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Order The Armored Saint here

Confession - I picked up The Armored Saint not from any recommendation or reviews I'd read. I had very little idea what I was getting into when buying the book (like many, I thought that the armor on the cover was way too big for that woman). I mostly bought it because I find the Twitter romance between Myke Cole and Sam Sykes so adorable, and as I'd already read Sykes, I felt I owed it to Cole to give his work a look. Well, color me surprised because I loved this book (in fact more than I liked Seven Blades in Black, which I also did like). The Armored Saint is not typical fantasy (whatever that means these days). It's gritty, with an edge of realism that even magical trappings can't dull. It tells the story of a young woman in an oppressive land who is faced time and again with situations that she is in no way equipped to deal with, and yet somehow she always survives and comes away stronger. This is a book packed with real emotional moments that not only surprise a reader, but stick with them. So yes, I am thankful for Sam and Myke's rivalry (brovalry?) because it has now allowed me the opportunity to begin two promising fantasy series that I will continue to read long after the two of them have broken up.

Strengths

Heloise. Heloise is the book's strength. I could stop there, but I won't. The absolute tidal wave of strong female characters in the past decade's fantasy has been a real thrill for me. Strong women are my ideal protagonist, and whatever that says about me is irrelevant because Heloise is a great character by any definition. Her growth arc is remarkable in large part due to how wild it gets at times. She begins the novel fairly tame, but from the first chapter we can see a spark in her that we know at some point will fully ignite. Cole does a remarkable job of stoking that spark, little by little with events through the story, several of which are large and momentous, and by the end Heloise is hardly even Heloise anymore - or perhaps she's the Heloise she was meant to be.

Cole's character work is well done elsewhere, but it's clear that our eyes are meant to stay with Heloise. Most of the other characters really only exist in relation to the protagonist, which I might find issue with if it didn't make so much sense in context. Cole wraps this story around his central character in a way that defies anyone else from intruding. That said, we do feel those other characters in much the same way that we might feel the people in our lives - we know that we are living our own stories, but it does not make us the most important person in that story. Heloise's father, Samson, for instance, is a nuanced veteran making the best of a life that is beset with obstacles. Heloise's love interest, a blacksmith's daughter named Basina, has moments seen through Heloise's eyes that could be seen from a dozen different angles but we feel them as Heloise would, and it makes them powerful.

Heloise's world is one inspired by the witch hunts of most of human history. The ruling power fears a return of devils from the underworld, devils brought about through the use of magic. Inquisition-like factions terrorize the rural land where Heloise and her family live and toil. They are the equivalent of fantasy peasants, in that they have no power and are made to believe in the existence of devils and demonspawn with very little evidence. I fully expected this book to be a cautionary tale against religion, but without spoiling anything, Cole turned my expectations completely around, and by the end of the book I was dumbfounded and confused, but in a good way. I want to read more.

Weaknesses

I will not give a completely free pass to my confusion at the end because the ambiguity that Cole leaves us with is frustrating. Ideally, I would have guesses about where the next novel is heading (I know it's headed for war, but that's about it). It's hard to criticize the book in this way because I think there is value in the way it ends, but I might have wished for something slightly different.

A valid criticism I have is one of scale. This only comes into play during the last quarter or so of the book, but I felt that Cole had a problem of describing the size of things. That might seem petty, but bear with me because my criticism makes sense in terms of reading flow. Towards the beginning of the novel, as a spoiler free for instance, Heloise runs into a ranger named Clodio, "Heloise ran for her house, so intent on beating the failing light that she blundered into a pair of legs as solid and hard as oak trunks." This broke the narrative for me because I immediately began sizing up characters. To run into someone's legs, Heloise would either have to be the size of my toddler, or Clodio would have to be the size of Yao Ming. There are similar instances in the novels big climactic scene. Heloise gets a suit of armor and has to fight, but the thing she fights against is either the same size as she is or as big as a house and I had no idea which was true. This might seem like a silly thing to criticize in a book, but it does break a reader's immersion if they have to start doing math mid-sentence.

If You Liked

It's tricky for me to compare this book to others in the fantasy genre because I think it's unique. There are obvious echoes of The Crucible in The Armored Saint, but I could also make far-fetched allusions to action films like Pacific Rim or Iron Man. In tone, I think the book I can most relate this to is Graham Austin-King's Faithless, both for its quandaries on religion but also for the incredibly personal journeys that its characters make.

Parting Thoughts

I loved The Armored Saint. It really affected me in a surprising way, and it did so in a mere 200 pages. There is one heart-wrenching scene in particular that is really sticking with me and I get a little teary just thinking about it. Cole has a real handle on how to write emotion, and how to write about the bonds between people, and I think there are writers that could learn a lot from that expertise. I have already picked up a copy of The Queen of Crows with literally no idea where this series is going, and I like that. I suspect to be devastated again and again.

Official Author Website
Order Blood of Heirs over HERE (USA) & HERE (UK)

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Order the Rage of Dragons here

Few books in the past year have built up a level of hype as that surrounding The Rage of Dragons. There was a solid two month period where I rarely saw a day go by without hearing about Evan Winter's debut fantasy novel. I'll admit I slept on it because I wanted the trade paperback version, and now that I've read it, with all the hype behind us, I'm happy to report that it lives up to it. This is one of the best debuts I've read, but I am a little worried for its strength because the inevitable sequel has much to live up to.

Strengths

There is much to love about The Rage of Dragons. Winter sets his story in an invaded world. The Omehi people are introduced as conquerors, forcing their way into a foreign land having fled their own for reasons that are not detailed in this novel but promise to feature in subsequent books. This is a twist - we generally don't root for the invaders. Winter make it work by telling the entire book from the viewpoint of an Omehi youth named Tau. Tau exists in this world many hundreds of years after the invasion. This land is the only one he knows, and he can not be blamed for despising the barbarians who make war on his people year after year - even if history shows him that it was the Omehi who brought it.

Tau's growth throughout the novel is possibly the strongest aspect of the entire book, even if it does create problems down the line. Tau starts out as a young man with some apparent combat ability, but he is unremarkable in almost every way. He is small, not particularly good-looking, and not born to an important caste in a society where status means everything - he is an everyman. Circumstances force him out of this inheritance early in the book, and it does not take long for him to embark on a journey of revenge. Like Arya Stark, Tau has a list, and the only way for him to legally check boxes off of that list is to train for a spot in the military.

Much of the book takes place in an academy, and another of the strengths of Rage is the camaraderie built up between Tau and his friends.  Tau is an outsider, and remains so for nearly the entire novel, but he forms bonds that even his rage and pinpoint focus can not keep out. One thing that I think Winter does particularly well with this academy fantasy is to spread his eggs. Tau is good at one thing - fighting. He is no strategist, nor particularly good at rallying morale (he manages this through sheer force at some point, but it's clear that he finds it uncomfortable). Winter spreads the talents needed to form a competent team throughout the squad, and it makes it more believable. Other novels of this ilk can often run into the trap of creating one superhero with a team of underlings, and while Tau is certainly the superhero of the novel, he has obvious weaknesses.

Weaknesses

The Rage of Dragons is a book that promises to feature dragons in a central role. Picking up the book without knowing a thing about it, a reader might assume that the book is about dragons more than anything else. It is not about dragons. Much like in A Song of Ice and Fire, dragons are a weapon - a chess piece used both politically and militarily. They have no personality, are not in the book very much at all, and in the end prove as an important catalyst but one that the novel could have substituted any powerful item for. I don't often pick on title conventions, but I do feel that this one is a little misleading. At the same time, I love dragons and always want them in fantasy books, so this one is easy to forgive.

The only true problem I had with The Rage of Dragons is what Tau becomes. His transformation is a double-edged blade. When I said that his character growth was excellent, I meant that. It is well-paced, and we see him grow in a warrior sense throughout the story as though we were watching a character level up in a video game (an apt analogy for what he ends up getting himself into). But with that growth comes a level of ability so unmatched that it becomes ridiculous. Tau becomes invincible in a way that invalidates much of the world-building that Winter has laid out. This also makes for big problems with the inevitable sequel. By the end of The Rage of Dragons, Tau is so powerful, through his own sheer grit, that the only way to create conflict in the second book would be either to strip him somehow of his power, or to make him the villain. The former outcome is boring, and the latter robs readers of an established and interesting character. I hope Winter has a clever solution for this problem, and I suspect he does. I'm excited to see it.

If You Liked

Going in to The Rage of Dragons, I was told on numerous times to expect Gladiator, and there are certainly aspects of that with the arena combat and team-building. But what Rage most reminded me of was the Red Rising Saga, Pierce Brown's excellent space-fantasy trilogy. Darrow and Tau have very similar trajectory's, with revenge topping their list but societal transformation as the final goal. Their initiations into the real world both take place in a very dangerous academy style setting, and they even have similar growth trajectories. I think Tau is a better character, evidenced by the fact that I had to look up the protagonist of Red Rising because I couldn't remember much about him despite loving that trilogy. I think Winter does a good job of getting into Tau's head in a way that makes him unforgettable.

I also think that, through its setting, The Rage of Dragons shares much in common with books like Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone and even Nnedi Okorafor's Binti trilogy. There are certainly others that I haven't read yet that use African elements as their backdrop, and for fantasy readers this is a new and exciting direction to explore. I have also mentioned A Song of Ice and Fire twice in this review, but I think its similarities with Martin's work are fairly sparse.

Parting Thoughts 

I have concerns about Winter's second book, as outlined above, but The Rage of Dragons is so good that I have confidence that he knows what he's about with a sequel. Winter has set himself up as a solid writer, a storyteller, and a world-builder on par with some of the heavy hitters in fantasy right now. He has an advantage in that his setting is not as saturated as, say, European-based fantasy, and this helps The Rage of Dragons stand out in the melee. He also writes a hell of an ending, and it was the last quarter of this book that really solidified it as one of my favorite reads yet this year. I am here for this series and hope the quality persists.

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Order Always North over HERE(USA) or HERE (UK)

OVERVIEW:

This isn’t a comic book. We do not have twenty-four hours to save the Earth. The world’s already fucked, and we’re all fucked along with it. That’s not my fault and it’s not yours.’

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Fantasy Book Critic's Review of The Gutter Prayer
Order The Shadow Saint here

The Gutter Prayer was one of the few books that I have pulled off a bookstore shelf simply because the cover was so arresting. I did not know a thing about the book but ended up loving its gritty world and misfit cast of characters. The Shadow Saint, The Gutter Prayer's follow-up, goes in with the disadvantage of expectation - I knew mostly what I was in for and it was up to Hanrahan to deliver a worthy successor to his breakout hit. He did it, and while I think The Gutter Prayer might be the better novel, The Shadow Saint is in many ways the ideal way to showcase the middle chapter of a series. It is rare for a second book in a trilogy to be the one that everyone raves about (I know it happens, Star Wars fans), and so that tempered my wildest expectations enough that I was able to settle in to The Shadow Saint and simply enjoy myself.

Strengths

What immediately caught the attention of most of The Gutter Prayer's readers was Hanrahan's world-building ability. The city of Guerdon is a character all its own, and like any good character, over the course of these novels it changes drastically. At the end of the first book, a New City is literally grown from the body of a dying man, giving the old city a coat of fresh paint that plays an integral part in the second book. Even beyond that, Hanrahan has such an interest in politics and religion and how they intermingle to form a society, that even did Guerdon not change in a very real physical sense, it would do so thematically. To add to this is Hanrahan's pantheon of gods - a group of deities that defy any logic and exist in the same way that the violent old gods of our own mythology do. In The Shadow Saint, gods from across the sea are coming to destroy Guerdon, and the city's only defense is a weaponized distillation of the Black Iron Gods, the very evil Carillon and Spar sought so desperately to stop in The Gutter Prayer.

Part of what makes Guerdon so interesting is its tone. I always question why human beings choose to live in dangerous places, and my confusion extends to fantasy realms. Guerdon is not a friendly place, and why everyone hasn't moved out to the countryside to live in suburbs with SUVs and in-ground pools is beyond me, but I'm glad they haven't because I enjoy the constant sense of danger and weirdness that Guerdon offers. Adding in the New City, a place that can quite literally change with a thought, gives the entire thing an even weirder context - as though the characters aren't really on the mortal plane at all but rather existing in some city of the gods. It works, and Hanrahan's writing style fits it like a warm blanket.

The Gutter Prayer had readers following Carillon, Spar, and Rat as they tried to survive a veritable apocalypse, and I quite liked that original cast. In a surprise move, Hanrahan takes the focus off of Carillon and onto her cousin, a young woman named Eladora who is featured in the first book but isn't front and center. She is joined as a point-of-view character by a spy who is never given a true name and exists as several people at once, and a prince from a Northern realm that, if its mentioned at all, was not in my memory from The Gutter Prayer. I like the new cast, and Carillon isn't entirely absent from the book, but I really liked those misfits from the first story. They would be hard to top in this context, and I actually admire Hanrahan's willingness to move out of his comfort zone. Even if I may not have liked them as much, there is no doubt that these are fully fleshed out characters who probably adapt and change more than did those in the first book (Spar might be the exception). Eladora changes dramatically in The Shadow Saint, and I think her evolution is remarkably well done.

Weaknesses

Where The Gutter Prayer is a nigh on neck-breakingly paced book, The Shadow Saint slows things down, and this probably more than anything is what dimmed it for me. As I said in my introduction, the middle portion of a trilogy almost has to be this way because it acts as a bridge between its bookends. However, what The Shadow Saint does at times is get so bogged down with its politics that I found myself struggling to read it. This may work for some, and I think Hanrahan's political writing is well done, I just didn't enjoy reading about it much in the same way that I don't enjoy reading about politics in a newspaper. This is not to say that I don't enjoy politics because I am as political as anyone who lives in a society, but the methods of conveying those politics can often bore me. For me, The Shadow Saint was at its best when it was dealing with its deities, which happens more at the beginning and end of the book than anywhere in between.

The Shadow Saint also suffers in its middle book syndrome by leaving dangling threads - plot lines that aren't satisfactorily explored or concluded. I wanted more with Carillon, for instance, who does not seem as though she is finished with Guerdon or this story. I expect I will have to wait a year or more to see if my wishes for this series are fulfilled by a third book that has a lot of baggage to successfully carry.

Parting Thoughts

I liked The Gutter Prayer more than I liked The Shadow Saint, but that's like saying I like a nice red ale more than a stout - they are both beer and I love them. I think Hanrahan is here to stay as one of the premier fantasy authors of this decade (assuming we are all around to see the rest of it). It would have been a simple and tragic thing to fumble the second book after such a strong debut, but he kept hold and delivered, and I am 100% here for the conclusion of The Black Iron Legacy. I hope some of these characters live to see the end of it - a wish I also hold for all of us readers. Stay safe!