- Author: Zack Argyle
- Genre: Epic Fantasy
- Page Count: 370
- Date Started: July 8th
- Date Finished: July 15th
A Brief Description
While preparing for the birth of his first child, Chrys Valerian is tasked with uncovering the group responsible for a series of missing threadweavers—those able to see and manipulate threadlight. With each failure, the dark voice in his head that began during the war grows louder, begging to be released.
Laurel lives in Zedalum, a secret city in the center of the Fairenwild. During her most recent messenger run, Laurel veered off course to explore the streets of Alchea. She never expected that her journey would end in chains. When Chrys learns who is responsible for the missing threadweavers, they come for him and his family. He must do everything in his power to protect those he loves, even if it means trusting a strange girl or the dark voice in his mind.
Note: I received this book from the author through Storytellers on Tour. I wanted to thank them for this opportunity! If you click the link below, you can see the full schedule.
Storytellers on Tour: Tour Schedule
MY REVIEW
I want to start by thanking Storytellers on Tour and the author Zack Argyle for giving me the opportunity to review this book!
This story follows Chrys, a threadweaver and a high general. He is expecting his first child with his wife. After making himself infamous in war, he has won himself the nickname the Apogee and fear and the respect from the people around him. He is just trying to settle down in his life and happily start a family. But threadweavers are going missing and Chrys as high general needs to find them. Meanwhile, Laurel, dweller of a secret hidden forest city is captured by those same men who are capturing threadweavers. When Chrys and her meet and he frees her, we start on a bloody course of secrets, revenge and betrayals.
This book was super readable. I’ll be honest, it took me a longer time to read it than usual, but that’s because shortly after I started it I started my first ever full time job, so I have been exhausted by the end of the day. All that being said, while at work I wanted to get off the clock just so I could read this. It was enjoyable, the characters relatable and real. These characters are flawed and have secrets that they hide from others, and they make some pretty…. dodgy choices. But that is what makes a character complex and real to me. Each character has their own personality, their own voice. Some are quiet and shy, others brash and still others are defensive and protective of the ones they love. They were all well-developed and had their own complexities. That being said, I wish I knew more about the villians. There were certain aspects of Chrys’s character, such as the dark voice mentioned, that were not as explored as I wanted it to be. I wanted to know more about that, but I’m sure it will be elaborated more in the second book in the series. Also, I want to make a note of this because I’ve seen others refer to this, but there were some heavy mentions of fatphobia here. There was a villain who also happened to be fat and you were reminded of it very consistently He was referred to as “gelatinous” and the character mentions the characters fatness every single time the villain is brought up. I feel like the character could have just been called fat and his corruption and evil could have stood alone. The two did not need to be tied together. This honestly brought my enjoyment of the book down. It didn’t sit right with me. I want to bring this up to my readers who may want to have a heads up about that.
That being said, this book has some pretty fantastic world building. The realm was described in every detail, without being overly info dumpy (although there was some info dumpiness in the story, it wasn’t used too much and it didn’t distract me too much). The world was built in such a way that every single city was fleshed out and perfect. I would love to live in Zedalum, living in the treetops sounds like such an amazing time. Each city had their own culture and their own cultures surrounding threadweaving. Speaking of threadweaving, the magic system was top tier. It was reminiscint of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, which I loved. It was enmeshed in the world perfectly.
The plot was good. It was high stakes, but the villians felt a little caricature-y until the end. I mentioned it earlier in my review, but I wish that they had been delved into a little more, development wise. That being said this didn’t detract from my enjoyment. The plot felt a little slow in the beginning, it took me until halfway through to really be into the story, but that could also be because my life has been so hectic recently. The pacing was off until the halway point and then it evened out. Again, this could totally be on me.
I would recommend this to anyone who loves complex characters, high stakes plots, political intrigue and bangin’ magic systems.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Zack Argyle was raised with a wonderful family motto: don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. What better way than to write fiction? He spends his days writing code and his nights writing epic stories about family, love, loss, friendship, and pain all intermixed with a heavy dose of the fantastical.
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This has been my stop on the Voice of War Book Tour! Check out the schedule posted at the beginning of this post to check out more posts by other content creators on this tour!
~Cam
Cosmic Lattes and Books 