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A review by icarusabides
The Winter Road by Adrian Selby
5.0
I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it apart from the cover and what a book it turned out it be. The writing is superb from the unique interesting, yet natural feeling, language used throughout to the energetic tense prose that carries through the fight scenes.
The use of plants as a magic system I suppose you'd call it is brilliant and works incredibly well. It's something I've not really seen done before and I loved the range of plants, day brews, fight brews etc used throughout to treat certain conditions or provide an edge in combat and how much of the world revolved around them felt very real. The tradeoff of 'paying the colour', having to deal with the comedown and consequences of taking these various plants and brews was a nice touch as well.
Teyr Amondsen is a great character that makes for a wonderful protagonist. Quite like Logen Ninefingers in the First Law Series or Clay Cooper in Kings of the Wyld it was really nice to meet a fully formed character full of the experience and baggage that a life in this kind of work brings. Made a change from the myriad of fantasy books featuring what are essentially origin stories. The book is full of well done characters mind but I think it fair to say there's not a lot like Teyr around.
I'm still a little undecided about how I feel regarding the letters towards the end but overall I think they worked well and definitely added some nice context. The book as a whole is great, and one I'm glad I gave a chance.
The use of plants as a magic system I suppose you'd call it is brilliant and works incredibly well. It's something I've not really seen done before and I loved the range of plants, day brews, fight brews etc used throughout to treat certain conditions or provide an edge in combat and how much of the world revolved around them felt very real. The tradeoff of 'paying the colour', having to deal with the comedown and consequences of taking these various plants and brews was a nice touch as well.
Teyr Amondsen is a great character that makes for a wonderful protagonist. Quite like Logen Ninefingers in the First Law Series or Clay Cooper in Kings of the Wyld it was really nice to meet a fully formed character full of the experience and baggage that a life in this kind of work brings. Made a change from the myriad of fantasy books featuring what are essentially origin stories. The book is full of well done characters mind but I think it fair to say there's not a lot like Teyr around.
I'm still a little undecided about how I feel regarding the letters towards the end but overall I think they worked well and definitely added some nice context. The book as a whole is great, and one I'm glad I gave a chance.