War is brewing everywhere.

A familiar feeling

Once past the initial workings out of “Who is who?” and “Where in the hell is Cortes Vonja?” I settled into a gripping read, in what felt like comfortable campaigning boots. Moon writes a tale that reminds me of youthful days spent reading the Dragonlance Chronicles and playing Dungeons and Dragons.

It’s good military fantasy; perhaps informed by her own military service. I enjoyed too, the play with gender. Dorrin has the title of Lord, the Pargunese aghast at women being allowed to serve as frontline troops(believing them instead to be whores for the soldiers they train with). There’s an interesting mix of realism (in the sense of cultural misunderstandings causing conflict) and your standard fantasy tropes.

If I was disappointed with anything it was with the speed with which the one romantic relationship in the book was handled, it felt to some extent as if it had come out of nowhere. Not having read the first book I am not sure if it may have been foreshadowed there, but it certainly felt as though the relationship was more plot device.

Final Thoughts

Good fantasy reading with enough well thought out military fantasy to please those that read closer to the ‘historical realism’ end of the spectrum, and enough magic and wonder for those that like high fantasy.


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This book was provided to free of cost by the publisher.