimdark Cosmere/Sanderson steampunk flavour.

The story is set in the world of Everfall, a world where there is no night and it is constantly day time. The only darkness is from creatures called shades, creatures formed from when people stay too long in the dark and turn to monsters. The Continents and islands are not separated by seas but by air.. the islands are floating.. so separated by air and possibly a long drop. Everfall also is a world with airships which help bridge these gaps and people use to traverse the separate islands.

Everfall, is also a world where the world has finally finished reeling from the tyranny of one, Daylen, once known as the Great Bastard, the Scourge of Nations, Dayless the Conqueror. As the names suggest, he was not the nicest of people.

Daylen rose to prominence fighting the shade and made a name for himself, however, he then used his new found fame to overthrow the aristocracy to rule his nation himself. However, he then began to conquer other nations. His decent to evil was not a sudden thing but slowly being consumed by war and conquest his methods grew harsher and his mercy more fleeting when dealing with people who opposed/defied/disagreed him. He slowly began to strip his subjects of freedoms. Think George Washington, turned Napoleon and then turned Stalin.

Eventually rebellion broke out against him, led by a man whom he had wronged. One who turned out to be as smart, as devious and as cunning as himself. The tide only truly turned against him when A legendary order of knights joined against him. In the climactic battle the world believed him dead.

However he survived, living in hiding for 20 years as the world remade itself he lived a miserable life in squalor. However left to plot his revenge he found himself reflecting on his past deeds and almost seemed to awaken his conscience and then his guilt.

However when he finally, in his old age decided to end it all something unexpected happened in his attempted suicide, he regained his youth and awoke with the same abilities the knights who played such a apart in his downfall possess.

What I really like about this book
Is that it is different. I am so tired of the prophesied farm boy set to deliver us from evil. Even 'Anti-Hero' books where the character is meant to be a bad... or at least baddish guy is in fact not actually an anti-hero but a poor misunderstood pup.

This book is not like that. Daylen was a cruel tyrant who has had time to reflect and is as guilty, if not more so than he is being portrayed. It shows a great deal of character and progression from the normal genre troupes of fantasy.

There is a solid magic system and a diverse cast of characters.

I'd recommend this to grimdark lovers, Sanderson fans who could do with a a little less clean.

[EJ Edwards · Rating 1 out of 5]

This review has spoilers for this book and explains my reasoning behind rating a book I enjoyed inspite of its unforgivable flaw. Please do not continue past this point if you are sensitive about certain topics.

I haven't finished listening to the audiobook, I'm most of the way through but I've run into a serious problem. As much as I have enjoyed this book no one seems to have told Shad about the cardinal sin of writing: if it doesn't absolutely have to be rape don't include rape. Neither he nor his editor seem to know or understand this rule given how frequently it is mentioned.

That Shad isn't investigating the consequences of rape culture and has nothing to say on the subject aside from "rape is bad and rapists should be punished horribly" it shouldn't have been included. One whole character is just "badass knight rape victim" and nothing else.

At 14 hours into an 18.5 hour audiobook I can say with confidence the characters need some serious work and aside from the gratuitous use of rape for the cheap effect of accentuating how terrible a character once was needs to go. Other than that it is a solid first book that while it needs more editing it's not the worse thing I've listened to.

[James Tullos · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my full thoughts here: https://youtu.be/LxWGuMja50c

A self-published book from a 1st time author? What could go wrong?!

Okay this wasn’t a total loss. The protagonist is amazing, he’s a ruthless tyrant that’s trying to make up for all the bad he’s done over the years. That’s way more interesting than some farm boy trying to save the world. The rest of the cast is good too, though nothing groundbreaking.

I liked the setting, I liked the action sequences, I liked how it dealt with rape (that’s a heavy subject and this book has some tact with it), so why isn’t this a 4 or 5 stars? Well, the story is a steaming pile of shit. It falls into the category of “events just happen without tying together” and then there are 3 separate climaxes. It’s a mess, and it results in a bunch of good pieces that don’t fit together at all.

As far as first novels go, it’s not that bad. But I can only recommend it to those who are interested in the concept of the protagonist or people who really want fantasy in a slightly-modern setting.

[Reador Goodkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

He writes like he talks. In his youtube videos he often gets sidetracked and caught up explaining the details of a certain aspect of the main topic, but his videos don't have a plot to worry about.

He explains how the magic works before even showing the magic! Show me what it can do. Get me curious. Tease me. And only then tell me how it works. Or don't. I really don't need to know how something works if I know what it does. But please stop interrupting every scene with an infodump.

As soon as things start to get interesting: infodump! Come on! There's so much promise here. It's a cool world, but let me discover it instead of have it forced on me like the main character of this book repeatedly forced himself on young girls.

UPDATE: Finished the book today and I'm changing my review from 2 to 3 stars, because after about the half way point, the above problems mostly disappear. The Shad has dumped enough info in the first half to feel like we know enough to get through to the end. I ended up mostly liking it.

A good attempt at a first novel, but in desperate need of an editor to polish it up.

[Stephen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has brought out a lot of emotion in me. Confusion, befuddlement, anger and hate.

TL;DR
I hate this book and recommend you do not buy it. The protagonist is an irredeemable monster that the author wants us to sympathise with and route for on his road to redemption. However I share the same sentiment as many of the other characters in the book and just want him to die.

Preamble
I'm a fan of the author's YouTube channel and it's because of his video's critiquing film and media; for bad writing, that I picked up his book. Shad's breakdown of media leaned more to the use of historical fighting and the use of weapons. This had me hopeful that his book would have some very well written fighting. I was so very wrong.

The Carrot
There is a good story here in Shadow of the Conqueror. Unfortunately it's not the one written.
The World of Everfall was interesting to me. A World of floating continents in a finite universe just big enough to fit the continents within. Constant daylight that grants powers to some and a hidden evil that hides in the shadows of the world plotting to bring on permanent night.
I also thought how the mechanics of the world's magic and physics came together to produce technology comparable to our own was a neat addition.

The Stick
Exposition as far as the eye can see.
While I found elements of the Worlds existence cool, every time you were shown something for the first time it was explained in detail. Those times it wasn't, it quickly was once there was a lull in the story and characters would discuss what just happened. This happened most often with how the magic worked. It was explained so precisely that it lost any sense of mysticism and became an exact science. But like the best Dr Who episode once the rules have been established they're thrown out when Daylen, the Main character, uses his powers in a way that make no sense based on the rules, allowing him to win an unwinnable fight.

Another annoyance were the fighting scenes themselves. Which went almost undescribed. We're told that Daylen is a "Grand High Master of the Sword" and there's only 6 or so of those in the world. So even without his powers Daylen is in no danger. In fact at no point did I feel like Daylen was ever in any danger. I'd call him a Mary Sue but I'm going to give Shad the benefit of the doubt that Daylen is not a reflection of himself. Because Daylen is the most evil piece of shit I've ever had to read while the book confusingly keeps wanting me think of him as a badass heroic saviour.

A Dead Horse
The story follows Daylen Namaran, known by all in the World as Dayless the Conqueror. An evil dictator who is pretty much this worlds Stalin. We start the book when he is a man at the end of his life, deposed and in hiding. He's done waiting for death and plans to kill himself. The method he uses actually has the opposite effect and makes him young again (About 17 or so) and grants him superpowers.

He decides that this is a good thing because death was too good for him and that he is so guilt ridden for all the evils he committed that the Light (This worlds God) is extending his tortured existence. The thing is I never believed that he felt any remorse based on how he acts around others. He has boughs of childish anger, has a cry then is back to wise cracking.

I already didn't like this guy but then it is revealed that not only did he genocide anyone of royal blood in his city but went on to massacre a whole city. But wait there's more!

He also had a harem of women who he raped and debased. We're not done yet! Because he also liked them young, very young. This fucker is a paedophile! It's ok though he never forced them into his bed his aids did.

You can't write a character this evil and expect me to route for their redemption. The only way he could be redeemed, a very small amount, was in death; self sacrifice to save someone, turn himself in, admit to his wrongs and be executed.

Sad truth
There was a good story here, the world was interesting, the magic seemed cool, but it wasn't the one written.

The story should have followed the other main characters, the Lightbringer priest with a mysterious past and the noble Arch Knight hiding a dark pain as they discover who this young man they have befriend truly is.

Other then that, a little more show over tell and be more descriptive in the action scenes.

This story however has shattered any respect I had for Shad as a media critic. You can't hold others to a high standard of writing if you don't do the same for yourself.

[Sterling · Rating 2 out of 5]

I almost never summarize the books I rate here. The reason I'm making an exception is that I don't believe I've ever given a worse rating. I feel I should at least give a brief explanation as to why I'm rating it so low.

In my opinion this is the worst book I've ever finished. Everything from level of writing to the concepts presented within I found wanting. The only reason I finished this book was out of respect to the author who's created a lot of free content on YouTube that I've enjoyed over the years. I felt I had to read his book in it's entirety to give him the fairest possible critique even if it's only to myself and friend group.

(The following paragraph contains a spoiler)
There is a lot of the author's religious ideology in this novel and I found some of the disturbing. The Mormon concept of God's light and it's relation to individual morality is in primary focus here. The main character is a rapist and another important character was one of his victims. There are interactions between the two that I found despicable and can hardly believe that anyone could justify, yet the author attempts just that. In one particular atrocious scene depicting the attacker as an additional victim of his own sexual assaults.

The violence and resulting injuries (to primary characters) in this book is to such great excess that it takes any suspense out of the action. You're never concerned that anything will have actual consequences (similar only in my experience to Dragon Ball Z). The majority of characters depicted in this book are one dimensional and neither their actions nor dialogue evoke anything in you. The author rarely shows you anything that would allow you to experience it along with the characters, instead he explains everything informing you of the mechanics of the world in a way that's not nearly as fulfilling.

There were plenty of interesting aspects to the world depicted in this book and that's what saves this from having a one star rating.

[Dance With Me Then · Rating 2 out of 5]

Before I delve into criticism, I need to mention that, in my view, this book is better written than many of the genre "classics" out there. Old books can get away with so much more, mostly due to the nostalgia factor. Newbie writers are often not treated as favorably. But you can't expect fairness from life.

I enjoyed several things about this story. It was a light read, fairly entertaining. I see a lot of influence from Sanderson (not surprising) but I'd say that's only to the story's benefit. I'm sure Shad will find his own voice further into his writing carreer. In general, this book accomplished the most important thing: it got me invested in the story, several characters and the world. Can't wait for when the Night falls and we see some Shade action.

The characters I enjoyed the most were the Light Bringer and the purple haired boy. They were great.

Daylen... He was enjoyable... to a point. I am partial to the 'charming bastard' type of character, and I do like my heroes to be competent. His abilities make sense for who he is. But he also reads like two, or sometimes three separate characters. His unrestrained brutality just doesn't make sense. He goes from someone intent on doing good to gruesome mutilation and murder without an in-between stage. It is said that he has anger issues but it never really feels like he does. If he flew into blinding, irrational rage it would make some sort of sense. Further, his savagery complicates his ark from a moral perspective. If violence is a terrible way to solve all problems, why is it so effective? Where are the long term consequences? After sulking for a few 'falls', in the end even the killing of the pirate is treated as a positive.
Daylen's evil, especially his past, fits into his character so poorly that it almost seems to have been caused supernaturally. That would be a good explanation, but it would take away from the story. Either way, Shad is in a predicament here.

The character that was handled the worst was, of course, Lyra. She was indeed only defined by her traumatic experience so many years prior. Somehow I found it hard to believe. Granted, I've never had to go through such trauma but... She is supposed to be an incredibly strong woman in her forties. A knight. One might think she'd have had access to good counseling, if Arrick is a good representation of Light Bringers as a whole. As a military order, the knights must have ways to deal with PTSD as well as recognize it in others. One might think it would be considered a liability in combat and thus not just simply ignored.

Rape as a subject was handled incredibly poorly. It wasn't explored deeply, so it might as well have just been discarded. It was superficial, awkward and even cringe-worthy. I loved the theme of fatherless children and think that Shad should've focused on that instead. It could have been done easily. Daylen could have had countless affairs instead. It's a pretty scummy thing to do and it is not unheard of for women to flock to scummy men in power. If Lyra really needed to be traumatized, she could have been a survivor from some massacre. It doesn't HAVE to be rape that leaves a woman broken. On a side note, it is rather hard to believe that rape is so prevalent in a world where women are taught combat skills and are considered generally competent.

Perhaps one of the problems with characterization in general was the author's lack of empathy for them. Maybe it is presumption on my part, but that's what it felt like. And it does seem like world-building was Shad's main focus. As a result, the scenes that were supposed to be the most hard-hitting barely elicited any emotion from me.

A particular pet peeve of mine is that I hate it when authors make their characters their political mouth-pieces. I hate it when Drizzt does it, and I hate it when Daylen and Lyra do it too. I want to read fantasy, not a news article, for goodness' sake. By the way, I saw others call this story 'grimdark.' I disagree. It doesn't have the dark atmosphere characteristic of the subgenre, moreover, it was entirely too one-sided. It would have been much more complex if Dayless wasn't so universally condemned. If instead of a genocidal madman he would've been simply a ruthless utilitarian. Cold and logical. Make it so that ALL his decisions make sense, and end up having positive results but are almost all incredibly immoral. And then try to argue against that. Wow. Now THAT would be something I would LOVE to read about.

Yet another problem that I'd noticed was in the internal monologues, and even in some dialogues as well: detailed explanations of motivation. As a reader, I'm supposed to infer that, I don't need to be told explicitly. I remember listening to a passage of Dylan's inner monologue and thinking it could be reduced to a 3 word sentence. The dialogue between dying Daylan and Arrick was just ridiculously self-indulgent on the author's part.

My final criticism is in regards to info-dumping. I respect having deep world-building but less is sometimes more. I love detail in general, but my eyes did glaze over while listening to the mechanics of this and that. A lot of telling, very little showing. The entire sub-plot from Daylan becoming young again and gaining his powers to him coming back home, was all about world building and it had very little to do with character developement or advancing the story. It could have been done better, although I did enjoy the magic. Though it would have been great to see Daylan struggle more.

All in all, I'm giving this story 2 stars but I find it fun, promising and I'm looking forward to the sequel. Congratulations, Shad. I hope there are machicolations in the next book. And what about dragons?

P.S. the result of the trial makes no sense. Zero sense. Sorry, Shad.

[Martin Rustan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Want More!

This was an amazing book.
It was highly engaging and I only wanted to read more.
What I really liked was the highly detailed swordfights, which paints a complete picture of how it happens.
The characters are engaging and you actually cheer for the main character even though he is/was “evil”.
The main character may come over as a little whiny, but it’s not too bad.
I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy with a Higly defined magic system with rigid rules. I came for Shad. I stayed for the story.
I’m looking forward to the next book.
This deserves a five star rating because it is the first book in a while that I have really enjoyed. Reminds me of J. R. R. Tolkien and John Flanagan.

[Justin Stojsih · Rating 1 out of 5]

My gosh this book is awful. I saw a couple of positive published reviews that compared this favorably to Joe Abercrombie's books, so I gave this a shot.

I gave up halfway through chapter two. According to other reviewers here on Goodreads (where I should have checked first!) the author didn't actually hire an editor. It shows in a drastic fashion. As another reviewer put it, this reads like someone describing a D&D campaign, not like a novel. I'm fine with world-building, but this is at the expense of the story.

I feel bad that I had my local library purchase this so I could read it.

[Harry · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read. The plot was a unique design, comparable to the uniqueness of Mistborn. The characters had personalities that made them diverse yet remarkably relatable. The main character himself being the prime example. His living a life that was to end in guilt-laden regret becomes the time-honored tale of sincere remorse springboarding him into the true man that he not only was to become but wished to become. The writing was story-driven with plot reveals that not only surprise but also tug at the heartstrings as more and more is revealed of the characters' pasts. The physical world itself was original and engaging, opening a myriad of doors to new ideas of both language and story. The only downside to this book was that it was too short.

To anyone who has already explored the magical worlds of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Eragon, or Mistborn and wishes for a brand-new experience and world to dive into, I could recommend no better book.

[Filipe Dias · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually do reviews. But I follow Shad on youtube, and, from what I can see, he likes people to criticize his work. So hopefully, this will be one more data point that he can refer back to.

After reading the reviews, I was conflicted. On his videos, Shad doesn't swear, and he even claims to dislike some oversexualized scenes (such as in goblin slayer), so I was very surprised to find so many reviews complaining about oversexualization. Taking into account the fantasy re-armed series, and the realism analysis that are so frequent on his channel, I also was expecting a very realist aproach to the weapons and powers.

The first issue: the main character's mood swings. He swings from agonizingly repenting something he did to someone's parents to suddenly wanting to punch that person to pulp. This happened more than once, and made me question whether the character actually regrets any of the things he did. Particularly jarring when the character rages against being called a kid (despite having the appearance of a 17 year old, and the temper tantrums of a 5 year old).

Second issue: I don't know if I was rooting for the character or not. Unlike Jeorg in Prince of Thorns that starts off as a bastard but may actually grow on you, Daylen swings too much between repenting his past actions and angrily punching someone for me to think he actually wants to change. I wanted him to succeed, because nearly all of his conscious actions were righteous, and he did do a lot of good. But inbetween he would rage and lose control. This ties with another secondary problem, that his past crimes are way too vague. All we know is he murdered and raped. At the end we learn he murdered near 28 million people. That seems to be way too many people for a late medieval-rennaissance setting.

Third issue: there was a degree of oversexualization. Mentions of rape, breasts, sex trafficking... Way too much focus was given to these. Not to the extent some reviews seem to suggest, but in my opinion is still a bit much.

Fourth issue: the shade. I did not feel that the shade were a threat. Sure, Lyra says they are a threat, Daylen says they cause the night and are a nightmare to defeat, including reporting that a force of 10000 soldiers went to exterminate their stronghold and only 100 survived. But there are only two occasions where they are confronted, and in one of those, an island was supposedly overrun with shade, but the author focused more in explaining how the human allies were defeated than the shade, that nearly vanished once the humans were dead. No mention of their powers was found anywhere, except for the reference to the great shade, that can communicate through lesser shades. Still not threatened.

Fifth issue: the main character reads a bit like a Mary Sue. Despite his mood swings, despite being arrogant and abrasive, despite being violent, he finds stalwart companions. His powers are stronger than everyone else's (but he is not trained, so at least he is not stronger than everyone else). He finds ways of using the powers no one has found out before. He is an expert in everything, from mechanics, to swordfight, smithing. The only thing he seems not to be an expert in is personal relations...

That being said, the book is a very enjoyable read (or listen, if you like audiobooks). The plot is good, the struggles of the main character are well portrayed (albeit undermined by the mood swings), the usage of the powers is very satisfying. As expected, the sword fights are on point (pun intended), and the setting has some innovative and good ideas. I particularly enjoyed the physics analysis of the usage of the powers. The secondary cast was also excellent, being fleshed out in time, but not bogging down the story with all their baggage. The setting was amazing, and gives flat-earthers something to look for. The magic system is well thought out (if a bit overpowered in my opinion), and there is a characterization of the different places.

All in all, it is an enjoyable read that fails in some critical aspects, preventing us from forming an opinion on the character, not because he is conflicted, but because he is unstable. I finished the book not knowing if there is going to be a sequel, but I am eagerly expecting that there will be, as the setting is too good to leave unexplored.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

No spoilers
I love the magic system, and his characterization is very believable. Because of the way magic works here, there is a bit more explanation than other books I have read, but this expanded explanation allows for a deeper magic system and more interesting worldbuilding that pays off later in the book, in my opinion.

[Ammon · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book in which an Alexander The Great type character is born again, transformed into a teenage super hero, drawing powers from light that put Superman to shame. A story of a born again communist tyrant, embracing Ayn Randian principles and dedicating his life to murdering his devoted followers while walking the long road to Galilee atoning for his sins. Repleat with flat Earth physics, knights, banshees, and pirates. Oh and raped women. Lots and lots of raped women.

Well look no further. For here it is.

[The Victorian · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you’re reading this novel, then chances are that you are at least somewhat familiar with the author’s YouTube channel Shadiversity, wherein he talks about the “realism” (or lack thereof) in fantasy worlds.

As someone who could not care less about “realism” in fantasy, this is not the sort of content I have much interest in. Nothing sucks the life out of fantasy quite like getting hung up on quotidian details such as how far apart the merlons are on a castle wall, and complaining about a lack of realism in clearly fantastic worlds feels less like an attempt at engaging with literature on its own terms and more like the critic trying to prove that they are smarter than a particular work (and by extension the author).

So with that out of the way, how does this novel hold up? And the answer is…not well. In fact, Shadow of the Conqueror is one of the most morally grotesque works of fiction I’ve read, so utterly misguided in its treatment of sensitive topics that it veers into unintentional comedy.

The protagonist is this story is one Daylen Namaran, once known as Dayless the Conqueror, a fantastically bloodthirsty warlord responsible for the deaths of millions. Long believed to be dead, Daylen is actually still alive, living in a dilapidated hovel as a tinkerer. Now in his old age, he is consumed by guilt over his past crimes, and the story begins with him writing what is, essentially, a suicide note.

Daylen’s method of removing himself from the community of the living involves throwing himself off the edge of the world. This story, you see, takes place on a floating continent, and those who fall off the edge of said continent will eventually reach a barrier that teleports them back to the top, causing them to fall continuously. To prevent this from happening, Daylen carries with him a pair of magic stones that will cause him to die once he hits the barrier.

Things don’t go as planned, however, as the Light (the god of the setting) decides to spare Daylen’s life. Not only that, he restores his youth as well as granting him incredible powers of “light binding,” which allow him to drastically augment things such as his strength, speed, perception, and healing rate. He concludes that the Light intends for him to redeem himself, and along the way he is accompanied by Ahrek, a priest (or “Lightbringer,” as the story calls them) who acts as Daylen’s conscience and moral guide.

As a premise, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, but the execution is simply atrocious. Problems begin right from the start, where Daylen’s suicide note is followed up with this:

Daylen placed the fountain pen beside his note, which lay next to the small leather-bound journal containing a brief account of his life. He had been as honest as possible, except for the part where he said the Delavian Dukes had sex with goats.

Daylen laughed to himself in long grating croaks.

That’s one hell of a shift in tone to begin your story with, and a few paragraphs later Daylen is addressing his various appendages, including his penis:

Looking down to his crotch, he added, “You all right down there? Yeah, I know, stupid question considering who you have to put up with. Your family is nuts and the neighbor’s an asshole.”

Simply put, the author has no ability to write a character who is mentally in his eighties. In one scene Daylen will behave like a whiny, petulant teenager and in the next he’ll be weeping and moaning over what a monster he is. There’s no consistency to his character at all, and in general he comes across as being extremely unlikable and uninteresting. Not helping matters is the how author blesses him with a truly astounding array of abilities: he’s a master swordsman, a genius engineer and inventor, an expert weaponsmith, and a brilliant strategist, all on top of his extraordinarily superpowers. I have no doubt that, were this character a woman and part of a well-established universe (such as Star Wars or the MCU), reactionary culture warriors would be making hour-long YouTube videos about what a terrible Mary Sue she is and how she represents the downfall of Western Civilization.

All of this serves to drain every single fight scene of whatever tension they might have had, as the protagonist is so powerful that there is never any feeling that he might lose, or that he’s even in any danger. Instead, the only purpose of the extended battle scenes is so that the author can show off his knowledge of HEMA.

Which brings me to another major problem with Shadow of the Conqueror, which is the exposition and worldbuilding. Like a lot of stuff written by terminally-online nerds, there’s a grating obsession with the minutiae of the setting, a style of writing that feels like it was specifically designed to fill out entries on the series’ wiki and fuel endless wankery over some obscure aspect of the lore. What’s worse, this book presents its worldbuilding in the most pedantic, bone-dry manner imaginable, and every time it comes up the story comes crashing to a halt. Case in point, right before Daylen throws himself off a cliff, we get this:

The sun was an anomaly, because it was the only thing not mirrored through the Barrier. Its position was constant with respect to the observer, meaning the sun would look to be in the exact same angle and distance to one person as it would to another who stood on the other end of the continent. It didn’t matter if you tried to place yourself closer; as people had tested over long voyages, it was always the same distance away. The position itself was based on the angle to which the sun sat in the sky, and its approximate distance placed it beyond the upper Barrier of the world. This had led to the theory that the sun wasn’t physically located within the universe, but that its light shone into the universe from the outside through its upper edge.

This is when Daylen is about to end his own life, something that ought to have an extremely emotional moment. Instead, we get a paragraph, written in the bloodless style of a physics textbook, about the how the sun is identical in all inertial reference frames. It leads me to believe that this book never once saw an editor (or if it did, their advice was overruled at every turn).

When it comes to the magic system of Everfall, the author has clearly taken a page from Brandon Sanderson and attempted to create a “hard magic” system. But instead of having magic come across as being “realistic” or “scientific” (which I assume was the author’s intention), it instead makes it seem excruciatingly video-gamey. The scene where Daylen first learns how to use his powers feel exactly like the moment in a video game where the unskippable introduction is finished and the player is now being given a tutorial on the game mechanics. And whenever he used his powers to augment his abilities, I couldn’t help but hear the voice of the nanosuit from Crysis (“Maximum speed! Maximum strength!”).

And the world itself features some rather dubious and poorly thought-out aspects. The author is a conservative Mormon, which seeps into the story itself and gives us such things as strictly prescribed gender roles (woman are limited to cooking, cleaning, childbearing, and pleasing their husbands), and expressions of morality in terms of sin and redemption. Equally dubious is the notion of each individual having an “inner light,” which represents their willingness to do good:

“…the better a person is, the brighter their inner light. If they’re evil, their light is barely there, but even the most loathsome person still has a measure of light within.”

“A man who believes he is doing good will have a strong inner light, even if he is performing evil things. There have been several murderers who had strong lights within.”

To the book’s credit, it does point out that this “inner light” is only a rough guide, and that an individual’s actions must be judged in context. Unfortunately, this idea is immediately forgotten about, and there are several scenes in which Daylen goes on a killing spree, using peoples’ inner light to decide who lives and who dies.

Yes, “killing spree.” The story is largely aimless, with Daylen simply bouncing from one encounter to another (which, again, feels extremely video-gamey) in which he “redeems” himself by slaughtering large numbers of people. During these battles, he revels in the carnage, sadistically drawing out his enemies’ death as long as possible, but oh, they were all bad, don’t you see! The novel even introduces the “law of justification,” which allows people to act as judge, jury, and executioner if they see someone in the act of committing a crime. When Ahrek makes the obvious point that this system is ripe for abuse, Daylen simply shuts him down by stating, “The law works.”

It's rather obvious that this, as well as the notion of an individual having an “inner light,” is little more than thinly-veiled moral justification for the protagonist’s bloodthirsty rampages. And said rampages are invariably followed by some weepy, angst-ridden handwringing in which Daylen laments what a terrible person he is, which does little to make reader sympathize with him. Throughout the story, I was constantly reminded of Bojack Horseman, another character who does terrible things while subsequently feeling bad about it. But the key aspect of Bojack’s character arc was that it simply wasn’t enough to feel bad about doing something bad; you actually had to put in the work needed to become a better person. And throughout the length of this novel, I never once believed that Daylen was at all interested in becoming a better person. Instead, he simply wants to stop feeling bad, while being given moral and legal sanction to kill people he dislikes.

And then there’s the rape.

If there’s one cliché I’ve come to hate, it’s when fantasy authors throw in gratuitous scenes of sexual violence in order to show how “dark,” “gritty,” and “realistic” their stories are, and this novel is a particularly bad offender in this regard. In the past, Daylen forced himself on hundreds of women, some of whom of were as young as fourteen when it happened, and while the novel rightly treats this as an atrocity, and it has nothing to say about the subject except that it’s bad and that the perpetrators ought to be punished severely. And if the author has nothing substantial to say on the subject of rape and rape culture, then they ought to avoid writing about it.

To give you an idea of how little the author knows about the topic of sexual violence, at one point it’s revealed that many of Daylen’s victims resented him less because they got children out of the deal! I understand that this tracks with Mormon theology (which seems to treat having children as the be-all and end-all of earthly existence), but at no point does the story ever consider the possibility that some of these women might grow to hate and despise their children, seeing them as constant reminders of their shame trauma, or that they might find the life of a single mother unbearably onerous (especially considering that this is a society that stigmatizes rape victims). Far from treating Daylen’s victims with any amount of empathy, they are instead used a mere props for his so-called “redemption.”

And when you combine this with the story’s crass and juvenile approach to sexuality (at one point the book describes a woman as having “breasts like melons”), you end up with something that’s just extremely unpleasant to read. It doesn’t work as a redemption story, or even as broad action/adventure genre fare. It’s shot through with shallow, unlikable characters, regressive attitudes, questionable morality, turgid exposition, and dull action sequences.

Give it a pass.

[Deshawn Vasquez · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ideas are there, the worldbuilding is there, but the characterization leaves a lot to be desired and the overall project feels like it needed another draft or two at minimum to really cook. Daylen is downright insufferable, and his unending woe-is-me prattling wouldn't be a problem if the execution didn't feel so immature in and of itself. Every time he wept or brought up his recurring offenses, I felt like a Linkin Park song had been added as backing track. While the power system and intrigue are also interesting, the constant info dumps undermine the pacing of the narrative. I just don't think it was ready for publication, independent or not.

[Rob Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have very mixed views on this book and would give it 2.5 stars if that was an option. As I couldn’t give that, I’ve had to go for 2 stars as it’s not worthy of 3.

The good
The world building. It is obvious that time and effort has been put into designing the world. The world feels consistent and maintains its own internal logic. It is an interesting setting and one that hasn’t been overly explored in fiction. I liked the idea of floating land masses and it does not disappoint. I also enjoyed the steampunk-ish level of technology and society.

The premise itself of a strange redemption arch is an interesting basis for a story, and I can’t remember reading one that takes it to such an extreme before.

The book doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. This is both a positive and a negative but credit has to given for attempting to bring that dark realism to a fantastical setting.

The side characters, although shallow, are enjoyable and do have a clear voice.

The magic system is a very hard rules based form of magic. I understand how it works and what it can largely do. Personally it felt a little too scientific for my tastes but that might just be because I’m awful
at physics.




The bad

CW. Sexual abuse.

The main character is a mess. He is brilliant at everything he attempts, has the best and most powerful equipment, lacks any real weakness and can master concepts and powers in seconds what others take a life time to achieve. Other characters comment on how remarkable he is several time’s throughout the novel. He has no growth beyond the shallow phrases he utters constantly and his actions don’t change from start to finish. He is written like a 14 year old punk from a 50s movie rather than the supposed elderly man he is meant to be. He is a sadist who simply changes who he abuses but the story treats it like a real redemption arch. Out of all
The characters in the book, he is the one who I enjoyed the least. This wouldn’t have been as much of a problem if he wasn’t the central figure who the reader spends most of their time with.

The characters in general all announce their emotions and show them off in an over the top manner. People regularly fall to the floor crying or rage at the slightest provocation. There is no depth to them beyond what they announce their feelings and thoughts to be, which they do often.

The pacing is strange but it isn’t a massive draw back. The main external antagonist and danger isn’t revealed until 4/5ths of the way through the book and there is no real tension as we know the main character will be able to pluck a power from somewhere and stop whatever threat he faces.

The violence is over the top and reminds me more of a grind house style gore exploration film than the realistic grit I was expecting from the author. If I was reading this without knowing the author I might be more forgiving as it is a style within the book but knowing the author from his channel expected better. The characters kill without restraint but the book throws wave after wave of acceptable targets at them so they can show off their badassery without remorse or moral quandary.

The book also contains a lot of mentions of rape and sexual abuse. Sex in general is mentions in nearly every chapter in the first half of the book and is always done in an immature way but there is just so much rape. The characters enter a new town, there are rapists nearby, they find a ship and it’s full of people being trafficked for the sex trade. A good chunk of the middle chapters start with diary entries detailing rape. It’s everywhere in the book. It feels like it was added to make the book more dark and gritty but it comes across as obsessive. It’s mainly a devise used so that the main character can kill someone without remorse and has an acceptable target to be as violent as possible to without it affecting his redemption arc and as such it feels hollow. By the end you expect everyone the characters meet to either be a rapist or a rape survivor. Of the core five characters 1 is a rapist and the two female characters are rape survivors.


The book also has a few scenes where political ideologies are discussed and whilst it is about in world factions, it is clearly a reflection on the real world. The book handles this with as much tact as it handles emotion and sex. It outright states a point and makes a moral out of it. This could have been done well, with characters reflecting that there are two sides to the story, that not everything is as it first appears and maybe there is nuance in the world but no. The bad political party is bad, the reasons they support it are wrong and if you disagree you are a supporter of genocide. Poverty is no excuse for anger and so what if rape is so common you can stumble into a traffickers ship and then be attacked by rapist pirates, at least we aren’t raising taxes or stopping hate speech. Those would be real crimes. Also vigilante justice is great, an all powerful church with power over life and death is the best arbiter of justice and checks and balances are for the weak. The book believes it’s stance is pro liberal democracy but actually justifies theocratic paramilitary enforcers and executioners. You could insert the politics of post soviet invasion Afghanistan into the book and it would still fit, Taliban and all ( there is even a matriarchal society where there women are the homemakers should stay and look after the child whilst the men work- can you even imagine such a society!?) This could have been done well if the politics was allowed to have nuance, if the opposition wasn’t a straw man and had justifiable reasons beyond fanaticism and if all these conclusions hadn’t been reached by the most rational and intelligent man in existence who is right about literally everything in the book.

Conclusion
I started this review with the best of intention, without spoilers and trying to give a fair assessment, but as I typed my memories returned and so it become more of a rant. There is a half decent story in there, and it has the potential to be so much more. The book made promises it did not deliver and so I am let down more than anything else. I did enjoy it though, through all of my issues. As a swashbuckling adventure it is fun and until the last fifth of the book I was excited to read on. But the moment when the main protagonist slices a floating continent in half with a power no one knew existed broke the story for me. With a good editor this could have been a really good first book. It had the makings of brilliant start to the series. In the end the story needs its own redemption arc, as below the tangled mess there is a bright light and does lie at the heart of the book. A large part of me wants to ignore it and leave the series as it is, but if a sequel was realised I would pick it up just to see if the redemption is there.

[Pyry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall an acceptable first book in a series. The opening grips your attention and the premise is intriguing. Unfortunately Shad is unable to sustain it for very long and after Daelyn's suicide attempt the book is horribly boring until he gets back to his house. The way he gained his powers was so incredulous and their exploration so dull, that only my positive view of the author and the excellent worldbuilding kept me going. My interest was recaptured when describing the magic system gave way to character interaction and story. Exposition still continues to be a little on the nose at times but the world is so interesting that it isn't nearly as bad as it could be. The prose is better than amateur quality but there are still plenty of sentence structures that could have been streamlined and unnecessary words, fire your editor. I mostly focused on the negatives but the book is good and well worth the price.

tl;dr No machicolations 1/5

[Lukas Vin Diaz · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupiest book I've ever read. The info dump is ridiculous. The humor is childish. I'm on page 70 and I give up. It's like a 12 year old that likes physics wrote a book.

I first tried the audiobook, thought the goat joke didn't land but kept listening to it. Gave up after the dick joke. I had to go and check if it was the right book. I couldn't believe that YouTuber that I spent hours getting writing advice from could write this bad. But it was him.

After a while I stumbled upon a YouTube comment on one of his videos saying that this book was so good that it made him cry on chapter 4. So I had to give it another try.

The humour is insufferable. It's so cringe! I was so glad to discover that he was going to kill himself, maybe we would get a better character. But nooooooo he gets YOUNGER!!!! And I discovered that he was going to be the main character!!! And I wanted to scream because...!!!! Nooooo!!!!!

And then if this wasn't enough he spends HOURS falling and talking about physics. Dude, I don't care!!! Just fucking land already!!! I don't give a fuck!!! And then he finally lands and it's chapter 4 and I'm crying because this asshole not only gets younger but super over powered!!!

I don't even care about him being a rapist. I hate him because of his personality. How can you make me feel this way?! This is so wrong...

I gave you 70 pages. 70 pages!! Do you know the things good writers can accomplish with 70 pages? Many, many things.

All you accomplished was to write an asshole falling from the sky and becoming young and overpowered... You couldn't have made me hate anything more than I hate this.

I hate this book. If I had a physical copy I would burn it.

Feels like a first draft someone wrote on Wattpad.