I tried but I just couldn't get into it. It seemed to move too fast and was way darker than I was expecting.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

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 a strong character with plenty of good qualities, but also many flaws. However, he initially isn’t very likeable. His petulance, guilt, and rage consume him. Can he find a way to regain his balance and overcome magic and sorcery?

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. What role, if any, will they play? 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? The characters are well drawn and unforgettable.

Maberry’s writing is always great, but his world-building in this novel was fantastic. There was a strong sense of time and place causing me to feel transported, as though living the events alongside the characters. There was a balance between cultural elements, historical events, and action that made the reading experience an immersive one.

The book ends with more of a cliffhanger than I would have liked. While the epilogue helped, there are still a lot of unresolved threads for future books in the series. Themes include different cultures and religions, battles, heroes, how history can be altered or slanted by those recording it, treatment of the defeated and dead, magic, sorcery, and much more.

Overall, this was suspenseful and action packed with compelling characters that kept me turning the pages. It’s an impressive start for the first novel in a new series. I’m looking forward to reading the next one. If you are looking for a dark epic fantasy with twists, action, and a few surprises, then this is one you may want to check out.

St. Martin’s Press – St. Martin’s Griffin and Jonathan Maberry provided a complimentary digital ARC of this novel via NetGalley. This is my honest review. Opinions are mine alone and are not biased in any way. Publication date is currently set for May 10, 2022. This review was originally posted at Mystery and Suspense Magazine.

Mayberry never disappoints and this foray into dark epic fantasy does not either! Kagen is a tortured hero on a mission of vengeance. Get ready for dynamic stories, characters and action.

My thanks to St. Martin's press, Jonathan Maberry and Netgalley.
I spent the first 30% of this tale with a major mad on! I hated it! Kagen the drunk. Kagen the whiner.
Still, I kept reading on. There are really very few authors that I'd do that with, but Maberry is one.
Truth is that I've enjoyed every book I've read from this author. I've not read all of them, but..
So, I'm glad I stuck with this one! I will say that it's not my "idea" of fantasy. But it is a kind of fantasy. There are so many types of tropes here. Fantasy, supernatural, horror, science fiction. Almost too damned much! But, I'm willing to read more.
Turns out that I ended up happy as a pig in shit!
Bring on the next books!

I love fantasy books, and I love books with characters that have flaws or are (in this case) 'damned'.

However - what I do not appreciate are books where a single night takes 20 chapters to get through. TWENTY CHAPTERS.

This book is in need of an editor. Someone who can tighten these twenty chapters. Brandon Sanderson is an author who is great on creating description and plot movement. This author unfortunately does not excel in such so the twenty chapters is full of endless descriptions of actions and following Kagen mourn and grieve over characters you don't even know or don't even care about.

There is no backstory, there is no flashbacking... just info dump after info dump. Honestly, I don't mind gore but I felt with all the above combined with the gore made it a very unsatisfied read.

There might be an audience for this book but I think it would require you to have never read a fantasy book before.

I could not have been more excited to get the galley for this book and OMG!!! I adore Mayberry’s writing, but this….. This dark fantasy was just epic!! Kagen, the hero, was wonderfully flawed. The world building was brilliant and allowed me to truly visualize this whole world in my mind. The characters were all beautifully fleshed out. I was so sad when the book was over and I can’t wait for the next one (even though this one hasn’t released yet!). If you love a good, dark, epic fantasy- this is for you!

This was truly not for me. I could not get into it at all. I normally enjoy fantasy books but Kagen the Damned did not hook me nor keep me interested.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was completely enthralled with this book — my only complaint is that I’m finished reading it and I need more of the story NOW!
Okay, okay. I’ll be patient. I’m completely invested in Kagen and company.
I love a good fantasy world with just enough historic accuracy to make the reader wonder about alternate universes and other world that developed similar but oh so differently from the world we know.
Gods, mythology, how different cultures worship, and how all these things can be so similar (gods serving similar functions and such) yet so different based on the people worshipping — land or sea, war drive, desert dwellers, hidden forest people, and so on.
If epic battles, intrigue, quests, heroes & villains, history written by the victorious vs the defeated ones’ version, and unanswerable questions pique your interest you won’t want to sleep on this one.

There was something a bit off about the pacing of this one. I think it needed more character development. I wouldn’t typically complain about a book moving too fast, but I just didn’t connect with the characters.

This is a very quick-start book. I really wanted to love it, but it's honestly a really hard to get into. Generally Maberry is an author I enjoy, but there was a lot going on with this, and I kept fighting the urge to go back to see if I missed something, and part way through I did check to see if I missed a first book.

The ending was really solid, but it seemed to take me forever to get there.

Wow, the action in this book starts fast. Its been awhile since I've read a book in which the story develops, while the action is playing out.

Kagen, a well respected guard, who's primary responsibility is the royal seedlings; we find out very quickly that this all goes to crap....leaving Kagen with nothing and essentially DAMNED.

Magic was thought to be a thing of the past but with craziness of nearly indestructible villains, and alchemical explosives, it appears the Hakkians have once again used it to create chaos and rule the lands.

With the action, we also get several points of view near the beginning of the story. While confusing at first, the story draws you in enough to want to find out the importance these characters play.

Interesting story, great action...would recommend

3.5 Stars

FINALLY finished this ARC

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Early thoughts:

I'm 35% completed with Kagen the Damned:

I'm a pretty big fan of Jonathan Maberry so I was excited to get this ARC. This seems to be a fairly big departure from any of his existing series-or at least anything that I've seen out there from him. But with that being said, it is a really hard book to get into. The world building is difficult - I am not faulting him, but there is a WHOLE lot going on in the beginning even before we have time to understand this new world.

The new male MC - Kagen - at this point is coming across as a big whiny baby. Granted, he does have reason, but it is hard to stomach because as a reader, we have not be given the chance to bond with him so that we can therefore root for him. I am really getting tired of his "drinking his way to the bottom of the bottle". This happens every day...EVERY SINGLE DAY. Now, I understand that in this genre the hero is plucked from obscurity to become the "unlikely hero", but...honestly.....how much longer do we have to wait before he starts becoming that guy? When we keep reading that he wakes up with vomit all over him, missing one shoe, filthy dirty, talking to himself....this is not the behavior that I picture from a hero.

Besides that - the world building IS extremely interesting. The "big bad" villian is really......well, he's AWFUL (and really scary). The stakes are being set up pretty well against our unlikely hero, so I am excited that when he decides to get his act together, that it is going to be awesome. At least....that is what I am hoping.

So...only 35% in...but, I AM patient. Let's see what happens. (But if I am being honest...I hope it starts happening soon....)


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Finally finished. It was extremely hard for me to get into. I like the premise. Kagen finally grows on you but the pacing is very difficult. Way, way way too slow. Will I continue? I don’t know.

Kagen the Damned by Jonathan Maberry, I struggled with this book, felt a tad disjointed for me, but I do think others will enjoy it and Thank You for giving me a chance with this book.

I am rendered utterly speechless after finishing this epic tale. What an all consuming immersive story that I did not want to end. This book did not let up once. From shocking and despicable acts to timeless love I was enthralled. This is epic fantasy at its finest The world building, the magical aspects, religious and political standings… all of it done superbly and with sellers capability.

Kagen is a flawed unlikely hero but wow his journey is heartbreaking and astonishing. From gods downfall to his redemption I was hooked. He had to go through soo many obstacles and see soo much darkness before he was able to see any light… it was just an absolutely amazing journey.

I did not want to put this book down and once you start there is no way to just walk away. That ending floored me and I am just sitting here in shock hoping to go forward on time to get the sequel.

Facts-
1) My phone keeps correcting Kagen to Karen.
2) The Witch-King is very scary.
3) “…Gods of the…” will be said and breathed many a time in this book.
4) Kagan drinks a whole lot.


My husband has some Jonathan Maberry books, a zombie series, if I’m not mistaken. Zombies are decidedly not my thing so I never read them and as a result this is the first of Mr. Maberry’s books that I’ve read. The description for this story was so interesting that I felt compelled to accept the invitation to read an advance copy of this and I'm glad that I did. The author’s writing style here is very visual and that’s really enjoyable. This adult fantasy is heavy on the violence,yet is very easy to read, even for me, who has to hide her eyes when throats are cut or people are stabbed on-screen.

I’m not much for comparisons so instead of making any I will simply say that this book was pretty wildly entertaining and if you like world building fantasy, then I suggest giving it a try. The world building really was awesome and the character development is terrific. There was a cliffhanger at the end and I want to read more of this series (hopefully soon).

This is the first book I have read by this author. I love this genre of books and was prepared to love this book from the description. However, this was not the case. This is a very overly wordy book with slow, and I mean SLOW. Story building. Kagan, for the first half of the book, is an unlikeable drunk wallowing in self pity while we are introduced to so many other characters, it was difficult to keep them straight. I needed a chart of who was who and were they important to the story. When I finally got to the end, I was relieved, but the. Realized that this is only the first of an anthology. Sadly, I will not be reading the rest if they are of the same laborious writing. On the plus side, the world building was excellent and the main characters were nicely fleshed out. I just wish it had been presented better.

Review: This is a review for an ARC I received from the publisher.

Plot: What a ride! Kagen the Damned deserves high marks for an epic adult fantasy. I couldn’t put it down. The engaging plot and unpredictable twists kept me turning the pages. Author Maberry, a well-seasoned author, knows how to weave a colorful tale of vengeance and betrayal. Kagen’s story is brutal, graphic, heartbreaking, and devastating. The vivid descriptions will make you cringe and detest the Witch King as much as the captain of the palace guard does. Each chapter, each character’s point of view, added so much depth to the story. The pacing was fantastic. At times, I found the world building a bit confusing. Modern day terms and references slipped into the dialogue and plot. Perhaps the answer will reveal itself in the next installment.

Characters: The Witch King is definitely the most vicious being I have ever crossed in literature. His cruel actions knotted my stomach, and his sorceress, who dabbles in necromancy, scared the heck out of me. Kagen is the morally grey character you constantly cheer for and Tuke is the friend we all need in our lives.

Writing: Author Mayberry has perfected the ability to reel the reader into a new world. From chapter one, I was hooked. No, the text was not without its faults, but the non-stop drama helped me overlook little speed bumps I encountered here and there. Epic fantasy usually intimidates me. Luckily, Kagen the Damned eases the reader into a complex world.

Final Thoughts: I really enjoyed this book and can’t wait for the sequel. Book one leaves you on a huge cliffhanger. I need book two…now. This is an excellent starter for those who are looking to branch out into epic adult fantasy.

Triggers/Warnings: graphic violence, adult language, adult content,
Plot: 4/5
Pacing: 5/5
Escapism Factor: 4/5
Emotional Connection: 4/5
Character Development: 4/5

Star Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Completed Read: November 2021

I have enjoyed other books by this author and I liked this one too. I loved the world building and the immersion into the story. I cannot wait to read more.

Yet another fantasy tale where magic is illegal. But that all changes.

The Hero Kagen, has failed on many accounts. He failed to protect the Empress’ children. He failed to defend the Silver Empire. He failed to prevent the death of his parents. He even failed to keep a horse he stole. But he’s not the only person failing at stuff. Someone has failed to kill Kagen. And now a lot of people are hunting him down.

The book is rather slow (for my taste) for the first 50%, but after that it is quite fast paced and intriguing, including images of gods fighting in the sky.

With so many mysteries and unexplained events, it’s safe to say, I will be reading the next book.


The speech Lady Kestral gives after conquering the Silver Empire is a bit too long and explanatory.

I thought it was redundant for the Historian to be interviewed twice, and also for such a huge emphasis to be put on ‘writing history for the winners”, as if that couldn’t be obvious in fewer words.

Jonathan Maberry is mostly known for his horror books, His Pine Deep trilogy is one of my favorite scary series and I recommend everyone who loves a creepy and spooky read give a try. So when I heard that he had also written a fantasy series, and fantasy being my very favorite genre to read, it's like the best of both worlds collided and I couldn't wait to settle down with it. I wasn't disappointed as Maberry delivers one of the most exciting and entertaining epic fantasy debuts that I have read in quite some time. If you love a bit of treachery and political intrigue, Kagen the Damned will be right up your alley. This one had me up late quite a few nights and kept my attention as every chapter was incredibly intriguing and engrossing. Give this one a try if you claim at all to be a fantasy fan. Highly recommended and I can't wait to read future books in this series!