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The Raider and the Rapier #1
Graveyard Gods
The currents sweep east, but the dead float south. This corpse laden tide carries with it the destinies of a tomb raider, a knight turned captain, and an empire fraying at the seams.
A grave robber who dabbles in the alchemical arts, Edmond Mondego has spent the last seven years in search of a God Grave. He hopes to find magic within to relinquish his murdered wife's soul to the land of the living. What he finds instead is an imprisoned goddess stripped of her power but in full possession of divine secrets, including a every five years, one living soul is returned to the Emperor of the Gilded Islands.
Meanwhile, the Lord Captain Augustin Mora, newly appointed commander of His Imperial Majesty's Ship Intrepid, guards the forbidden waters for his Emperor. Edmond's profane plundering of a God Grave and the machinations of the admiralty send Augustin on a quest to capture the tomb robber. But an enemy from his past muddies the waters, and Augustin is forced to reunite his old knight's guild and put hand to hilt once again.
And so, Edmond sets every ounce of cunning and guile to raise himself through the ranks of nobility, evading Augustin Mora and all manner of assassins; he has only one goal—to convince the Emperor to use the magical boon for his wife's soul, and, failing that, to take the throne for himself.
A grave robber who dabbles in the alchemical arts, Edmond Mondego has spent the last seven years in search of a God Grave. He hopes to find magic within to relinquish his murdered wife's soul to the land of the living. What he finds instead is an imprisoned goddess stripped of her power but in full possession of divine secrets, including a every five years, one living soul is returned to the Emperor of the Gilded Islands.
Meanwhile, the Lord Captain Augustin Mora, newly appointed commander of His Imperial Majesty's Ship Intrepid, guards the forbidden waters for his Emperor. Edmond's profane plundering of a God Grave and the machinations of the admiralty send Augustin on a quest to capture the tomb robber. But an enemy from his past muddies the waters, and Augustin is forced to reunite his old knight's guild and put hand to hilt once again.
And so, Edmond sets every ounce of cunning and guile to raise himself through the ranks of nobility, evading Augustin Mora and all manner of assassins; he has only one goal—to convince the Emperor to use the magical boon for his wife's soul, and, failing that, to take the throne for himself.
- GenresFantasy
346 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 16, 2019
150 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Steve Higgs
580 books822 followersLet's start this off with an invitation to get some FREE books. No, you didn't read that wrong, we are talking about multiple free books. I love giving away free books because once people delve into the fast-paced mystery thrills I write, they go on to buy lots more.
All I need from you is an email address to send them to. Here's the link you need - https://mailchi.mp/fd47a6eb4ae5/patri...
When I wrote my first novel, Paranormal Nonsense, I was a Captain in the British Army. I would love to pretend that I had one of those careers that has to be redacted and in general denied by the government and that I have had to change my name and continually move about because I am still on the watch list in several countries. In truth though, I started out as a mechanic. Not like Jason Statham, sneaking about as a contract killer, more like one of those greasy gits that charge you a fortune and keep your car for a week when all you went in for was a squeaky door hinge.
At school, I was mostly disinterested in every subject except creative writing, for which, at age ten, I won my first award. However, calling it my first award suggests that there have been more, which there have not. Accolades may come but, in the meantime, I am having a ball writing mystery stories and crime thrillers and will claim to have more than a hundred books forming an unruly queue in my head as they clamor to get out.
Now retired from the military, I live in the south-east corner of England with a pair of lazy sausage dogs. Surrounded by rolling hills, brooding castles, and vineyards, I doubt I will ever leave, the beer is just too good.
Links:
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Higgs/...
Website: https://stevehiggsbooks.wordpress.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stevehiggsau...
All I need from you is an email address to send them to. Here's the link you need - https://mailchi.mp/fd47a6eb4ae5/patri...
When I wrote my first novel, Paranormal Nonsense, I was a Captain in the British Army. I would love to pretend that I had one of those careers that has to be redacted and in general denied by the government and that I have had to change my name and continually move about because I am still on the watch list in several countries. In truth though, I started out as a mechanic. Not like Jason Statham, sneaking about as a contract killer, more like one of those greasy gits that charge you a fortune and keep your car for a week when all you went in for was a squeaky door hinge.
At school, I was mostly disinterested in every subject except creative writing, for which, at age ten, I won my first award. However, calling it my first award suggests that there have been more, which there have not. Accolades may come but, in the meantime, I am having a ball writing mystery stories and crime thrillers and will claim to have more than a hundred books forming an unruly queue in my head as they clamor to get out.
Now retired from the military, I live in the south-east corner of England with a pair of lazy sausage dogs. Surrounded by rolling hills, brooding castles, and vineyards, I doubt I will ever leave, the beer is just too good.
Links:
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Steve-Higgs/...
Website: https://stevehiggsbooks.wordpress.com/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stevehiggsau...
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 1, 2020
In Graveyard Gods, the first book in the Raider and The Rapier series, Daniel & Arneson invite readers to join a rollicking adventure. The setting involves ships, underwater tombs, and dangerous cities. The story starts with a bang and rarely slows down.
The main characters are well-rounded and memorable. Edmond Mondego, a grave robber and alchemist, seeks a God Grave hoping the hidden magic will allow him to bring back his murdered wife's soul. Instead of immense power, he finds an imprisoned goddess. Edmond's profane profession and notoriety make him a target of the Lord Captain Augustin Mora, newly appointed commander of His Imperial Majesty's Ship Intrepid. Things get complicated when unexpected events will force them to cooperate.
I absolutely loved Edmond's chapters. His cunning and guile make him intriguing. His deep love for his murdered wife makes him relatable. His interactions with others, especially with the mentioned goddess, are always fun. Augustin, on the other hand, is a much stiffer character. Definitely likable, but I felt his chapters lacked the spark and strength of Mondego's POV. I also felt Mora's chapters had weaker structure and lower stakes. In consequence, I impatiently looked for Edmond's POV while trudging through other POV.
Graveyard Gods tells a great story powered by great ideas. Unfortunately, it needs another pass of editing to make the writing stronger (you'll find a bit of everything here: grammar errors, misspellings, awkward similes, weird sentence structure). This book can shine - it has strong characters, a great plot, and a fascinating setting. With the help of a ruthless editor, it can shake the Nautical Fantasy charts.
7/10
The main characters are well-rounded and memorable. Edmond Mondego, a grave robber and alchemist, seeks a God Grave hoping the hidden magic will allow him to bring back his murdered wife's soul. Instead of immense power, he finds an imprisoned goddess. Edmond's profane profession and notoriety make him a target of the Lord Captain Augustin Mora, newly appointed commander of His Imperial Majesty's Ship Intrepid. Things get complicated when unexpected events will force them to cooperate.
I absolutely loved Edmond's chapters. His cunning and guile make him intriguing. His deep love for his murdered wife makes him relatable. His interactions with others, especially with the mentioned goddess, are always fun. Augustin, on the other hand, is a much stiffer character. Definitely likable, but I felt his chapters lacked the spark and strength of Mondego's POV. I also felt Mora's chapters had weaker structure and lower stakes. In consequence, I impatiently looked for Edmond's POV while trudging through other POV.
Graveyard Gods tells a great story powered by great ideas. Unfortunately, it needs another pass of editing to make the writing stronger (you'll find a bit of everything here: grammar errors, misspellings, awkward similes, weird sentence structure). This book can shine - it has strong characters, a great plot, and a fascinating setting. With the help of a ruthless editor, it can shake the Nautical Fantasy charts.
7/10
January 15, 2023
Interesting Alchemy
Book 1 in Steve Higgs’ The Raider and The Rapier series, Graveyard Gods kept an active pace in his descriptive adventure.
The Alchemist, Edmund’s, ultimate goal of robbing graves for the necessary components of his work, is an emotional one.
As his work is illegal, he is under scrutiny, which makes his robbing even more difficult. He is willing to do anything to accomplish his goal.
I am looking forward to the story continuing in the next book in the series.
Book 1 in Steve Higgs’ The Raider and The Rapier series, Graveyard Gods kept an active pace in his descriptive adventure.
The Alchemist, Edmund’s, ultimate goal of robbing graves for the necessary components of his work, is an emotional one.
As his work is illegal, he is under scrutiny, which makes his robbing even more difficult. He is willing to do anything to accomplish his goal.
I am looking forward to the story continuing in the next book in the series.
February 13, 2020
Absolutely amazing. I loved this book. As a fan of The Lies of Locke Lamora, this book was such an amazing fit for me. If you are reading reviews because you are not yet sold on getting this book, just do it. Stop reading this, and buy the book. You can thank me later. I'll wait.
September 22, 2022
Still good
Wasn't sure about this to start with, I've read everything Steve higgs had written so far and loved it, think this is going to be a slow burner of a series, still has great characters and a good story line so it's still a good book. Going to download the next one now. Keep up the good work Steve
Wasn't sure about this to start with, I've read everything Steve higgs had written so far and loved it, think this is going to be a slow burner of a series, still has great characters and a good story line so it's still a good book. Going to download the next one now. Keep up the good work Steve
October 30, 2022
Slow going for awhile
A very slow start and I understand why, but even after Ch5 I wanted to walk away from it. Took awhile to pick up and ended with deciding to give.it another chance with book 2. Interesting storyline, but will bore you to tears til you finally get into the next of.it.
A very slow start and I understand why, but even after Ch5 I wanted to walk away from it. Took awhile to pick up and ended with deciding to give.it another chance with book 2. Interesting storyline, but will bore you to tears til you finally get into the next of.it.
April 17, 2023
Graveyard Gods: Raider and Rapier book 1
Wow, what fun! Everybody like pirate stories, especially when the bad guys are much trickier than the sailors. Looking forward to the next part of this story. Lots of action and trickery (the Viper is blessed with the best talents such as changing faces at will).
Enjoy!
Wow, what fun! Everybody like pirate stories, especially when the bad guys are much trickier than the sailors. Looking forward to the next part of this story. Lots of action and trickery (the Viper is blessed with the best talents such as changing faces at will).
Enjoy!
August 14, 2022
Grab a seat, Matey! You’re about to take a thrilling ride!
Fast, action packed and thrilling. This is a fun ride on the high seas filled with sword play, magic, gods and bromance. The promise of redeemed love and fairness is in the air, and I’m ready to sail on.
Fast, action packed and thrilling. This is a fun ride on the high seas filled with sword play, magic, gods and bromance. The promise of redeemed love and fairness is in the air, and I’m ready to sail on.
December 26, 2022
Interesting
A bit confusing but I will keep reading the series as Steve Higgs is one of my favorite writers. I do want to see the goddess get her powers back and find out which God had buried her to begin with.
A bit confusing but I will keep reading the series as Steve Higgs is one of my favorite writers. I do want to see the goddess get her powers back and find out which God had buried her to begin with.
April 15, 2023
interesting characters!
Fun read kept me entertained want to get the next book to see who prevails. Both main characters are like able.
Fun read kept me entertained want to get the next book to see who prevails. Both main characters are like able.
June 25, 2025
Enjoyable series. Great world building and interesting characters. Hard to find on kindle though was only able to find the box set.
Read
January 10, 2021This comes over as a promising start to The Raider and the Rapier series.
The writing was generally reasonable, but I found typos, odd punctuation and homonyms frequent enough to be distracting. And in areas the prose was distinctly clunky: for example, having two consecutive paragraphs start, "At that moment..."
I enjoyed the worldbuilding and sense of a religious pantheon, especially as the author doesn't shove all the background information down the reader's throat. I also liked the idea of a political background environment that the main characters don't have much knowledge of, but we can see them having to navigate around.
As to the characters, Augustin seemed rather a naif, even allowing for promotion above his abilities. It was difficult to feel too invested in him when he was stupid for weak reasons. Edmond's motivations felt more believable, although I would have liked more exploration of the strength of his obsessions.
For my tastes, there was too much lingering on descriptive passages and character reactions, to the extent that the former felt self-indulgent, and the latter repetitive, bogging down the pace. I felt there was also inconsistency in flow - a character sustains an injury, but it doesn't actually hamper them or affect what they do, and we're only reminded of it several pages later, when it doesn't really matter anymore.
Competent series starter that deserves a bit more polishing.
The writing was generally reasonable, but I found typos, odd punctuation and homonyms frequent enough to be distracting. And in areas the prose was distinctly clunky: for example, having two consecutive paragraphs start, "At that moment..."
I enjoyed the worldbuilding and sense of a religious pantheon, especially as the author doesn't shove all the background information down the reader's throat. I also liked the idea of a political background environment that the main characters don't have much knowledge of, but we can see them having to navigate around.
As to the characters, Augustin seemed rather a naif, even allowing for promotion above his abilities. It was difficult to feel too invested in him when he was stupid for weak reasons. Edmond's motivations felt more believable, although I would have liked more exploration of the strength of his obsessions.
For my tastes, there was too much lingering on descriptive passages and character reactions, to the extent that the former felt self-indulgent, and the latter repetitive, bogging down the pace. I felt there was also inconsistency in flow - a character sustains an injury, but it doesn't actually hamper them or affect what they do, and we're only reminded of it several pages later, when it doesn't really matter anymore.
Competent series starter that deserves a bit more polishing.
September 17, 2020
I like flintlock guns and I like fantasy! Whenever I see them come together you can bed I'll buy the book! There's a lot to like about this book, so I'll just dive right into my pros and cons.
PROS
-Beautiful cover art
-Creative and cool alchemy based magic system
-Unique and fleshed out world building. (Culture and religion and geography all tie together in the plot to make a very interesting and mysterious setting)
-Fast moving pace and high stakes kept me from putting it down!
-Morally grey characters with personal motives that are easy to root for
CONS
-Fails the Bechdel Test. Miserably. (Aside from Catali, the ship medic, who has very few and brief appearances anyway, women only exist in this world to be super hot and to be ogled by men)
So I did take a star away for that one con because it happens to be a peeve of mine, but I will say that other than that, this book was a very enjoyable read and I am absolutely going to take the plunge and go on to the rest of the series.
PROS
-Beautiful cover art
-Creative and cool alchemy based magic system
-Unique and fleshed out world building. (Culture and religion and geography all tie together in the plot to make a very interesting and mysterious setting)
-Fast moving pace and high stakes kept me from putting it down!
-Morally grey characters with personal motives that are easy to root for
CONS
-Fails the Bechdel Test. Miserably. (Aside from Catali, the ship medic, who has very few and brief appearances anyway, women only exist in this world to be super hot and to be ogled by men)
So I did take a star away for that one con because it happens to be a peeve of mine, but I will say that other than that, this book was a very enjoyable read and I am absolutely going to take the plunge and go on to the rest of the series.
August 12, 2022
A tale of intrigue and gods
When a grave robber happens upon the bounty of a lifetime things beome very dangerous very fast! Captain Lord Mora, of the frigate Intrepid, who came upon the robber during the heist - and inadvertently let him escape - is tasked with capturing the grave robber and retrieving the bounty he stole. This is a wonderfully fast-moving tale of gods, goddesses, monsters of the sea and alchemic magic. Treachery abounds! Excellent story! Looking forward to the next book in the series!
When a grave robber happens upon the bounty of a lifetime things beome very dangerous very fast! Captain Lord Mora, of the frigate Intrepid, who came upon the robber during the heist - and inadvertently let him escape - is tasked with capturing the grave robber and retrieving the bounty he stole. This is a wonderfully fast-moving tale of gods, goddesses, monsters of the sea and alchemic magic. Treachery abounds! Excellent story! Looking forward to the next book in the series!
August 10, 2022
A new and different world, with amazing characters. We have the Lord Captain Augustin Mora on his ship Intrepid And Edmond Mondego, an unstoppable grave robber.
Just what is Edmond looking for and how is Augustin involved.
There are many more characters to meet and adventures to be had as we follow these two on their quests.
A really good story!
Just what is Edmond looking for and how is Augustin involved.
There are many more characters to meet and adventures to be had as we follow these two on their quests.
A really good story!
August 13, 2022
Although not my usual genre, this book was interesting and kind of fun to read. Pirates, Gods, noblemen, and magic woven together along with twists and turns, plus treacherous creatures and people. A God's Grave is disturbed and Lord Augustin Mora is charged with capturing the villain.
It was quite an interesting journey through this book, and definitely worth it.
It was quite an interesting journey through this book, and definitely worth it.
October 18, 2022
It took some time getting into this one, but there's alot going on here that has the potential of being great. The characters are fun and memorable, making it hard to determine who you want to spend more time with. Getting into the vernacular, pre-established setting, and lore takes some time. There are still plenty of questions yet to be answered but I'm interested in continuing the series.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews