Wow wow wow. It's been awhile since I've read an epic fantasy novel (mainly because they're long, dense, and if they don't really grab me, they can become a slog) BUT Ward has reminded me why I LOVE epic fantasy when it's written well. I'll lead with my initial GoodReads comment when I started reading: "Deaf characters! Sign Language! Unique magic system! Gay thief female lead!! In my epic fantasy? More likely than you might think (if you're reading Matthew Ward, at least)".

This book is a masterpiece of world building and character development, just like good epic fantasy should be. If you're going to make me read 500+ pages in one go, it better grab me and keep me invested - and this definitely did. I was hooked from the first chapter, following Kat and Azra across the rooftops. I was immediately delighted to find that our female main character was also WLW, two character traits that aren't easy to find in most epic fantasy works (and almost never in a lead). I almost never read male authors, but if more male authors wrote women the way Ward does, I'd read them more!

Kat, our main character, is well-developed from the start but still goes through immense character growth by the end of the novel, setting up a very exciting path for book two. I was also fascinated by the magic system, especially Kat's tattoo, and can't wait to continue to learn more about it in the sequel. The diversity in this novel feels incredibly natural; with a side character who's deaf, Ward chose to make sign language a baked-in part of his world building, utilizing it both for the disabled character AND as a smart aspect of the lower class, where sign language gives them a way to communicate silently or across other language barriers.

I took my time reading this one, really taking in the world and the characters, and the big reveals at the end were an incredibly satisfying payoff. Epic fantasy isn't for the faint of heart reader but if you're craving a riveting political landscape, detailed world building, and nuanced character development with complex moral questions at every turn, you should absolutely pick up this book. It's well worth the time!

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for this ARC in return for an honest review.

With its epic scope, grimdark setting, and compelling characters, The Darkness Before Them by Matthew Ward promises a thrilling foray into a world on the brink. So, buckle up as we delve into the depths of this debut fantasy, examining its strengths, weaknesses, and whether it deserves a place on your bookshelf.

A World Cloaked in Shadow:

The novel plunges us into the Kingdom of Khalad, a land ravaged by the encroaching Veil, a supernatural mist that devours souls and twists life into grotesque forms. This oppressive atmosphere is palpable, Ward painting a vivid picture of crumbling cities, desperate citizens, and a ruthless ruling class fueled by stolen souls.

A Cast of Compelling Rogues:

Our protagonist, Kat, is no shining knight. A talented thief burdened by a family debt, she's driven by pragmatism and survival rather than noble ideals. Her morally ambiguous nature is refreshing, making her a complex and captivating anti-hero. The supporting cast is equally well-drawn, from the stoic Castellan Ihsan Damant to the enigmatic Rîma, each with their own motivations and agendas that intertwine with Kat's in unexpected ways.

A Plot Teeming with Intrigue:

The story unfolds through multiple perspectives, weaving together a complex web of political intrigue, thrilling heists, and desperate struggles for survival. Ward keeps the pacing tight, throwing in unexpected twists and turns that will leave you guessing until the very end. The action sequences are particularly well-executed, filled with gritty detail and visceral tension.

A Spark of Hope in the Darkness:

Despite the grimdark backdrop, The Darkness Before Them isn't devoid of hope. As Kat and her unlikely allies discover more about the Veil and the forces fueling it, a flicker of rebellion ignites. The themes of defying tyranny, forging unlikely bonds, and fighting for a better future resonate amidst the bleakness, making the story all the more compelling.

The Verdict:

The Darkness Before Them is an impressive debut, offering a refreshing take on grimdark fantasy. With its well-developed world, complex characters, and fast-paced plot, it's a surefire page-turner for fans of Joe Abercrombie and Brent Weeks. However, the darkness can feel overwhelming at times, and the multiple perspectives might prove jarring for some readers.

Recommendation:

If you crave a dark and gritty fantasy adventure with intricate world-building, morally ambiguous characters, and a glimmer of hope in the face of despair, then The Darkness Before Them is definitely worth venturing into. Just be prepared for a world where the shadows hold as much power as the light.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Ultimately, whether The Darkness Before Them resonates with you will depend on your personal preferences. But with its blend of grimdark elements and surprising hope, it's a debut that demands to be experienced. So, if you're looking for a new fantasy adventure to devour, give this one a try.

DNF at 30%
I just could not get into this book. I’m sorry it just wasn’t for me. I found it overly wordy and descriptive, it felt unnecessary. I also really struggled to care about the characters especially Kat. The concept for the world seemed really cool. I really wanted to like this book. It just wasn’t for me.

Has the weather ever reflected things in a story you read? Been in constant fog while reading Matthew Ward's "The Darkness Before Them" and it's been a tiny bit unsettling.

Heists at the start of a book that go well generally mean stuff is about to hyper fumble for the protagonists. And it does! Kat is trying to pay off her debt, that destroyed her family and out her on the run, and is now doing crimes. After a big score goes pearshaped she is stuck with some revolutionaries. And since capture means possibly ending up as a soul stuck guarding objects in Khalad, survival is a little important. Oh and there is just some mist that deletes people to worry about.

Reasons to read:
-Cool setting with lots of moving pieces
-Protagonist does not want to do the thing
-I was confused about the second POV until a thing happened
-Always good to fight a system that actively oppresses the majority of it's citizens
-Thematically creepy mists outside while I read

Cons:
-A lot of concepts come at you fast in this one, so definitely refer to the glossary

In Brief
In the first book of Ward’s second fantasy trilogy, The Darkness Before Them introduces readers to talented thief Kat, loyal castellan to the Bascari family Damant, and notorious rebel Vallant. While Kat conspires to make a big enough score to clear her late father’s debts, rebellion brews at the edges of the empire, just as the hungry Veil of mist seeks to eat away at the land as only an immortal king stands to hold it back. But the world is cruel and the rulers cold-hearted in the way they keep the people in line. When an ambitious plot to steal from the vault of the Xanathros Alabastra, a high temple, goes horribly wrong, Kat unexpectedly finds herself in the company of rebels while the Bascari family begins to face chaos from within. There’s a mysterious assassin after Kat, too, one who holds a piece of her past, and a Bascari cousin with a great deal more to her than meets the eye. With twists and turns, some predictable and some just plain fun to read, it’s easy to see where the story is going, but Ward also manages to keep readers just a little bit off balance, occasionally going in surprising directions, but always keeping his characters consistent. Despite a small cast of main characters and a world on a smaller scale than that in Ward’s first trilogy, there’s still a great deal to explore and the multitude of conspiracies should be enough to hold a reader’s attention all the way into the next book.

Extended Thoughts
A few years ago, I started reading Ward’s first fantasy trilogy, the Legacy trilogy. It was big and hefty with a large cast of characters and a rich, imaginative world with a lot of moving pieces, and I adored it even when it became bloody and violent. The last book brought me to tears, which isn’t really normal for me when the book is filled with bloody battle. But I was in awe of how much Ward made me care about the characters. So, when I found out about his next trilogy, I couldn’t wait to get into it. The Darkness Before Them has proven to be different from the Legacy books. It’s quite imaginative with a fascinating world, and the story feels a lot more streamlined, but it still has the twists and turns and layered storytelling that I’ve come to expect and enjoy.

The Darkness Before Them isn’t quite as hefty as the Legacy books. It follows two main characters, Kat and Damant. They are, for all intents and purposes, on opposite sides, one left to scrounge at the bottom of the chain while the other serves the city’s ruling family, the Bascaris. It also takes on a narrowed world, this first book primarily focusing on one city while also giving a broad overlay of the rest of the world. The conflict, too, feels narrowed as it pits rebels against the kingdom. But I should have known better than to compare this to the Legacy trilogy, to think Ward would simply write a simple rebellion novel. There are twists and turns and, while I could predict many, I really enjoyed them, and I loved the plots and conspiracies piled onto plots and conspiracies. And I’m excited to see what else Ward can throw at the characters and the world. There’s always a greater overarching story, and I look forward to discovering the one in this series.

After her father died with a number of debts to his name, it fell to his daughter Kat to pay up. Except, she can’t. All she has is a special tattoo inked on her arm, one that she can change when she slips into the spirit realm. This allows her to shift the symbols in the tattoo to soothe the spirits that offer everything from light to firepower to protection, letting her become a talented thief in the service of an ancient spirit. But it’s not enough for her; she wants to score something big enough to clear her father’s debts and save her own life. On what should have been the score of a lifetime, things go horribly wrong when a mysterious assassin goes after her, bringing down a vault and putting everything at risk. Sentenced to death upon the Golden Stair in the capital city, Kat finds herself traveling by air ship with several other convicts. Except someone else wants her. Vallant is a man of legend, the leader of a rebellion. And he needs Kat and her abilities, even if she doesn’t quite trust him. But if she means to clear her father’s debts and do something worthwhile with her life, she might have to trust him. At the same time, the Bascari family is dealing with the aftermath of the destruction done to the Xanathros Alabastra. With their mother sickly and dying, three siblings find themselves at odds with each other, and things become even more complicated when a cousin rejoins the family, leaving Damant to protect the family and what’s best for the city as best he can.

I loved the journeys Kat and Damant underwent throughout this novel. From the beginning, they’re on opposite sides. Kat is a thief and Damant’s job is to uphold order and protect the ruling family. There’s a bit of a fun streak to Kat, and I kind of liked her flippancy, especially since it gave her so much room to grow. Watching her change and make realizations about herself felt incredibly satisfying. There’s a good heart to her, but it’s buried deep inside as she wears her hurts and her calloused soul like armor to protect her from the things that may become weak spots. And then there’s Damant, who is the very picture of an upright, law abiding citizen who will do everything in his power to protect his charges. He’s incredibly protective and devoted to his job, and watching him discover and see the cracks was a little heartbreaking. I loved watching him be shaken and have to rethink everything. But my favorite parts of these two was how they interacted with both each other and those around them. Kat and Vallant were prickly and fun, and I had a fantastic time watching Damant deal with each member of the family, as well as how he dealt with the events that happened at the end of the novel. They both came out of The Darkness Before Them unquestionably changed with new duties and tasks before them, and I can’t wait to see them in the next book.

The world building was interesting, but somehow felt a little lacking to me. It’s certainly an incredible world with flying ships serving as a major mode of transportation and a Veil of fog that consumes all people in its path that’s held back by an immortal king. There’s a rich imagination behind this world, and I felt like I could almost touch this world. But it didn’t quite feel as fleshed out as I expected. There were some details I struggled with. For the first quarter of the book I actually kept going back and forth on whether this world had floating cities or not. Somehow, they did not quite feel anchored to the ground. But it was fun to explore this world, to get to see so much of it. The history of it was fascinating, if a bit brief, and I liked that the world felt like it was populated by varied peoples. Not much is known of some of them, but I hope to get to know them better in the next book. There’s also the magic system, which seems to rely on the souls of the dead. It felt both complex and simple at the same time, with it working in a fairly simple way, but there were just so many uses for the souls. It made me feel a bit unsettled with the way the souls were used, but I also found myself fascinated by it.

The heart of The Darkness Before Them felt like it revolved around family. Kat’s losses of her loved ones really propelled her forward, just as Vallant’s loss of his loved ones kept him going and Damant’s discoveries of what was really going on in the family he served forced him to undergo rapid change. It fueled the rebellion on the fringes of the world, offering both a refuge for many and an opportunity to create a new family. But it’s those old ties that kept the story moving, kept the characters constantly moving and acting. I really enjoyed a certain family aspect to Kat’s story, and can’t wait to see how it plays out in the second book. The Bascaris were quite a fascinating thing to study. They’re cutthroat and cold and ruthless, and watching Damant be who he was painted to be while he moved around it all really held my attention. But it was the plots and conspiracies piled on plots and conspiracies, many of them having started well before the start of this novel, that really grabbed my attention. There were a number of predictable things that disappointed me, but the reveals kept happening and kept making things more complicated, but not in an unmanageable way. I loved the twists and turns, even when I could see them coming, because they forced the characters to change tack, to make adjustments, and learn how to deal with something they didn’t expect.

The Darkness Before Them is a fantastic start to Ward’s new trilogy. While it wasn’t quite what I expected after loving his Legacy trilogy, it shows a great deal of promise and just as much of a twisting story as I suppose I should come to expect from him. Whenever I think I know where a story is going, Ward always twists things around so I never know what, exactly, to expect. Whenever I think I know what to expect in the next book, I’m inevitably proven wrong. So I can’t wait to see how the rest of this trilogy unfolds. Kat, Damant, and Vallant were all fantastic to get to know, and so many of the other characters were just wonderful. I loved the focus on family and friendship over romance, and I really look forward to understanding more of this world.


Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

2.5 Rounded up.

While I felt neutral toward this book, I felt that it was too long for where the story went. It took me over a month and a half to get through it. And while I did pick it up and read it regularly, and didn’t dread continuing it, it wasn’t holding my attention well enough to want to read it over other things.

While I thought the idea of using soul magic to power the realm was a very interesting form of magic system, the other aspects of this book fell a little flat. I didn’t really care much about the main character or what she did and found the side characters to be more interesting than her. (Specifically, Tatterlain and Yali). In the beginning, as with a lot of high fantasy (granted), the world building was a bit confusing in my opinion and not very clear. I did like the different perspectives back and forth between the Castellan and Kat to give a dual perspective to the revolution.

I thought this book was fine, but its not one that I am going to think about much later, and I am not sure if it’s a series I would like to continue. It was okay. I think investing almost 600 pages of reading to feel not a lot was disappointing.

The Darkness Before Them
by Matthew Ward
The Soulfire Saga #1
Fantasy High Fantasy
NetGalley ARC
Publication Date: November 7, 2023
Orbit Books
Ages: 16 +

Kat is a thief, out to get the one score to wipe the debt her father left for her to pay, but things went wrong, and she was caught, sentenced to a fate worse than death. But also thanks to her father, Kat is special, she can talk to spirits.

There is a rebellion, but for years they haven't made a dent in the Immortal King's rule.


This one took me two weeks to push through. At 40% I knew I should've DNF, but I kept reading because this is the first book I've read by this author, but I have other books by him, so I was hoping it would get better so I'd be more excited to read the other ones... I'm not!

It wasn't awful, but there was just nothing to really grab me. It was slow, hardly any action, and what there was felt watered down, and there got to be so much rambling that I skimmed most of this book. But most disappointing was the lack of the magic system.

There is a story here, and it's interesting, but it's buried by the rambling.

Will I read the next in the series? Probably not.

2 Stars

In this start to a new trilogy we meet Katija. Kat is a thief, and orphan and on on the run. She has a ragtag of thieves she runs with and trusts. On their latest job, their biggest job yet everything goes wrong. Most of her friends don't make it out and she gets captured. She is sentenced to death and sent on ship to the capital, but to no one's surprise the ship never makes it. The start of a war commences in Khalad, everyone must choose a side, but not everyone's motives are clear or true.

I really wanted to love this one. The magic system was complex, and I loved how political the story was. What lacked for me were the characters, they did not feel as fully fleshed out as I wanted, the development was not fully there. I felt very meh about a lot of the plot. The dual POV did add a nice duality to the story though. Nothing really excited me about the book, and I found myself forcing myself to pick it up. I will probably try the sequel but maybe the writing style was not for me.

A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Orbit Books for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a much slower-paced epic fantasy that, while it does pick up once the plot kicks off near the end, a good majority of this book is spent with a few characters laying the groundwork for worldbuilding. I will admit that it took me a good 30% to finally know who all the characters were, and to stop mixing them up. There is a glossary of the people in this book, but I feel like there could have been one or two cut until they became more relevant, to help with the confusion.

We mostly stay with two main characters, Kat and Damant, who are on opposite sides of the conflict in this story. Kat is a thief captured to be executed, and Damant is a guard to the Countess of the family ordering the execution. Damant is a complicated character, in that he is loyal to the system, and yet is the reason for the creation of one of the leaders of the resistance. It took a bit longer for me to connect to Damant or his motives than it did to Kat, but eventually he grew on me.

As Kat progresses through the story, she slowly changes more and more from uncaring about anyone except herself, to helping others with no clear rewards for herself. I did appreciate this bit of growth, as there were a few bits near the beginning of the story that made me uncomfortable and if this was never changed I doubt I’d have continued the story.

(For instance, in her original apartment, she comments about the couple above her fighting and how the man is significantly larger than the woman and it only being a matter of time before he kills her, but she won’t intervene because she decided to stay with him so it’s her own fault. Yikes. I will admit, this being included made me consider DNFing because my trust for male fantasy authors is not very high, but as Kat grows she reflects on this instance specifically and regrets her actions. So I’m glad I continued.)

If you like fantasy stories with some action, but a lot of focus on politics, then this would be a good book for you. I do like some political fantasies, but I also felt that some of the action scenes were a bit lackluster.

(Kat keeps getting into fights with people that she KNOWS are stronger than her, and then is surprised when she loses? I don’t mean to be pedantic, but it got old watching her decide to get into fights when we already knew the end results. There were many times I felt like yelling “KAT YOU’VE ALREADY FOUGHT THIS PERSON AND LOST, WHY DO YOU THINK DOING IT AGAIN WOULD WORK?”)

There were also some issues I found with the description of places and objects, as they would be describing doing something and then suddenly something I didn’t picture would appear, and I’d have to go back to see if there was anything like it described that I missed. (The answer, usually, was no. It just appeared out of the blue and changed the scenery.)

A lot of this book vaguely reminded me of Wesley Chu’s “The War Arts Saga” fantasy series, so if you really enjoyed that I think this book would be a good fit. Personally, I kind of liked TWAS better than this book, but that was more to do with the confusion this book left me with at multiple instances and readability.

There is a plot twist near the end that completely changes how you read everything before, that I thought was extremely well done. There were multiple hints throughout the book where you knew something was off, but you didn’t quite realize what - but once the plot twist is revealed suddenly all the inconsistencies make sense. I really liked how it was done, and thought it really fit well into the story.

However, despite my complaints this story never reached the point where I felt compelled to DNF it, and I will be reading the sequel to see how the story progresses. My rating is for 3.5 stars, rated up, as this wasn’t a bad novel and once I understood better who was who and what exactly was going on, I enjoyed it much better. I think when the sequel comes out I might enjoy this book better on a reread, than I did initially.

Not my most favorite read ever but it’s good. Always room for growth! I just really thrive on very deep character building. World building is a much smaller concern to me compared to the characters and connections.

I figures I was going to like this book because I'm a huge sucker for mystery or a ticking clock in my fantasy reads. In this case that takes the form of The Veil, a mysterious mist that threatens to gradually engulf the entire kingdom and surrounding cities. This is the second book I've read with this kind of theme to it (Tonight I Burn by Katharine Adams also has a threatening veil) and I have to admit that it doesn't make for a very good villain. Some would say this was a supernatural force, but if it's part of the fabric of the world, it's simply a part of the worldbuilding, which Ward does very well.

While I enjoyed that Ward's characters were not 100% good or bad, I felt like his writing left out depth. His plot moves and the story is there, but I found that I did not much care about what was happening because I was missing a connection to the characters themselves. This is another theme in my reviews: if I don't care about the characters I'm not going to connect with the story. There were a LOT of characters too, contributing to the idea of breadth versus depth in character investment.

So many aspects of this compelling story had me completely focused on the plot to the detriment of everything and everyone else that might have been colorful and rich in the book. One thing I will say is that the final few chapters really left me wanting more, which I would want from the first book of what promises to be a series. While I felt kind of blah about this first book, I would be willing to check out the next one to see whether, once all the worldbuilding is complete, the characters get a bit more development.

Such a fun and perfectly paced fantasy story. This will hopefully be the next great epic fantasy series. Ward's world building and his ability to write complex and compiling characters is comparable to some of the greats.

This book was so much fun for me. I enjoyed my time reading it and can't wait for the next book! I do wish the world building was a little tighter or explained just a bit more.

I want to start by saying that I loved the Legacy Trilogy and savored that until the last morcel. So I was so excited to see what else Matthew Ward would come out with next.

I will definitley be continuing in the series, but I didn't have the same connection to the characters that I did in Legacy. And I know, it's a different series, get over it. But it just did't have the same development as to what I expected. So that being said, the plot was fantastic. There was a lot going on, one might say a touch too much, but it shows that he's able to write both character based fantasies and more plot driven fantasies. Also the world building and magic mechanics are really interesting and I really enjoy how they weave together.

Thank you to Negalley and Orbit for an early copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for an Advanced Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.


Matthew Ward’s first novel in the Soulfire Saga has a lot of promise. Khalad and the cities beyond it are huge, the world-building is dense, and there is a diverse cast of characters to follow. It can certainly be labelled an epic fantasy, and I’m sure the coming novels will take full advantage of the world.

Ward’s world-building is impressive. There are flying ships, priests that bottle souls from dying bodies, unique afflictions, political intrigue, complex magic systems, and morally nuanced characters.

The reader mainly follows Katija - or Kat, for short - on her journeys as an outcast ‘skelder’ or thief, in one of the lower echelons of society. The plot starts with a bang (literally) during a failed heist that leaves Azra, Kat’s girlfriend, dead. Or so we think.

Kat is cunning, stubborn, skilled and intelligent; everything that I look for in a female main character. Though I didn’t always agree with her decisions, I did like following her.

A second point-of-view character, Castellan Damant, intersperses (rather unevenly) with Kat’s. Damant holds a high up position in the castle of Tyzanta’s ruling family. I loved being able to follow along with him and get further insight on those characters.

The only pitfalls for me in Ward’s novel were the overly dense prose, and the fact the story was a bit too long. Given that this is already slated to be a saga, there should be many more pages in the future to open up the story. ’The Darkness Before Them’ would have benefited from being a bit tighter.

I won’t directly spoil the ending, but as a reader I did find the way Ward tied together Kat and Damant’s plots quite satisfying. I am intrigued to see where Ward takes the plot in future novels, and I will definitely be picking them up!

The Darkness Before Them is the first installment of Matthew Ward’s Soulfire Trilogy. The description of this book promised a classic epic fantasy adventure complete with magic, political intrigue, a class war, an evil immortal king, and a ragtag band of rebels who want to change the world for the better. This is right up my alley and should have been a slam dunk.

Unfortunately, the execution failed to fully bring this story to life. I spent most of the time reading this feeling utterly confused. I am not new to fantasy or to immersive world-building that requires the reader to figure it out as they go. However, Ward leaves entirely too much unexplained. The mechanics of the soulfire magic system, the structure of the society, the political history, and character backstories were all lacking. It often felt as though Ward expected the reader to already understand all of these without any assistance from him (and the glossary in the back was so unhelpful that it may as well have not been included at all).

There were several promising moments, particularly the action and fighting scenes, that I thought would turn the whole thing around. Ultimately those glimmers of good storytelling were undercut by the lack of cohesive world-building that stifled the emotional impact of the major plot points.

I’d like to see more from this author because I can see that he has some really great ideas and perhaps just needs a little bit more experience. I may even give the next book in this series a shot in the hope that now that I have some context, the story will fall into place.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Orbit Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.

If you're looking for your next action packed epic fantasy series, pick this! My only complaint is that I wish there was a little more depth to the characters. It was a little cut and dry, I think if some of them had a little more personality, then I would have loved this and gave it 5 stars. Other than that, this was a beautifully done book and I can't wait for the next one

Thank you to Orbit Books, and Netgalley for providing this review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Never has a book made me think, "wait, what?" as many times as this one. Because of that, I have extremely mixed feelings.

Let's start with the good:
1. I liked most of the characters. (Or I hated them, but in a way that makes me appreciate how they were written.)
2. The world is vast and beautiful and interesting.
3. There are some truly beautiful and inspiring lines distributed throughout this book.

But here's the bad:
1. I was confused for most of the story. Despite using the glossary and the dramatis persona often, I found myself so confused about who was talking, and who or what they were talking about, all the way through the final chapter. This is definitely why I rated this book the way I did, because I simply could not wrap my brain around it. I don't know if that was due to my state of mind, or the writing, but for the record: I read plenty of fantasy, and I have never struggled like this before.
2. I never felt fully immersed. That is likely because of the previous comment, but I have to mention it still.
3. The story felt too familiar. The plot was basic, despite this being a really long book with plenty of space for the astounding.

I'm not ready to write this off yet, I think I'll revisit this book once it's released to see if it was my headspace that made it a difficult read.

Thank you to orbit for my arc.

The premise makes the story sound fantastic and I really wanted to enjoy it. However the writing style just made it hard for me to get through it.

I really enjoyed this book. It packs a lot into the story but doesn’t get bogged down. Kat has become a thief in an effort to get enough money to pay for her dead father’s large debt. If she is caught, she will more or less be killed and her spirits used to power things like lights or undead guards. But her father left her more than just debt and she can communicate with the spirits that are nearly everywhere. But she is swept up into events much larger that could rock the world (or will they?). This ties together interesting magic, religion, politics, and how people fit into the world. I look forward to the next book in this series.