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A review by agott
The Fangs of War by E.J. Doble
4.5
I don't know how this book manages to go from some of the best shit I've ever read to contrived garbage on a page-by-page basis.
There are Looney Tunes episodes with more stakes than this. Revek literally pulls his army through a crazy-ass storm in a swamp (after being warned not to), killing hundreds of his own, slaughters entire innocent villages, makes his men pull a wagon after he kills its horse, and very obviouslykilled their favourite general, and there is zero dissent whatsoever? Will a single action of his ever have a consequence?
And you'd think that injuries out in the field with renaissance-era medicine would almost certainly mean death, but they're simply given a once-over and forgotten about within the day. Not just physical injuries either; Revek gets instilled with the fear of the Iron Queen early on by some mysterious robed dude (who could so easily help end the war, yet doesn't) and it's literally never mentioned again.
Revek and Alvarez are despicable and all, but the people the author intends us to root for--Cavara and the Forgotten One--are worse. He baited Provenci into genociding their own occupied country in the name of rebalance? Brother makes Revek look like Jesus Christ.
The prose really is incredible though, and I can very much appreciate that it's a dark fantasy story without the usual male gaze garbage or goofy-ass romance
There are Looney Tunes episodes with more stakes than this. Revek literally pulls his army through a crazy-ass storm in a swamp (after being warned not to), killing hundreds of his own, slaughters entire innocent villages, makes his men pull a wagon after he kills its horse, and very obviously
And you'd think that injuries out in the field with renaissance-era medicine would almost certainly mean death, but they're simply given a once-over and forgotten about within the day. Not just physical injuries either; Revek gets instilled with the fear of the Iron Queen early on by some mysterious robed dude (who could so easily help end the war, yet doesn't) and it's literally never mentioned again.
Revek and Alvarez are despicable and all, but the people the author intends us to root for--Cavara and the Forgotten One--are worse. He baited Provenci into genociding their own occupied country in the name of rebalance? Brother makes Revek look like Jesus Christ.
The prose really is incredible though, and I can very much appreciate that it's a dark fantasy story without the usual male gaze garbage or goofy-ass romance