This is the second book I have read by this author and the his books are just getting better. The characters in this had such interesting and unique personalities from each other. I only wish that all the siblings made an appearance in this book (not in snippets from the past). The premise for this book was wildly interesting: immortal characters who have formed a pact not to form kingdoms or share radiance (magic) with humans. The siblings, like most, fight; and its never certain what side they will fall on. Overall, I thought the characters were interesting and the story built steadily until the end, when it kind of exploded. I am looking forward to a second book following this!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

David Dalglish is quickly becoming an auto-buy author for me. I love the way his stories work, and this one was just as good as I hoped it would be.

I really enjoyed the pacing of the story. Sometimes I find long fantasy books weigh down in the middle and lose a bit of focus, but Dalglish has a great sense of timing and force driving his story. Every moment feels well thought out and intentional, leaving no room for lag. I also found the plot and characters very refreshing and believable, despite the grandness (and sometimes horrific) aspects of the story. The slow unravelling of each characters identity lands perfectly and gives just enough time to know and root for them before all of *that* happens.

Overall this feels like a great culmination of Dalglish's experience coming together to form what will surely be an epic trilogy. I can't wait for the next installment!

An absolutely brilliant fantasy with wonderful demigod siblings! David Dalglish's writing pulls you into his world and this series is a masterpiece.

These immortal siblings are sworn to peace but when one of them rejects that peace for power and a throne they will have to go against him including, Faron who has been asleep for the last seventy years.

Thank you Netgalley, Orbit & David Dalglish!

A solid start to an all new series. This is my second taste of David Dalglish, and it’s not bad as far as epic fantasy genre fare goes.

Over the last century the Astral Kingdom has grown dominant, combination church and state with a dark doctrine. At it’s head, the mad priest king Mitra, as far as the world knows at least. In actuality Mitra is one of six immortal siblings, magic wielders who’ve walked the land since time long forgotten. Siblings who swore to never wear a crown again. The fact that Mitra didn’t make that promise isn’t going to stop them from waging war to destroy everything he’s built.

So what did I like about this book. First and foremost, it’s fast paced. This is a chunky guy, but between Dalglish’s straight forward prose, the breakneck thriller pacing and the decision to leave offscreen so much of what we’d normally see in an epic fantasy tale of this nature, this book absolutely zipped by. The breakneck pace actually took a little getting used to initially, as Dalglish doesn’t waste time with too much stuff like character development, worldbuilding, any of that. Instead, we rapidly get the introduction of the notable characters and then it jumps straight into the initial arc of the story, as we move almost directly from battle scene to battle scene as nations are conquered in the equivalent of a blitzkrieg in this world.

Instead, as the story setup for the larger story happens we’re slowly fed the backstory and personalities of these characters, and they quickly become distinct individuals with their unique traits defining them largely by the actions and positions they take in the story. Like, the cool thing is, this book flips the script and instead of having an MC deal a standard situation puppeteered by an overpowered mastermind, we follow the actual overpowered masterminds as they quickly twist the shape of events to flow in the directions they want. It’s a bold choice and one that steals a lot of tension from the story - like I said, these people are overpowered. So instead what we get is the characters thrown into a range of situations that display their abilities, knowledge and skill sets, and it helps to break up the story and keep it a little fresh, until a relevant threat to them can be introduced.

And then we hit the second half of the book, where things take a definitive taste to the horrific. Impossibilities within the world’s context crawl out of the shadows, very depraved and dark things happen to multiple people, and it really escalates quickly from there. Like, the tone of the back half of the book matches nothing from the first half. If there’s any thematic work happening here, it’s honestly deeply buried, with the focus instead being on a largely plot driven, action packed epic fantasy that’s on the smaller scale of things. Maybe we can examine these characters and ponder about the relationship between power, corruption, trauma and morality. Frankly, I just didn’t bother, kicked back, turned my brain off and enjoyed a generic, straightforward story with some cool worldbuilding ideas baked into it.

All in all, an okay read. The ending went a really far way to delivering on the promise of the pretty standard first half, enough so that I’m interested to see where it goes from here. I’ll be back for the next one.

NB: YouTube link goes live on March 1st 2025.

I am not sure why I never read this author before. I am certainly going to rectify that after this novel. This book is brilliantly written. The characters are deep and intriguing and the world fascinating. We follow members of a special family who wield a magic called radiance. Because of their gifts they cannot truly die and at times clash with their siblings over how to interact with the truly human beings in their world. The eons of life weight heavy on all of them and cause them to behave in certain ways. One commonality binds them all to purpose, No kings, No thrones and humanity cannot have access to radiance. One brother has carved himself a religion and throne and worst of all given humans stolen radiance in his obsession to reach his god. This even will class brother against sister as sides are chosen and war with humans as pawns is in the works, Worse possibly still is a Female Queen born wielding radiance. Do they support her, kill her or use her? Because radiance is forbidden to humanity but still a tool that can be used. Amazing novel I cannot wait for the next in this series. Thanks to Orbit for letting me get an early read on this book so I could write an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit books for an arc of this book. The description and cover art are what first attracted me to this book and I was not disappointed! Mr. Dalglish did a fantastic job juggling multiple POVs and the showing the complexities of sibling relationships. The story and magic system felt fresh and very well crafted. I'm very much looking forward to book 2!

I wanted a break from my usual genres and dive back into regular fantasy (my roots). So when I read the description of this book, I didn't hesitate to give it a go. Overall, it was pretty good and I'm interested to see where it goes.

The first installment of USA Today bestseller David Dalglish's latest epic fantasy trilogy about immortal demigods, civil wars, and ancient evil will be irresistible to classic fantasy fans and will appeal to readers of James Islington and Anthony Ryan.​

Six immortal siblings. Five sworn to peace. One demands a throne.

Radiance, the mysterious power of life and creation, is theirs to command. Death cannot claim them. For hundreds of years, the ever-living ruled with ease. Yet when the world is nearly broken beneath their reign, the humbled six swear a They will sit upon no thrones, wear no crowns, and no longer teach humanity the gifts of radiance.

But after centuries of peace, Eder rejects their vow, anoints himself Voice of Father, and spreads a new, cruel faith across the land.

Faron cannot allow such indiscretion. Returning from a self-imposed exile, he swears to crush Eder’s kingdom, and he will not do so alone—Sariel, their cold and calculating brother, knows all too well that an ever-living’s dominion is bound for brutality and destruction. But to overthrow a nation, they will need more than each other. They will need an army and a ruler who can take the throne their own vow forbids. And so, they pledge themselves to the fanatical Bastard Princess, a woman with incredible powers she insists were given to her by the goddess Leliel.

But Eder’s conquest is not what it seems, and it will take more than a holy war to stop an immortal who has heard the desperate plea of a god.

This is only the first of three books, but as much as I loved his last series, this is shaping up to be Dalglish's best work yet! Highly recommend, can't wait for the next book!

Absolutely incredible. This book was dark and was very war-focused. The story follows 6 godly siblings that pick the sides of mortals in their war, but they are picking sides for different purposes. The world building is also just beautifully written! I haven't read a book like this in a while and I just love when you can really become immersed in the story. This may not be for everyone, because it is a dark, epic fantasy, but I highly recommend checking this one out!

I have mixed feelings about this book. 
I find the story interesting and original, and the writing is good. 
The character work is especially good, with main characters that are complex, layered and have interesting motivations. The action is also great and plentiful, with both battles and one to one combats.

I was really captivated for more than the first part of the book, but then I felt like it went downhill. 
Several consecutive chapters in the middle of the book are written as a flashback and it suspended my involvement in the actual story. I felt like it would have been more serviceable to the story if it was more subtly integrated. 

I also felt like it it would have been more impactful if it had been shorter. Again, the writing is good but it sometimes felt diluted. 

I think it's a 3.5 stars for me. 

Thank you so much Orbit Books for this ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of The Radiant King by David Dalglish.

So this story was a bit darker, and more war heavy than I originally anticipated. I felt there was some Grimm Fairytale / HP Lovecraft vibes sprinkled throughout, mostly the second half off the story.

The story focuses on a family of six siblings with Demi-god type powers. The chapters feature the sides of a few of these siblings. Personally, I would have enjoyed some first person points of view from the characters who have their own chapters as I found it difficult to connect to any one of them.

There are two main ideologies / churches featured in the story with large themes of sin present via removing sin from humanity and of past-lives due to rebirth.
I felt as though I was constantly questioning who the antagonist(s) and the protagonist(s) were within the family - everyone was sort of various shades of morally grey.

Other themes in the book include: Torture / war / grief / suggestive sexual scenes / murder / suicide.

In Kaus, humanity is endlessly reincarnated. True death simply does not exist. People grow old and die or pass from injury or sickness, but their souls return to a new body every time. Wandering amongst the humans are six siblings who have the unique ability to never die, they do not age, and they wield radiance creation magic that allows them to be nigh on invincible. In the millenia that they have walked Kaus they have seen the very worst of humanity has to offer and now one of them has been driven to madness; his entire goal to cleanse humanity of its violence, of it sins, but the cost may be far to great.

Is this ultimately about one very dysfunctional family? Yes, yes, it is. Was it an amazing ride? Absolutely. This may truly be my favorite series of Dalglish's yet. And while I'm 100% sure I say that with every new series, I really mean it this time.

The world building in this is phenomenonal, of course, and as always, there are some next level fighting scenes, but honestly, it's just how well these characters were done that really solidifies it. And it's not just on individual levels, because holy shit are each of them individually just nuts (well except Faron and even he's definitely straddling the fence and we havent met Eist yet but if the other four are any measure he's either completely nuts or on the fence with Faron), which makes sense because if you knew you could just set yourself on fire and sleep for seventy years you'd be nuts too, but as a group they are just arrogant jerks. They basically appoint themselves humanity's judge, jury, and executioner over and over again but then they'll justify it by saying "Well I didn't do anything but influence a human king and/or queen with my magic so it's not *me* doing it." They simply make themselves gods for all intents and purposes, and they don't even have the self-awareness to recognize this. What makes this even more twisted is they don't even know why they are the only six Immortals walking around. Not a single clue, but they consistently decide what's best for the world. The lack of self-awareness is just mind-blowing. The fact that most of this boils down to the fact that none of this would have happened if they went and got some freaking counseling just adds to it, because so much of this is sibling rivalry between pseudo gods.

The other portion of this that put it over the top is this cycle of reincarnation. It's like a weird spin on Spira from FFX, which you know had me hooked immediately. People are just walking around with the memories of every person they've been before rattling around in their brains. And even the siblings have this issue, they always stay themselves but they can opt to forget certain portions of their lives by "dying" which as far as I can tell they go into some weird state which regenerates their body over time and they just pop back out fresh as a daisy with their ex not even a distant memory. On top of that, they can restore people's memories of their past lives or lock them away. Which again seems to push this idea that they know best.

Can't leave a review for this without discussing each individual character, though, because as I said, they are breathtakingly *broken*. Calunna, who appears normal at the beginning, is a sociopath of the highest order. She's spoiled and broken and extremely twisted, and yup, I wholeheartedly believe that if she wasn't such a brat, none of this would have happened. Faron is wonderful, a hero through and through, but also a tad bit to obsessed with blood shed. Sariel was actually my favorite character. Honestly, he is probably the sanest of the bunch, plus some of the best fight scenes involve him. Like at no point did I feel Sariel's actions were out of line and they always were *normal* while Faron's were driven by almost obsessed to stop Eder. Alyah went through some very messed up shit, so she has a tiny bit of an excuse for being just an idiot. Eder is nuts and genuinely the perfect "bad guy" (although his other siblings aren't really in the running for a good guy award either) and I honestly was hoping throughout the ending he would finally come to his senses but nope, actually just drills down harder. But his obsession with righting the reincarnation cycle because it "taints" human souls is what really throws him over the top. There's one scene that forces someone to watch his past self murder someone over and over again. And the thing he is, he really didn't even need to know it ever happened. He purposefully seeks out the worst in a human and then punishes them for something they did four reincarnations ago. It's truly twisted.


Overall, this was genuinely explosive from beginning to end. This world is so unlike anything else he's wrote that it was a ton of fun to read because it is just really weird. The characters, though, are the real reason you should read this both as individuals, but their dynamic as a group was stunningly well done from an author who I already love for writing amazing characters.

As always, thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books.

This was another stunning read from this author and he has solidified his place among the auto buy list. After having loved The Vagrant Gods series so much I was worried how this would compare but this was somehow even better. This was a unique story I hadn’t seen anywhere else and I loved the concept of immortal siblings and the way he wrote their relationship was perfect. I can’t wait to see where this series goes

Publishing March 4th, 2025

back a few months ago when Orbit had posted the beautiful cover reveal for THE RADIANT KING, coupled with its synopsis, I knew I needed to read this book. I rushed to preorder it, and not ashamed to admit I checked netgalley almost daily for the arc.

and now after reading the arc, I am glad I pre ordered it as I have a new trilogy to be invested in!

with six immortal siblings, and nearly all of them having their own POV, Dalglish was able to juggle the different plot lines seamlessly throughout the story. sometimes with multiple POVs, it can feel overwhelming and there’s a lack of balance to the substance of each, but with THE RADIANT KING I never felt that way. I definitely had a favourite POV (Sariel) but was never bored or skimming through the other POVs as each aided the story in its own exciting way. Each voice felt distinct and fleshed out, and I read this book in two days.

It was vicious and exciting, magical and realistic, and tender and romantic (at times) all in one devour-able story. I am eagerly awaiting the sequel and this first book hasn’t even come out yet!

I am quite certain this will be many people’s favourite fantasy novel of 2025.

a massive thank you to orbit books and netgalley for an eArc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Devoured this book! Same quality that has always complimented Dalgish booms and yet it's perspective is much newer for his books.

The perspective of 6 godly siblings that take sides in mortal beings war for different purposes, is unique and provides a new perspective on the typical fantasy story.

Pacing is quick, and we'll balanced, the characters are realistic but interesting, the magic isn't new, but cool and the world is well fleshed out, so you don't feel lost!

Great fun ride!

Some siblings will do anything for each other, some are the best of friends, and some have irreparable rifts to their relationships, but when siblings are immortal, the lifetime of bonds and rifts gets a bit longer. Six immortal siblings take sides in a war. Is it a holly war, a land grab, or just a couple of brothers settling a centuries old fight? This question anchors the plot of a dark fantasy set in a world that is ready for war, with monarchs already vying for lands and where battles permeate the narrative. The magic of the immortal siblings, their "radiance", is quite the boon for a monarchy with ambitions and when a couple of the brothers join up with a ruler with the moniker of "Bastard Princess" who may have some magic of her own, the pieces align. The premise is engrossing; the prose is well written; and the action is paced well for this opener to a brand new series. There is just enough in this book to get pieces of the sibling dynamics and get caught up in the ongoing war before the plot crests and we are left in a cliffhanger that made me spoil for the next book to see where the story goes.
I received advanced digital access to this book 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.

The Radiant King is the first of the planned "Astral Kingdoms" trilogy. The ideas behind this series is quite original, following the perspectives of six immortal siblings. Five of which had made oaths not to take power, but the sixth sibling, Eder, chooses to rule through the Church of Stars, spreading its power throughout the continent of Kaus. The sibling of Faron awakens after a long rest/exile, and realizes that Faron must be stopped. Faron joins up with his more dark and brooding sibling Sariel to find a way to stop Eder, ultimately choosing to bank on the power of the upstart Princess Isabelle. Three other siblings- Aylah, Calluna, and Eist, are said to be throughout the continent too, with some of them playing a key part in the upcoming conflict.

This was a unique premise, more than just the premise of an upstart hero pushing back against the 'Evil Empire'. In plenty of other books, Isabelle would have been the central character, but here, it is through the perspective of god-like beings (more than humans, certainly). The flaws of the siblings are notable too, none of them are truly good-hearted (well, maybe one comes close), but it certainly seems that their efforts have made messes for the humans to pick up after. The setting is a common 'medieval kingdom', but I reckon that in the upcoming works, we'll start to see start to see the impact of supernatural realms or universes influencing the supposedly standard setting.

The ending conflict was interesting too, here with some notable cliffhangers, and leaving me intrigued on the morality and future plans of some of these characters.

The prose is good as always, having read the author's previous series, "The Vagrant Gods". As with the previous series, the fight scenes are well described too, so that is certainly a plus.

I give this 4/5 stars, as this is an interesting debut with an intriguing cliffhanger.

The Radiant King is a truly remarkable piece of dark, epic fantasy and is a love letter to Kentaro Miura's 'Berserk' and FromSoftware's 'Dark Souls'. Gripping storytelling with a breakneck pace, mixed with unusual magic and monstrous creatures makes this a 2025 TBR topper.