A review by tomlloyd
The Alchemist of Souls by Anne Lyle

4.0

Excellent book, highly enjoyed it. A strong and authentic-feeling setting, good characters and plot with flashes of prose of such high quality I can hardly believe this is her début novel. From a historical fantasy I first and foremost want something I'm going to greatly enjoy as I charge through it and this delivered perfectly. My niggles were the background to the main plot, the Huntsmen, where I felt there was something lacking, or it hadn't quite come across properly but couldn't pin down how exactly, plus the ending fell a little flat. Mal's in no fit state to be a hero in most of it, Ned's an odd fish as a prominent secondary character and Coby, while a good character herself doesn't really deliver in the action side. I wanted more swashbuckling and action, even if it was Coby delivering that, but where things should have built to an exciting conclusion they just carried on in the same pace. Not bad, just not great, hence the loss of a star. Highly recommended.