Series: Greatcoats Book One
Author: Sebastien De Castell
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Genre: Adult Fantasy
Publication Date: February 10, 2014
Falcio is the first Cantor of the Greatcoats. Trained in the fighting arts and the laws of Tristia, the Greatcoats are travelling Magisters upholding King’s Law. They are heroes. Or at least they were, until they stood aside while the Dukes took the kingdom, and impaled their King’s head on a spike.
Now Tristia is on the verge of collapse and the barbarians are sniffing at the borders. The Dukes bring chaos to the land, while the Greatcoats are scattered far and wide, reviled as traitors, their legendary coats in tatters.
All they have left are the promises they made to King Paelis, to carry out one final mission. But if they have any hope of fulfilling the King’s dream, the divided Greatcoats must reunite, or they will also have to stand aside as they watch their world burn…
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My Thoughts
A copy was provided through Edelweiss and Jo Fletcher Books in exchange for an honest review
"I read a book once," I said. "It had some dirty parts in it. Those were nice."
This book was AWESOME.
Good or bad things first? Let's get the ugly out of the way first.
I didn't like:
- Ethalia. I think she was my major issue with this book. I didn't like her at all and not because she was a prostitute. I could care less. What pissed me off was that just cause she knows so much about him because of her powers, helps him out with some sexual healing, she suddenly expects him to just up and go away with her? Who the hell does she think she is? You can't just expect someone to drop everything and leave his life behind, as crappy as it may have been, to go to some paradise island with you like some love sick birds. Big no no.
Things I wasn't too happy about:
- The plot was predictable. This wasn't the kind of fantasy where you are kept on your toes the whole time and huge twists are thrown at you and leaves you speechless. Which isn't bad.
- Falcio's tendency to mope. The man was depressed through the whole book and while it wasn't doom and gloom 24/7, it was still a good chunk of the time.
- The long ass names of their saints which they used to curse with. Some of them were funny, for example: Saint Laina-who-whores-for-Gods *snorts* But seriously. Way too long.
What I liked/adored/loved:
- The action. There was lots of it, and I loved every single second of it.
- The relationship between the three main characters: Kest, Brasti and Falcio.
- The characters themselves. All of them. From the sick psycho bitch Patriana, to Alina, both the little girl and the wife, who even though we only get to see through flashbacks was awesome nonetheless.
“You filthy, stupid boy. You dog. You think you’ve been tortured? You think you’ve known pain? The things they do here are nothing compared to what I can do to you. I’ll have them slice your skin open and bring starving children in to suckle the blood from your wounds while you watch. I’ll put an ointment on your cock that makes it hard, and have them use you to rape old women to death. I make monsters, Falcio val Mond, and I can make a monster out of you. I know more ways to torture a man than this dog with his poisons and beatings can ever imagine.”(He nicknamed his torturer Ugh) Which leads me to!
“Shh,” I said. “You’ll hurt Ugh’s feelings if you keep talking that way.”
- The humor. It's not often you find a fantasy heavy in humor, but this one is, and I loved all of it.
Feltock smiled, a big toothy grin like a man who’s just thought of a dirty joke. “My signal, eh? All right, here’s my signal, then!” and with that he turned, drew his sword and shouted at the heavens, “Come on, you great filthy whore! I’ve licked your bony ass long enough and now I’m gonna fuck you and your damn Duke until you start pissing pirates out of your privates!”
- The Tailor. Crazy ass old lady. She was instrumental in this book, and while she sometimes scared me, I still very much liked her character. I also think she is some kind of Greek Fate, what with the threads and all.
“Ah, you fool. Dying isn’t sacrifice. Haven’t you figured that out yet? All those years of trying to get yourself killed in battle? That ain’t sacrifice, boy. That’s self-loathing. It’s gleeful suicide. It’s vanity.”
So...
Would I Recommend it?
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Other books in the Greatcoats series:
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Thanks, Micheline!
ReplyDeleteI think those were mostly the same downers for most readers with varying degrees of importance to their overall enjoyment of the book. It was a different fantasy where the characters were foremost instead of the plot, but de Castell pulls it off well enough :)