I thought last night's post would wrap me up for this month here but it's been a while since I could post a review. Last year around this time I read the first book in R.E. Palmer's Song of Echoes series [See Here] and ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The series has an epic classic fantasy feel with large scale battles and brave deeds, sorcery, a powerful leader defending the realm, tales of old, and a not necessarily happy outcome.
Bookish Quick Facts:
- Title: Age of Shadows
- Series: Song of Echoes #2
- Author: R.E. Palmer
- Publisher & Release: Self, December 2021
- Length: 437 pages
- Rate & Recommend:
Yes for classic fantasy fans that don't mind the indie feel
Here's the synopsis:
As Elodi strives to defend her realm against a new enemy threatening the north, Toryn discovers the dark secret that plunged Hope into despair, destined to live under a shadow of her own making.
But as both struggle in the face of overwhelming forces, the Archon demands all who can bear arms, rally to his cause.
Age of Shadows has been sitting in my request pile since about February making me feel guilty, and I finally made time to pick it up. Palmer introduced a ton of new world building and history, character development, magic, new races, stark imagery, and many other things that made it another enjoyable read. Despite its somewhat numerous flaws in editing, this is a solid indie fantasy and the conclusion was particularly mind blowing.
Let's talk about the magic first since it was the biggest change from book one. We saw more of the Wyke's abilities, for bad and for good, and all the terrible things that the dark magic can accomplish. The Song and Verses were developed too in both theory, good, bad, and corruption, with a returning character (Hope/Nyomae) discovering her past. There is also magic introduced with the two new races, Amayan and Nym, both of which contributed a lot of mysticism to the storyline. Don't worry though there's plenty of sword, bow, and siege machinery too if you prefer your battles fought by hand.
The best part of this one was how Palmer took all the world building gaps in Song of Echoes and fleshed out the world through reverie and discovery. The end is absolutely mind blowing. How can deception and corruption run so deep? HOW? I admire an author that is willing to tear their whole world down. Will they even manage to rebuild it with the core cast going forward into book three? There are so many tangled political webs and fronts of battle to defend that I have no idea how he's going to take the series forward. I appreciate all the micro world building too as things like the Sunrise tradition were brought to page.
The amount of military strategy and preparation/execution of battles through Elodi's chapters felt like a bonus.
The characters are pretty well coming into themselves too. Toryn has recovered from captivity and is learning his own personal history. Nyomae is starting to teach him the ways of the Verse and he FINALLY intersects with Elodi's storyline. I have to say she is still the star of the show for me. The Lady faces every fear imaginable as her city falls and she is summoned to defend the realm despite the loss of her lands. I don't know how she rode straight into battle but she did, with her two captains at her side. Gundrul and Cubric both ended up being good characters too, carrying most of the banter and "aw shucks" moments. I'm worried for the other captain, Ruan, hoping he made it to safety. Palmer doesn't tend to leave loose ends so I assume he will be back in book three.
I do wish though that some of the revelations came sooner, although I'm ok with a slowburn.
And the end? No spoilers but the entire world did a somersault and I'm here for it this time.
Overall: Tons of action and many new discoveries kept Age of Shadows moving at a great pace. I loved all the new things and never felt bored while reading, As a fan of all the world building ever - yes I'll keep reading these! I kept a star docked for the ton of editing issues and a few mishaps but overall would recommend these to fantasy fans who enjoy a large scope and classic feel to their adventures.
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