Thank you to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have to be honest and say this book is not normally a genre that I like but I didn't realize this and I am glad I didn't. I end up speeding through the audio version of this fantasy novel and enjoyed it enough that I will likely read more. I do have to say that points of the book were a bit confusing and I even had to rewind the book a few times to try to catch onto what had occurred. These were always in action scenes. Those scenes were always exciting and moved so quickly it would be easy to miss something. I think that Fantasy lovers overall will enjoy this one quite a bit.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

Time travel, demons, and a lot of death.
In a good way, the book was confusing at times making me wonder where the story was going and I couldn't have guessed how it ended. Other times it was just confusing due to time travel shenanigans. Even though shenanigans occurred, I did truly like this book due to a few reason. Plot twist after plot twist kept you guessing what was happening. The story itself was compelling, drawing me in to need to know what was going to happen next. And also, the cast of characters were developed well enough to make you feel for them when deaths occurred. I cannot wait to see where where the next book takes us in this series.

Thanks to NetGalley, Podium Audio, and Audible for allowing me to review this advanced copy of A Blade Through Time!

I was drawn in by the cover artwork of this title. "A Grimdark Progression Fantasy"... I wasn't sure what that meant going into this book. But it did indeed become more and more dark as the story progressed. Another thing that drew me in was a fantasy title which deals with time as part of the magic system.

This story was quiet interesting. I loved the magic system. Time manipulation/dilation is fascinating to me, and it isn't used too often in a fantasy setting. But there were other forms of magic besides time, and some of those were fairly unique as well. The story was different than a lot of fantasy out there, as if it had just a little touch of science fiction added to it. The narration by Eric Summerer was solid.

I do wish some of the character work was a little more fleshed out. I felt as though some characters did not have much depth to them. And at a time or two, I was a little confused as to what was happening (time shifts, change of perspectives).

Overall, I was pretty happy with this story and I am looking forward to more from this author.

A Blade Through Time is the first book in the Desolada series. This serves as a great standalone story but also an excellent way to start a series. It has a little bit of everything; demigods, magic, demons, sword fights, and so much more. It was a little confusing at times but always action-packed.

The story follows Leones who was just sixteen years old at the start of the story. He goes through a traumatic event that awakens a power he didn’t know he had. He can manipulate time. After he was forced to watch his home burn along with everyone in it, he is able to rewind the devastation that he just endured and escape before it even happens. After that Leones is on a quest for redemption and survival.

Leones becomes an apprentice to a philosopher and is able to practice his magic along with other skills like sword fighting, and manipulation. I really enjoyed seeing Leones figure out how his power worked. I liked some of the wording used when he is using it, for example during a fight he is constantly rewinding time to stay ahead of the fight. He calls it “rationing” his power. Seeing how he uses it and learns how to use it differently was very clever writing.

Like I said this is a great first book in a series. It sets the world and characters up in great detail. However, I do not think this would be a good first book if you are just getting into science fiction. Parts can be confusing from a plot perspective and then you add in all the crazy names you get in a book like this and I can just see it not being friendly to newcomers to the genre.

I did not see the ending coming and I really like where the book went. I will be looking forward to seeing how this series progresses.

Final score 4/5