Anyway,
on to the actual review. I really enjoyed this novel. It has a real air of mysticism
and a feel of Greek mythology, with the kingdom of the Gods and the underworld
battling against each other. The world is vividly painted both in description
and in its history, with detail lavished in all the right areas. I’ve read many
books before where the richness of the world is created at the expense of
pacing. I glad to say this is not a problem here, which is one of the aspects I
admire most about the book, as the detail is carefully woven in with the action
and kept relevant to the current scene/ character. I never once found my attention
wandering, and that really is something for me as numerous times I’ve sat down
to read a book and flipped several pages then suddenly realised I had no clue what
had happened in them as my mind was on something else completely while reading
them. My attention span isn’t so bad that I blame myself, as when I rescan the
pages I usually find that nothing much happened anyway. But this book does not hit
that snag and I have to say I found that massively refreshing as I’m so used to
my attention wandering at least once during a book.
The
characters are strong and match well with the world they live in. I really
enjoyed the contrast between Adley and Nathan, and the way the two
personalities managed to enrich and draw the other out. There are a lot of
threads to the story, all held together with sometimes rather tenuous
interactions, and yet the overarching plot manages to keep all these threads
ordered and coherent, which shows real skill from the author as the more
threads a plot has, the more likely it is to unravel. I can’t really say too
much more without releasing spoilers, but I will say that I found this an
absorbing and exciting read. I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a
good fantasy read.