The Black Coast (The God-King Chronicles, #1)

by Mike Brooks

WAR DRAGONS.
FEARSOME RAIDERS.
A DAEMONIC WARLORD ON THE RISE.

When the citizens of Black Keep see ships on the horizon, terror takes them because they know who is coming: for generations, the keep has been raided by the fearsome clanspeople of Tjakorsha. Saddling their war dragons, Black Keep's warriors rush to defend their home only to discover that the clanspeople have not come to pillage at all. Driven from their own land by a daemonic despot who prophesises the end of the world, the raiders come in search of a new home . . .

Meanwhile the wider continent of Narida is lurching toward war. Black Keep is about to be caught in the crossfire - if only its new mismatched society can survive.

THE START OF AN UNMISSABLE FANTASY SERIES.


'Vibrant and intricate worldbuilding' Matthew Ward

'Epic . . . powerful . . . I really, really can't recommend this one enough' Fantasy Inn

'Excellent characters and wonderful worldbuilding, with a wealth of interesting cultural collisions . . . I'm already excited for the next one!' Django Wexler

'Compelling . . . promises to be a watershed epic fantasy series. I loved it' Fantasy Book Review

• ISBN10: 0356513912
• ISBN13: 9780356513911
• Publish Date: 18 February 2021 (first published 16 February 2021)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Orbit
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 672
• Language: English

Reviews

[Ashley]

DNF on page 318.

This was absolutely not a bad book. In fact, I kind of loved about half of it. The problem, for me, was that there were so many different points of view, and while I really liked 2 or 3 of them, I didn't care for any of the others. That made for some difficult reading.

I really LOVED the different cultures and how they came together and tried to sort out their differences. I could have read the entire book just about Daimon and Saana. Their chapters were my favourite.

I was also really fascinated by how the different cultures handled gender and LGBTQ in general.

Had I continued, I probably would have given this book 3 stars — so not bad by any means. I just didn't want to spend another 300 pages to “just” give a book 3 stars. I'd rather move on to a 4 or 5 star read.

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Black Coast is an incredibly well written immersive epic fantasy and the first book in the God-King Chronicles series by Mike Brooks. Released 16th March 2021 (in NA, UK release was earlier) by Rebellion on their Solaris imprint, it's a satisfyingly substantial 670 pages (print edition) and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

This is a classic brick of a fantasy with detailed world building, sea-raiders, political war, armoured knights and battle dragons. Frankly the author had me at battle-dragons. Instead of concentrating on massively detailed battle scenes (there are enough to satisfy but not too many), the author shows groups of people trying to cooperate to stave off disaster for both societies instead of warring with one another to the detriment of everyone. The characters are varied and three dimensional. It is classic epic fantasy and the author's voice and the solid world building are refreshingly satisfying to read. I savored this one over several sittings. It's complex, it's immersive, it's very well written and it's not at all derivative.

Four and a half stars. I am eagerly looking forward to the next books in the series. Full of an impressive amount of fantasy bad-assery. I heartily recommend it to fans of epic fantasy in the general area of Brandon Sanderson, Joseph Malik, and Joe Abercrombie but with glimmers of something all its own which I enjoyed so much.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.