Master of Sorrows
The Silent Gods Book One
By Justin Call
You have heard the story before – of a young boy, orphaned through tragic circumstances, raised by a wise old man, who comes to a fuller knowledge of his magic and uses it to fight the great evil that threatens his world.
Among the Academy’s warrior-thieves, Annev de Breth is an outlier. Unlike his classmates who were stolen as infants from the capital city, Annev was born in the small village of Chaenbalu, was believed to be executed, and then unknowingly raised by his parents’ killers.
But what if the boy hero and the malevolent, threatening taint were one and the same?
What if the boy slowly came to realize he was the reincarnation of an evil god? Would he save the world . . . or destroy it?
Seventeen years later, Annev struggles with the burdens of a forbidden magic, a forgotten heritage, and a secret deformity. When he is subsequently caught between the warring ideologies of his priestly mentor and the Academy’s masters, he must choose between forfeiting his promising future at the Academy or betraying his closest friends. Each decision leads to a deeper dilemma, until Annev finds himself pressed into a quest he does not wish to fulfill.
Will he finally embrace the doctrine of his tutors, murder a stranger, and abandon his mentor? Or will he accept the more difficult truth of who he is . . . and the darker truth of what he may become . . .
448 pages
Published by Gollancz
Published on February 26th, 2019
Author’s webpage
Buy the book
Master of Sorrows, a debut from Justin Call, is a gripping, edge-of-your-seat, hands-over-your-eyes, TENSE type of a read that is full awesome characters and brilliant lore and worldbuilding.
The main character Annev, is infuriatingly naive but the events of the book seed growth in him and I am really keen to see where Call takes him (and the other characters) next.
Also, the epilogue. Wow.
Master of Sorrows is a ‘masterful’ work of epic fantasy that harkens back to the feel of Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks and even David Eddings, while still holding the sensibilities of more modern fantasists like Brent Weeks and Brandon Sanderson.
Bring on book 2!
