Let’s just start with action! I don’t know a ton about Norse Mythology, but I can pretty confidently say that if you liked any of the below you will find something to enjoy!
✨Pirates
✨Vikings
✨Gladiator sports
✨Troy
✨Dreamwalking
✨Warging (like in GOT?), the Tainted (from Shadow of the Gods) or animal shifters

The world feels like it takes place after the equivalent of the burning of the library of Alexandria! This book is set in the same world as the covenant of steel series, (which I didn’t realize until I got to the end!) but it can be read independently!

I really enjoyed the characters and thought they were all unique and interesting!
✨Thera - is a badass, very Orka and Misaki coded.
✨Elvine - is a scribe with her mother, and works on translating ancient texts, and uncovering secrets.
✨Ruhlin - he has the most dramatic storyline and I cannot say a word about him with out spoiling something 🤫
✨Felnir - travels with brother, and works for his grandfather who sorts reminded me of a Merlin? For good or evil I do not yet know 🤷‍♀️

The Sister Queens were certainly interesting to learn about! And I wanted to know about the stolen brides!!

Overall, I had a LOT of fun with this! I know several of my friends are gonna enjoy this story!!


Would I reread? Yes!! Pick up on some of those hints earlier! And I need to read the other series in this world!
Would I recommend? Yes, if you liked Shadow of the Gods or Vikings I think you will really enjoy this!


Thank you to NetGalley for the arc!

I received an ARC for A Tide of Black Steel from Netgalley and Orbit Books. A Tide of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan is the first book in a new series set in the same universe as The Covenant of Steel trilogy. Unfortunately, I never read that series so I was a bit lost on the history, lore, and names used in this book. It didn't make it an impossible read, but I would strongly recommend reading The Covenant of Steel trilogy first before reading this one.

A Tide of Black Steel is a Nordic-themed fantasy series that follows the perspectives of a few notable characters. Each of these characters had a very engaging story and helped flesh out this world. Ryan does an exceptional job with the world-building. We learn a lot about the politics of Ascarlia, the numerous, Norse-inspired gods called the Altvar, and an unknown threat of invaders that have arrived on their shores.

Overall, I thought this was an entertaining read, though it was a bit of a slower burn. If you're planning on checking this book out, I would highly recommend reading The Covenant of Steel series first. I really enjoyed the Norse-inspired theme and the various viewpoints helped build out this world, even for those who have never read the previous trilogy.

I've liked Anthony Ryan's previous books, but am plagued by the same problems as those books. I love the story, don't like the characters. Everyone is one-dimensional, none of the main characters change much. Everyone is just doing things and moving fast, which makes the story fun. But when the pirate/thug character has the same dialogue style as the linguist/school girl, and they speak the same as everyone else, dialogue and narration seems wooden. That made sense in a previous series where the narrating characters were siblings and had the same upbringing, but here it's glaring and frustrating that each chapter feels the same. A fun story, but not my favorite style.

This is a great introduction to a new series by Anthony Ryan.
I loved The Covenant of Steel trilogy, and this new book, set in the same universe a few decades later, is just as good. We are introduced to a whole new part of this world and a new set of characters, through different points of view.
The writing and character work is fantastic, the pacing starts a little slow and progressively ramps up to great events and cliffhangers.

I had a wonderful time and will definitely continue with the series.
If you already like Anthony Ryan's work, you should absolutely read this one. If you haven't I would recommend reading The Covenant of Steel first, but you can think you can start with this one.

Thank you Orbit books!

I received an this as an ARC from netgalley.

I hadn't read any details about the book, so was pleasantly surprised that it is set in the same universe as the Alwin Scribe books. The characters don't overlap too much, but there are suggestions and some tie-ins.

I won't reveal the plot except to say that this is definitely nordic themed and there are a lot of viewpoints. I generally don't like books with constant perspective shifts, and this had a lot of those. There was a sense of a lot of disparate stories that were finally coming together just as the book ended.

This book was definitely a slower burner, plenty of action, but it took a while to get a sense of why all the characters were there and involved and how they fit together.

Definitely worth a read and i'm looking forward to the next book to see where the story heads.

This book is a sequel to the Covenant of Steel series and it takes place in the same world. Moving to the Norse inspired North, the author expands the world building and introduces many fascinating characters and new settings. I was extremely surprised by the twists and turns and the way that the characters interacted. LGBTQ themes are prominent and important for the narrative in a positive way. I was thoroughly entertained from beginning to end, and I am looking forward to the rest of the series. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley!

Norse fantasy seems to be more and more popular lately, but Anthony Ryan proves he has what it takes to craft a solid narrative, unpredictable events, and a bit of darkness to cement this series as one I will continue reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ryan’s new Norse mythology based fantasy. This action packed story is told from four POVs and I liked the development of the characters. This is a dark tale with brilliant worldbuilding and a great start to a new epic series.

Thank you NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Norse mythology, check. Epic story, check. Tears felt emotionally, check. Dude, high octane from page 1.

I really enjoyed this book, especially have had mixed experiences with Ryan's other books. I really liked the characters in this book in particular.

Twenty years after the close of the Pretenders War, Elvine Jurrest finds herself all but prisoner to the Sister Queens after being caught worshipping the Martyrs. Forced to go with Felnir Redtooth, a man both disgraced and feared in Ascarlia for one reprehensible act to find the Vaults of Altvar. As Felnir and Elvine set off to find myths and legends, Felnir's sister, Thera, is sent to the Northern Isles to put down what appears to be a rebellion, but she quickly determines that it is not a rebellion but an all out invasion from peoples no one even knew existed. As both parties face attacks from every side, they come to realize that the very heart of Ascarlia is rotten to its core.

Ryan is an auto read author for me, so when I saw this up on Netgalley I requested it, didn't read the synopsis, barely glanced at the cover and then did a little happy dance when I realized it was a continuation of the Covenant of Steel series. If you've read a review by almost anyone who read the series, you'll know that they all ended with a desperate plea to know what happens next in this world. Not only did Ryan deliver, but he knocked it out of the park. I have never been so happy with a continuation of a story, probably in my life.

The first book of Ryan's I read was from his Draconis Memoria series and honestly outside of Barker's Tide Child series it's the first one that made me realize I really loved naval fantasy novels, so to have him go back to that naval side of things was just awesome for me. Especially since the battle scenes in this are just truly amazing, he does such an amazing job of describing every detail that it takes very little to envision one ship ramming another and just the truly deafening noise that would create. And look I don't even like boats, I can't even stand on a dock or I'll get sick so for someone to write not one but two book series where I am actually looking forward to the next big battle is nothing short of genius.

As always, he's got an amazing cast of characters here as well, ones in many cases I never would have imagined being front and center in a continuation of The Covenant of Steel. Felnir especially is an interesting character because I'm not really sure he's a good guy. Thera and Elvine, absolutely 100%, Ruhlin, most definitely. But Felnir? I don't know. Something about him seems just off, especially given everything we learn about the Vaults and Ascarlia's history. I'm not gonna give anything away, I'm just saying I said "Omfg put that thing back where it came from Velnir or so help me gods!" quite a few times towards the end of the book. Some "treasures" just need to be left alone.

The pacing was excellent. The world building meshed extremely well with what I knew of Ascarlia from the first series while introducing a ton of new and interesting lore in terms of Altvar and the gods The bad guys aren't just this group of invaders but people within the Arscalian government, so you've got a battle going from two fronts as well. Basically, this is going to be an amazing end to what we started with Alwyn.

One thing I will say is that I do believe that to get everything out of this book that it has to offer reading The Covenant of Steel series first is a must. I mean, yes, you could read it as a stand-alone if you were so inclined, but I genuinely believe you'd be doing yourself a disservice. This world is vast, and you only really get to see a very small corner of it if you don't read Alwyn's story first.

And seriously, if you've read it Covenant of Steel, you'll know Alwyn's son the minute he's introduced. You don't even need to know his name. He's clearly Alwyn's clone, at least linguistically.


Overall, of course I recommend it. To be fair, I recommend all of Ryan's books, so that shouldn't come as a surprise.


As always, thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc.

Thank you to NetGalley and orbit for providing this arc
A tide of black steel is a great start to a new fantasy trilogy set in the same world of covenant of steel trilogy. First I must highly recommend that anyone looking to read this book, that they read covenant of steel first. They are many things that happen in that trilogy that comes up in this book and honestly it made the book more enjoyable seeing those references to previous trilogy. In this book, there are four POVs characters that we follow. Out of those four , I loved three of them. It’s not that I hated that one povs, it’s more that I didn’t really care for it compared to the others. The characters in this story are interesting flawed in their own way and they each bring their uniqueness to story. They never feel interchangeable which is good when reading that many povs. The world-building in the story is pretty good, if you enjoy the covenant of steel world-building, then the book does a great job expanding another part of this world. If you loved the covenant of steel, then it’s very highly that you would love this book as well. I give it a good 4.5.

A fantastic read worth taking the time to enjoy. A great expansion of the world of the covenant of steel trilogy.

A perfect start to a new adventure with new stakes that can be picked up by anyone but will be extra special for those who read the covenant of steel trilogy.

This one was an interesting read. The characters were able to keep me invested, and there were no shortage of hooks scattered throughout the novel that made me want to learn more about the world it was set in. But it’s also a novel that wasn’t at all self-contained. Very little felt truly wrapped up by the end of this book, instead it serves almost entirely to set up the rest of the trilogy. That’s not entirely a bad thing, I’d say I’m likely to pick up the second book to see where things go from here. But overall I do tend to prefer first books in a trilogy/series to be able to stand on their own, to tell a contained story while sowing seeds for what’s yet to come. A Tide of Black Steel doesn’t seem like it was ever really intended to do both of those, so I think that how good it ultimately is will wind up being determined by how good the payoff is when the next two books in the trilogy come out.

I love anything Norse mythology based and this book did not disappoint. I enjoyed the characters and the story. It was very easy to loose yourself in this world. The pacing never felt off either and kept me engaged the entire time

One of 2024's best books. For fans of Covenant of Steel, reading the previous series further enriches the experience. The rest of the series is going to be exceedingly great.

Anthony Ryan has a way with words, how to put the right words onto the page to set a scene, to set a mood, to set a character personality. I've only read The Covenant of Steel (haven't read his other two previous series), but I remember his writing style being my favorite part of that particular series. Now, he has a spin-off series in the same world as Covenant of Steel, this time in the Scandinavian/Norse-inspired setting of Ascarlia, taking place about 20 years in the future. My suggestion is to read his first series before getting to this one, as even though this follows different characters and a different setting, there are events from the previous series that are brought up in discussions.

Unlike Covenant of Steel, rather than following 1st-person point of view of a single character (Alwyn Scribe, in that case), Ryan has four distinct point-of-view characters written in 3rd-person:

Ruhlin, the young fisherman, taken from his home, pressed into slavery from mysterious raiders.

Thera, the Vellihr of Justice (think: judge, jury, and executioner) for Ascarlia, sent off to investigate these foreign raiders

Felnir, the brother of Thera, sent on a quest of his own, this time to find mythical "vaults"

Elvine, daughter to Ascarlian librarian Berine Jurest (hmm...), who ends up directly working with the Sister Queens, rulers of Ascarlia.

Something notable about these characters is that much of their movement from place to place is by sea, so for any readers who enjoy reading of seafaring/pirate/exploring types of works, this very much so fits. Mix that with military fantasy, and this book is what one gets as a result. It very much so fit my reading taste. I do also want to add that it did take time to get used to these four different characters, and their various quests and situations that they deal with. But around the 25% marker for me, everything just clicked. I felt that the transition between different POVs was well-done, as Ryan manages to successfully balance these characters' storylines. The suspense was done well too. The callbacks to Covenant of Steel were a delight, and will certainly appeal to readers of that series.

All in all, I think this series has a chance to event surpass the Covenant of Steel, which is quite a lofty expectation, but Ryan is just that capable of a writer and storyteller. The ending to this book ends at such a powerful way that I am instantly wanting more, right immediately. I'm looking forward to reading other reviews of this book, and seeing what others have to say. I repeat, this is one of 2024's best books.

From the international bestselling author Anthony Ryan comes the spectacular first novel in a new epic new fantasy trilogy inspired by Norse mythology. A new age has dawned. An age of blood and steel. An age of wrath.

The land of Ascarlia, a fabled realm of bloodied steel and epic sagas, has been ruled by the Sister Queens for centuries. No one has dared question their rule.

Until now.

Whispers speak of longships of mysterious tattooed warriors, sailing under the banners of a murderous cult of oath-breakers long thought extinct. A tide of black steel that threatens to vanquish all in its path.

Thera of the Blackspear, favoured servant of the Sister Queens, is ordered to uncover the truth. As Thera sails north, her reviled brother, Felnir, sets out on his own adventure. He hopes to find the Vault of the Altvar – the treasure room of the gods – and win the Sister Queens’ favour at his sister’s expense.

Both siblings – along with a brilliant young scribe and a prisoner with a terrifying, primal power – will play a part in the coming storm.

A new series set in the world of Covenant of Steel. Plenty of action, great characters, and the now famous action and relentless pace Anthony Ryan is known for. I loved every word!

This was a lot of fun. Previously I struggled with Anthony Ryan's writing style, but this time i really enjoyed the story. Action packed and Norse inspired, I am definitely looking forward to reading more in this world. Highly recommend if you are a fan of Norse mythology.

I'm a definite fan of Anthony Ryan, and I've read almost all if his books. But rather than blabber on because I enjoy his books, I'm pretty honest in my reviews.

Ryan's take of fantasy with foundations in Norse mythology & viking lore proves he can take on just about any fantasy setting and hit the mark.

As always, his characters, while taking some time to develop, are still well fleshed out and real. Their personalities evolve in a way that such, you may like them at first, and detest them later; with the opposite also being true. Their emotions and reactions are honest & visceral and draw you in along with the settings.

The story progresses from different perspectives and slowly develops into one cohesive group. I enjoyed the imagination & the grittyness as always.

You'll enjoy this story as you have with his past books...

An epic dark fantasy sweeps in on A Tide of Dark Steel and a saga begins to unfold. Told from 4 different points of view, each exploring their aspect of this complex land of Ascarlia. Thera serves the Sister Queens, rulers of the land; Felnir, her brother, wants power of his own or perhaps that of his sister; Ruhlin is a prisoner with some special skills; and Elvine is a scholar and scribe of her own story. The writing style of this saga emphasizes action and interaction over dry exposition. The tale is gritty and ominous, showing off detailed world-building, distinct magic, and setting the stage for a power struggle that will unfold through the next books of this trilogy. I was caught up in the torrent of the narrative from the beginning; the end left me in suspense of what comes next; and getting from beginning to end was an engrossing story that kept me turning the pages as fast as I could read them. I recommend fans of dark fantasy, sagas and epics to start their journey to an Age of Wrath on A Tide of Black Steel.
I received access to this ARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Orbit Books) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.