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The House of Sacrifice by Anna Smith Spark
The House of Sacrifice was absolutely brilliant – unsettling, brutal and tragic. A masterpiece of intrigue and Anna Smith Spark has crazy talent. The House of Sacrifice concludes the Empires of Dust trilogy and can I say what a wild ride it was. I enjoyed every minute of it and can’t believe it took me this long to pick it up. I deserve a slap across the wrists for that misdemeanour. The prose is outstanding…seriously beautiful in its brutal sense of realism. At no point did I struggle to get lost in the story, I was there in that moment, living the consequences of those characters. Spark has a way…
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The Tower of Living and Dying by Anna Smith Spark
The Tower of Living and Dying is absolutely EVERYTHING you could want in a fantasy novel. Epic scope and an imagination that never quits for anything. When I read The Court of Broken Knives a couple of weeks ago, I was blown away by the sheer force of Smith Spark’s writing. The characterisation, the passion, and the endless possibilities of the worldbuilding. It’s been a breath of fresh air from the usual fantasy novels I’ve been known to read. I love Grimdark in all its devious nuances and deplorable characters but this feels different somehow, addictive and binge worthy. The Tower of Living and Dying continues straight on from The…
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The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark
A Court of Broken Knives is the crowning of the Queen of Grimdark, Anna Smith Spark. A fantastical story that resonates with power and struggle. I can’t wait to delve into the Empire of Dust series once more. Am I glad that I picked up The Court of Broken Knives? Oh boy, am I ever. I put out a call on Twitter to get my fellow bookworms to suggest fantasy books that might get me out of my fantasy reading funk. In 2022, I read the First Law Trilogy in its entirety and had the biggest book hangover. Nothing in the Fantasy genre was scratching that grimdark itch, it was…
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The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne | ARC Review
JESUS CHRIST ON A BURNING BIKE!! Never has there been a more impossible review to write. The Shadow of the Gods, a book that has not only captured my imagination but stolen my heart with the range of differing but equally loveable characters. Some you love to hate and some that carve a big gash across your chest with glistening sharp axe. The storytelling is magical but brutally real, the atmospheric worldbuilding enraptures you, you can feel the raw and biting waves as you travel with these Norse folks on longships, you can feel the ground they trod upon and you can feel the pressure of being a part of…
