After months of trying to finish this book, I’ve decided I have to dnf. This was my first attempt at reading one of Maberry’s books, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this was probably not the best place to start. I was not impressed with the writing quality which is what mainly kept me from moving forward with this book. I was pretty surprised this was the case since Maberry has such a backlog of novels. I guess his style of writing just doesn’t work for me. From what I can tell with other reviews, if you enjoyed previous Maberry works, there’s a really good chance you’ll like this. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up something else.

Thank you to NetGalley for this e-arc. All opinions are my own.

Kagen Vale, a guard for the Empress and her family, is damned. Damned because the Witch-King destroyed his life as he knew it along with the Silver Empire in one evening of bloody destruction. In a world dominated by gods, old and new, forces have turned against all that Kagen has known, trusted and loved. Fear is the new controlling factor in the world as the Witch-King ruthlessly converts the populous of the Silver Empire.

As Kagen copes with the changing world and his building vengeance, truths about magic and the old gods come to the forefront. I truly enjoyed the world building and structure of the novel. You are navigated through the truths of several individuals as the story progresses. As the pieces knit together the complexity of this novel becomes more and more fascinating. Beyond Kagen’s thread, each of the supporting characters is equally complex and well thought out. The novel has a satisfying ending but leaves you ready to pick up the next one to see how the story continues. 5 stars, a well written novel.

Review based on an Uncorrected Digital Galley provided by St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley. Thank you!

As a fan of Jonathan Maberry, I was super excited about a dark fantasy by the author.
I'm not sure why the book Kagen the Damned failed to engage me perhaps some parts hit a little too close to home for me. I'm not sure.
As others have noted the first third of the book Kagen is a morose alcoholic and there is little to connect him to the audience.
There were aspects that I enjoyed, however, the Lovecraftian references and the dark humor between Kagen and Tuke were fun and added a little levity to this Grimdark fantasy.
The Witch-king is an evil character that is sure to thrill and catch the reader's imagination.
I wish I had enjoyed it more honestly.
Thank you to #Netgalley #St.Martins and #JonathanMaberry for the AR copy of Kagen the Damned.

This fantasy was a little too long and wordy. It seems like some editing would help the story flow better and feel less convoluted.

I overall really enjoyed my time reading this book. The character in this work is fantastic and the story was classic fantasy, but unique enough to keep me interested. Will definitely pick up a physical copy and look forward to book two!

Confession: I am not a fan of the fantasy genre. I've dipped my toes into the fantasy pool now and then, but am usually left cold by it. Most of the books I've tried in this genre have ended up in my DNF pile or, in the case of those series where I managed to finish Book 1, left me deeply uninspired and disinterested in continuing. The only works I've found to match my tastes and sensibilities, thus far, have been George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, and R. Scott Bakker's Kellhus books. In point of fact, I very nearly passed on reading an ARC of Kagen the Damned save for one sole, deciding factor: Jonathan Maberry.

I dig the hell out of Jonathan Maberry, see. Given how much I've loved his Joe Ledger books and P.I. Monk Addison from Glimpse and Ink, if anybody was going to make me give the fantasy genre another try, it's this guy.

After a night of drinking and whoring, Kagen Vale - whose job and sacred duty is to protect the Empress's children - sleeps through the opening volley of a devastating invasion that destroys the Silver Empire and leaves Argentium under the rule of the Hakkian Witch-King. Magic has returned to the world after a thousand years of being outlawed, and in one single night the Witch-King topples an entire empire and usurps the throne as the new emperor. Having failed so completely in his duties and oath to the Empress, the gods have turned their back on Kagen, leaving him damned and adrift, but with a single goal: to kill that black-hearted son of a bitch Witch-King.

Right from the outset, Kagen the Damned is a dark, bloody, and violent affair. Admittedly, this appealed to me greatly and Maberry's widescreen action scenes that dominate the book's opening sucked me right in. To make matters even more exceptional, Maberry drags Lovecraftian gods into his sword and sorcery epic, infusing the proceedings with a nice layer of cosmic horror. I thought I was in with this violent romp through the kingdom, but throw in some Lovecraft mythos? Gods of the Pit, I was in-in!

Kagen makes for an exceptional hero, and his fall from grace is as tragic as his attempts at redemption are savage. A skilled knife-fighter, it's rare that Maberry passes up the opportunity to remind us just how proficient and merciless a bladesman Kagen is, or why his skills earned him a place on the Empress's protective detail. What's even more compelling, though, is the moral conundrum presented by the rise and fall of the Silver Empire, and Hakkia's place among the kingdom's territories. While there's a certain degree of empathy to be had for the Hakkian people, it's hard to sympathize with the action of the Witch-King and his Raven soldiers, squarely making this a conflict of good versus evil, albeit with varying shades of gray to muddy it all.

Admittedly, I went into Kagen the Damned with low expectations, based only on my own past disappointments with previous fantasy stories. But I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see what Maberry brought to the table here. Worst-case scenario, I thought, this book would just be one more title in my DNF pile of fantasy books. Instead, this turned into the best of best-case scenarios. I not only loved Kagen the Damned, but turned that last page ready for more adventures with this motley crew of warriors. It's also given me a bit of an itch to try some more fantasy books and see what's happening of late in that genre, particularly in the field of grimdark sword and sorcery. Only time will tell if that itch can be satisfied, or if I must be left waiting for Kagen's second adventure to hit the shelves.

This is a violent book. Not dark so much as just violent. Lots of death. Buried amongst the violence are some very interesting observations on oppression (specifically religious oppression).

But that said Kagan wasn't very likeable for the first third of the book. Granted he'd lost everything he loved, but then he goes off and gets drunk and we have to wander aimlessly around with him on his drunken rambles. Rather boring (interspersed with horrendous violence as Kagan kills basically everyone he meets).

Rysaa and Miri, who are supposedly important, are ignored for that first third of the book after watching them flee the city. Because it is much more amusing to follow a drunk around. Um, yeah. Not so much. I do like dark fantasy, but I'm not really into drunken male violence. Once Kagan sobered up, he wasn't any less violent. Just more intentional.

Overall, this would be more suited to someone who likes a plot-driven book and isn't into character development as much. I'd much rather have spent more time with character development, less time with drunkeness and wandering lost. So perhaps it could have used a bit more plot development as well.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. If you love a good fantasy story, I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

This was my first read by this author. There is a lot of drama and intense world building in this novel. I must warn that it is graphic which I was not completely prepared for. It took a while to get going for me. Kagen is very morally grey and you will find yourself rooting for him. Overall, it really wasn’t my type of book but it may be yours.

The introduction to this novel was a bit slow and caused me to dislike the main male character for quite a bit, but it definitely got better. Kagen was an extremely flawed morally grey character, but I wound up rooting for him. The story is brutal and graphic, but fantastic as well. A villain that I truly feared, one that was maddening and cruel and actions unforgiveable. Never have I ever hated a character so much and found not a single redeeming quality to them. Even his sorceress accomplice struck fear in my heart.

Wow. Definitely a new genre for this writer. I stayed engaged in the story and finally finished the book but I wished that it had been edited for length and clarity. There is high drama, and the author has established a new fantasy world with kings, queens, monsters, swords and sorcery. I do enjoy this author's style, but it took a long while for the disparate plots to be brought together. This story clearly will have one or more sequels. I hope that they are more succinct.

I am deciding to DNF this. There is not much that will trigger me especially if there are warnings in the beginning. I don’t think I will be going back to give it another try before it is release but maybe at a later date when I’m mentally prepared. But till then. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this and hope later to be able to try again and leave an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

I tried several times to read this and couldn't get into it.

Endings are hard. Let's just admit that and enjoy the story.
Kagen is a soldier's soldier; raised by a living legend of a knife fighter into a family known for being generally awesome, he's a young commander for the castle guard. Most importantly to him, he is the sworn body guard and protector for the Royal children. Until they're all massacred or raped to death, and then Kagen is just a loser.
The book opens with Kagen waking from sleep (?) to find his city invaded, soldiers attacking and already inside the city. We learn later the entire empire is similarly attacked, and defeated in literally hours. The magic that allowed this attack has been outlawed for generations, so how did this happen? Did one of the outlaw sorcerers use illegal magic to set up this attack? I dunno, maybe, but also yes.
This book is written like a movie or TV show, which I usually hate, but it works here. The chapter view points bounce around between a few repeating characters, so we can see a few different viewpoints, but also a few characters that only serve to show the reader some action. In one memorable chapter, during the initial attack on the empire, two men are drinking wine to mourn their loss, the vineyards and villa burning around them. They discuss the attack and we learn something about the magical nature of the attack. The story then returns to a main character's POV, but the scene is well written and does a great job of delivering the information in a new way. The violence is deliberate and graphic, but not gratuitous.
The characters are pretty good, believable for the most part, though some of them are just sort of there, doing character-things for plot-reasons.
A girl is a main character early on, and then disappears awhile, and then comes back on the other side of the actual world with people who are preparing her for a "sacrifice"... that's not foreboding or anything. Are they going to sacrifice her?!?! If they are, they're really bad at keeping it secret, and if they're not, then this whole thing is just really weird. I mean, a literal deux ex machina?
The ending is pretty weak, just, it is. I understand you have to set up the sequel somehow, but whatever, I'm still reading the sequel because this book is fun. For almost everything I didn't like, there was something I did like that canceled it out. I liked the training montage where Kagen learns to be a thief and hilariously face a fear of heights, even if I didn't like the "prophecy" he gets early in the book. The witch who prophesied read a couple fortune cookies, that's some weak-ass prophecy, lady.
Still, a fun read, looking forward to the next book in this series.
**I received an advance copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love dark fantasy but this one just didn’t do it for me. The over use of triggers to every one of the characters left little to the imagination. Kagen I just couldn’t connect to. He spent more time on my nerves than in my heart and the plot just wasn’t original enough to make this a fantastic read for me. I am excited to see what else Maberry does with this series because it’s Maberry but I don’t know if I’ll continue it.

Although Dark Fantasy isn’t my normal genre, I have heard of Jonathan Maberry and jumped at the chance to read this one. This story is complex, with magical systems and political intrigue. I found the plot easy to follow. Karen is a damaged hero. He has been through a lot and at times it was hard to see how he would pull himself up to be the hero of the story. I particularly liked Miri and Ryssa. I found their stories help create balance to Kagen. Though the story was a bit slow at times, the action and twists made this an enjoyable read.

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin’s Griffin for the arc in exchange for my honest review.

I definitely stepped out of my comfort zone with this one. A fantasy book with a made up kingdom?! What the heck was I thinking? Actually, it is pretty darn good if you can get past all the drunkeness and well men having a good time at a woman's expense.

Many thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for this advanced readers copy. This book is schedule for release on May 3, 2022.

In one hellish night, the Silver Empire falls to Hakkia through the use of magic. Magic has been banned in the Silver Empire for centuries, but Hakkia kept it alive. Charged with protecting the children of the empress, Kagan is drugged while off duty and reaches the palace too late to save his charges. He is devastated and proceeds to drink his way through the next months, certain he is damned. He wanders the kingdoms searching for a way to take down the Witch-King, who now rules. He will need all the allies he can muster. This is the beginning of a new series from Maberry, with heroes and heroines and strange gods and deep dark magic. And Kagan must worm his way into the the heart of the realm to rescue the anyone who might have survived the night of mayhem.

Jonathan Maberry’s foray into epic dark fantasy is a fantastic start to a new series. It features Kagen Vale, the captain of the palace guard and protector of the royal children of the Silver Empire. One night when he is off-duty, the entire imperial family is killed and the empire is in ruins throughout all of its nation states. Kagen feels abandoned, heartbroken, and haunted. He turns to alcohol and vows to kill as many of the enemy as he can until he can kill the Witch-king of Hakkia who will soon be crowned emperor. His rage fuels him as he wanders the lands and gathers allies. Kagen is not the only one that wants to kill the Witch-King. The nun Miri and a fifteen year old girl Ryssa manage to escape the capital city. Another nun, Mother Frey, and her cabal of friends have plans as well. But can any of them succeed or is all lost? Who is the Witch-King that came from nowhere and is so enigmatic with a veil covering his face?

*Special thanks to St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for an early copy of this e-arc.*

First let me start by saying, holy crap I did not see that coming! I mean...I am actually speechless. Wow.

Now to get into it, I want to say that overall, I enjoyed the story and it was well written. The imagery was very vivid and real. It was easy to imagine how everything looked and get the feeling through Maberry's descriptions. Not only did I feel like I could actually see what was going on, I felt the emotions and drive of the characters as well.

The story is definitely one I would recommend to people who enjoy Game of Thrones or any medieval vibe books that have political aspects to it as well as intricate plots and strategies throughout the story. I loved that there were multiple POVs and I wasn't kept in one part of the world but was able to travel through different parts not only through Kagen but through different characters and even though some of Kagen's dreams and memories.

The Witch-King was a mystery and still is somewhat but I was able to understand how scary and intimidating he was just based on the imagery that Maberry gave. Kagen was an extremely relatable character. With all the emotions he felt and the rollercoaster of truths that he learned, it was easy to feel exactly what he felt in the story.

The one thing that I will say is that the book started out very strong and then I slowly started losing my patience with reading and started having a hard time finding the motivation to read because to me it felt like the plot was stalling. I kept on going though and realized that what was going on was important to the plot and building what's to come, it's just slower. The ending though.....holy crap! I'm still shocked by that twist and can honestly say that I did not see it coming!