Title: The Silverblood Promise

Author: James Logan

Series: The Last Legacy #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

The Overview: Set in a city of traders and thieves, monsters and murderers, this fast-paced epic fantasy debut is a must-read for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Nicholas Eames, and Scott Lynch. Lukan Gardova is a cardsharp, academy dropout, and—thanks to a duel that ended badly—the disgraced heir to an ancient noble house. His days consist of cheap wine, rigged card games, and wondering how he might win back the life he threw away. When Lukan discovers that his estranged father has been murdered in strange circumstances, he finds fresh purpose. Deprived of his chance to make amends for his mistakes, he vows to unravel the mystery behind his father’s death. His search for answers leads him to Saphrona, fabled city of merchant princes, where anything can be bought if one has the coin. Lukan only seeks the truth, but instead he finds danger and secrets in every shadow. For in Saphrona, everything has a price—and the price of truth is the deadliest of all. –Goodreads

The Review:

I really wish I’d enjoyed this more.

Some really good scenes early on had me bouncing with anticipation for what was to come, but many of those cool ideas that I thought would play a bigger role in the story were never revisited. In a way it felt like promises never fulfilled in the name of packing too many things into one book. A lot of good ideas, mind you, but perhaps they could’ve had more of an impact on the story in the long-run.

The book was marketed as “a must-read for fans of Joe Abercrombie, Nicholas Eames, and Scott Lynch,” three authors I love primarily for their strong, distinctive writing voices and brilliant splashes of dry humor… neither of which I got from the Silverblood Promise. Perhaps the setting and the underground politicking had glimmers of similarities, but I found it more comparable to Sullivan’s Riyria Revelations and Weeks’ Night Angel trilogy.

At times the book read more like a mystery set in a fantasy world than it did a fantasy with mystery components. Unfortunately, as almost the entire book revolved around the mystery, it wasn’t a very good one. Too many conveniently placed pieces to the puzzle. Too many thinly-veiled setups. Too easy to deduce. And then you add a character who isn’t particularly suave or clever with too many implausible “close calls,” and you can see why I didn’t like this one as much as I hoped to.

Additionally, some things just felt off. Even near the end there were a couple of odd POV switches (after we’d been following a single POV the entire book) that made it seem like the MC was no longer the center of the most interesting things happening, temporarily irrelevant. It killed the momentum and left me wishing he’d been written closer to the action the entire way through.

Overall, the combination of all of these minor things kept the story from feeling completely composed. It had a lot of potential, but for me it didn’t quite get there.

Recommendations: A story that started out strong eventually turned into a struggle to finish. Many of the things that bothered me don’t seem to be phasing other early readers (it currently has a 4.42 average rating and some high praise from other reviewers I respect), so if you’re excited to read this, take my opinion with a grain of salt (and let me know what you think when you read it)!

Thank you to my Patrons: Dave, Katrin, Jen, Frank, Sonja, Staci, Kat, Betsy, Eliss, Mike, and Elizabeth! <3

And thank you to TOR Publishing Group for the opportunity to read and review an early copy of The Silverblood Promise!

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