Lord Of Secrets (The Empty Gods book 1) by Breanna Tientze (book review).
‘Lord Of Secrets’ is book one in ‘The Empty Gods’ series by Breanna Tientze.
In this short fantasy book, we’re following Corcoran Gray as he manages to get himself imprisoned and on the run from the Mages Guild, while trying to search for his grandfather. Along the way, he becomes involved with a runaway slave called Brix who literally falls into his lap while he’s trying to be invisible.
I really loved the way the magic worked in this world. It’s not a case of just wafting your hands and things happen, No, in this world, you have to pay for the magic you wield. Corcoran regularly gets incredibly unwell after casting a spell or he ends up in extreme pain. This means you either really have to think about what you’re doing or you have to pass that pain onto another person depending on what kind of person you are. Talking of the magic, there is a lot of necromancy in this book, which is something I haven’t come across all that often. I loved the way some of the creatures the necromancers used were described in this book, some were really quite creepy!
I also liked that our main protagonist is not entirely able-bodied but also doesn’t use his magic to simply fix his problems. Corcoran has a knee brace after an accident as a child and this means he’s not that great at actual fighting or even running away from fighting for that matter. He’s also not the best magician in the world and often doesn’t have the right kind of spell up his sleeve, so often gets beaten in fights, not your normal protagonist.
In fact, I loved all the characters in this book, even the background characters were interesting and well-rounded. Given the brevity of this book, there are lot of great characters in here that I just want to learn more about.
Along with the great characters, I felt that the plotting was pretty good as well, it certainly pulls you along with it. There were a lot of elements within the plot that I really wanted to know more about and I’m hoping that this will get a bit more detail in the next few books. I really hope they get bigger as the series goes on (you will not hear me say that often).
The writing in this book was so enjoyable to read, so smooth and hilarious in some many parts. This is definitely an author I’m interested to read more from in the future. The entire book just seemed to go so quickly once you start it. The ending is also one where if you felt like it you could just finish here, so if it wasn’t a book you enjoyed (but why wouldn’t you?), then you don’t have to keep reading.
I’m not going to say that this was a fabulously deep and intricate work of fantasy fiction, but it was a wonderfully paced and simply plotted book which is exactly what you need some times. Overall, I loved this book and highly recommend it. I can’t wait for book two of this series to land in my lap!
Sarah Bruch
August 2019
(pub: Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus. 328 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-78747-624-0
pub: Jo Fletcher Books/Quercus. 330 page enlarged paperback. Price: £14.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-78747-624-0)
check out website: www.jofletcherbooks.com