I love to be surprised as much as any other person, but sometimes there is satisfaction in seeking out your comfort zone, getting into a book knowing you will find a premise that is dark, bloody, and gritty. A plot that is multidimensional. World-building that is power-packed. And boy, does the author deliver!
The machine rose higher than a man, unsettlingly organic and strange, as if grown rather than built.
The world Keon Shore has conjured is dark, messy, and complex. In the tangle of the different affinities, lineages, sects, and various organizations, there is a lot to unpack and keep track of. But it also makes the world feel real, as opposed to stories where you can tell certain things were invented just to prop up the storyline. Ambitious plots can be akin to double edged swords, but in this case it works out wonderfully.
The whole apparatus throbbed in a way that made her skin crawl.
I loved both of the primary characters. They come from different ends of the power spectrum and complement each other well. Diwu, Ordinary and untrained, is wonderfully crafty and resilient. Nex, an advanced cultivator, is powerful, protective, and knows how to hold a grudge. Nex shows up a bit later in the story, but I am glad the author chose a dual PoV approach, because a single PoV simply would not have done justice to the sprawling world-building.
Defiance and tenacity given form, Diwu was perfectly suited for a plot like this. Life has handed her the short end at every turn, but through sheer force of determination, she trudges on. Never backing down. Never falling apart.
While personality wise Nex is closer to your typical good guy, but I found his affinity very intriguing. Being able to pull at gravity and fate opens up fantastic opportunities, both in battle and life. I could not quite fully fathom the malleability of fate angle yet, but I hope to get more clarity on that in the future books.
The wild action sequences that Nex’s gravity manipulation enables felt straight out of a scifi adventure and I fully mean that as a compliment.
How much more do you want, Feru?
Let off and you walk. Keep coming, and you leave a corpse.
The flavors of magic are many, as are opportunities for supercharged conflicts. Throw in a sentient weapon or two, some good old sword fights, a long-dead cultivator whose followers wouldn’t let him stay buried, a cult of over-ambitious occult charlatans… those pages begin to turn on their own, and soon you feel your fingers getting singed. Then suddenly, somehow, you find yourself in the middle of a reactor meltdown. Brilliant.
This weapon felt alive. Heavier. Dangerous and intimate. Like it wasn’t entirely hers to command.
The deep focus on toxicology was very very interesting. From the scorpion imagery, I had expected poisons to play some role in the story but didn’t realize just how deep the theme would go. I tend not to include spoilers in my reviews… but Holy PATHOGENIC HORCRUXES!
You’ll be hunted. Hounded. Until you’re nothing but meat and nerves and regret, twitching in the dirt. And then I’ll take back what’s mine
While the characters are interesting, the plot was unquestionably the biggest highlight for me. The action closely follows, but the plot was certainly the star of the show. Strange, unexpected complications emerge at every turn, assumptions crumble with every new chapter. There is pain, suffering, layered political conniving, but there is also optimism and people trying to do the right thing.
Strategy in everything. Conformity’s just a mask
I was drawn to the book after seeing it praised by Michael Vadney, and the author’s posts on threads. While a book of this kind will likely not appeal to everyone, I am glad I found it because in many ways it felt like it was written just for the person I am.
Now looking forward to the second book.
When the Bad Apothecary rises from the dead, no one will be able to stand against him.