The Bladed Faith is a bloody, action-packed book about the horrors and violence of the project of empire. It will absolutely enthrall readers who seek constant battles and fights in their book, but might turn off readers who are looking for a slighly deeper, more nuanced examination of the social, political, and historical processes that the characters endure and resist. For me, this book shows a lot of promise as a series starter, but it just barely held my attention for its 500ish page length. Ultimately, it did enough to tease me and convince me to keep reading, but I cannot say it was anywhere near one of the best books I have ever read.

The Bladed Faith tells the story of a young man, Cyrus, who is the heir to throne of his island nation. That is, until the Everlorn Empire invades, killing Cyrus' royal parents and the gods of the island, and enslaving him as a political symbol to deter resistance. Cyrus is rescued by a man and his two daughters (one of which knows her way around fighting axes and the other who can take on the power of gods) who have been trying to help conquered nations overthroew the Empire. They train Cyrus to become The Vagrant, a powerful political symbol that will hopefully destroy the Empire once and for all.

As you can see from my blurb, and even if you go read the official blurb from the publisher, this is pretty standard fantasy fare. Teenage protagonist? Check. Gods with cool powers? Check. Evil empire to overthrow? Check. Court politics? Check.

A lot of the uevenness with the book emerges because on one hand it is clear that Dalglish wants this book to feel like epic fantasy. The pace is fast, the characters fall into their archetypes, and the plot is something that isn't new to the genre. However, on the other hand, the book attempts to tackle some really big issues without leaving the space for those larger themes to fully emerge.

This is a tad dissapointing because "colonilaism fantasy" is having a bit of a heyday right now. There are many books that are searing critiques of the colonial project, and its long-term impacts.. Whether it is the work of RF Kuang, James Dulin, Saara El-Arifi, Tade Thompson, Joe Lee, Kacen Callender, Ken Liu, there have been searing and emotional examinations of colonialism, imperalism, and empire. Dalglish is wading into these same waters, but he doesn't fully commit to his themes. This leaves the book feeling more shallow than it should, and I turned the last page wondering how much The Bladed Faith had actually accomplished.

This relates to the kind of odd relationship in the book between its action scenes and the development of the character arcs. As I mentioned before, this book is BLOODY. People are decapitated, stabbed through the cut, and maimed, executed, and butchered in (what feels like) every chapter. Dalglish doesn't run away from the very important fact that the process of resistance doesn't come cheaply nor cleanly. The protagonists in this book are pushed to the limit and must do some pretty heinous stuff to win back their island and take down the political embodiment of evil. Gods are brutally slain, and brutally slay. The action scenes come so frequently and take up so much of the page count that the book becomes one bloody fight after another. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this, but I didn't find that the author spent enough time ruminating on the ramifications of the fighting. Cyrus talks about how he has to step up and be willing to butcher, and one of the other characters discusses how she has come to love the bloodshed, but ultimately this wasn't enough. Violence in a book has to have a purpose, and Dalglish does just enough to keep in on the right side of that line. But where are the characters who are breaking down a bit? Where are the ethical discussions of who gets to do what when? The other authors I mentioned above (and many, many more besides them) have entire treatises about this issue.

If you are going to write about colonialism, especially as (from what I can surmise from the author) a White perspective, you have to do more than just use colonialism and empire as window dressing for cool action scenes.

But enough with that. I will commend the book on its action scenes, which are cinematic and exciting (and, honestly, if they are not your thing you can skim past many of them). I also think that Dalglish started to introduce some interesting wrinkles in the plot, whether it was some cool twists on Cyrus' backstory or the political infighting within the empire itself. It all amounted to a book that makes me want to check out the rest of the series, even with all of the problems that I wrote about here. As much as I critiqued the book, it is an exciting entry in the epic fantasy genre, and action/battle fans will definitely want to check it out. I am just hoping that the next book pulls back just slightly on the action and starts to immerse itself a bit more into the character arcs and themes that Dalglish has set into motion here.

Concluding Thoughts: The Bladed Faith is an uneven book, and your mileage with it will very much depend on how much patience you have for kick-ass battle scenes. The blood and violence makes for an action-packed thrill of a novel, but it comes at the expense of some more nuanced character and thematic work. Dalglish has created a world of powerful gods, evil empires, and a ragtag resistance group, but he ultimately doesn't find clear ways to make this book standout. Other authors have done "traditional" epic fantasy and colonialism fantasy better. However, there are just enough elements in this book to peak my interest and keep me moving into the sequel.

As with Dalglish's Keepers series, this is deeply character-focused fantasy that manages to be very personal while still having incredibly high, world-changing stakes. The world-building is similarly clever, with interesting religious elements and nuanced morality. However, something about this just didn't click for me in the same way. The Keepers books are some of my all-time favourite fantasy; this was just solidly okay for me. Perhaps that's due to the personalities of the characters themselves (depressed teen chosen-one prince is never my favourite!) or because a lot of this book feels like backstory before the major climax at the end kicks the story off properly (it's heavily spotted with training montages), but I will admit I found myself skimming to get to the action. Not my favourite of Dalglish's work, but I'm intrigued enough to keep reading!

I requested the ARC myself because the book was tagged with f/f and while it does have some, I wouldn’t read it for that, just to get that out of the way. It involves a side character and a quite minor character, so not much of a storyline.

The book itself is a fairly formulaic epic fantasy about a small kingdom attacked by a larger empire and the people and gods who fight back, including the young orphaned prince. The concept of living, present gods is probably the one thing that stands out for me, it pays off in a surprising twist that took a long time to build, but I’m not sure it was worth the whole 85% of slow going before.

Both my questions of “why is this paced so oddly with so much detail?” and “why are we getting so many character POVs?” are answered by that twist but I dunno if I’d recommend it to people who aren’t huge fans of the genre. Or of really detailed action scenes, lol, there are many, elaborately described fights, and I’m sure there’s an audience for that, just not me.

DNF @ 34%

I unfortunately did not vibe with this book. I had hoped to enjoy this book, but it just didn't work for me. This is the second book by David Dalglish that I have DNFd. I will be wary of picking up his books in the future, as he may just not be for me.

Stars: 2 out of 5

DNF at 45%.

There are the makings of a good book in there, that's why I am not giving it a one star review, but the execution was sorely lacking, at least for my taste.

First of all, it drags. Even the battles move slowly and the narrative parts between them are never-ending. We get a long training montage at the beginning of the book that was interesting for the first 10 pages, but rapidly lost my goodwill after it dragged and dragged. 

I think the reason for that is because even though the characters acquire new skills and evolve physically, they never grow mentally. I found that the character development is next to null in this book. I never got to bond with the characters because I was never allowed in their heads. What drives them? 

Why does Cyrus decide to endure this harsh training? Just because he was told that he could become the avenger of his people? He didn't strike me as someone that selfless and patriotic at the beginning of the book. I would understand this better is I was privy to his inner thoughts and doubts instead of just his relentless training. Same goes for all the other characters. They are kind of there and going through the motions, but I can't picture them in my head. They are not "alive" to me. I am a character-driven reader, I don't do well with books that lack those. I can forgive a lot of flaws and plot-holes as long as I'm invested in the characters. Here, I wasn't.

Don't get me wrong, there are some interesting ideas in this book. The whole idea of the origin of divinity is one I would have loved to know more about. This is one of the reasons I kept reading for as long as I did. But then I caught myself skipping pages upon pages and stopping just to read the major plot points. That's when I knew that it was time to abandon ship. 

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ugh. I am so disappointed by The Bladed Faith. I wanted to like this book so much more than I actually did. Orbit, you let me down this time, and you rarely rarely ever do. Now, this might have been the case of this book being hyped up too much and me building it up in my head, but uh wow did this one just not resonate with me at all. The Bladed Faith felt very much like your stereotypical ‘chosen one’ needs to mete out vengeance after someone they love is killed kinda story. There was very little that stood out to me as original — though the singular thing that did stand out was very nice indeed. Of the characters, only the main one was a straight white male. Literally almost all the ‘good’ characters that were on page a bunch were either POC, queer, or both. Needless to say, that was refreshing! However, I’m not rating a book five stars simply because of it’s representation.

My biggest beef, I think, is that the story itself wasn’t that interesting. Cyrus is the sole living heir to a kingdom after an empire comes and conquers it. The empire kills his parents in front of him, and then he is led down the path to vengeance. There are god characters, but they are killed almost immediately. Cyrus becomes amazing at fighting after three years of training, and is turned into a sort of vigilante. He’s only nineteen when the real beefy part of the novel starts. He’s out there beating full grown adults in fights. I just was not interested. Maybe I read this at the wrong time? Maybe this book was never for me. Who knows, but overall, I found myself sort of dreading picking up the book again. I forced myself to continue because one, I did want to know how it wrapped up, and two, I wanted to see if it got any better. It sort of? Gets better? There’s a huge betrayal at the end that was interesting, but other than that it just sort of felt typical.

Perhaps I would have been more interested in this if the main character had been literally anything other than a teenaged straight white male. Mari and Stasia, the sisters who help train Cyrus, were infinitely cooler than him, and they’re only side characters. Despite having a decently well-rounded cast, The Bladed Faith felt extremely male to me. (Male power fantasy? I guess, is what I mean? Only the young white guy can save an entire kingdom from an empire!!!) This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that fantasy as a genre is overwhelmed with. I sadly (and quite obviously) was not impressed with this one. Two and a half stars.

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

Despite not being one for action sequences, I really enjoyed the ones in this book, and found the training montages interesting. While I’d like to have seen more character developments, the story did have enough tension to keep me reading to the end. I recommend this for anybody into high fantasy. Detailed review to come.

This book started out great, tons of action and emotion. Then I will admit, it was a little slow going for a while, but once it hit its stride, it had me fully engaged. The characters and magic are very interesting, and the action and fight scenes are hard to beat. I will definitely be continuing in this series.

A fantastic start to a new series. Looking forward to more from this author. It was so good I loved it

Love Dalglish. This book was very interesting and very good. I will definitely be continuing on the series. I think that the story was fun and interesting and very compelling. I think that the writting was a like much at times but overall it's pretty good.

Revenge. It's a twisted path that usually leads to a grave...unless you have a guide. Dalglish takes a new twist on an old theme. A prince trying to regain his kingdom with the help of professional rebels who turn him into...a symbol for his people to rally behind. Outstanding read.

slow to start but once it got going it was INCREDIBLY good and fast paced. i loved all the characters and the way all of them were given very complicated personalities and often cruel moments but where still treated as full characters.

The Bladed Faith was my first exposure to the work of David Dalglish. After reading the premise of this book I was very excited to read it. This book did not disappoint on the set up that was communicated in the description of the book. In this review I am going to highlight what I liked and some of the minor criticism I have, they are minor because I really enjoyed this book! Before contiuining I was given this book as an e-Arc on netgalley, so this is my honest review. I really enjoyed this novel, it was one of my favourite reads of the year and I am looking forward to the sequel.

Good-
Character Development: I really enjoyed the characters in this book especially the main protagonist Cyrus. I found his chapters engaging and I liked Cyrus as a protagonist. I was always rooting for him and I felt that he earned the growth of his character. It did not feel forced and he had to struggle and over come the large hurdles in front of him.
Some other characters of note that I really enjoyed were Stasia and Mari. These characters were fantastic and by the end of the book they were just as important to me as Cyrus. Dalglish did a great job of weaving their POV’s amongst Cyrus’s and left me wanting more from each character. Also, both of these female characters were badasses and I wouldn’t want to mess with them.
World Building: The country of Thanet I felt was very well thought out by Dalglish and by the end felt very well realized. He did a great job establishing the conflicting god(s) and the confliction nations of the Everlorn Empire vs. Thanet. Dalglish did a great job of describing and creating real locations in my mind of Miquo and Thanet. He made them feel like real unique places that are struggling against the might of the Everlorn Empire. I enjoyed how the aspect and nature of the gods in these places feed into the culture and festivals unique to that area.

Minor Cons-
Characters needing work: two characters of note I felt needed a bit more work and fleshing out were Rayan and Keles. Keles more so than Rayan as she was a later addition to the book. I can see her being a big part in the sequel so I look forward to further development.

Combat- This book is combat heavy. So if you are not a fan of fighting and description of fight scenes you may not enjoy the read. I found at times the fight scenes could be a little too long and were very graphic. If you don’t like blood and gore and description of injuries you may also not like it.

Thank you for the ARC from the Publisher.

I hadn't realized David Dalgish has written 29 (!!!!) books, but having read the Dance of Blades and Half Orc series, I went in with certain expectations. Fun fantasy with riveting action sequences and pretty tied up endings for each book.

This book defied those expectations for me. The new world he has created (which I compared to the spread of Rome), and subsequent revolutions agains't the empire had the really fun spin of the native God's per territory. The idea of "Paragon's" I have seen a lot in fantasy, but that they had the extra twist of representing a weapon made the action sequences really fun. The last 10% of the book led to some great, unpredictable twists.

The only reason I didn't give this a 5 star was twofold. One, Cyrus just reminded me a lot of Haern from the Shadowdance series. He just didn't seem as differentiated. Also, the "Mastermind" of their elite group seemed a little predictable and well too well-financed, making subsequent plot points....money really does solve a lot of things.

If you like David Dalgish's other books or Brian McClellan's Powdermage series, you'll really like this book.

Orbit Books once again does not disappoint! "The Bladed Faith" is my first read by David Dalglish but it certainly will not be my last (especially seeing as I am going to HAVE to read the sequel to this fantastic start of a fantasy series!). This book starts off with a bang (and a beheading) with our main character Cyrus witnessing not only the death of his parents but also the loss of his country and gods. It's one hell of a start, and the story jumps a few years afterwards, introducing other leading and side characters into the mix. If you're looking for interesting characters, lots of action, and an ending that leaves you wishing it was already 2023 then definitely pick up this book!

4 out of 5 stars

Full review here - https://youtu.be/DxLIl6dkY2g

Overall I really enjoyed this coming of age fantasy! The found family and it’s discussion on religion and colonialism were my favorite elements of the story. Very excited for The Sapphire Altar!

This book has an interesting premise and is written well. For some reason, though, I never could get into it. I never cared for the characters or felt invested in the story, or entertained by it. There's nothing wrong with it that I can point out, so I guess it just wasn't for me, but I would recommend others to try it.

This is the first book that I have read by this author, and I can definitely say it won't be the last. The descriptions, characters, and everything was done really well. I shouldn't have to point this out, but I feel the need to say that the female characters in this book were written very well. They were real characters in the story and not just side-filler characters. One day, this will be the norm, but I will keep pointing it out until then. I debated hard on whether or not I wanted to read this book. I was really afraid it was going to be another chosen one story. There is nothing wrong with them, there just seems to be a lot of them out there. I am so glad that I took that leap and gave this one a chance, this is easily one of my favorite books of the year.

The beginning of this story really packed a punch, then you get into a lot of world-building, and it slows down until you hit around the 40% mark. Don't get me wrong it wasn't bad and with this series, there is a lot that you need to learn, but after that beginning, it was really noticeable, or maybe it felt so slow due to the intense beginning. Either way, once you get around 40% the story really takes off, to the point that I did not want to put it down. Simply, I was hooked, and I loved these characters.

First, we have Cyrus, honestly, I can't even imagine being in his shoes. The trauma that this poor boy has had to deal with at a young age is just horrible. I have to say my absolute favorite thing about Cyrus is that even though he is driven by revenge, he still has a moral compass. No matter what or how much training he has been through, he still keeps a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. I loved watching his character evolve.

I absolutely loved Stasia the Ax of Lahareed and Mari a God Whisper. These women are amazing. I loved them both for very different reasons, and I am really interested to see what happens in the next book after the way things ended in this first one.

I am not a fan of cliffhangers, but this ending has me wanting so much more. I can not wait to get my hands on the next installment of this series, because I need to know what happens next.

So the first thing that immediately struck me was the incredible cover design. Books should not be judged by their covers, however, this story easily lives up to the excitement and anticipation generated upon first seeing the cover image. Following a 'Hero's Quest' plot line, this story will have you cheering for the main character as he navigates unknown dangers and enemies. I will certainly be reading more books by Dalglish, and look forward to seeing what he writes next.