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A review by novoaust
The Fangs of War by E.J. Doble
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
The Fangs of War starts of with the execution of a king, and it takes off running from there. Between the multiple POVs, short and quick chapters, and the overall blistering pace of this book, I struggled to put it down.
We follow a varied bunch of characters, though they all originate from the same region in this world. We have Alvarez, Revek, Cavara, Savanta, Markus, Broska, and Jinx. All of these characters were unique in their own ways. Some characters will be easy to root against, others are easy to root for, but I never felt the author was trying to force the reader to like or dislike a certain character. Take Sav, a character who is damaged by the impacts of war. While I was rooting for her, I struggled to actually like her, as she was selfish and headstrong throughout the entirety of the novel.
One aspect of Doble's characterization that I loved was that he challenged often static roles. The dynamic between Markus and Savanta is brilliant, and simply based on genders, it is usually the other way around in novels. Doble writes tough, strong women, and not in a cliche way. This was a breath of fresh air in a genre like fantasy. He also does not shy away, and a lot of his character choices are ballsy. You will end up loving a character, only to have those emotions ripped away.
Another aspect of the story that I found expertly done is how Doble chose to build the world. It unfolded alongside the plot, which is what I like to see. When reading fantasy, I find that I much prefer to be shown the world instead of being told about the world. The author was able to carefully craft this world, enough so to paing a clear and vivid picture, without bogging the reader down with massive amounts of information. This story contains various cities, landscapes, and the countryside is riddled with terrifying creatures that I would not want to cross paths with.
While I would consider this book to be mostly character driven, the plot is still a huge part of this book. War is a huge theme in this book, as is evident with the title. There is blood. A lot of blood. Doble plants little seeds for us readers where we can start to envision where story lines come together, and while I had favorites, I truly enjoyed following each of these characters. This story moves fast, and I found there were little to no dull spots. Every time I picked this book up, I ended up putting serious dents into the page count. I finished the 551 pages in just 3 days.
I was also quite surprised by the writing, as the author is only 20 years old. While the prose may not be for everyone, I found it to be quite refined. For me, it read easy, but was still layered with detail, which helped me get immersed in the story. I really look forward to seeing what is next from Doble.
My only complaints are minor. Like with most indie novels I have read, a more stringent editing process would have benefitted this book as I did find some spelling and phrasing errors. Without getting into spoilers, there is a twist between two of our main characters that I unfortunately saw coming from a mile away. It was well done, but because I foresaw the outcome, the tension building just didn't work for me. I also found that fight scenes could become repetitive at times, as the author uses beheading and body dismemberment fairly often. Limbs be flying and heads be rolling tons in this one.
Overall, The Fangs of War is the best Indie book I have read to date, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to read a good fantasy story.
We follow a varied bunch of characters, though they all originate from the same region in this world. We have Alvarez, Revek, Cavara, Savanta, Markus, Broska, and Jinx. All of these characters were unique in their own ways. Some characters will be easy to root against, others are easy to root for, but I never felt the author was trying to force the reader to like or dislike a certain character. Take Sav, a character who is damaged by the impacts of war. While I was rooting for her, I struggled to actually like her, as she was selfish and headstrong throughout the entirety of the novel.
One aspect of Doble's characterization that I loved was that he challenged often static roles. The dynamic between Markus and Savanta is brilliant, and simply based on genders, it is usually the other way around in novels. Doble writes tough, strong women, and not in a cliche way. This was a breath of fresh air in a genre like fantasy. He also does not shy away, and a lot of his character choices are ballsy. You will end up loving a character, only to have those emotions ripped away.
Another aspect of the story that I found expertly done is how Doble chose to build the world. It unfolded alongside the plot, which is what I like to see. When reading fantasy, I find that I much prefer to be shown the world instead of being told about the world. The author was able to carefully craft this world, enough so to paing a clear and vivid picture, without bogging the reader down with massive amounts of information. This story contains various cities, landscapes, and the countryside is riddled with terrifying creatures that I would not want to cross paths with.
While I would consider this book to be mostly character driven, the plot is still a huge part of this book. War is a huge theme in this book, as is evident with the title. There is blood. A lot of blood. Doble plants little seeds for us readers where we can start to envision where story lines come together, and while I had favorites, I truly enjoyed following each of these characters. This story moves fast, and I found there were little to no dull spots. Every time I picked this book up, I ended up putting serious dents into the page count. I finished the 551 pages in just 3 days.
I was also quite surprised by the writing, as the author is only 20 years old. While the prose may not be for everyone, I found it to be quite refined. For me, it read easy, but was still layered with detail, which helped me get immersed in the story. I really look forward to seeing what is next from Doble.
My only complaints are minor. Like with most indie novels I have read, a more stringent editing process would have benefitted this book as I did find some spelling and phrasing errors. Without getting into spoilers, there is a twist between two of our main characters that I unfortunately saw coming from a mile away. It was well done, but because I foresaw the outcome, the tension building just didn't work for me. I also found that fight scenes could become repetitive at times, as the author uses beheading and body dismemberment fairly often. Limbs be flying and heads be rolling tons in this one.
Overall, The Fangs of War is the best Indie book I have read to date, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to read a good fantasy story.