Published by Angry Robot on August 10th, 2021
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 424
Format: eARC
Goodreads
When you are all out of heroes, all that's left are the villains.
Black Herran was a dread demonologist, and the most ruthless general in all Essoran. She assembled the six most fearsome warriors to captain her armies: a necromancer, a vampire lord, a demigod, an orcish warleader, a pirate queen, and a twisted alchemist. Together they brought the whole continent to its knees... Until the day she abandoned her army, on the eve of total victory.
40 years later, she must bring her former captains back together for one final stand, in the small town of Tarnbrooke - the last bastion against a fanatical new enemy tearing through the land, intent on finishing the job Black Herran started years before.
Seven bloodthirsty monsters. One town. Their last hope.
Firstly, thank you so much to the lovely folks at Angry Robot for sending me a copy for review! And for including me on their tour for this book!
After I started reading this book, I realized that I don’t think I’ve really read a grimdark fantasy before? Okay I guess I’ve read Joe Abercrombie’s Shattered Sea trilogy, but that still felt a bit toned down (maybe because it’s young adult?). Anyway, I was kind of nervous. What if it’s too dark? Too gory? I was worried about liking it BUT it turns out I didn’t need to be worried. Yes, it was dark and gory and gruesome, of course. But it was also filled with humor and super interesting characters and scheming and so much more.