Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
For someone who loves Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy settings in general, I tend to bounce off a lot of fantasy book series. However, I wanted to give Matt Colville's self-published series a shot, because I have the advantage of being familiar with his other work as a D&D YouTuber, streamer, and game designer. From that work, I know him to be an intelligent, creative person, full of fantastic world-building ideas and awesome character concepts (and what seems like a genuinely nice, chill dude). That's more buy-in than I usually have with any author before I read their book, so I admit my familiarity with Colville's other work colors how I engaged with this one. As such, I have to weigh this book on a variety of levels that differ from how I usually interact with fiction.
First, to address what might be an elephant in the room: this book is deeply steeped in the tradition of Dungeons and Dragons. I suspect high fantasy fiction and D&D have overlapped for a long time (as, unsurprisingly, D&D itself was born of Tolkien). I have an inkling that most fantasy authors must have at least a passing experience playing D&D. Given the game's explosion into the mainstream in the last decade or so, I think this must be becoming more and more of an open secret – and perhaps not even a secret at all. Which is great! I love D&D, I think people shouldn't be ashamed of their "nerdy" hobbies, and when I say this book is super recognizable as incorporating familiar tropes and items well-known to D&D, that isn't really a critique. It's just something to be aware of.
That said, for the uninitiated, some things in this book might seem opaque and confusing – why does Heden have a flying carpet? Why can scrolls teleport you places? Why does he have a backpack that seems bottomless? etc etc. Seasoned players will smile and nod at the well-known idiosyncrasies that make up the staples of every D&D campaign, tweaked slightly to avoid copyright issues. However, if you happened to stumble upon this book having never played, you might find it perfectly bewildering. But then again, at this point, are there many people reading this book without having been introduced to Matt Colville through his online D&D content? I doubt it, so it might be a moot point. All that said, it's just something you have to take in stride when reading.
So I have zero issues taking this book more or less as a fictionalized D&D adventure, regardless of whether it originated as one or not. (I don't think it did, I just think Matt Colville has the mind of a game designer and DM and that's why it feels so strongly like one.) As both a writer and a D&D player, I myself have wondered – could I render one of my campaigns into a fantasy series one day? If so, how would I go about it? As the campaigns I think would be good candidates are still ongoing, I haven't yet tried, but it is interesting food for thought. The question, then, becomes: can you render a narrative game, designed to entertain only its participants, into a satisfying work for a wide audience of observers? As wildly popular D&D streams like Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Colville's own The Chain of Acheron set in the same world as Priest can attest, the answer seems to be "yes." But that's live play. How about a novel?
That's where things get tricky. Because a good D&D game might translate well to what amounts to an entertaining improv show (I, personally, find streamed games less entertaining and more instructive, since I run a game myself), but what makes up a good novel is different, and perhaps more complicated. Novels are deliberate and methodical, giving nothing to chance. They are built upon information slowly and painstakingly released to the reader through its characters, which gradually build the narrative tension to a climax.
With that in mind, I turn back to Priest. Our main character is a member of the local clergy named Heden. He is in his mid-forties, and he has seen some horrors in his life. He's in turns cynical, traumatized, and grasping for a moral center that has been lost to him. We see tiny glimpses of the life he lived before he bought an inn and holed up there, but we never really see or understand what that life was. I liked Heden and found him to be a compelling character, but it was frustrating to constantly be in the dark about his past, especially since the POV is usually third person limited inside his head. That said, I liked that he was a clergyman and that he answered to a church. That felt different and fresh from other fantasy titles I've perused recently.
Heden lives in medieval fantasy land. I found this to be a chief disappointment of the book, as there is very little information given about the world, its sociopolitical forces, who was in charge and why, and where locations were in a geographical sense. This is a letdown because I know Matt Colville knows all of this stuff. I've sat in on countless world-building streams where he has explained at length the forces in this world, its nations and cultures, and what has happened in its history. That is almost entirely absent from this book, and I was sad. Since this book was published in 2010, I can't tell if the level of detail has accumulated since, or he simply didn't want to bog down the novel with detailed explanations, but I craved those detailed explanations. I don't even know the name of the king, nor what Heden thinks of him. A lot of the wider world didn't feel fleshed out. I once heard Matt Colville say on stream that he didn't want to write a novel so convoluted that you needed a map in the front of the book, but I wanted a map in the front of the book so that the world felt more real.
Heden's main task in the novel is to track down a mysterious order of knights in the nearby forest and investigate for the church why one of them has recently been killed. This is a damn cool plot hook and I was settling in for a twisty, turny fantasy-thriller hybrid where Heden assembles a team, penetrates the Heart of Darkness-esque wilds, and solves the mystery.
Except... he doesn't.
The rest of the book tends to follow this formula: Heden shows up to a place alone. Heden has opaque and circular conversations with characters we only see once or twice, and the plot doesn't advance at all. Perhaps this is a failing of giving a reader the expectation of a D&D-like ensemble cast, but the solitary nature of Heden's journey hampers the plot significantly. He meets so many potentially interesting characters I would have liked to see join him in his quest: Vanora, Renaldo, the female hunter from outside Ollghum Keep I don't think even gets a name, Aderyn, Aimsley, Taethan... I kept hoping all of them would join him, but none of them last, even when the area seems to be in immediate peril. Heden is a very insular personality who plays things close to the chest, and keeping him isolated through all this turns the plot into a real slog. For some reason, he seems incapable of accepting help, when these side characters could have offered their own insight and skills to the quest, in the process drawing out the tantalizingly hinted-at bits of Heden's dark past. You know... kind of like a D&D adventure.
Instead, because of the isolation, Heden is forced into a series of logic leaps based on nothing but speculation, which I became super frustrated by. Despite being told repeatedly he's the best man for the job, I found myself finding that incredibly difficult to believe. Frequently it felt like the author was afraid of giving any hints that would give away the game, but I really wish there had been more for Heden to find than a dozen stone-walling conversations. In detective stories, there's usually some physical evidence for the protagonist to find, but because of the magical setting, everything seems to be conveniently hidden away from sight, forcing Heden (and the reader) to take a bunch of untrustworthy characters at their word. It may have maintained the mystery as the plot demanded, but it doesn't make for terribly exciting storytelling.
All that said, I thought the beginning and the ending were fairly solid, and there are a few really killer scenes in this book, particularly between Heden and Vanora and Heden and Gwiddon, and some great lines as well. Looking ahead to the next book's synopsis, I noticed it seems to focus more on Vanora. This is something I wanted from the beginning, since I found her to be the most compelling character out of everyone.
So will I read more? Maybe. This book is sloppy and accounts for my mixed review. There's some typo and sentence-level errors that a judicious editor could have taken care of, if this hadn't been a self-published work. It's also clear this is a first novel, and an unfinished draft at that. I often found myself wishing this manuscript had been vigorously workshopped – a writer's circle could have helped hammer out some of the messier plot elements. That said, I rarely read books that I wish I could have workshopped, which make me excited to think of how to make it better, and Priest is that. It's clear Matt Colville is a talented writer and has a lot of good ideas worth sharing. Perhaps Thief improves upon Priest. And perhaps, now that Matt Colville has his own company publishing D&D content, he can use MCDM's resources to give the third installment in the series the polish it deserves.
First, to address what might be an elephant in the room: this book is deeply steeped in the tradition of Dungeons and Dragons. I suspect high fantasy fiction and D&D have overlapped for a long time (as, unsurprisingly, D&D itself was born of Tolkien). I have an inkling that most fantasy authors must have at least a passing experience playing D&D. Given the game's explosion into the mainstream in the last decade or so, I think this must be becoming more and more of an open secret – and perhaps not even a secret at all. Which is great! I love D&D, I think people shouldn't be ashamed of their "nerdy" hobbies, and when I say this book is super recognizable as incorporating familiar tropes and items well-known to D&D, that isn't really a critique. It's just something to be aware of.
That said, for the uninitiated, some things in this book might seem opaque and confusing – why does Heden have a flying carpet? Why can scrolls teleport you places? Why does he have a backpack that seems bottomless? etc etc. Seasoned players will smile and nod at the well-known idiosyncrasies that make up the staples of every D&D campaign, tweaked slightly to avoid copyright issues. However, if you happened to stumble upon this book having never played, you might find it perfectly bewildering. But then again, at this point, are there many people reading this book without having been introduced to Matt Colville through his online D&D content? I doubt it, so it might be a moot point. All that said, it's just something you have to take in stride when reading.
So I have zero issues taking this book more or less as a fictionalized D&D adventure, regardless of whether it originated as one or not. (I don't think it did, I just think Matt Colville has the mind of a game designer and DM and that's why it feels so strongly like one.) As both a writer and a D&D player, I myself have wondered – could I render one of my campaigns into a fantasy series one day? If so, how would I go about it? As the campaigns I think would be good candidates are still ongoing, I haven't yet tried, but it is interesting food for thought. The question, then, becomes: can you render a narrative game, designed to entertain only its participants, into a satisfying work for a wide audience of observers? As wildly popular D&D streams like Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Colville's own The Chain of Acheron set in the same world as Priest can attest, the answer seems to be "yes." But that's live play. How about a novel?
That's where things get tricky. Because a good D&D game might translate well to what amounts to an entertaining improv show (I, personally, find streamed games less entertaining and more instructive, since I run a game myself), but what makes up a good novel is different, and perhaps more complicated. Novels are deliberate and methodical, giving nothing to chance. They are built upon information slowly and painstakingly released to the reader through its characters, which gradually build the narrative tension to a climax.
With that in mind, I turn back to Priest. Our main character is a member of the local clergy named Heden. He is in his mid-forties, and he has seen some horrors in his life. He's in turns cynical, traumatized, and grasping for a moral center that has been lost to him. We see tiny glimpses of the life he lived before he bought an inn and holed up there, but we never really see or understand what that life was. I liked Heden and found him to be a compelling character, but it was frustrating to constantly be in the dark about his past, especially since the POV is usually third person limited inside his head. That said, I liked that he was a clergyman and that he answered to a church. That felt different and fresh from other fantasy titles I've perused recently.
Heden lives in medieval fantasy land. I found this to be a chief disappointment of the book, as there is very little information given about the world, its sociopolitical forces, who was in charge and why, and where locations were in a geographical sense. This is a letdown because I know Matt Colville knows all of this stuff. I've sat in on countless world-building streams where he has explained at length the forces in this world, its nations and cultures, and what has happened in its history. That is almost entirely absent from this book, and I was sad. Since this book was published in 2010, I can't tell if the level of detail has accumulated since, or he simply didn't want to bog down the novel with detailed explanations, but I craved those detailed explanations. I don't even know the name of the king, nor what Heden thinks of him. A lot of the wider world didn't feel fleshed out. I once heard Matt Colville say on stream that he didn't want to write a novel so convoluted that you needed a map in the front of the book, but I wanted a map in the front of the book so that the world felt more real.
Heden's main task in the novel is to track down a mysterious order of knights in the nearby forest and investigate for the church why one of them has recently been killed. This is a damn cool plot hook and I was settling in for a twisty, turny fantasy-thriller hybrid where Heden assembles a team, penetrates the Heart of Darkness-esque wilds, and solves the mystery.
Except... he doesn't.
The rest of the book tends to follow this formula: Heden shows up to a place alone. Heden has opaque and circular conversations with characters we only see once or twice, and the plot doesn't advance at all. Perhaps this is a failing of giving a reader the expectation of a D&D-like ensemble cast, but the solitary nature of Heden's journey hampers the plot significantly. He meets so many potentially interesting characters I would have liked to see join him in his quest: Vanora, Renaldo, the female hunter from outside Ollghum Keep I don't think even gets a name, Aderyn, Aimsley, Taethan... I kept hoping all of them would join him, but none of them last, even when the area seems to be in immediate peril. Heden is a very insular personality who plays things close to the chest, and keeping him isolated through all this turns the plot into a real slog. For some reason, he seems incapable of accepting help, when these side characters could have offered their own insight and skills to the quest, in the process drawing out the tantalizingly hinted-at bits of Heden's dark past. You know... kind of like a D&D adventure.
Instead, because of the isolation, Heden is forced into a series of logic leaps based on nothing but speculation, which I became super frustrated by. Despite being told repeatedly he's the best man for the job, I found myself finding that incredibly difficult to believe.
Spoiler
The ending twist, which I did like, ended up proving me right – he was being set up by the bishop and used to balls up the investigation on purpose, to cover up something we still don't know.All that said, I thought the beginning and the ending were fairly solid, and there are a few really killer scenes in this book, particularly between Heden and Vanora and Heden and Gwiddon, and some great lines as well. Looking ahead to the next book's synopsis, I noticed it seems to focus more on Vanora. This is something I wanted from the beginning, since I found her to be the most compelling character out of everyone.
Spoiler
I kept getting mad when Heden would promise he wouldn't leave her alone, and then would immediately leave her alone again. Heden, your dad skills suck!So will I read more? Maybe. This book is sloppy and accounts for my mixed review. There's some typo and sentence-level errors that a judicious editor could have taken care of, if this hadn't been a self-published work. It's also clear this is a first novel, and an unfinished draft at that. I often found myself wishing this manuscript had been vigorously workshopped – a writer's circle could have helped hammer out some of the messier plot elements. That said, I rarely read books that I wish I could have workshopped, which make me excited to think of how to make it better, and Priest is that. It's clear Matt Colville is a talented writer and has a lot of good ideas worth sharing. Perhaps Thief improves upon Priest. And perhaps, now that Matt Colville has his own company publishing D&D content, he can use MCDM's resources to give the third installment in the series the polish it deserves.
I devoured this book in a week solid, starting with caution and then purposefully making time for it. That in itself is the sign of a good story well told.
Priest isn't a coming of age tale, instead its protagonist is the priestly Heden, an older man that has lived his life and has now slumped into quiet seclusion. He owns an inn that he never opens but keeps stocked, a strange combination that has you questioning his thought processes immediately.
Heden himself is a complicated man, and the tale is told entirely through his actions save for a brief flashback. He is a priest in a polytheistic society, and the goddess he is empowered by only has one worshipper: him.
The story is further complicated by the young whore he gives safe haven to, which you immediately believe sets up for the youth/experience duo fighting for their lives against the world.
Only, it doesn't at all. Heden is given orders to head off into a forest and leaves the girl in the inn for the next three days. We hear little from her for the bulk of the book.
There are brief tales on Heden's way to the forest, but they're largely for the benefit of establishing this single character
Instead we are introduced to The Green Order, a small group of solitary knights that are protectors of the forest. Something has gone horribly wrong within said order and it is up to Heden to determine what has happened.
Priest throws a proverbial curveball with this forest, evoking an almost twisted Arthurian feel to the proceedings. It's like a façade of medieval fantasy under which lies a more contemporary tale.
There are monsters in this tale, but they largely serve as a plot point. There is little development of the world, most of it mentioned in passing rather than regurgitated history being spread out over multiple paragraphs. This lends the tale an aura of intrigue as you're venturing into a land unknown with Heden in tow.
The knights are chivalrous to a fault and their deeply held convictions coupled with their hermetic existence outside of the order make their initial interactions with our hero seem almost alien. An undercurrent of animosity is soon given voice and things start falling apart soon after.
The underlying mystery of the problems with the order and the relationships that Heden develops with the order are what propels the bulk of this book, with a particularly poignant scene involving one of the squires that had me silently applauding.
For all its excellence, the introduction of the young girl and subsequent banishing of her from the text seemed needless, whilst the book also had a tendency to cut away from certain action scenes and immediately jumping to the aftermath. The tale felt bookended in an unnecessary fashion and the powers on display did border on Deus Ex Machina at times.
The mystery was unfolded at an infuriating pace, which is both laudable as it left the reader mirroring the hero's own frustrations and a point of contention as it often felt under-exposed. I felt like I was clutching at straws too many times before it was finally spelt out for me.
The characterisation was strong for the most part, with all the knights and the principle characters getting the time needed. It was non-existant for some other critical characters which left me confused as they only appeared sporadically and at completely opposite ends of the tale. In all honesty I had forgotten about them by that point and would have needed a primer to keep all the names right.
There were also no paragraph indentations in my copy, but I assume the author will rectify this. The number of typos in the text were minimal, a sign of good proof-reading and editing.
Overall I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a protagonist with baggage and introspection. People who are tired of the coming of age stories but who also want something a little different from the clones masquerading as adult fantasy clogging up the shelves in the book stores.
Matt Colville considers his work a hard-boiled throwback to books that he read in the 1980s. I'm not sure what books he was reading back then but if Priest is the result then perhaps I need to contact him for a reading list.
Note: upon completion of this review I immediately bought the sequel, Thief. I look forward to reading it and can safely say that Colville has gained a new fan. Here's hoping this is the beginning of a successful career and his writing continues to improve book by book.
Priest isn't a coming of age tale, instead its protagonist is the priestly Heden, an older man that has lived his life and has now slumped into quiet seclusion. He owns an inn that he never opens but keeps stocked, a strange combination that has you questioning his thought processes immediately.
Heden himself is a complicated man, and the tale is told entirely through his actions save for a brief flashback. He is a priest in a polytheistic society, and the goddess he is empowered by only has one worshipper: him.
The story is further complicated by the young whore he gives safe haven to, which you immediately believe sets up for the youth/experience duo fighting for their lives against the world.
Only, it doesn't at all. Heden is given orders to head off into a forest and leaves the girl in the inn for the next three days. We hear little from her for the bulk of the book.
There are brief tales on Heden's way to the forest, but they're largely for the benefit of establishing this single character
Instead we are introduced to The Green Order, a small group of solitary knights that are protectors of the forest. Something has gone horribly wrong within said order and it is up to Heden to determine what has happened.
Priest throws a proverbial curveball with this forest, evoking an almost twisted Arthurian feel to the proceedings. It's like a façade of medieval fantasy under which lies a more contemporary tale.
There are monsters in this tale, but they largely serve as a plot point. There is little development of the world, most of it mentioned in passing rather than regurgitated history being spread out over multiple paragraphs. This lends the tale an aura of intrigue as you're venturing into a land unknown with Heden in tow.
The knights are chivalrous to a fault and their deeply held convictions coupled with their hermetic existence outside of the order make their initial interactions with our hero seem almost alien. An undercurrent of animosity is soon given voice and things start falling apart soon after.
The underlying mystery of the problems with the order and the relationships that Heden develops with the order are what propels the bulk of this book, with a particularly poignant scene involving one of the squires that had me silently applauding.
For all its excellence, the introduction of the young girl and subsequent banishing of her from the text seemed needless, whilst the book also had a tendency to cut away from certain action scenes and immediately jumping to the aftermath. The tale felt bookended in an unnecessary fashion and the powers on display did border on Deus Ex Machina at times.
The mystery was unfolded at an infuriating pace, which is both laudable as it left the reader mirroring the hero's own frustrations and a point of contention as it often felt under-exposed. I felt like I was clutching at straws too many times before it was finally spelt out for me.
The characterisation was strong for the most part, with all the knights and the principle characters getting the time needed. It was non-existant for some other critical characters which left me confused as they only appeared sporadically and at completely opposite ends of the tale. In all honesty I had forgotten about them by that point and would have needed a primer to keep all the names right.
There were also no paragraph indentations in my copy, but I assume the author will rectify this. The number of typos in the text were minimal, a sign of good proof-reading and editing.
Overall I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes a protagonist with baggage and introspection. People who are tired of the coming of age stories but who also want something a little different from the clones masquerading as adult fantasy clogging up the shelves in the book stores.
Matt Colville considers his work a hard-boiled throwback to books that he read in the 1980s. I'm not sure what books he was reading back then but if Priest is the result then perhaps I need to contact him for a reading list.
Note: upon completion of this review I immediately bought the sequel, Thief. I look forward to reading it and can safely say that Colville has gained a new fan. Here's hoping this is the beginning of a successful career and his writing continues to improve book by book.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Much better than I expected - I loved the "too old for this shite" main character - Heden, the titular priest, who has seen it all and now just does his job if he absolutely has no choice.
This was actually a fantasy/murder mystery, which I enjoyed, with a strong feel of mystical forests, arthurian knights, and moral conundrum underlying it all.
I was nice that some of the expected tropes (young love, duo fighting monsters etc) were neatly sidestepped and Heden and the main Knights were characterised very clearly.
Looking forward to read the next in the series.
This was actually a fantasy/murder mystery, which I enjoyed, with a strong feel of mystical forests, arthurian knights, and moral conundrum underlying it all.
I was nice that some of the expected tropes (young love, duo fighting monsters etc) were neatly sidestepped and Heden and the main Knights were characterised very clearly.
Looking forward to read the next in the series.
I liked this book quite a bit. Still, it felt like it only started after 200 pages, and yet I was constantly lost. The world building could use some fleshing out, and the pacing some adjusting. Regardless, I was hooked and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Loved and hated this book. Ok not really hated but spoiler alert...there is no happy ending here. Heden was too real, too close to my heart. I loved the character and really saw Matt himself in there too. The story of the knights and the murder of one of them is frustrating, you feel it just as much as our reluctant hero does. Overall I would recommend this book. Loved his dialog with the polder! Looking forward to reading Thief.
You have a book here that takes an old fashioned, classical form of fantasy and updates it for a more modern taste.
The author uses some of the legends of King Arthur, aspects of LOTR, a pinch of Feist and sprinkle of many other influences. All of these he mixes into a story that carries you through the events with a pace that ensures your interest doesn't wander.
Occasionally, the author's cleverness takes over and there is one chapter, near the end, which I thought could have been said fewer words, but then you're back into the action. Also, the main character has a great deal of compassion for individuals, but when the is a larger loss of life he seems to shrug it off.
However, what you do get, when you read this book, is a clear story, a compelling set of characters, some great interaction, and a story that leads to a sound finale.
It is well worth your time.
The author uses some of the legends of King Arthur, aspects of LOTR, a pinch of Feist and sprinkle of many other influences. All of these he mixes into a story that carries you through the events with a pace that ensures your interest doesn't wander.
Occasionally, the author's cleverness takes over and there is one chapter, near the end, which I thought could have been said fewer words, but then you're back into the action. Also, the main character has a great deal of compassion for individuals, but when the is a larger loss of life he seems to shrug it off.
However, what you do get, when you read this book, is a clear story, a compelling set of characters, some great interaction, and a story that leads to a sound finale.
It is well worth your time.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
We picked up Priest in order to support the author whom we'd been watching on Twitch. I was a bit skeptical as to the book mainly because it's another fantasy book, but I wanted to give it a shot as I love his streams, his other videos, and just his outlook on many things. That being said, I read it in a day! It's also one of the few books that my husband has read in a long time. It's rough at times and lacks extra descriptions, yet it felt spot on with the emotions and character development, and I'm still able to visualize the characters and their motivations. I'm struggling to put into words how I feel about the ending, so I know I recommend it! Now that it's been a couple of days since I finished the book, I can say that I'm still digesting the book and the ending which is rare for me. I love the discussion I'm having with myself.
Not a coming of age fantasy novel (hallelujah) and it definitely doesn't follow the standard plot lines. In fact, it had almost a detective novel feel, with all of the pacing issues/opportunities that accompany that genre. It was not at all predictable, though I admit another reviewer's comment about deux ex machina is valid, and this lack of predictability was refreshing.
I loved the incidental characters he met. Delightful characterizations.
The ending was a bit... interesting... but I think that is because this is (as MC himself said) the beginning of a series. I'm looking forward to reading Thief.
I loved the incidental characters he met. Delightful characterizations.
The ending was a bit... interesting... but I think that is because this is (as MC himself said) the beginning of a series. I'm looking forward to reading Thief.