TL;DR: A heartbreaking standalone fantasy epic.
Source: NetGalley, so many thanks to the publisher!
Plot: Halfheart gets roped into stopping the War from consuming yet another God,
Characters: No one here was perfect, everyone was flawed and nuanced, it was lovely.
Setting: A dark and ruined world, I quite enjoyed the setting as well.
Fantasy: If you want a standalone fantasy epic, this is a great one. It has all the trappings.
Summary:
Years ago, the god of War took everything from aging mercenary Mordrena Halfheartāher homeland, her family, her god, even her magic. So when offered a place in the coalition of mages who aim to kill the War, she digs her nails and teeth into the chance at revenge. But the War is not the only god whose path is intertwined with Halfheartās. Another has been lurking in her shadow for years, desperate to manipulate her fate to serve his own purpose.
As Halfheart and her unlikely allies journey to find the one weapon that might turn the tides of the Warās unrelenting conquest, long-buried secrets are revealed, loyalties tested, and the fate of the known world is left hanging in the balance.
An exploration of loss, grief, and power,Ā HalfheartĀ is a wild, soulful, structurally inventive, and immersive standalone that proves Lewis understands the epic fantasy genre just as well as they do space opera.Ā
Thoughts:
Mordrena Halfheart is trying to just survive in a world where the Gods can consume one another to grow in power. Naturally the War is consuming everyone, including the god she once served. However fleeing is never going to work and she ends up tasked with assisting in stopping the War before he gets any farther.
My only complaint here is the pacing and how heavy this felt – Iāll just come right out and say that. The pacing felt a bit choppy, jumped a bit, and I think thatās just owning entirely to the fact that we needed to jam everything in this into this one volume. I did love the narrative structure, I just wish it was a hair smoother in itās execution.
As to the heaviness, that was intentional and I donāt hold it against it at all, I just want to make sure youāre aware. Itās heavy. This book is about grief, loss, and rebuilding after that. As someone who has dealt with an intense amount of grief in the last year, this felt like a heavy weight every time I read it.
Besides those two notes this was intense, well constructed with a beautiful narrative structure. I loved the complexities of the characters, the shape and style of the world. So much of this was absolutely enthralling and shows a writer really coming into their own. If you want a standalone epic fantasy, this is the one to try.
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