My honest review was provided in exchange for an ARC on NetGalley. Thank you, J.J. De Groot (and Squire & Lark Publishers) for giving me this ARC! 

First half: 3/5
Last half: 5/5
Overall: 4/5

The premise of this book is amazing!

-Two countries locked in a holy war, fighting each other and the indiscriminate Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
-A self-trained necromancer on a quest to destroy the source of the world’s evil.
-A prince (and unexpected heir to the throne) trying to free his imprisoned father and take back his land.
-An aristocratic astrologer, the source of her family’s exile and shame, trying to escape an arranged marriage and restore her family’s position in society.

It’s hard not to salivate over this pitch. But it also sets a seriously high bar, and I think this books struggles with that at the beginning.

PROS:

There are a lot of things this book does well.

It has a beautiful world that is rich, atmospheric, and teeming with danger and sorrow. Monsters are fearsome, battles are beautifully choreographed, elements that are heart-wrenching are truly heart-wrenching (so, so heart-wrenching, observatory, I’m looking at you), and you can feel each characters’ fear, anger, sadness, and joy throughout their journey.

The writing is superb. The prose felt clean and accessible, and it had the perfect amount of stylistic variation to keep me entertained.

With rare exception, the characters felt real and relatable, and by the end I was rooting for Balmung, Dieter, and Roma (and Petricia, Strauss, and Henric) to achieve their goals and/or find happiness in the chaos.

And overall, the story was just phenomenal. The twists were delightfully executed, and I really loved how religion was manifested in the plot.

CONS:

To me, it felt like the first half of the book was unnecessarily padded. Avoiding spoilers, at about 20% in, I finally got to the catalyzing event that started two characters on their journey. By about 50% in, I started one character’s personal quest, and the time spent in another’s POV finally connected with the overarching story. I can see why some of this was hidden for the first half of the book, but I think I needed individual character perspectives to feel more connected to get invested in their collective story. It got MUCH better in the last half, which was riveting. Getting there just felt like a real slog.

FINAL VERDICT:

Despite the very slow start, this is a very well written book with a compelling story and poetic character arcs. I was able to look past my issues with the first half because it does so much else so well, so I can imagine people who love narrative flourish will devour this completely. And even if you don’t, I think the story will still grip those who want to see how the holy war ends and the forces of Armageddon are repelled.

If you enjoy gritty, dark fantasy with moral ambiguity and high stakes, this is absolutely a book for you.

My review is available on StoryGraph already. I’ll be publishing my review on Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org the day of release. I’ll also be advertising my StoryGraph review on Bluesky on release day.