Scan barcode
A review by reliures
Seven Deaths of an Empire by G.R. Matthews
4.0
An ARC of this book was generously provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for this opportunity!
So this follows a conquering empire at the height of its power but troubled with internal and external conflict.
The author switches point of view between the general in the imperial capital and the magician in the unconquered northern lands. Both characters arc are distinct but throughout the story these 2 arcs come together quite nicely. I do wish we could have had more interactions between the two.
The world building was very well done and quite original for a fantasy book. The empire itself is very Roman Empire inspired, at the time of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty but with the monotheistic (Christian inspired) religion, and also magicians. I did like the gender equality in all level of society including the highest office of the Empire.
The northern tribes depicted was more Roman British/Germanic barbarians inspired. I wish we had spend more time getting to know that culture, or having a main character with a pint of view would have been interesting.
The author’s writing style was really good, the prose was clear and precise it was really enjoyable to read.
The plot itself moved quickly, there wasn’t a moment when it dragged and there was enough twists and turns to get through it without feeling bored.
In terms of the characters, I feel they could have used more polish, because even if they were all grey characters some of their reactions were puzzling or even frustrating, like for example they’d from being angry to calm to irritating a bit too quickly.
There was also some repetitions that could have been avoided, like one of the characters gets explained what the colosseum and gladiators are by the same character in two different moments in the book.
The ending was very grimdark, and I do hope we’ll see more of how two of the characters will continue after what happened.
All in all this was a very good read and I’ll probably check out other books in this series!
So this follows a conquering empire at the height of its power but troubled with internal and external conflict.
The author switches point of view between the general in the imperial capital and the magician in the unconquered northern lands. Both characters arc are distinct but throughout the story these 2 arcs come together quite nicely. I do wish we could have had more interactions between the two.
The world building was very well done and quite original for a fantasy book. The empire itself is very Roman Empire inspired, at the time of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty but with the monotheistic (Christian inspired) religion, and also magicians. I did like the gender equality in all level of society including the highest office of the Empire.
The northern tribes depicted was more Roman British/Germanic barbarians inspired. I wish we had spend more time getting to know that culture, or having a main character with a pint of view would have been interesting.
The author’s writing style was really good, the prose was clear and precise it was really enjoyable to read.
The plot itself moved quickly, there wasn’t a moment when it dragged and there was enough twists and turns to get through it without feeling bored.
In terms of the characters, I feel they could have used more polish, because even if they were all grey characters some of their reactions were puzzling or even frustrating, like for example they’d from being angry to calm to irritating a bit too quickly.
There was also some repetitions that could have been avoided, like one of the characters gets explained what the colosseum and gladiators are by the same character in two different moments in the book.
The ending was very grimdark, and I do hope we’ll see more of how two of the characters will continue after what happened.
All in all this was a very good read and I’ll probably check out other books in this series!