Tome of the Undergates (Aeons' Gate, #1)

by Sam Sykes

Adventurer. The term has long been synonymous with cutthroat, murderer, savage, zealot, and heathen. And Lenk, an errant young man with only a sword and a decidedly unpleasant voice in his head, counts all five among his best and only associates. Loathed by society and spurned by all merciful gods, he and his band are recruited for only the vilest of jobs.

• ISBN10: 1616142421
• ISBN13: 9781616142421
• Publish Date: 1 September 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Prometheus Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 489
• Language: English

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

Didn't really keep me reading, I was quite willing, several times, to walk away. It's not a terrible read, but I just didn't care about what happened to the characters and didn't really care if they survived or not.

It's a story about a group of mismatched adventurers who are caught up in the hunt for a mysterious tome which is bringing them into contact with some of the powers of the world (one of the characters keeps talking about how there aren't gods, so I'm using powers, cause it's not clear what these folk are). I occasionally got confused about who amongst the extended characters was who.

Also, unless it's a race attribute, hairless legs aren't a gender sign, they're a sign of societal expectations in the 20th and 21st Western Society, and while, yes, women warriors who go barelegged may remove hair, it would be more akin to cyclists today who do the same to try to prevent infection. You can't tell gender from bare legs, hair length or whether or not they wore skirts (let me introduce you to some ancient greeks...)

Overall, not terrible, but didn't engage me and while I'm vaguely interested in reading the sequels, I'm not rushing out to check if it's in stock in work, and I'm definitely not hunting for it to buy.