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A review by erasmios
Master of Sorrows by Justin Travis Call
3.0
Some of my thoughts regarding Master of Sorrows.
I really liked the lore and the "gods walk among people" high-fantasy setting. I'm a sucker for myths and legends so the excerpts from holy collections were one of my favourite aspects of the book. I kept wanting to learn more about the gods Odar, Lumea and Keos. The magic was also fleshed out and interesting. Diverse, but nothing too complicated, which I think was good.
The story is full of surprises and secrets, but I have to say there are also many clichés. The premise is probably the biggest one: an orphan boy being trained by an old mage in a hidden village. There's friendship and rivalry, success and failure, love and betrayal, wisdom and gore and, of course, light and shadow. Some may find the lack of female characters disappointing, but that kind of things usually don't bother me personally.
I would recommend Master of Sorrows to (dark) high-fantasy readers, and I assume many young adult fantasy readers will also find it appealing. Overall it's a well-balanced mixture of modern YAF (rivalry among students), lore, religion and magic (similar to Earthsea) and dark, more violent fantasy (ASOIAF). I enjoyed Master of Sorrows and will definitely read the next book.
I really liked the lore and the "gods walk among people" high-fantasy setting. I'm a sucker for myths and legends so the excerpts from holy collections were one of my favourite aspects of the book. I kept wanting to learn more about the gods Odar, Lumea and Keos. The magic was also fleshed out and interesting. Diverse, but nothing too complicated, which I think was good.
The story is full of surprises and secrets, but I have to say there are also many clichés. The premise is probably the biggest one: an orphan boy being trained by an old mage in a hidden village. There's friendship and rivalry, success and failure, love and betrayal, wisdom and gore and, of course, light and shadow. Some may find the lack of female characters disappointing, but that kind of things usually don't bother me personally.
I would recommend Master of Sorrows to (dark) high-fantasy readers, and I assume many young adult fantasy readers will also find it appealing. Overall it's a well-balanced mixture of modern YAF (rivalry among students), lore, religion and magic (similar to Earthsea) and dark, more violent fantasy (ASOIAF). I enjoyed Master of Sorrows and will definitely read the next book.