The warriors of Darkness approach. The Long Night comes.
With the help of his friends, Alesh has defeated Tesharna and taken over the rule of Valeria, bringing the Light back to a city swallowed by Darkness. But some shadows linger, even in the face of the day, and some threats hide in plain sight.
Outside Valeria, the Broken gathers an army of murderers and servants of the Darkness whose only desire is death and destruction while Kale, now known as Argush, musters the nightlings and terrorizes the countryside.
Faced with squabbling nobles who care only for their own ambitions, threatened by betrayal from within, Alesh begins the impossible task of preparing the city’s defenses. But time is running out—night is coming, one that threatens to snuff out the Light once and for all.
The gods themselves cannot help. Javen, the God of Chance, lies dying, the poison of the mysterious God of Shadows coursing through his veins. Amedan is weak from Shira’s betrayal and Deitra, the Goddess of Music and Art, grieves, her song one of pain and regret.
But as dire as their situation is, Alesh and his companions will not run—not this time. For the Light does not hide, and its greatest strength lies in being seen—even if being seen makes it vulnerable to a host of shadows who seek only to extinguish it. The shadows lengthen and the Long Night comes. If Valeria is to be saved, if Alesh and his companions are to survive the coming storm, then they will be delivered not by the blessings of gods but by the strength of mortals.
The Strength of Mortals is the next, action-filled, character-driven epic fantasy by Jacob Peppers, the bestselling author of the grimdark series, The Seven Virtues. If you enjoy magic, battles, and wars in which the gods themselves must take part, you'll love this sword and sorcery tale.
“For only when all shadows have been destroyed might the Light be free.” “Compassion, mercy, kindness..is the strength of mortals.” Alone, humanity faces the most dire situation against Darkness. With determination, willingness, resilience, strength and a strong desire to survive. An intense, thoughtful and exciting read, full of action and maelstrom of terror. In between moments of life and death, you have enough lucidity to summarise how you’ve lived, how strong or how a weak a coward you’ve been, and how you’ll proceed from now on. To bear the whole world’s problems and decisions on one’s shoulders is too much a responsibility to support. Alesh may have good friends and collaborators, but it weights on him, to be a leader, a person whom everybody follows and trust. Now, more than ever, human strength is stretched to the limits, having to rely on themselves. This has been a very impressive lesson in morality and ethics. A thought provoking and profound experience, besides the dramatic scenarios, there are very few moments of respite for both the characters and readers, so realistic a storyline it is! This installment, as the first books in the series, kept me enthralled from the beginning! And what a fantastic cover, as are all of this series! The diversity of characters and their outstanding personalities is rich and unique, a concentration of all kinds of human traits that makes this series a profound read. The author’s imagination is on full display with each character, each scene highlighted with riveting moments. Fulfilling! Can’t wait for the next installment!
What a fantastic story. Wish it was longer. Alesh is such a strong character and made the story what it was. Received an ARC and reviewed because I enjoyed it.
Just sick and tired of obvious mistakes, rambling and repetitive character musings for the sake of padding the story and absolutely no character development after all these books. All so 2 dimensional and in some cases extremely irritating. One of the mc’s can use music to do do incredible things one minute and then, it seems that the multiple issues that they can’t handle pile on and on but no one goes ‘hey, can’t you play a tune and sort out most of this also sing alesh a lullaby so he can sleep? No? Okay. Nah. A total let down. Totally shallow and linear story pretending to be the absolute opposite.
I officially have a new favorite book (By this author). The gods in this series (well depicted as relatable and interesting in the last one) are fleshed out wonderfully in this book. The struggle of Broken, and his arc in general, is by far the best part. Im always a sucker for tragic characters Shakespearean-like characters. Every characters are woven like tapestries intertwined together. (like always). This novel was gripping and pulse pounding. From start to finish. Extremely suspenseful, particularly the battles.
This series is just as engaging and wonderful as all Pepper’s others…
I have read several of the author’s series and each book, characters, stories captures one’s emotions engaging imagination and guiding the reader into the lives of the characters. Do not miss the passion and joy of reading all of the author’s works.
Alesh and his friends stopped hoping for the gods to help them, realizing that if they want something, they have to get it themselves. Each character evolves in his own way, especially Rion, who has to get by with out his luck. This was my favorite book of the series.
The tale continues and builds, I like the arguments around the nature of good and evil or, perhaps, love and hate after all what is light and dark but 2 sides of a coin ;-)
In this continuation of The Nightfall Wars series, Jacob brings Alesh and his friends to the door of death once again. As The Chosen (this band of do gooders chosen by different gods) begins the task of preparing Valeria for war. For Shira and her chosen are still trying to plunge the world into darkness. With an amazing cast of characters, non stop action/mystery/intrigue and an awesome story line, this book will keep you entertained from beginning to end. Definitely a must read !