/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

Apologies for posting this late. The month just escaped me before I realized.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this one and am really looking forward to the next book from Panzo. And this may not be perfect, but still an enjoyable read. Cassius seems to always find himself in just the right situations with just the right solutions, a lot of convenient circumstances, but I also found that I didn't much care. I really liked reading about Cassius and rooting for him through out the book.

One thing I couldn't make up my mind is if there was supposed to be some "reveal" or "revelation" about his motivation to be there and who he was, but it was pretty obvious early on, so I am assuming that even though it was never directly stated, it wasn't supposed to really be a surprise either. Like the reader was obviously going to know, even if he was keeping it from everyone else.

What do you think about the grimdark label on this one? Personally, it seemed more in line with Brent Week's Night Angel to me than First Law of Prince of Thorns. It just didnt have quite as dark of an atmosphere to me even if it was still pretty bloody. And Cassius definitely delves into serious shades of grey, but I still wasn't sure if felt grimdark. Not that it matters, it is just a label. Just curious how others felt about it

I really enjoyed this book. It had everything I like about Fantasy. Decent and slowly revealed fantastical fantasy world with a Roman twist for bonus points? Check. Gray morality and situations that make you question the protagonist and yourself? Check. A great city backdrop with bonus points for criminal underground controlling things? Check. And lastly it is "grimdark" which is to say it is not fantasy lite and the story pulls no punches.

Then it even has a few of my favorite things from old western stories (apparently the authors idea was to make sort of a fantasy version of Fist Full of Dollars). Taciturn mysterious protagonist? Check. Is he also out for revenge? You bet. Are there cool gun duels but done with magic? Hell yeah there is.

The few things I don't like about this book are sorta minor. I didn't like that every time he did something incredible he basically passes out for five minutes and no one picks up on this and kills him while he is incapacitated. I also have a minor quibble about everyone buying his bullcrap. I would think by the time he got to the army encampment everyone would have learned their lesson.

Either way, I really enjoyed it and will be looking out for a sequel.

I have to say by the end I just didn't enjoy this one. I just felt like the whole thing was too convenient and that Cassius wasn't as smart as he thought he was. That his win in the end was.... just because. Just by the end I wasn't overly concerned by anything that was going on. I didn't have to worry about Cassius getting his revenge because certainly he would win. And in the end none of the consequences felt very real. Sure there were innocents who died but the book just did not move me to care.

But it isn't really the books fault. It's just not my type of read to be honest. I thought it was written well enough though so I think if I had different tastes I would have enjoyed it.

The only real mystery of the book for me was the identity of the red haired guy but it was left unrevealed. It probably was a god but oh well, maybe in the sequel even if it doesn't leave much room for one.

Throughout the book I was continually frustrated by the inability of the two bosses to have a chat that would have unravel the whole scheme, after all a war was bad for business, but I was fine eventually with Pazio's reasons.

Victor wrote: "The only real mystery of the book for me was the identity of the red haired guy but it was left unrevealed. It probably was a god but oh well, maybe in the sequel even if it doesn't leave much room..."

Yeah. It was ok. It's one of those, I enjoyed reading it at the time, but now with several weeks past, it hasn't stuck with me. Another year or so, I probably won't recall much of it at all.

I always thought the red haired guy was some sort of demon. He offered Cassius freedom and a chance for revenge but in the end Cassius would just lose his freedom to him. But I always sort of assume demon deals in these sort of situations.