Today I’m posting my third Finalist review for #SPFBOX (here’s a link to the Finalist table).  I’ve already posted a review for The Humane Society for Creatures & Cryptids (Teraglossa #1) by Stephanie A. Gillis and The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage by Hiyodori.  Over the next two weeks I shall be posting regularly in order to fit all the Finalists in before the competition ends.  So, without further ado lets get to my review The Oathsworn Legacy by KR Gangi.

Firstly here’s the description (courtesy of Goodreads), the cover and a link.

Rawley and Baelin make a living the only way they know how—protecting the people of Centrum by slaying the dark things that stole their childhood: Monsters, and everything evil.

Though the work never ends, and there’s plenty of coin to go around, Rawley and Baelin discover a sinister secret hidden deep within the crevices of Centrum’s past. Centuries of lies and deceit unravel before them, and they soon shift from mere mercenaries to a force that will last generations.

At least, that’s their hope.

Dwarves in the west, Wroughtmen in the north, Elves in the east, and a tyrant king ruling with an oppressive fist, Rawley and Baelin balance on the precipice of total chaos.

Will everything they’ve accomplished be enough to save them from the shadows rising, or will a plot that’s generations old finally drag everything into the abyss?

Oathsworn Legacy is epic fantasy with classic Tolkien elements.  The story revolves around two brothers who, having been orphaned at a young age when their parents were attacked by monsters, become monster hunters themselves.

Although this falls into classic fantasy I thought the first 40/50% of the story stepped out of the norm.  We had a series of adventures where the brothers go about ‘their monster hunting’ quite often getting into all manner of desperate situations.  I have to say that I found this part of the story refreshingly entertaining.  This style may not work for everyone and I confess at first I wondered about this narrative choice but it became apparent fairly quickly that each of the stories was going to be important in terms of introducing both new characters and also plotlines.  Pay attention when you’re reading these stories because they all feed in to the plot at some point.

The story then switches.  The brothers move on with the plans they’ve been harbouring for some time in the process attracting the wrong sort of attention.  From this point onwards things start to go horribly wrong eventually escalating into all out battle.  I did feel like this area of the story was a bit hastily sketched, I felt like we jumped to a fairly well established school for monster hunters and somehow I felt like I’d missed something.

My thoughts on Oathsworn are divided.  I really liked the early stories and there’s a heck of a lot of promise with some of the ideas there that I suspect the author will explore further.  I don’t think I really connected well with the brothers though.  To be fair, I didn’t dislike them but I didn’t feel fully invested for some reason.  I preferred some of the side characters but I did like the fact that the brothers were not totally rigid in their ideas but open to persuasion and I liked the way they became surrounded by good friends.

I also really liked the writing and felt that although this is quite a chunky story it certainly didn’t feel that way when I was reading in fact I read this very easily in a matter of days.

In terms of criticisms.  I don’t really have any as such but epic battle scenes don’t always work for me and so the concluding chapters weren’t my favourite.  But that’s on me obviously.

Overall, I enjoyed Oathsworn and although this reads as a standalone I am curious to see if the author returns to this world.

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

My rating 7 out of 10.