The Isle of Winter Night

by Adrian Kaas

Skerrigen has a job that needs doing. He also happens to have a great many secrets that he would prefer to keep to himself. Yet when he hires on a crew of four to delve for treasure on an island far to the north, it is likely impossible to keep all those secrets hidden...especially when the true nature of the job is buried within them.Together the party of five travel across both country and sea, growing closer and dealing with their own inner turmoil. Then at last, they reach a ruined island devoted to a god of Winter Night. There, their true trials will begin.

Genres: Fantasy

347 pages, Paperback

Published February 5, 2020

Reviews

[Francis Blair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book starts a little slow, immediately introducing five different character perspectives in rapid succession. There’s a good peppering of backstory with each to give a feel for them, but not an immediate set of stakes. Instead, the tale unfolds gradually by way of a series of chance meetings at a tavern. Four mercenaries looking for work, and a suspicious employer whose clearly not telling the whole story. The whole thing almost has the feel of a D&D session to it.

Still, there are plenty of little droplets of worldbuilding to keep the story interesting: mentions of the mysterious Autumn Isles and its habit of exiling children, or a pair of goddesses entertaining a tavern crowd, or the mysterious employer with the strange smile and tendency to not blink. The little things that tell you this won’t just be some standard tropy tale.

Then the story begins to move, and its real majesty reveals itself.

First, there is the whole pantheon aspect. Yes, the characters are off to explore an island that once belonged to a now dead god, but they are hardly the only deity in the story. This world is positively brimming with gods, physically walking the mortal world along with their worshippers. Each person in this world carries with them a blessing in some form or another—be that increased strength and speed, or healing, or powerful magics, or something greater. Darker.

The god-versus-god backdrop of the story sets a great tone and feel, but ultimately it was the interactions of the characters that really made this book a hit for me. There is Tarian, blunt and earnest to a fault; Emuire, bitter at a world that seems to want nothing to do with her; Oczethne, plagued with addiction and the scars of her past; Iobi, an unwilling servant to a martyr god; and Skerrigen, the employer who needs them all for some hidden purpose, but probably not the one they suspect.

Remove any one of these five from the mix, and this story would have been lesser for it. Each played off the others perfectly, helping to build tension both with their shared conflict and also where they came into conflict with each other. All eventually leading perfectly to their final confrontation with a nearly-forgotten god.

Although ultimately there were a few loose ends in this book, some tidbits of the story I’d have loved to see explored further, Isle of Winter Night was a great read. By the end of it I was rooting for each of the characters, hoping against hope that everything would—somehow, impossibly—work out for the best. This was a solid book with a great build up to its finale, focusing on developing its slate of characters as much as progressing the plot.