To my complete and utter lack of surprise, Steve McHugh has done it again.

I’ve been looking forward to this book for MONTHS. I love The Hellequin and Avalon Chronicles so was desperate to find out what happened to these wonderful characters next.

Having post a spoiler filled review on Goodreads, I won’t repeat it here, but I’ll give my overall thoughts.

I worried that the story would feel a little slow or disjointed as we join the lead character, Nate, 2 years after the end of The Hellequin Chronicles, powerless and human while he awaits the return of his magic. My worry was totally misplaced however as McHugh is such a talented writer. He manages to keep the story interesting and cohesive, even when the main character doesn’t have access to the powers that form a rather large chunk of the storylines. Human Nate is the same hero as sorcery Nate, he still fights for the vulnerable and those who need him, even when he is technically outmatched in power. He’s a truly great protagonist, with buckets of humour and bravery, but never falling prey to the Superman character danger, where someone becomes a bland cliche ridden caricature - he isn’t a boring, purely good hero, he has his darkness and has made mistakes, but he always tries to own his s*** and keeps fighting for what he believes in.

The story starts to come back into line with Hellequin and Avalon at around 64% in, but it doesn’t feel like a slog to get there, and the remainder of the book doesn’t feel rushed. Lots of threads are woven together, including a small amount of split perspective, but even that doesn’t really affect the flow and pace. With such character heavy books it would be easy for it to feel too busy, but McHugh never allows himself to be bogged down. He has created wonderfully rich characters, who, even when only briefly appearing in a book, still manage to shine and steal scenes - Remy, Mordred, Tommy, Diana are some of these beloved characters, that, yes ok, I’d love more of, but their scarcity doesn’t hurt too much as the rest is so well done.

McHugh is definitely a ‘show not tell’ author which I greatly appreciate, and he is descriptive without becoming too flowery and over the top. I can’t stand writers who repeatedly wallop their readers over the head with descriptive passages, and I appreciate the fact that descriptions of characters aren’t repeated ad nauseum, which a lot of writers seem to do, not just in each new book in a series, but several times in a book. McHugh only briefly references Nate’s appearance, same with other characters that have been described in the previous books, and it makes for a much more pleasant experience. I also appreciate that he can actually write female characters, without reducing them to their cup size or their other sexual attributes, of which far too many writers seem incapable. His female characters are not weak, they don’t need to be rescued by their menfolk and his male characters (at least the good guys) treat women with respect. It never reads like tokenism, and he is very inclusive, there are plenty of LGBT characters, and none are used cheaply, nor is their sexuality used to labour a point.

Another of McHugh’s talents is social commentary, without crossing into preaching. A theme I see him repeat is history being written by the winners, or propaganda being used to smear people for ulterior motives. In this political era that’s all too relevant. The progressiveness never feels forced. His attitude towards racism and all discrimination is pretty clear without ever entering the ‘snowflake’ (gods I hate that term) territory, his points are valid and well stated.

This universe is truly one that I’ve fallen in love with. I’ve got my husband, father, and potentially, my aunt reading McHugh and they all love what they see. These books would make great TV or film, if in the right hands (Whedon I’m looking at you), but hopefully anyone who does choose to pick it up loves the universe as much as McHugh so they can do it justice.

To sum up, read it. Read all of The Hellequin Chronicles. Read all of The Avalon Chronicles. Read the novellas. Follow McHugh on social media (lovely man, very nice to his readers) and support him by preordering his upcoming works. You won’t regret it.