My Five Word TL:DR Review: Right book/Right Time.  Happyface

I read A Gamble of Gods a short while ago but wanted to await the release date before posting a review.  To be honest, when I picked this book up I was having something of an ‘off’ reading month, I was busy, a bit stressed and definitely not up to my usual reading and blogging.  So in some respects I felt a little guilty picking this book up during that period as my reading can be moody at times and feeling as I was, well, lets just say I was going to be a tough audience.  Actually as it happens, I got completely caught up in the story and instead of getting worried about other deadlines I simply went with the flow and enjoyed reading this, often picking it up late at night to devour a few pagers before sleep.  Before I go further, the short version of this review reads ‘a great mix of fantasy, sci-fi and romance’.

In terms of plot.  The story involves three characters from very different backgrounds.  I think in terms of driving the story I’d say that Kristian plays the lead role.  He lives on a far flung planet in the dim and distant future and is a scholar and lecturer.  Then we meet Conor who lives on a world that appears to be from the past, positively mediaeval-feeling with castles, swordplay, horses as the main form of transport, etc.  Conor is a would-be womaniser and thinks himself something of an expert thief.  Finally we make the acquaintance of Selena, an office worker based in a contemporary London.  Selena is perhaps my favourite of the story although all three play key roles I felt like she brought a strong emotional sensitivity to the story.  It’s not that Selena is unhappy so much as she doesn’t really fit in, like there’s something in her life that hasn’t quite fallen into place yet – that’s about to change though.  To put it bluntly the three are destined to meet in the most unusual bringing together of three less likely stories than you can imagine.  The catalyst is murder, the objective to stop an assassin, the journey will see them all go from strength to strength, finding friendship, love, magic and much more.

I really enjoyed the writing.  There’s a good deal of adventure and some crazy world hopping.  I mean, there’s so many things that I’d love to throw into this review,  not least of all an AI, talking, robotic horse, but I feel like I would muddy the waters if I was to try.  The pacing is, well, lets just say there’s never a dull moment and on top of this the author manages to throw in a healthy dose of humour to temper the read.

The three main characters are easy to like although, as I mentioned earlier I would give a little shout out to Selena.  Kristian and Conor stumble upon each other accidentally and come to form a mutually beneficial partnership in the first instance which eventually evolves into friendship, more than that the two seem to help each other develop in subtle ways bringing out the best in each other.  At this point the two are essentially on a quest which eventually leads them in a very unexpected fashion to stumble upon Selena.

To round this up I think this is an exciting start to series and an impressive debut. It’s no small feat to bring together three characters from completely different times and places and weave their stories together in such a satisfactory and coherent way, not to mention teasing out a mystery that promises more yet to come all whilst defying the realms of possibility by creating a fantasy/sci-fi romance that shouldn’t work but just does.  I look forward to the next instalment.

I received a copy courtesy of the author, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars