HRose/Abalieno’s Reviews > Sons of Darkness > Status Update

"Magic, action and romance in equal measure. It's utter shit."

(that's a quote from the pages)

This my side-read to Miss MacIntosh, for now.

- So, we've been under siege and are actually losing this battle. What shall we do?

- Let's move the city somewhere else.

"Ever since they had seen Krishna ride into the air on a griffin, the Magadhans had been obsessed with obtaining griffins of their own. It was obviously unfair. The Magadhans had a goddamned lion as their sigil. The Mathurans had a cow. If Krishna had flown on a cow with wings, Shishupal was sure no one would have given it a second thought. But a half-lion, now that was difficult to swallow for any proud Magadhan."

Doing micro updates because I can't cram much text here.

I'm not sure how the writer got the idea of starting the book with Krishna showing up naked at an important parley to decide the outcome of a war, covered in ... yoghurt? Point is, the writing shows occasionally some swagger. It's at least not boring but oscillates from okay to downright cringe.

I already got the second volume. I think I'll keep going.

Subtlety of characterization (and writing):

A military commander and warrior like none other. But he had no understanding of the virtues of moderation.
"I will smash his head to pulp with my mace!"

Those who joined the Silver Wolves discarded their old names and roles and adopted strange alter egos. There was an Arms, a Piety, and even a One Eye, serving under Satyabhama.

Is this Black Company?

Let's see. Plan is to read about 60 pages before shelving until later.

More than grimdark it's cringedark.

For now it has the very emphatic writing style typical of an overexcited new writer. Superficial and a bit cringe. But maybe the accretion of wonky ideas ends up building something entertaining.