Servant of a Dark God by John Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have known John for many years, and I have even been an early reader of the second book in this series. John had me be a naive reader for his second book, which he is still working on (and I really hope gets finished really soon, really). So, I was pretty antsy to read the first one with the taste I had of the second one already.
I thought this was a brilliantly written book. There is much that I am still unsure on, such as whether I like Talen or exactly how the magic works, but I didn’t really care at this time because I was so invested in what was going to happen to the two families being focused on.
Setting: This is a whole new world that John is building here. I found it easy to understand and John presents lots of different levels of society and cultures in a fairly small space.
Plot: Mostly this was about Talen growing up and "saving the world". But there is so much more here – from family issues to sexual tension to class struggles. There is a good amount of dramatic tension too – the soldiers on the hill and the creator of the monster and the Glory.
Conflict: There are some deep philosophical questions here – trust in a family, religious beliefs, good of society over self.
Character: As I said, I’m not sure yet if I like who Talen is. But, I think that is necessary because this is a series and he needs to grow through all of them. I did love River and Legs. I also loved how the monster was personified.
Text: Easy to read. I was pulled through and read it within just a couple days.
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