This initial novel t the Soulfire trilogy had decent writing and characters, and an interesting magic system but I found it incredible generic with an overwhelmingly complicated and bloated narrative nothing to make it unique or memorable. A lot happened but it still managed to be slow and uneventful. There was a decent story buried in there, but it seemed hard to piece together underneath a lot of.... deadlands and nothing.

Thank you to netgalley for an e-arc in return for my honest opinion.

Thank you, Matthew Ward/NetGalley, for this amazing eARC in advance. All opinions are my own.

When I pick up a book published by Orbit, I know it's a winner 🏆, and Matthew Ward truly is.

Brilliant!

I really wanted to love this, but I merely liked it. The cover is absolutely stunning and I'm always a sucker for a thief MC. Interesting world and premise but it didn't quite have the spark I was looking for. I'd be intrigued enough to read the sequel.

I LOVED how the story started - a heist and two girlfriends working together with very dofferent skill sets!

It had a feel of epic fantasy meets Six of Crows!

Buuuut....then it got denser and denser and the oacing slower and slower and I found myself mostly bored.

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

A world where a mist is killing everything? Well, that sounds interesting. I would give this a 3.75 as I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. The world building was great and the magic system is so interesting. Souls that can power up other things? Yes, please! I enjoyed the found family theme throughout the book and look forward to seeing more growth in Damant and Kat's characters.

I loved the political process of this book. The rich building over the poor is just all to familiar. The found family in this book is great, with Kat meeting so many characters I fell in love with. With a huge complex magic system, it's going to be a favorite of Brandon Sanderson fans.

I enjoyed the story. I found the plot and the secondary storylines to be what sucked me in. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop and enjoyed the journey the story took. I also found the differences in each character to be refreshing and unique.

First, The cover design is absolutely immaculate, but this was a solid fantasy story and I loved reading it.

I enjoyed the writing but this felt similar to far too many other stories I have read. It will find its audience but I'm looking for something more creative.

I love Kat nothing gets between her and a job. Matthew Ward did an excellent job with this character and world. Cant wait from the next instalment

I tried to start this one several times and just could not get into it. There was nothing that I specifically disliked, but it failed to hook me several times over. May be one that I circle back to at a later date or I may just move on.

The Darkness Before Them is the first book in a sweeping political campaign fantasy trilogy by Matthew Ward. Released 7th Nov 2023 by Hachette on their Orbit Books imprint, it's 576 pages and available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

Huge sweeping campaign political fantasy (in the general vein of Sanderson, Wexler, Bardugo, & Cook), massive cast of characters (ebook format for search function is highly recommended), in-depth world building featuring good vs. evil and some nice magic play/skullduggery/theivery/more magic.

Doorstop fantasies with nearly 600 pages are always impressive to look at; often maps and lists of dramatis personae in the front, sometimes with pronunciation guides and timelines and royal family lineages to refer back to. This book does contain the dramatis personae list at the front, but not the rest. Nevertheless, epic fantasy it is.

Rebel outsider and noble thief Kat is trying to restore the lost honor of her family and clear her father's debt. Nothing ever goes to plan and she's swept up in the fight between good and apathetic evil; soon forced to choose a side in the magical war which threatens her world.

It's well written, the author is talented, prolific, and experienced. That being said, the cast is very large and cumbersome to keep track of. Some characters are window dressing, and the prose is often (often!) unnecessarily convoluted to suit the genre style. The bones of the story are very good, but often buried under detailed descriptions of people and things which have no bearing on the narrative at all.

Three stars. Very well written, but very very long and often meandering. It's a setup for a trilogy; book 2 was released 11th June 2024 and also tips the scales at 593 pages in paperback. Recommended for die-hard fans of epic huge brick sized fantasies with antiheroes. Volume 3 presumably due out in late 2024/2025.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

A slowly developed and enjoyable new fantasy series.
I loved all characters - well developed, intentional. Most especially the queer element is not a focus. Kat is not only determined to prove her innocence but also to bring Azra, her love's killer to justice. Sapphic with little focus other than it exists. One character returns to his husband after freedom and their family - again, not a focus. And I loved it!
Excellent world building. Loved the under dog feel. A very slow burn novel.

Great fantasy with interesting world building, political intrigue and epic actions. It kept me interested and flying through pages. I liked unique magic system. The pacing might have been slow at some places. But overall enjoyed this read

'The Darkness Before Them' presents a sprawling epic fantasy filled with political intrigue and dark magic. However, despite its ambitious scope, I found myself unable to fully immerse in the story or connect with the characters due to the writing style. While some readers may appreciate Ward's intricate world-building and complex plot, others, like myself, may struggle to engage with the narrative. Ultimately, 'The Darkness Before Them' may appeal to fans of dense, multi-layered fantasy novels, but it may not resonate with all readers."

I had a really good time with this one. There were a few times that I felt like its as really easy to put down and I'll admit that I didn't feel incredibly interested until about 25% through. There is a twist that I saw coming (Kind of - I didn't guess the details but I did guess the gist) and then another that I full on knew from the beginning. Still, it was interesting seeing the characters learn of these twists. The last quarter of the book was, quite honestly, five star material in my opinion. It did leave me intrigued as to where the characters would go from here. It's a really political read, which was super interesting to read through and try to figure out. I have hopes that the second book will be better, but I definitely don't regret the time I spent on this one either.

Loved loved reading this one. Epic in every way that counts. I can't wait more in this world. Great characters, writing style and world building. Highly recommend all of this authors work. It is great new fantasy and I loved the previous trilogy too. Great series starter. Looking forward to book 2

3 stars

An action-filled new fantasy set in an imaginative world ruled by a remote immortal king, this book will probably appeal to a broad range of modern fantasy fans.

The good: the metaphysics of this world are inventive and gratifyingly disturbing. Human soul parts are harvested (by ‘shrivers’) after death and used to power lights, security systems, train engines, you name it—and smaller slivers of soul called ‘talent wisps’ can be ingested to give the user a boost in the deceased’s area of expertise. This is a world powered by death, and that’s absolutely fascinating; I wish the existential horror of it were explored slightly more. The short chapters keep the physical reading pace feeling quick.

Unfortunately, I found it hard to invest much in either the society or Kat, the heroine, for the first 70% of the story. The inciting incident happens after a few chapters. Kat joins the rebellion at the 30% mark, but with an ambivalence that isn’t wholly satisfying—at this point we know her personal grievances against certain individuals in power, but have yet to learn what the rebellion as an organization is actually fighting for other than ‘nobles are assholes.’ 49% of the way through, Kat finally decides what she wants, which feels quite late in the narrative for her to start actually acting instead of merely being carried along by events.

However, the last 30% of the book really ramps up into an interesting and satisfying response to everything that came before.

There’s a lot of action in this book, stealth missions and heists and desperate fights, which kept the pace moving nicely but weren’t my favorite in their execution. A lot of fight scenes had an anime-esque quality, where the ‘cool’ characters strike poses while murdering guards (‘custodians’). In the last third, however, Kat starts to shine in a genuinely interesting way, employing some truly creative problem-solving as she refuses to be as ruthless as her enemies.

Overall, this is an inventive new fantasy world that gets off to an ambivalent start but properly sticks the landing. I don’t intend to continue in the series, but I don’t doubt this will appeal to a lot of fantasy readers.

This book had a lot of promise but it kinda wasted it. The main character is introduced in the middle of a heist, which I loved! But after she is caught, her story gets less interesting and I found the writing to be both under and overwritten in this novel, particularly in Kat's sections.

The other POV, Castellan, was much better but was handled a bit clumsy. I think he should have had more POVs so we could learn more about the noble class and the rest of the Firebloods.

I could be persuaded to read book two but it's not a priority.

DNF at 38%/the end of chapter 20

My deepest regrets to NetGalley and Orbit for granting me this arc. Unfortunately I just cannot get into the story and I feel like I've given it several hundred pages but can't imagine several hundred more getting better than a 3/5 at best.

This is a generic Fantasy with multi POV and so far it's taking a long time to find any real plot. But in the meantime there's no interesting world-building, intriguing characters, complex magic systems, or anything else to hold my attention.

The writing style really holds the reader at arm's length and I find that I'm so incredibly bored.