Book Review: Veil of the Deserters by Jeff Salyards

Veil of the Deserters by Jeff Salyards

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Book 2 of Bloodsounder's Arc 

Publisher: Night Shade (May 19, 2014)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 5 of 5 stars


I’m what you would call a book juggler, meaning at any given time you’ll find me with multiple books in my currently-reading list. From the moment I started Veil of the Deserters though, I ignored everything else on my plate, reading nothing but this book until I finished all 500ish pages of it in two and a half days. It was the only thing I wanted to read.

As a sequel, this was everything I wanted and more. If Scourge of the Betrayer was the delicious appetizer, then Veil of the Deserters is most definitely the main course. It’s always great to read an amazing book only to discover the second one is even better, because while the first book was the perfect tease, piquing my interest and whetting my appetite for more, here’s where we really get into the meat of it.

In my review of the first book, I talked about an air of mystery surrounding the direction of the plot. The main protagonist and narrator is a bookish scribe named Arkamondos, hired by the formidable Captain Killcoin to accompany his band of Syldoon warriors on their journey to complete a mission. We have very little idea of what the Syldoon are up to, since Arki himself is not made privy to the details of their quest. Why these rough and tough soldiers require a scribe or in what capacity Arki would be employed is also unknown. But in Veil of the Deserters, we get our answers. We get them in spades.

Not only that, the world building is much more substantial. The author fleshes out the world and the characters in this second installment, providing a lot more background information and history. Arki’s hunger for knowledge and his natural curiosity as a scribe is a great means to facilitate this; as he grows more comfortable around his traveling companions, they tell their stories and reveal their lives to him. We find out that the old veteran Hewspear is a grandfather, estranged from his daughter-in-law after the death of his son. We also learn that Killcoin has a sister, the Memoridon witch Soffjian who makes her first appearance in this novel. The relationship between the siblings is complicated, and we’re also in a position to find out why. This book humanizes the Syldoon, showing the reader another side to these men, letting us see that they are more than just brutal warriors.

I continue to enjoy these characters. They fascinated me in the first book, and here they are even more developed. What amazes me is Salyard’s talent for making each and every one of them unique. Not every author can do this. I love reading dark fantasy featuring raw, gritty badass characters – but sometimes a book can end up with a whole bunch of characters with practically indistinguishable personalities on account of how raw, how gritty, how very badass they all equally are. Thankfully, the Bloodsounder’s Arc novels avoid this pitfall. I liked each of the Syldoon for different reasons. Every one of them can stand on their own, displaying their individual quirks and qualities which can even extend to their behaviors and the way they speak, from Killcoin’s emphatic “yes?” to Mulldoos’ penchant for coming up with hilariously obscene insults. Now's also probably a good time to mention just how fantastic I think the dialogue is, well-written and sometimes injected with dark humor.

Arki himself is a delight to have as a narrator. He's come a long way since the beginning of the first book, evolving with every minute he spends with the Syldoon, every violent battle he witnesses. He gradually learns to shed his old life to adapt to the new one with Captain Killcoin and his men, and it’s interesting to see how the emotions war within him even as he grows more loyal to the Syldoon and makes friends among them. He's a stronger person in this book, both in the way he is written and in the manner he carries himself.

Seriously, why aren’t more people reading Jeff Salyards?! He's outdone himself with this one. The book all but throws open the doors to the world of the Bloodsounder’s Arc, giving us better insight into its history, politics, religion and magic. The sights and sounds get more magnificent. The battles are bigger and better. The story is far deeper now that all the cards are on the table, and Salyards isn’t holding back anymore. All around, this is an excellent book, exceeding all my expectations for a sequel.

A review copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the author and Night Shade Books/Skyhorse Publishing!

Book Review: Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards

Scourge of the Betrayer by Jeff Salyards

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Book 1 of Bloodsounder's Arc 

Publisher: Night Shade Books (May 1, 2012)

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


If you want to see a cool way to tackle dark fantasy, look no further than this novel. It'd been sitting on my shelf for a while, and earlier this month I finally picked it up. It didn't take more than a few pages for me to realize I was looking at a very special book.

Jeff Salyards' approach to storytelling gave me a very unique experience. For one thing, I thought I had a pretty good bead on what I like in my fantasy -- you know, the things I enjoy and don't enjoy about the genre, etc. Well, that was before this book came along and turned everything upside down, making me rethink my own preferences.

Example the first: I'd always thought I preferred answers to any mysteries, but Scourge of the Betrayer was a book that provided scant detail about its story right from the start, leaving many questions open even once we were well past the midway point. But guess what? I found myself totally okay with this. More on this in a sec.

Example the second: Precious little words were wasted in the telling of this story, which didn't come as a surprise to me after taking in account the relatively modest page count. I usually assume this means the author won't be going into too much detail about the world or its characters. Of course, I was wrong with this one. What struck me was the fact that even though Jeff Salyards ever only gave just enough information for the reader to follow along, the world-building never suffered.

There was a good balance, plain and simple. What should have been a frustrating experience instead had me completely riveted. Not unexpectedly, the characters had a lot to do with drawing me in; after all, dark tales such as these tend to feature gritty, nasty personalities that nonetheless exude a certain charm. We have Arkamondos, a young scribe hired on to chronicle the exploits of a rough band of Syldoon warriors led by the formidable Captain Braylar Killcoin. Why Arki is there among this crew, or what the Syldoon are up to in the first place are questions that remain a mystery for quite a while, but the winning characters and the promise that I was going to get better acquainted with this crazy lot were reasons enough to stick around to find out more.

In a way, the players are more important than the plot. The story works well told from Arki's perspective in the first person, especially since Salyards doesn't hold anything back with his bold and unflinching style. We are privy to his protagonist's every thought and emotion, riding along in Arki's head as he experiences everything from his most awkwardly humiliating moments to the terror and disgust he feels towards the brutal violence of his Syldoon companions. The more ugliness this meek and bookish scribe gets exposed to, the more compelling his character becomes. Arki's personal growth takes center stage, and his relationships with Braylar and the inscrutible scout woman Lloi go a long way in also enhancing that journey.

The author took a huge gamble when he chose to approach the story this way, but it certainly paid off. The book is a refreshing change from the usual dark fantasy; it's fast-paced and energetic without sacrificing world building or character development. A lot of reviewers have compared it to The Black Company, and in truth I'd do the same except I honestly felt that Scourge of the Betrayer was a much better book. I liked Glen Cook's series, but didn't get into his characters or take to his writing the same way I took to Jeff Salyards'. Scourge hooked me right away, and even though the ending was somewhat abrupt, my overall feelings for the book are extremely positive. I'm glad the release of book two is just around the corner, because I can't wait to continue Arki's story.

Book Review: The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez

The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez (Night Shade Books)

Genre: Science Fiction Fantasy

Series: Stand Alone

Publication Date: August 13, 2013

Author Information: Website | Twitter

Mogsy's Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Being a type A personality and stickler for organization, I employ the use of many different shelves to sort my books on Goodreads. Anyway, just to give you an idea of the kind of book we're talking about here, these are just some of the ones I've tagged for The Daedalus Incident: Action-Adventure. Aliens. Alternate History. Fantasy. Magic. Science Fiction. Time Travel. Oh and I almost forgot, Pirates, too.

As you can see, this is a novel that mixes elements from many genres. We're talking about some pretty wild stuff here, like 18th-century ships sailing between planets, or famous historical figures like Benjamin Franklin being one of the most skilled alchemists to ever come out of the American colonies. And that's just in one timeline. Another story thread takes place in 2132 in a whole other universe, where the personnel team on a trillion-dollar mining operations taking place on Mars has been experiencing some strange things lately -- things like a 300-year-old journal that is writing itself, or like a giant pyramid forming itself out of the desolate terrain.

What do these two disparate timelines have to do with each other, you ask? Now that's the million dollar question of the day. The answer is a journey that will take you beyond the limits of time and space, introducing you great characters you'll care about and fantastic new worlds to boot.

It did take a short period of adjustment, but once I got into the rhythm of jumping between the two different story lines, I started having a lot of fun. Admittedly, the 18th-century timeline was the one that held a greater appeal, featuring a world that was more interesting with its alchemical-powered ships, alien races living on different planets, and the explosive clashes against space pirates. In some ways, it read much like a high fantasy plot line done up in a different package, so you get things like planets instead of faraway kingdoms, alchemical artifacts instead of treasures troves, ancient alien forces instead of an evil demonic adversary, etc. No doubt my usual preference for the "historical" over the "futuristic" probably has something to do with it as well.

On the other hand, the 2132 Mars storyline started losing me around the halfway point -- though to be fair, I'm thinking that it's not the book. It's me. Start throwing around terms like "non-ionized radiation" or "particle physics" and you might as well be spraying your book with a big dose of anti-Mogsy repellent. I can't help it; my eyes seem predisposed to glaze over whenever they wander too close to hard sci-fi territory. I'm really more of a life sciences kind of person, whereas the more complex workings of the physical sciences tend to go over my head.

Nonetheless, I very much enjoyed the characters -- in both timelines. I love the immersive quality of Lt. Thomas Weatherby's voice, which sounds convincing coming from a man of his time period in the 1700s. There were a lot of memorable characters in that alternate universe, including Dr. Finch and Anne Baker. In the future Mars timeline, I liked following the central character of Lt. Shaila Jain, mostly because of all the different relationships she has to juggle while trying to keep things from falling apart at the mining base. And don't even get me started on that critical moment when the characters from both worlds finally meet -- oh come on, you had to have known that they would at some point! Anyway, it was definitely a scene worth waiting for, not to mention the full scope of the events that follow.

It's true that this one had its ups and downs, depending on where I was in the story, but I have to say the overall premise is unquestionable unique. I would recommend this to fans of cross-genre fiction or anyone looking to check out a book that blends fantasy and science fiction in an innovative way.