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The Songkiller's Symphony
In the beginning, the Songkiller sang chaos into the fabric of the world. Now he’s returning to finish his dark symphony…
You may hate me when this ends. For the crimes I committed. For crimes I couldn’t dare commit. I have seen the face of God a thousand times and buckled beneath his blows. But I made him bleed as He bled my heart.
I am a hero. They say.
Have you ever run in terror from your perfect past?
Do you yearn for redemption for the time you failed your dying mother? Will you sever immortal evil’s head to get it?
Are your dreams filled with damnation, or has the offer of a free wish broken your soul?
No?
Then let me tell you my story. Venturing with a world-weary bard, a battle-hungry ranger, and a best friend who soon doubted me, I set off to destroy the Songkiller. It is only in looking back that I perceive the devilry of the song that made us fools. The monsters we fought bore our faces.
You may hate me when this ends. For the crimes I committed. For crimes I couldn’t dare commit. I have seen the face of God a thousand times and buckled beneath his blows. But I made him bleed as He bled my heart.
I am a hero. They say.
Have you ever run in terror from your perfect past?
Do you yearn for redemption for the time you failed your dying mother? Will you sever immortal evil’s head to get it?
Are your dreams filled with damnation, or has the offer of a free wish broken your soul?
No?
Then let me tell you my story. Venturing with a world-weary bard, a battle-hungry ranger, and a best friend who soon doubted me, I set off to destroy the Songkiller. It is only in looking back that I perceive the devilry of the song that made us fools. The monsters we fought bore our faces.
- GenresFantasyChristian Fiction
396 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 7, 2021
3 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 27, 2021
So, obviously this book has an absolutely gorgeous cover that's to die for. But once you flip past the cover, it also has a pretty great story to boot. Other reviewers have remarked on the influences from Tolkien and Sanderson present in this work, and I noted those as well. Crucially, however, these are influences, not copycats, which allows Lamb to use many of the great techniques of those writers while foraging his own path in this first installment of the epic trilogy(?).
This book features one of the most fun fantastical races I've come across in a while (its POV character is probably my favorite of this book). And it also has a pretty great spin on the traditional mentor role in a way that made the character feel pretty fresh and alive.
I sometimes got lost with my destinations, but I also had the misfortune of reading the digital version. I was very pleased to see a great map in the physical version once I ordered it and definitely recommend that so you can have easier access to the map (and the cover!).
There's a lot of fascinating setup with certain characters that I'm really interested to see how it's paid off. And yet there's also enough payoff in this book to make it feel complete as a solid first entry to the series. Combine that with a number of plot and character twists to keep the story moving, and I rather enjoyed this book when it was all said and done. Looking forward to seeing the future entries in this series!
This book features one of the most fun fantastical races I've come across in a while (its POV character is probably my favorite of this book). And it also has a pretty great spin on the traditional mentor role in a way that made the character feel pretty fresh and alive.
I sometimes got lost with my destinations, but I also had the misfortune of reading the digital version. I was very pleased to see a great map in the physical version once I ordered it and definitely recommend that so you can have easier access to the map (and the cover!).
There's a lot of fascinating setup with certain characters that I'm really interested to see how it's paid off. And yet there's also enough payoff in this book to make it feel complete as a solid first entry to the series. Combine that with a number of plot and character twists to keep the story moving, and I rather enjoyed this book when it was all said and done. Looking forward to seeing the future entries in this series!
December 24, 2021
Beta read half of this wonderful fantasy and can't wait to read the whole thing once I get my hands on a paper copy!
EDIT: got it for Christmas, will be reading soon, very excited :)
EDIT: got it for Christmas, will be reading soon, very excited :)
October 24, 2021
This review is spoiler-free. No content warnings for the review. Mild language and talk of sexual assault (which doesn't happen on page) in the book itself.
I had the honor of beta reading this book. It’s much improved since that point and is, in a few words, worth reading for fans of Christian epic fantasy.
There’s heavy influence from Brandon Sanderson here, mixed with quite a lot of C. S. Lewis and a bit less Tolkien. On the surface, Songkiller is a book which asks “What if Sauron and Gandalf the Grey had actual human emotions?” Does that sound cool to you? It is pretty cool. That was my favorite part of the book.
Let me elaborate on that previous paragraph.
Songkiller’s surface-level similarities to Tolkien’s come up quickly and slap you in the face.
Yashael, the creator figure of this world, sang the world into being long ago. Menthril pridefully sang when he wasn’t supposed to, made monsters, was cast from grace. Yashael made some magic dudes to help the races against Menthril. They’re Bards, not Wizards (but they’re Wizards). Menthril seeks a magic item that will let him return to wage war against the civilized world once more, so we must go on a quest to stop him.
However, that’s really not the focus of the story. There’s one major element in Songkiller which sets its entire context apart from Tolkien.
See, Eru Illuvatar, the God-with-a-big-G in Middle Earth, has essentially nothing to do with the narrative of Lord of the Rings. I don’t just mean that he doesn’t Deus Ex Machina all over the place, but that the closest any character comes to being aware of or having reverence of him is when Gandalf says Frodo was “meant” to have the One Ring. Though Christians love to hold LotR up as an icon of Christian fiction, the worldview of the characters within the world is almost universally one of fatalism, of trust in Fate and Destiny and Doom and Will and Hope. It’s a pretty secular one, to be honest. This applies even to Gandalf, who’s essentially a Christian angel if you look at him from the right, err, angle.
That’s a lot of words about the book we’re not even talking about. If you’ve indulged me this far, please do so for a bit longer!
It’s a very popular thing for Christian writers to ape Tolkien. They praise him as a Christian worldbuilder who wasn’t afraid to put God in his world… then completely fail to emulate the effect of his work by creating a mockery of real-world Christianity (sometimes styled after 14th-century Catholicism, sometimes not) in a world with a dark lord who is as Satan as Morgoth was (or more). They set up a pious band of paladins or knights or desert priests who preserve the commands of El/Elyon/The King so the main character can come to Jesus and fight the Muslim/pagan/Satanist/cultist dark lord and save the day. For Jesus.
And, like, Songkiller doesn’t do that.
It takes a downright Gaiman-esque approach, takes Ventar (our mentor Bard) and gives him a powerful question: Where has God been for the last three hundred years? For the last thousand years? Has Yashael abandoned not only the world, but his chosen agents in the world?
That’s a question actual, real-life humans ask themselves, not only Christians, but people of many faiths. It’s one of the driving themes of the entire book, asked by many more people than simply Ventar, but most powerful coming from the character so many others look to as the guy who’s supposed to have all the answers.
There are a handful of other real-life questions other characters ask through their actions and choices, and they’re all fantastic to read. “How can I know who’s my friend and who’s trying to use me? How do I choose the best good for the people I’m responsible for? What do I do when the thing around which I build my identity is taken from me? How much wrong can I do and still serve the greater good? Is it worth betraying my principles to save my life? Does a person regretting what they’ve done mean there’s still hope for their redemption, or can you be too far gone even if you hate what you did?”
Characters come to their conclusions for some of these problems, and some will carry into the next book (which will surely raise more questions). In almost every case, it felt certainly like the characters were coming to those answers, not that the author was trying to beat me over the head with his ideals.
Even Menthril, the dark lord and Songkiller himself, asks more than one of these questions, and he does so with an impressively small amount of self-pity.
Another way Songkiller excels where most Christian fantasy (and epic fantasy in general) fails is in the depictions of races and cultures. You have your humans, of course, with their increased (or at least that’s how it seems so far) heterogeneity of cultures compared to the other races. They’re probably everything you’d expect from fantasy humans.
Then there’s the Ublidek, swamp-dwelling people who are, astoundingly, notcaricatures of Louisiana swamp-dwellers. They’re delightful people. One of our primary viewpoints is an Ublidek statesman, so we see many of the facets of their culture.
And then the Teedletiden. They’re Hobbits mixed with squirrels, I think? We saw hardly anything of their culture in this book, so there’s not much to say, but they were entertaining when they did pop up.
The book’s magic system is extremely Sandersonian, a song-based rational system which allows Bards (and a few others) to exchange properties like mass, color, speed, and health with objects or people they’re linked to. There are some interesting restrictions, though the most important restriction, that of requiring two objects or people to be in the same “key,” is ambiguous enough that the reader has to always assume an unidentified person or object will in fact be in a usable key for Ventar when he needs them to be. There are some great fight scenes using this system, and I look forward to seeing it expanded in the next book.
All that stuff was superb. It’s enough that I recommend the book without too many caveats.
Unfortunately, I do have a few caveats.
The main character, for one. Exton is an intense, young, and idealistic dude who wants to chop off the Songkiller’s head because he killed Exton’s mother. Sort of.
Menthril did an Original Sin, you see, and so all the ordinary pain and suffering in the world is due to him. Exton’s mom died of sickness, and sickness exists because the Songkiller did a Pandora’s Box. Therefore, Exton is going to kill the Songkiller to take his revenge. And also he thinks a key which can “void all barriers” can turn back time so he can go back and save his mother. Exton has no reason to believe this. He chooses to do so anyway.
I didn’t like Exton from the very beginning. His entire line of reasoning seemed ridiculous to me, as well as the admiration other people gave him for this supposedly idealistic reasoning. As the story progressed, Exton continued to be my least favorite character. His pains were the most clearly self-inflicted, and it was maddening to see everyone love him for ideals which made me want to rip my hair out in frustration.
The most infuriating aspect of Exton to me isn’t exactly a knock against the poor boy himself, but that while every other point of view in this story—and there are a lot of them—comes in the third person, Exton’s scenes are all in first person. I hate this choice so much. I have a lot of intellectual respect for the author for making an experimental style choice like that, but as a reader, I was completely disengaged by every first/third shift. If not for all the amazing elements I described above, the very first PoV shift would have been enough to prompt a DNF.
There’s one last major irritation I had with Exton which is, again, not a dig against the character himself. It would also be a spoiler if I spelled it out, so I’ll just say that Exton thinks to himself, at a certain point, about a certain character lesson that he recently learned.
He didn’t actually learn that lesson. The moment he’s referring to is obvious, as is the fact that it just didn’t happen. He still needs to learn that lesson after the fact, and it’s frustrating to know the story just goes on assuming he did learn it without him actually having to make the character choice. This isn’t something which happens in any other character arc, so I have to wonder if it was actually an artifact leftover from a previous draft.
Finally—and it pains me immensely to say this—there are a few really bad lines in this book. There are many brilliant ones, to be sure, especially in Ventar’s scenes. I highlighted fantastic lines in almost every chapter.
On the other hand, there were a literal fourteen lines at which I had to set the book down and walk away because I couldn’t believe a line that dumb had made it into this book. Frankly, every writer comes up with lines like these. They’re just a fact of life. There’s a certain point where it’s the editor’s job to make sure they don’t end up in the finished product.
On the gripping hand, those are only fourteen lines, maybe a hundred and forty words at the outside, among… what, probably 150K words or so. More than 99% of this book is still wonderful. I just wish I personally could lose my memory of one particular cringe-inducing thing that happens during the coolest fight scene in the book.
If you can endure a book where only 99.99% of its prose is delightful, and if, more importantly, you can endure the PoV shifting I described above, there’s a lot worth loving in The Songkiller’s Symphony.
I had the honor of beta reading this book. It’s much improved since that point and is, in a few words, worth reading for fans of Christian epic fantasy.
There’s heavy influence from Brandon Sanderson here, mixed with quite a lot of C. S. Lewis and a bit less Tolkien. On the surface, Songkiller is a book which asks “What if Sauron and Gandalf the Grey had actual human emotions?” Does that sound cool to you? It is pretty cool. That was my favorite part of the book.
Let me elaborate on that previous paragraph.
Songkiller’s surface-level similarities to Tolkien’s come up quickly and slap you in the face.
Yashael, the creator figure of this world, sang the world into being long ago. Menthril pridefully sang when he wasn’t supposed to, made monsters, was cast from grace. Yashael made some magic dudes to help the races against Menthril. They’re Bards, not Wizards (but they’re Wizards). Menthril seeks a magic item that will let him return to wage war against the civilized world once more, so we must go on a quest to stop him.
However, that’s really not the focus of the story. There’s one major element in Songkiller which sets its entire context apart from Tolkien.
See, Eru Illuvatar, the God-with-a-big-G in Middle Earth, has essentially nothing to do with the narrative of Lord of the Rings. I don’t just mean that he doesn’t Deus Ex Machina all over the place, but that the closest any character comes to being aware of or having reverence of him is when Gandalf says Frodo was “meant” to have the One Ring. Though Christians love to hold LotR up as an icon of Christian fiction, the worldview of the characters within the world is almost universally one of fatalism, of trust in Fate and Destiny and Doom and Will and Hope. It’s a pretty secular one, to be honest. This applies even to Gandalf, who’s essentially a Christian angel if you look at him from the right, err, angle.
That’s a lot of words about the book we’re not even talking about. If you’ve indulged me this far, please do so for a bit longer!
It’s a very popular thing for Christian writers to ape Tolkien. They praise him as a Christian worldbuilder who wasn’t afraid to put God in his world… then completely fail to emulate the effect of his work by creating a mockery of real-world Christianity (sometimes styled after 14th-century Catholicism, sometimes not) in a world with a dark lord who is as Satan as Morgoth was (or more). They set up a pious band of paladins or knights or desert priests who preserve the commands of El/Elyon/The King so the main character can come to Jesus and fight the Muslim/pagan/Satanist/cultist dark lord and save the day. For Jesus.
And, like, Songkiller doesn’t do that.
It takes a downright Gaiman-esque approach, takes Ventar (our mentor Bard) and gives him a powerful question: Where has God been for the last three hundred years? For the last thousand years? Has Yashael abandoned not only the world, but his chosen agents in the world?
That’s a question actual, real-life humans ask themselves, not only Christians, but people of many faiths. It’s one of the driving themes of the entire book, asked by many more people than simply Ventar, but most powerful coming from the character so many others look to as the guy who’s supposed to have all the answers.
There are a handful of other real-life questions other characters ask through their actions and choices, and they’re all fantastic to read. “How can I know who’s my friend and who’s trying to use me? How do I choose the best good for the people I’m responsible for? What do I do when the thing around which I build my identity is taken from me? How much wrong can I do and still serve the greater good? Is it worth betraying my principles to save my life? Does a person regretting what they’ve done mean there’s still hope for their redemption, or can you be too far gone even if you hate what you did?”
Characters come to their conclusions for some of these problems, and some will carry into the next book (which will surely raise more questions). In almost every case, it felt certainly like the characters were coming to those answers, not that the author was trying to beat me over the head with his ideals.
Even Menthril, the dark lord and Songkiller himself, asks more than one of these questions, and he does so with an impressively small amount of self-pity.
Another way Songkiller excels where most Christian fantasy (and epic fantasy in general) fails is in the depictions of races and cultures. You have your humans, of course, with their increased (or at least that’s how it seems so far) heterogeneity of cultures compared to the other races. They’re probably everything you’d expect from fantasy humans.
Then there’s the Ublidek, swamp-dwelling people who are, astoundingly, notcaricatures of Louisiana swamp-dwellers. They’re delightful people. One of our primary viewpoints is an Ublidek statesman, so we see many of the facets of their culture.
And then the Teedletiden. They’re Hobbits mixed with squirrels, I think? We saw hardly anything of their culture in this book, so there’s not much to say, but they were entertaining when they did pop up.
The book’s magic system is extremely Sandersonian, a song-based rational system which allows Bards (and a few others) to exchange properties like mass, color, speed, and health with objects or people they’re linked to. There are some interesting restrictions, though the most important restriction, that of requiring two objects or people to be in the same “key,” is ambiguous enough that the reader has to always assume an unidentified person or object will in fact be in a usable key for Ventar when he needs them to be. There are some great fight scenes using this system, and I look forward to seeing it expanded in the next book.
All that stuff was superb. It’s enough that I recommend the book without too many caveats.
Unfortunately, I do have a few caveats.
The main character, for one. Exton is an intense, young, and idealistic dude who wants to chop off the Songkiller’s head because he killed Exton’s mother. Sort of.
Menthril did an Original Sin, you see, and so all the ordinary pain and suffering in the world is due to him. Exton’s mom died of sickness, and sickness exists because the Songkiller did a Pandora’s Box. Therefore, Exton is going to kill the Songkiller to take his revenge. And also he thinks a key which can “void all barriers” can turn back time so he can go back and save his mother. Exton has no reason to believe this. He chooses to do so anyway.
I didn’t like Exton from the very beginning. His entire line of reasoning seemed ridiculous to me, as well as the admiration other people gave him for this supposedly idealistic reasoning. As the story progressed, Exton continued to be my least favorite character. His pains were the most clearly self-inflicted, and it was maddening to see everyone love him for ideals which made me want to rip my hair out in frustration.
The most infuriating aspect of Exton to me isn’t exactly a knock against the poor boy himself, but that while every other point of view in this story—and there are a lot of them—comes in the third person, Exton’s scenes are all in first person. I hate this choice so much. I have a lot of intellectual respect for the author for making an experimental style choice like that, but as a reader, I was completely disengaged by every first/third shift. If not for all the amazing elements I described above, the very first PoV shift would have been enough to prompt a DNF.
There’s one last major irritation I had with Exton which is, again, not a dig against the character himself. It would also be a spoiler if I spelled it out, so I’ll just say that Exton thinks to himself, at a certain point, about a certain character lesson that he recently learned.
He didn’t actually learn that lesson. The moment he’s referring to is obvious, as is the fact that it just didn’t happen. He still needs to learn that lesson after the fact, and it’s frustrating to know the story just goes on assuming he did learn it without him actually having to make the character choice. This isn’t something which happens in any other character arc, so I have to wonder if it was actually an artifact leftover from a previous draft.
Finally—and it pains me immensely to say this—there are a few really bad lines in this book. There are many brilliant ones, to be sure, especially in Ventar’s scenes. I highlighted fantastic lines in almost every chapter.
On the other hand, there were a literal fourteen lines at which I had to set the book down and walk away because I couldn’t believe a line that dumb had made it into this book. Frankly, every writer comes up with lines like these. They’re just a fact of life. There’s a certain point where it’s the editor’s job to make sure they don’t end up in the finished product.
On the gripping hand, those are only fourteen lines, maybe a hundred and forty words at the outside, among… what, probably 150K words or so. More than 99% of this book is still wonderful. I just wish I personally could lose my memory of one particular cringe-inducing thing that happens during the coolest fight scene in the book.
If you can endure a book where only 99.99% of its prose is delightful, and if, more importantly, you can endure the PoV shifting I described above, there’s a lot worth loving in The Songkiller’s Symphony.
Want to read
November 30, 2022Currently on SALE (8 for hardcover and 5.30 for paperback)!!
Beta read for Daeus before, and he writes GOOD. :) https://www.amazon.com/Songkillers-Sy...
Beta read for Daeus before, and he writes GOOD. :) https://www.amazon.com/Songkillers-Sy...
October 12, 2021
Lamb has put much effort into creating a world that feels lived in and understood by the reader. Sometimes this does leave the reader behind as we're thrust into people groups and societies and expected to piece things together, but most of the time it's not a setback. I did find myself struggling for a few paragraphs the first time POV's changed, but after a short time things became ironed out and I was able to follow the story a bit better.
For a fantasy book, the magic system feels solid and fairly well explained. After we're told how things operate, the magics adhere to those guidelines pretty well. It makes sense for powerful people to be powerful, and for weaker people to be weaker. I will be interested to see where this system can be taken, as creativity in its use is almost inherently built in.
The book felt smothered in terms of pacing. For a story somewhat centered around traveling and world-establishing (surprise, it's the first book in a fantasy series) Songkiller's Symphony seemed like it was running to catch up to its own plot and not given enough room to breathe. Especially for a shorter book, it can feel like a quest in itself to work through to the next plot point. As he gets more time and a feel for this world, I am sure Lamb will be able to work through this.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, though it did take more time than I expected to get to the end. Action is tight, combat is well-written, and there is potential for this series to find itself and grow into something enjoyable in its own right.
NOTE: I did receive an ARC of The Songkiller's Symphony from the author.
For a fantasy book, the magic system feels solid and fairly well explained. After we're told how things operate, the magics adhere to those guidelines pretty well. It makes sense for powerful people to be powerful, and for weaker people to be weaker. I will be interested to see where this system can be taken, as creativity in its use is almost inherently built in.
The book felt smothered in terms of pacing. For a story somewhat centered around traveling and world-establishing (surprise, it's the first book in a fantasy series) Songkiller's Symphony seemed like it was running to catch up to its own plot and not given enough room to breathe. Especially for a shorter book, it can feel like a quest in itself to work through to the next plot point. As he gets more time and a feel for this world, I am sure Lamb will be able to work through this.
All in all, I enjoyed the book, though it did take more time than I expected to get to the end. Action is tight, combat is well-written, and there is potential for this series to find itself and grow into something enjoyable in its own right.
NOTE: I did receive an ARC of The Songkiller's Symphony from the author.
October 11, 2021
Daeus Lamb’s latest novel, the Songkiller’s Symphony, is the beginning of an ambitious new trilogy of epic proportions, thickly woven with complex plots and counterplots.
Reminiscent of LOTR, the backdrop of this saga shows impressively detailed world-building; new races and cultures, a fascinating magic system, even a language.
Prepare yourself for an intense and emotional journey weighing the deepest motivations of heroism and villainy alike, the internal struggle between darkness and light, and what defines tragic failure or true triumph.
Reminiscent of LOTR, the backdrop of this saga shows impressively detailed world-building; new races and cultures, a fascinating magic system, even a language.
Prepare yourself for an intense and emotional journey weighing the deepest motivations of heroism and villainy alike, the internal struggle between darkness and light, and what defines tragic failure or true triumph.
October 8, 2021
This is one of the most promising new fantasy series in my watchlist.
It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I was hooked!
The interesting magic system combined with the sympathetic characters made for an exciting read!
The "side characters" don't feel like stitched-on caricatures but like real people with real aspirations, fears, and goals. My favorite character so far is Flash.
I don't want to say much more about it or I'll spoil it, so what are you waiting for?
If you're looking for a new series to follow and you enjoy an original fantasy story, look no further than Daeus's Songworld Saga!
It took me a bit to get into it, but once I did I was hooked!
The interesting magic system combined with the sympathetic characters made for an exciting read!
The "side characters" don't feel like stitched-on caricatures but like real people with real aspirations, fears, and goals. My favorite character so far is Flash.
I don't want to say much more about it or I'll spoil it, so what are you waiting for?
If you're looking for a new series to follow and you enjoy an original fantasy story, look no further than Daeus's Songworld Saga!
November 11, 2021
Full review to come! It was a delightful story with a few things that bugged/confused me, but overall I'd definitely recommend it to fantasy readers looking for a fresh story.
October 9, 2021
The Songkiller's Symphony, hits the ground running from the very first page and doesn’t stop until the very end. The main cast of characters display an array of personalities and dimensions, reflective of the many different landscapes and cultures that are explored in this book.
Ventar, the bard, was probably my favorite character, because of his rational, straightforward way of thinking. On the other hand, Exton, the main character, was more of a wild card. He was often impulsive, and wound up in some difficult situations.
The multiple POV’s offered a unique and up-close look at many different aspects of this world/characters, but it was hard to keep up with so many names and faces. At times, I wished the narrative would have slowed down a little, to give me a chance to develop more of a connection to the characters.
Overall, I thought this was a solid start to the series, and I’m curious to see where this story will go from here. The Songkiller's Symphony, takes a fresh spin on the classic adventure tale, and I’d recommend it to those looking for something new in the fantasy genre.
Ventar, the bard, was probably my favorite character, because of his rational, straightforward way of thinking. On the other hand, Exton, the main character, was more of a wild card. He was often impulsive, and wound up in some difficult situations.
The multiple POV’s offered a unique and up-close look at many different aspects of this world/characters, but it was hard to keep up with so many names and faces. At times, I wished the narrative would have slowed down a little, to give me a chance to develop more of a connection to the characters.
Overall, I thought this was a solid start to the series, and I’m curious to see where this story will go from here. The Songkiller's Symphony, takes a fresh spin on the classic adventure tale, and I’d recommend it to those looking for something new in the fantasy genre.
October 11, 2021
As a musician, I especially loved the premise of this fantasy. Music links things together; all of creation has a melody that can be harmonized with or otherwise manipulated. Without telling too much of the story, our heroes are attempting to figure out how they can make use of the existing songs to save the world without destroying things (or people) around them. Only a few have this gift or skill, but that doesn’t mean the battles are any less intense or detailed. Lamb appears to have been influenced by Brandon Sanderson in the development of his magic system, and it is a welcome mentoring.
I did receive an ARC of The Songkiller’s Symphony; this review is my own.
I did receive an ARC of The Songkiller’s Symphony; this review is my own.
November 21, 2025
I've always loved Daeus' depth of world building. In this story you'll find incredible societies and well thought out political and religious cultures that motivate and color everything the characters experience.
It might just be me but I struggled to keep up with the storyline, it bounced around often enough and allowed a lot of assumptions on the readers behalf that I often was a bit confused. Might just be there are a LOT of characters (very well written characters I'll add) but I struggled to figure out who was who until about mid way through the story haha.
Still a lovely dive into a new world from Lamb and I look forward to seeing more from him.
It might just be me but I struggled to keep up with the storyline, it bounced around often enough and allowed a lot of assumptions on the readers behalf that I often was a bit confused. Might just be there are a LOT of characters (very well written characters I'll add) but I struggled to figure out who was who until about mid way through the story haha.
Still a lovely dive into a new world from Lamb and I look forward to seeing more from him.
June 8, 2024
I have a lot of feelings about this book.
I like the authors unique and refreshing approach to the Christian fantasy genre. Its a lot darker and moodier look at faith then most of the stuff I've read. Its very honest. The worldbuilding is also really good. Its interesting, because this is a book that is obviously influenced by Tolkien, yet its also extremely original. Sounds like an oxymoron but its true. Also, there were some good characters. I really liked Unthroodem. I really liked Ventar. Menthril is one of the best dark lord characters I've read. Daeus made Sauron an anti villain! Like, wow. Very cool.
However, this book has a very depressing and dark tone to it. A lot of really hard questions are asked, and I wish the book was a more clear on the thematic resolutions in the climax. Also, the book is extremely fast paced, especially in the earlier chapters, with multiple insane events happening in the span of pages. There isn't very much description, and the prose is very clipped. I felt like the characters and scenes could have used more time to breathe. Like, wow wow wow, slow down! Let the scene take its time, find its footing, idk. Also, the main character is the worst character. Hes not bad, but the other characters are better.
And a character died who I didn't want to die. Whyyyy??
This book is depressing.
All that said, I am going to get the next book in the series, whenever it comes out. I think if the author continues to grow in his skill this series could become a favorite. Its very unique. I'll have to wait and see I guess.
I like the authors unique and refreshing approach to the Christian fantasy genre. Its a lot darker and moodier look at faith then most of the stuff I've read. Its very honest. The worldbuilding is also really good. Its interesting, because this is a book that is obviously influenced by Tolkien, yet its also extremely original. Sounds like an oxymoron but its true. Also, there were some good characters. I really liked Unthroodem. I really liked Ventar. Menthril is one of the best dark lord characters I've read. Daeus made Sauron an anti villain! Like, wow. Very cool.
However, this book has a very depressing and dark tone to it. A lot of really hard questions are asked, and I wish the book was a more clear on the thematic resolutions in the climax. Also, the book is extremely fast paced, especially in the earlier chapters, with multiple insane events happening in the span of pages. There isn't very much description, and the prose is very clipped. I felt like the characters and scenes could have used more time to breathe. Like, wow wow wow, slow down! Let the scene take its time, find its footing, idk. Also, the main character is the worst character. Hes not bad, but the other characters are better.
And a character died who I didn't want to die. Whyyyy??
This book is depressing.
All that said, I am going to get the next book in the series, whenever it comes out. I think if the author continues to grow in his skill this series could become a favorite. Its very unique. I'll have to wait and see I guess.
May 16, 2022
A good fantasy story and fun book 1 I got this for free and honest review
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