Rating: 3.5/5
Over the course of October I had the pleasure of attending Fantasy Con, a literary convention hosted yearly by The British Fantasy Society. It was a pretty remarkable experience where I was not only able to attend panels hosted by some of my favourite writers but also mingle with them. It was fun experience and one I would recommend to any other writers out there looking to connect. It is also how I met Brad Towers, an indie writer who offered me a copy of his first book, War of The Seven (2024), requesting only a review on his work rather than money.
So to keep my promise, I decided to base this month’s review on it.
Set in the world of Ethasar, War of The Seven is a high fantasy that begins with the introduction of a prophecy, a prophecy that foresees the eventual return of an evil known as The Vengeful One. In order to defeat this evil the gods of Ethasar must combine all their powers to subdue him. The problem being, those powers must be wielded by only one of them. So rather than decide amongst themselves like reasonable beings who will be all powerful they resort to trial by combat. Queue in Mortal Kombat theme tune.
From Towers’ premises I had suspicions War Of The Seven would be heavily immersive. Instead the book was nearly akin to the works of authors like John Gwynne. It is not a heavily written book. By that I mean Towers doesn’t delve too deeply into his lore, societies etc. That by no means is a negative. While I do enjoy hard fantasy on occasions, I still prefer the ones that won’t end up leaving you reading moments/scenes etc. for a fifth time. Much like Gwynne, his writing style is short and to the point. He doesn’t bore you with flowery descriptions. He gets straight into the action and moves on with it, presenting a world where in order to stop a great evil, hard decisions must be made. However, what makes his writing truly stand out is the unique way he has chosen to approach his story telling. As Towers explained to me, there are a series of QR codes that connect not only to the story’s artwork but also the music he has composed for it. Compared with most books I’ve read this certainly was inventive, helping to fill the backstory for some of its characters and set the mood for its battle scenes.
While I did enjoy War of The Seven I do think it is a book with room for improvement. I did feel there were moments in Tower’s writing, where too much information was given, making the story’s attempt at ambiguity fall flat. I also felt the multiple points of view were too overwhelming. While it may have provided readers a wide perspective on the different cultures and customs it gave little chance to expand on most characters and let readers bond with them. Most of the time I found myself wanting to connect more with the gods than their champions, whose portrayals came off as artificial. In fact if I had to decide on a character I liked I would say the Julian god, Augustus, whose trickster personality made me envision the roman equivalent of the god, Loki. Other than him and possibly the giant god, Malleon, I didn’t find myself caring much for anyone else.
To give Towers his due he has approached writing in a way not considered by many authors and while I might not be in a rush to buy the next one I am a little intrigued at the thought of what happens next.
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