Priest of bones

All cards on the table - this gritty, realistic, military-fantasy is the kind of novel that fits me perfectly. If you are a reader wondering if this book is for you, let me go over my favourites... I am a reader of military-space opera (ex. Castle Federation and Honor Harrington), I have read probably a hundred novels in the Warhammer 40k universe, and when it comes to fantasy, I appreciate the nasty realistic low-fantasy approach such as the Black Company, Game of Thrones, Mistborn / Words of Radiance, as well as the Codex Alera and Dresden Files. If these novels are in your wheelhouse, I think you'll fall in love with Priest of Bones as quickly as I did.

If you haven't heard of those previous novels, let me describe the setting and you can make a decision if this is for you. This is not high fantasy, and there are no happy endings. Just because the world is medieval doesn't change how people act. Mature themes are littered throughout the book as we cover drugs, prostitution, slavery, and some of the worst acts imaginable visited upon children. Corruption is everywhere and people are doing just about anything they can to survive. The setting is just after a war that has practically crippled the country -- it's very post-WW1 in feel. Depressing does not begin to express what horror it would be to live in such a world.

Into this comes the incredible antihero of Tomas Piety, a priest of a religion we wouldn't recognize, whose voice is charming and his practicality something fearful. Tomas Piety is the other reason this novel is a success. Yes, he was a thug. His service in the war was admirable though and through bloody experience, he is now a government-trained ex-military thug. His competence is incredible, his morals questionable, but combined with his practical military mindset... this is a strongman that many will be glad to stand behind.

I have nothing left to add. By now you'll know if you want to read Priest of Bones. Go. Go do it right now.

I was disappointed at how quickly everything wrapped up near the end. I felt like the author wanted to jump to the wedding scene (which is a very classic, set-piece mobster scene) and a lot of the earlier characterizations were brushed aside to avoid dragging out the novel. The Piety family had been giving Tomas a lot of grief about his over-expansion and excessive bloodshed, and none of this was addressed. To have suddenly jumped to marrying his fancy-girl, who started acting and talking like high society, this seems like something that Tomas's brother and his aunt would have needed careful adjustments to accept.

As well, the novel suffers from the classic case of moving from smaller, tactical matters where you feel the death of every single member of Tomas's crew, to forgetting who is who and battles at such a large scale that you no longer care that he's lost men. Folks that deserve more characterization (the False Knight, Will the Wencher, Black Billy) start to shift into the background and get zero screen time.

That said, Tomas himself is moving up in the world and this is meant to showcase that. Perhaps similar to Tomas, I am also sad that he's leaving the streets behind. Elsa is a real piece of work and I like how Tomas spent time expressing how he's truly starting to fear her.

Anyways, the final twist was excellent. Setting up the Governor to be Tomas's next antagonist really showcases how much things have changed. I wouldn't have considered them remotely equals when initially introduced, but it's clear at the end that while Tomas is still the underdog, they're in the same weight class now.