Kagen the Damned

Brutal dark fantasy with some eldritch horrors woven in. A quick and satisfying read.

This book was immersive from the first page.

Kagen is a Captain sworn to protect the children of the Empress. After a night of off duty drinking, he wakes to find the city has been invaded by the Hakkians.

He has to fight his way to the children. What he finds is gruesome. He is devastated. He has failed.
His oaths are broken and his Gods have turned their backs on him. He is truly damned.

This story is brutal, graphic and very grim. It is also fantastic! The more I read, the less I wanted it to end. I can't wait to see where this goes in the next book. I was very shocked by the ending. I loved it!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an early copy.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

DNFing at 22%.

This book is literally badly written info-dump after info-dump, followed by some gratuitous violence and detailed sex scenes. The info-dumps are bad. Like really bad. Every single character I've met at 22% of the way into the book basically speaks in info-dumps. I've heard there's detailed rape scenes as well, but at 22% into the book I haven't seen one. And to be honest? I don't want to see one. No, thank you.

Now, the violence and the sex scenes by themselves wouldn't bother me, but when you follow one with the other, and include mentions of dead children while your characters are having sex, well, its not for me. Not every book is for me, I know that, but just don't with this one.