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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Kagen Vale, leaders of the guard and personally responsible for the security of the royal family and more specifically the royal children of Argentium, wakes up hungover and disoriented. Eventually, he pulls himself together enough to understand that there's an active attack against his land by the Hakkians, who use magic that was banned in Argentium. When he arrives at the royal wing, he finds all of them, right down to the babies, killed in various gruesomely described ways. He decides at that moment that he is incompetent, terrible at his job, and damned.
I'm a firm believer that what matters when tragedy strikes, or when some life situation goes terribly wrong and bad, that what matters is owning your responsibility in it, if any, and that true character is shown by how one acts after such tragedies occur.
And his personal mindset of mind had a very large issue with Kagen and his nonstop whining, drinking, and lamenting about how he sucked at his job. I started calling him Kagen the Whiny, and promised myself at about the 35% mark that if he didn't get his shit together, I was going to make this a DNF. The author pulled out of the nosedive shortly thereafter.
While Kagen was drinking and whining his way about this fictional world, other characters were also introduced - some appeared and hen vanished until almost the end of he book. I get that Kagen is the main character and so much of he book time is devote to him, but we got some pretty detailed narrative time with the other characters, including a young nun destined for a sacrifice, so I was expecting a bit more from her at some point before the end of her journey.
There are various side characters who show up, either for Kagen to fight against and kill, or just to give us some information about what's happening in the rest of the world instead of the usual "As you know, Bob." stuff where someone just talks at he main character. I hope some of them show up again later, because they were just as interesting (sometimes moreso) than Kagen.
But Kagen is back to himself by now, halting he drinking, and even invading a vampire witch's tower, where he is "captured", but not killed, as every other interloper has been. There's a prophecy, of course, and she lets him go because of that prophecy.
And that brings me to another issue I have with this kind of book in general. Kagen was obviously taken out of action by a woman who drugged him. My question: why not just poison him and take him out of action entirely?I understand the value of humiliation some people require others to feel, to know that they have been bested, and with barely any effort, but in things like this, a better leader would have weighed the value of having Kagen gone versus his humiliation and gone with the former.
In any case, throughout the book we pop into the heads of other characters wandering around this world, so we get a good picture of what has happened and how the occupation of Argentium is ongoing. It presents a good reference point for the reader, and avoids head-hopping within any one individual scene.
There is a lot, and I mean a LOT of violence in this book: torture, rape, general war and individual fighters killing one another - all are here, and all described in very detailed ways. If you can't handle fictional blood, or don't like descriptions of rape and torture, stay far away.
It occurred to me after finishing that the whole magic question came across as the usual 2nd Amendment stuff here in the US. One side (Hakkian) had and used all the magic (guns) and one side (Argentium) had no magic (guns) because of very strict laws. Of course the Hakkians quickly overran Argentium. I'll let the reader make the conclusion there.
Overall, not bad for an afternoon read if you can get past the main character whining his way through the first 30% so and don't mind gore.
Three stars out of five.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press ad NetGalley for the review copy.
I'm a firm believer that what matters when tragedy strikes, or when some life situation goes terribly wrong and bad, that what matters is owning your responsibility in it, if any, and that true character is shown by how one acts after such tragedies occur.
And his personal mindset of mind had a very large issue with Kagen and his nonstop whining, drinking, and lamenting about how he sucked at his job. I started calling him Kagen the Whiny, and promised myself at about the 35% mark that if he didn't get his shit together, I was going to make this a DNF. The author pulled out of the nosedive shortly thereafter.
While Kagen was drinking and whining his way about this fictional world, other characters were also introduced - some appeared and hen vanished until almost the end of he book. I get that Kagen is the main character and so much of he book time is devote to him, but we got some pretty detailed narrative time with the other characters, including a young nun destined for a sacrifice, so I was expecting a bit more from her at some point before the end of her journey.
There are various side characters who show up, either for Kagen to fight against and kill, or just to give us some information about what's happening in the rest of the world instead of the usual "As you know, Bob." stuff where someone just talks at he main character. I hope some of them show up again later, because they were just as interesting (sometimes moreso) than Kagen.
But Kagen is back to himself by now, halting he drinking, and even invading a vampire witch's tower, where he is "captured", but not killed, as every other interloper has been. There's a prophecy, of course, and she lets him go because of that prophecy.
And that brings me to another issue I have with this kind of book in general. Kagen was obviously taken out of action by a woman who drugged him. My question: why not just poison him and take him out of action entirely?I understand the value of humiliation some people require others to feel, to know that they have been bested, and with barely any effort, but in things like this, a better leader would have weighed the value of having Kagen gone versus his humiliation and gone with the former.
In any case, throughout the book we pop into the heads of other characters wandering around this world, so we get a good picture of what has happened and how the occupation of Argentium is ongoing. It presents a good reference point for the reader, and avoids head-hopping within any one individual scene.
There is a lot, and I mean a LOT of violence in this book: torture, rape, general war and individual fighters killing one another - all are here, and all described in very detailed ways. If you can't handle fictional blood, or don't like descriptions of rape and torture, stay far away.
It occurred to me after finishing that the whole magic question came across as the usual 2nd Amendment stuff here in the US. One side (Hakkian) had and used all the magic (guns) and one side (Argentium) had no magic (guns) because of very strict laws. Of course the Hakkians quickly overran Argentium. I'll let the reader make the conclusion there.
Overall, not bad for an afternoon read if you can get past the main character whining his way through the first 30% so and don't mind gore.
Three stars out of five.
Thanks to St. Martin's Press ad NetGalley for the review copy.
I have to give this book 5 stars!!! It's the first book I've really read that would fall into the 'fantasy' genre and it had me hooked from the beginning. For me, this book was written very uniquely!! It jumped to different character's storylines easily and beautifully. I was never confused or lost in the telling of this very entertaining story. I found myself loving the main character. I saw other reviews where they talked about it being the same thing for so much of the book and him being whiny but I just didn't feel that way. There was such tragedy and detail in this book. Some of it was very graphic and hard to imagine at times but that made it even more interesting. I wanted to see how the story ended. I wanted to know if the guesses I was making throughout the book were even remotely correct haha. Being new to this genre I really can't think of anything negative to say. I'm looking forward to the second in the series!!! --I actually won this book in a Goodreads giveaway so THANK YOU Goodreads and the publisher that made that happen!!
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Felt too dark. Still it always takes me two attempts to read John Mayberry books
—12.18.2023
Over the top with sex and violence. Moved too fast for World building. Good action and great cosmic horror.
—12.18.2023
Over the top with sex and violence. Moved too fast for World building. Good action and great cosmic horror.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was provided an ARC of Kagen the Damned by St Martin’s and NetGalley. As a long time epic fantasy fan I went in with the highest of hopes. Kagen Vale, protector of the royal children (fondly referred to as seedlings) wakes to find the place burned and the royal family slaughtered. Kagen immediately vows to exact revenge on the evil forces who have seized the capital as well as drown in a pit of booze and self loathing. It felt a lot like this book started at the climax, and the rip roaring pace never slowed.
This gruesome dark fantasy serves up seemingly constant but extremely engaging fight scenes a la Joe Abercrombie. What it lacked in character development, it made up for in action packed pacing and sheer grit.
It took me some time to get into the story, but once the pieces fell into place I was absolutely hooked. If you have a bit of patience and can make it through the strange and disjointed POV shifts, this book is well worth the read. I’m already holding my breath for the sequel.
“The fates move the pieces around the board with a purpose, even if it feels strange and random” is a very accurate (and self aware) quote that perfectly describes this book.
This gruesome dark fantasy serves up seemingly constant but extremely engaging fight scenes a la Joe Abercrombie. What it lacked in character development, it made up for in action packed pacing and sheer grit.
It took me some time to get into the story, but once the pieces fell into place I was absolutely hooked. If you have a bit of patience and can make it through the strange and disjointed POV shifts, this book is well worth the read. I’m already holding my breath for the sequel.
“The fates move the pieces around the board with a purpose, even if it feels strange and random” is a very accurate (and self aware) quote that perfectly describes this book.
There’s so much going for this book but sorry I can’t get over all the rape (so much rape).
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
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
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Kagen the Damned
by Jonathan Maberry
Fantasy Dark Epic
Kagen Vale swore to protect the royal children of the Silver Empire, but he failed and those children along with the rest of the royal family were sadistically murdered. But those were only a few of the lives lost in just one night when the Witch-king invaded multiple cities by the use of magic.
Because he failed to keep his oath, Kagen has damned himself. Believing his gods turned their back on him, he now wanders, collecting others to help him kill the witch-king.
I was disappointed in this one. The blurb stretches what the story is really about. Kagen doesn't go into 'strange' lands, and he only battles people, who are mean and sadistic, but not 'terrifying creatures'. Instead, the author takes the reader to these places through the eyes of many, and I do mean many, different characters. I still don't know why there was a chapter about a woman turning into a fish or what happened to the buried guy snacking on worms. But the other characters' chapters did have a point, but, for me, all of those characters made the story feel more like a telling story than a showing story. It was 'go here and do that because of this reason'.
There weren't very many vivid descriptions, except for the fights, (blood and gore), and most of the wandering was going from town (tavern) to town (tavern), and listening to a drunken Kagen whine about how worthless he is, and even after he sobered up he was still a whiner, and I don't like him that much. I like his two friends a lot more.
There is a lot of violence, blood, gore, rape, and the such. So not suitable for readers under eighteen! This story also has a lot of religious bias. You know, the banning of all religions except one.
But overall, it is an ok story, not great, but good enough, but it could've been a hell of a lot better. With all of these characters, there had better be something big in the works in book two.
A little more love would've earned this book one more star.
2 Stars
by Jonathan Maberry
Fantasy Dark Epic
Kagen Vale swore to protect the royal children of the Silver Empire, but he failed and those children along with the rest of the royal family were sadistically murdered. But those were only a few of the lives lost in just one night when the Witch-king invaded multiple cities by the use of magic.
Because he failed to keep his oath, Kagen has damned himself. Believing his gods turned their back on him, he now wanders, collecting others to help him kill the witch-king.
I was disappointed in this one. The blurb stretches what the story is really about. Kagen doesn't go into 'strange' lands, and he only battles people, who are mean and sadistic, but not 'terrifying creatures'. Instead, the author takes the reader to these places through the eyes of many, and I do mean many, different characters. I still don't know why there was a chapter about a woman turning into a fish or what happened to the buried guy snacking on worms. But the other characters' chapters did have a point, but, for me, all of those characters made the story feel more like a telling story than a showing story. It was 'go here and do that because of this reason'.
There weren't very many vivid descriptions, except for the fights, (blood and gore), and most of the wandering was going from town (tavern) to town (tavern), and listening to a drunken Kagen whine about how worthless he is, and even after he sobered up he was still a whiner, and I don't like him that much. I like his two friends a lot more.
There is a lot of violence, blood, gore, rape, and the such. So not suitable for readers under eighteen! This story also has a lot of religious bias. You know, the banning of all religions except one.
But overall, it is an ok story, not great, but good enough, but it could've been a hell of a lot better. With all of these characters, there had better be something big in the works in book two.
A little more love would've earned this book one more star.
2 Stars
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced