Thank you so much to Orbit books for this review copy in exchange for an honest review. "There is no truth upon that bloody altar.” Recommended for fantasy readers and especially fans of Dalglishes’ work These did not affect my overall enjoyment of the book on a large scale, though. Also, there were certain times when there was a lot of explanation all at once, which made the pace of plot slow down too much. At times I felt like the overall plot could have used a bit more focus and ended up feeling unnecessarily chaotic. I could not give this book a perfect score for a couple of reasons. He has always placed the gods in the realms of society not as all-powerful beings, but as human-like with flaws and faults, too (see quote above). In addition, I really love the way Dalglish approaches gods. I cannot give the author enough credit for how entertaining these scenes are. Near-perfect descriptions of the characters and their movements to go along with mental and emotional states of the characters. If you have been following my reviews, you have heard me rave about Dalglishes’ ability to write action scenes and fighting performances. What a ride this book was, especially in the second half. It won't be officially released until January of 2023, but all that means is you have plenty of time to pick up and read the first book, The Bladed Faith while you are waiting for your preorder to get delivered!
THE SAPPHIRE ALTAR has everything you could ever want in an engaging epic fantasy. He's that good and I'm happy to say that he seems to be at the top of his game with the Vagrant Gods series. I was a fan of David Dalglish before this series, but now I am an absolute devotee who will run to buy every single book that he produces. It will keep you on your toes, wow you with intense scenes of battle, and cause you to cancel a lot of plans because you don't ever want to stop reading it. What I will say though is if you enjoy incredibly epic stories of good vs evil where the lines are sort of blurry as to which is which, then you need to read this book and series. It's hard for me to get into any specifics of the story without spoiling things so I will refrain from that. And yet even though hatable, I couldn't help but speculate that there was more to him than what we are shown at the surface. Dalglish has written one of the more infinitely hatable villains that I have come across in some time. But it is also what made me keep wanting to turn the pages of this book because he was also such a charismatic and magnetic personality. Every scene that I read with this guy in it had me wanting to reach into the book myself and put a dagger in his back. That villain comes in the form of Heir-Incarnate of the empire Galvanis.
I mentioned on Twitter while I was reading this book that there's nothing more fun (at least for me anyway) than reading a book that has a purely evil villain that you absolutely despise.
But as Cyrus tries to gather forces for a successful insurrection to reclaim his country he soon realizes that he has some very real troubles of his own to deal with that could threaten to derail it all. Their main target being fugitive prince and former heir to the old throne Cyrus. Any possible pockets of resistance are sought out to be crushed and eliminated before they can grow into something that could potentially threaten the empire's rule. They rule with an iron fist and violently execute anyone who refuses to submit to the one true god. This book picks up where the first book left off as the extremely religious Everlorn Empire has now firmly entrenched itself within the island nation of Thanet. When an author can keep you totally off balance like that to the point where you truly don't know who you should be rooting for, well there's nothing better in my opinion. Getting to experience these other viewpoints has also cast some doubts on what I thought I believed after finishing book one.
VAGRANT HEARTS SERIES
The chapters with Keles and Eshiel in particular were some of the best in the entire series I thought. What I also loved about THE SAPPHIRE ALTAR is that Dalglish places more of a focus on other characters, rather than primarily on Cyrus. To be honest I was sort of expecting a slower paced second book but what I got was a follow-up that only doubled down on the action, treachery, and revelations regarding the history behind this tremendous story. Call's Silent Gods and Krystle Matar's Tainted Dominion. Well I have to say that after reading this heartstopping second book in the Vagrant Gods series that it has now joined a very special place among my favorite ongoing fantasy series right up there with Justin T.
0 kommentar(er)
