Scars

Her Dark Trinity #1

by Terra Whiteman

In the world of Altrae, the line between life and death is thin. Humans commune with terrifying primordial gods, and the Dark Trinity Coalition prevents these ancient entities from bleeding into reality. This is the first installment of a gritty, violent dark fantasy series of life, death, love and redemption.Kova Weaver lives alone in a little cottage bordering a diseased forest. Her entire life is spent in fear, revolving around a single warning her mother gave her just before she “Keep the posts burning, or they’ll find you.”Kova isn’t certain why she must keep the posts around her cottage burning, nor does she know who ‘they’ are. She can’t remember how all the scars across her arms and legs happened, or why all the rooms are painted with protection sigils. And as the forest’s blight closes in around her, Kova is forced to question whether the struggle to survive is worth the trouble.Her answer comes in the form of an injured man dumped in the creek near her home. Lain Sinclair is an excommunicated Archivist for the Dark Trinity Coalition. For a decade he’s scoured the Altraen Light Protectorates in search of something stolen from him. A skilled thaumaturgist and necromancer, he’s honed in on a blight afflicting a little forest near the zealous town of Balefore.Lain’s thirst for vengeance battles his need of redemption, and his first encounter with the frightened, pale woman in a warded cottage sets into motion a ritual of cosmic horror neither are prepared for.

157 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2021

About the author

The Hymn of the Multiverse is on its last arc, and Her Dark Trinity is just beginning. If you'd like to receive notifications of new book releases, subscribe to my mailing list here: http://eepurl.com/dDFIy5

Reviews

[Dragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book wasn't perfect but was definitely well worth a read, and I enjoyed my time with it immensely. The book is short, but quite a roller coaster. I think the first half of the book works a lot better than the second half of the book, I think because that's the section that really takes the time to establish the characters and atmosphere.

The book really shines when the two main characters are speaking to each other, all of the talking came across realistically and I enjoyed the fact that I was able to get a clear sense of personality and character. The story overall is quite fast-paced, which was a little bit different to what I was used to in terms of reading, but I think it works In the book's favour because the narrative never sagged or felt boring.

The atmosphere was really stellar in the book, you really get the sense of this decaying dark fantasy kind of world. The opening couple of pages really really shine in this area, and I couldn't lose the sense that something was amiss.

The first 10 opening pages were a bit on the weaker side since I found the narrative POV voice took a little bit of time to get used to since it's a little bit more on the 'tell' side. This overall didn't by any means ruin the experience of the book, but if you do decide to read it, I'd recommend reading at least the first ten pages before coming to a conclusion on it.

As the book is more on the shorter side, quite a large portion of it falls within what's outlined on the blurb, which I think is somewhat inevitable, but notably, the blurb doesn't spoil any of the actual plot. At the start of the book, I found myself insanely curious and it really did keep me hooked to keep reading. Since the book is short, a lot happens in a short page space, which sometimes worked really well, and other times felt a little bit disorienting (I did read it all in one sitting so it was at points a lot to take in)

I do have some more minor nitpicks with the book, but they're nitpicks. I do not regret reading this book, and would recommend it, especially to fans of dark fantasy.

[Kyle Corbin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great opening salvo

Ms Whiteman has introduced a compelling duo inside a visceral world. I'm very interested to see where she takes them after this intriguing first step. Well done!