The first book in The Last War series: a debut epic fantasy full of crunching revolutionary action, twisted magic, and hard choices in dark times.The war is over. The enemy won.Jia’s people learned the hard way that there are no second chances. The Egril, their ancient enemy, struck with magic so devastating that Jia’s armies were wiped out. Now terror reigns in the streets, and friend turns on … Now terror reigns in the streets, and friend turns on friend just to live another day.
Somehow Tinnstra – a deserter, a failure, nothing but a coward – survived. She wants no more than to hide from the chaos.
But dragged into a desperate plot to retake Jia, surrounded by people willing to do anything to win the fight, this time Tinnstra will need to do more than hide.
If Jia is to get a second chance after all, this time she will need to be a hero.
more
I enjoyed my time with Mike’s We are the Dead, although not quite as much as I thought I would. On paper this debut series had everything I look for in a gritty fantasy novel: its simple prose and fast-paced storytelling, its medieval realism with a dash of oriental influences and a smidgen of magic, its myriad cast of broken characters … there’s a lot to like, but unfortunately the different pieces never quite clicked together in a way that worked for me.
An undeniable strong point of We are the Dead is its setting. Sure, plenty of other fantasy novels take place in a land where the enemy has won and the people are oppressed by their new rulers … but Mike has taken all those previous books, set the entire pile on fire and is now laughing evilly over their burnt ashes. Never has a tale of occupation and resistance been told so vividly. The people of Jia are not just oppressed, they are subjected to daily beatings, tortures, rape, and murder. The occupiers (The Skulls) are portrayed as a vicious race of sadists, each and every one of them a vile human being, so much, in fact, that it occasionally stretches the limits of plausibility.
So, what didn’t I like? I thought some of the torture scenes were repetitive and superfluous. I’m not at all squeamish (my own novels are pretty violent), but I find it best when violence, torture, rape etc… are used impactfully to advance the plot, which isn’t really the case here and consequently comes across as a bit gratuitous.
I also had difficulty identifying with most of the characters. Jax was probably my favourite, whereas a lot of the others were a bit of a one-trick pony; cobbled together from well-used fantasy tropes (the cowardly soldier, the disgruntled orphan etc..). There’s even a world-weary sorcerer whose main task is to do a bit of world-building and dole out the all-important MacGuffin that sends one of our POVs off on her questline.
Lastly, some of the swearing (there’s a lot of it!) I found it to be a bit anachronistic and took me out of the story (Characters shouting bollocks! in tense situations especially )
But hey, it’s a first novel and I liked it enough to be interested in the sequel, so well done Mike, looking forward to what comes next!
Shackle is a master of putting his characters in difficult situations. And, since I was with them in every dilemma, every tough choice and every sub-optimal decision, I was constantly on the edge of my seat. The war setting really intensifies the suspense and ads to the hopelessness. However, I was never close to giving up on the characters; I kept rooting for them and hoping they would get out of trouble in something close to one piece. The characters are realistic and well rounded, or actually, more antiheroes than heroes. Not that they are evil, most of them are not…, but they have their good and bad sides. Things they do well and things they do… not so well.
I highly recommend it if you like your books dark and gritty.
Since I listened to the audiobook, I will just add that the narrator did an excellent job. I am really looking forward to the next book in the series (A Fool’s Hope).