Fantastic, amazing story, more amazing narrator

Incredible story that intertwines dark fantasy Crusades and Cthulhu like Gods. Amazing narrator aswell, had me thoroughly engaged throughout.

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Great story

I really enjoyed this. Yes there is coarse language and violence, don't let that deture you.

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Did not let me go till the very end

"We're all good men until we're pushed to the edge. Then your either die a good man, or the good man in you dies."

Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar, was described as 'Game of Thrones' and the crusades set in the Middle East. I could not agree more. The world was familiar, in its complexity of characters and their motives.

"War urged savagery, but vengeance oft demanded it,"

It was fast paced, brutal, rife with political backstabbing and plotting, religious zealotry and hypocrisy (it is inspired by the crusades after all), and mans need for power and revenge.

To start off, it was more political than I had thought it would be which isn't usually my jam but had enough tropes and things I liked to keep me turning the page. Before long, be it by the Archangel or Lat herself I was hooked!

"Until now, I'd been living wrong. I'd been clinging to peace, when war was inevitable, and you either won or watched everyone you love choke on blood"

The world building was so very well done. A great balance between sharing enough without info dumping. I was really impressed because there were so many different lands in this world. The map definitely helped and is gorgeous.

The characters were VERY well written, explored and complex. Each was flawed to f*<*ery, but truly was trying to do their best to do what they believed was right. Not one character was solely good nor solely evil, and it really just made it a delight to read. It made it hard to predict what they were going to do next. Whether it was right or wrong from where I sat was of no importance. I was literally in the passenger's seat without a seatbelt, watching/ reading hoping the car didn't explode.

I will say that, as much as I liked Kevah's arc, I can't wait to learn more about Aicard. He was the most intriguing character for me. I hope he has more 'screen time' in Conqueror's Blood.

I was team Kevah from the get go. Once a celebrated warrior, now ten years older, tired and fat, called on once again by the Shah to do the impossible. Micah the Metal was enemy number one from the jump. I tend to be anti the religious zealots in any book I read, but his character was so easy to hate.

The addition of the Magi and ancient deities and the way they folded into the story was well done. Learning about them, the differences and hierarchy, was fascinating and I want more. I feel we only scratched the surface on these.

"Faith runs out as gold does. And nothing replenishes both like victory."

An obvious amount of attention has gone into the editing of this. Really well done. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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2 people found this helpful

Fantastic

Story was fantastic, writing was fantastic, voice acting was fantastic. a solid entry into a new series that I will be closely watching in time to come.

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A bit hard to review but I liked it

This was hard to review. I initially wanted to read this because I really liked the author's book, Lightblade.
For the first half of the book, everything was bleak. Everything was a bit too realistic, I.e. people believed in gods but it seemed it could be just superstition, as in our reality, and lived in a somewhat mundane mediaeval world. I could not like the two main characters. Both were hard men who lived in hard times and driven by motivations that are hard to share. They acted like in Shakespearean stories, where they bare their emotions and motivations to each other, and are treated as honour or emotions dictated. The narrator narrated more like a story teller and not as the embodiment of different characters. The book was well done, but it still did not endear me to the story. After the midpoint, it was easier to convince myself that the rest is short enough to see if it will validate all the good reviews. And it did. Characters gained more depth. They became unsure of their path, and moralised on the wisdom of what they were doing. and also, the gods revealed themselves. I can't recommend this if you're in the mood for lighter fare, but if you're in the mood for something a bit more layered, you might appreciate this one.

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just get into it

I loved this book.
it had be hooked from very early on, very into it and take a chance

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Why no warning ?

I don’t mind graphic violence and swearing but I draw the line at mass murder of babies . Buried and stomped to death . Who the hell writes that ? Oh yeah and the child sex slaves both boys and girls .
Can’t believe no one else mentioned it .
An atrocious story and the narrator was terrible.

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