The Armored Saint

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
—

“My strength is the Emperor and His Holy Writ.”

“Aren't you pious for one who is so green at the sight of the Order?”

“The Emperor is divine. The Order are just men. You don't fault a whole faith just because some of its agents take to brigandage. My faith kept me through the war, and it hasn't failed me after.”

In a world where any act of magic could open a portal to hell, the Order insures that no wizard will live to summon devils, and will kill as many innocent people as they must to prevent that greater horror. After witnessing a horrendous slaughter, the village girl Heloise opposes the Order, and risks bringing their wrath down on herself, her family, and her village.

Attack of the Clones

The Armored Saint

The Queen of Crows

The Killing Light

I admit that some of my disappointment for this book stems from the cover. I was expecting a female character who fights and is powerful– a rare thing in fantasy– and I got a character who... fights eventually. I don't know, that's probably a Me problem.

I will say this novel feels a little half-baked, not least because it seems to exist without any breathing room. We're hurled from one plot twist to another, and the shock value seems to rely on preexisting understanding of tropes, rather than the events happening within the novel.

That said, all the characters act in ways that make complete sense for their world and background, and all the beats feel more or less earned. I just came to this wanting dark fantasy featuring a female protagonist, and got an endless series of rug pulls and Warhammer references. (Like, seriously. This book owes a huge debt to WH40k, I cannot even begin to tell you.)

The Armored Saint by Myke Cole is a quick-moving grimdark fantasy that grabs you by the throat in the first few pages and doesn't let go.

I came to The Armored Saint by way of Myke Cole's other series, Shadow Ops. Although Shadow Ops is an entirely different genre, I enjoyed Myke Cole's use of language and world-building in it, and I was hoping that that would transfer to a grimdark novel. I was in for a pleasant surprise, Myke Cole kicked the writing up a notch in Armoured Saint. When reading The Armoured Saint, it feels like Myke Cole has indeed found his groove.

“Heloise Factor is my favorite kind of hero, the one who makes mistakes and suffers for them, and comes out swinging anyway. I can't wait for you to meet her.” –Myke Cole

Starting, I knew very little about the series except for what I could glean from the gorgeous cover work done by Tommy Arnold. I had heard that Heloise was a Brienne of Tarth type character, but I knew little else. It is exciting to go into a series cold with very little information and see where the narrative takes you. It doesn't always work out. You learn pretty quickly which books will work for you and which don't. But I am pleased to say that the buzz about this book is well earned. The Armored Saint is a great read.

The Armored Saint is the first book in the Sacred Throne series. The conclusion to the trilogy, The Killing Light, will be coming out on November 12th of 2019. Oddly, The Armored Saint is considered a Novella but is more of a short novel coming in at 206 pages. I wouldn't call this a hefty book by any stretch, but it is a full-bodied, fully realized story.

The story is told from the perspective of Heloise Factor. A young woman living a quiet life in a quasi-medieval town where magic and religion have mixed to form an authoritarian regime. This regime early on is described as something to be both feared and in awe of and has a deified Emporer at its head. The religious group that acts as the sword and cudgel for The Emporer frames many of its actions as “I know that this may seem cruel, but it is for your own good.” The totalitarianism is terrifying, as this religious group seems like an unstoppable force in the townsfolk's lives.

“Did we have to do it? She asked.
“No,” he answered, his voice breaking, tears falling into his beard to turn the flakes of ash to gray slush. “No, child. We didn't.”...
He took a deep break then spoke again. “And making us complicit means, we will never call them to account for the crime.”
― Myke Cole, The Armored Saint

I am glad the Cole wrote Heloise the way that he did. Instead of couching Heloise's character in false bravado, and confidence of a character much older, he wrote Heloise to be the child that she is. At the start of the story, Heloise is pure innocence. She has not seen the ways of the world as many of the older, more grizzled characters that surround her. She is sheltered and loved like the rare flower that she is. Her responses and actions in different situations wisely reflect that. Often I would be reading this book and think, “God, why is she doing that” only to be reminded of what I was like at 16. I was young, so incredibly immature and naive, and I made stupid decisions. Cole's writing wisely reflects that.

Along with her naivete, he wrote Heloise to have a backbone of steel. This steel is a beautiful counterpoint to her naiveite. You know, as a reader, that Heloise is going to be a force to be reckoned with when she gets a bit of experience under her belt.

“Fear is a deadly thing, Heloise. It can drain a person of all their strength, make them weak before their enemies.”
― Myke Cole, The Armored Saint

One of the best aspects of this character-driven story, along with Heloise, is the masterfully use of language to convey emotion and thought. Cole is a person who speaks plainly and succinctly. There is no flowery prose in The Armored Saint. Cole using language like a knife. He cuts through the bullshit to bring you raw emotion and stark scenes. Parts of this book are grim. Cole does not mince words. He will bash you as a reader, or cut you to the quick if he needs to. There is no mercy in the world of Heloise.

My only complaint about this masterfully crafted story is the love interest, or at least how it initially presented. It felt too immediate to me. It felt shoehorned into the flow of the story. The odd thing is, as the story progressed, the feeling of the love story as an afterthought dissipated. By the end of the book, it was the appropriate and correct direction for the story. I no longer doubted the authenticity of it, and it felt as real to me as it did to Heloise.

“It is a person you love. Not a name. Not a he or a she. A person in all their shining glory. There is a thing in us, Heloise. A seed. It makes us who we are. It is our core. That the thing that we love. It alone exists. It alone is holy. It has no home, no name. It is neither male nor female. It is greater than that.”
― Myke Cole, The Armored Saint

In conclusion:
We need characters like Heloise.
We need strong female leads.
We need accurate representations of love.
We need beautiful dark worlds with morally ambiguous characters.
We need more of this series and whatever else Cole can come up with.

The Armored Saint was a hell of a read. Dark and beautiful, atmospheric, and ruthless, I loved this book. And I love Heloise.

2.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
The Order ensures that no wizards, with portals in their eyes that admit demons, can threaten the land. Young Heloise, who cannot but protest at injustice, finds she's risked herself, the girl she loves, and all of their families.

Review

I got The Armored Saint for free. I doubt I'd have picked it up otherwise. Unfortunately, that proved to be an appropriate instinct. The Armored Saint for free - the content of which has very little to do with the title - has an array of familiar fantasy elements thrown together. And they feel like familiar elements thrown together. There's very little about the story that stands out. It seems clearly intended as a teaser for a longer series, but I find no reason I'd want to read that series.

The characters are engaging, but we've seen them before. This time, more of them are female, which is nice, but they're otherwise much like many other fantasy heroes - young, modest, reluctant, but determined to push through. There's an oppressive power - evil seemingly because ... well, oppressive powers just are that way. The book moves slowly - especially during a long, long fight scene, and I didn't find it held my interest.

In short, while there was some potential here in the components, I didn't find that Cole brought enough to the mix that was new.

Not my cup of tea. Some may like but I didn't, I completed this yesterday afternoon and now I didn't even remember what's actually I have read.

This book was fantastic! I loved the twist! I just wish there could have been more pages. I didn't want to stop reading!

This book just didn't do it for me. I'm sure it will for a lot of others, but not me. I literally could not stand the main character, and not for the reasons you might assume if you've already read the book (or at least some of the reviews). It wasn't because she was female, nor was it because she was gay. I don't care one bit about any of that as long as the character is interesting and compelling and someone I can root for. This main character was someone I rooted for, oh yeah I did...I rooted for her to be murdered so the rest of the characters could go on with their lives and not be in mortal peril due to her series of absolutely ridiculous actions. Without spoiling anything, every single conflict in the book arises from her getting angry and doing or saying the exact opposite of what everyone else in the book would have done. Because feelings.

Now don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place for “rebelling” or “challenging norms” or whatever virtue-signalling term you like. But if you grew up in a world like this where merely talking out of turn might end with you, or your loved ones, or maybe your entire village's violent deaths...you'd probably at least think twice about doing it multiple times in the span of a few days.

It is very clear that this was written from the very beginning to be about “female empowerment”, but to me at least it failed miserably. Everyone else pays the price for her stupidity, and if you really want to get analytical, she's “rescued” by a male character every time as well (except perhaps the last fight, but even then someone else provides the means). This is no Ripley from Alien or Sarah Conner from Terminator, some of the best female characters that jump to mind. This is Bella from Twilight, except instead of needing to be rescued due to being clumsy and dumb, this time she is dumb and can't keep her mouth shut for even the one minute that would have avoided every bad thing that happens.

Practically everything in the book is telegraphed way ahead of time too. You might not know exactly how things will happen, but you have a pretty good idea. You even come to expect that she'll say exactly the wrong thing at the wrong time and just roll your eyes and watch it unfold.

It gains the second star due to the one unexpected turn of events late in the book. That was well done. Still not enough to get me to read more in the future, but I did enjoy that part at least. I feel bad any time I “trash” a book, because I know writing is incredibly difficult and personal and if it were me reading what I just wrote above, after years of working on a book, I'd probably take it badly. But I also value honest reviews here, so at least someone might be a little better prepared if they do decide to pick up the book.

2.5 stars

This is another case of, it isn't the book, it is me. Most likely.

Books with oppressive ruling religions are hard for me to read about, especially when those in power are so obviously evil.
Then, the main character is a bit too... emotional which would make her do stupid things. I just couldn't get behind any of her actions.

So, because of the consequences of Heloise's actions and how horrible the witch hunters are, I was annoyed and couldn't fully enjoy the action that went down. Which is unfortunate since there is some good stuff here.

The take of magic in this book is really interesting. The thought is that those who use magic can become gateways to hell, which is why using magic is forbidden. Is it true, or is it another way to oppress and kill the masses? Also, in order to defeat magic there is huge armor and other interesting weapons. This is pretty much magic vs. tech, but also the populace vs. oppressive rulers.

This is one I think many people will like, so I will recommend it... sparingly though. This is one I might suggest to people who do like traditional fantasies, but also like sci-fi books. It is fast-paced and short, so this might also be one for a more reluctant reader.

Executive Summary: I've been a fan of Myke Cole for awhile, but this is the first book of his I've really enjoyed. I prefer a single novel to a trilogy of novellas, but I'm enjoying things so far.Full ReviewMyke Cole came on my radar a few years back thanks to Sword & Laser. Eventually I picked up his first book [b:Control Point 11783484 Control Point (Shadow Ops, #1) Myke Cole https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1309460843s/11783484.jpg 15964749]. I liked it enough to finish that trilogy and read the first book [b:Gemini Cell 22708697 Gemini Cell (Shadow Ops, #4) Myke Cole https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415580327s/22708697.jpg 45914201] of his prequel series. Eventually I stalled out though.The military aspects of those books seemed very realistic. Maybe a bit too realistic. I found many of the characters unlikeable and the events of the books hard to read at times.When this book was announced I was excited because it sounded more my speed. I'm not a huge fan of dark fantasy these days, but it's still more in my wheelhouse than military/urban fantasy. I didn't realize this was going to be a novella at the time I pre-ordered it. So when it arrived I was a bit surprised at how short it was. As a big fan of epic fantasy which are often characterized by overly long door-stopping tomes, I was a bit underwhelmed. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the recent trend of novella trilogies.All that said, I enjoyed this book a lot. Apparently it's been influenced by Warhammer 40k. A friend told me its influence is VERY heavy. I've never read any of those books or played the tabletop game, so I had no idea. As such I found the world building pretty interesting.Most importantly however I really liked Heloise as a protagonist. She could be a bit juvenile for a teenager, but she also seems to live in a bleak world where I probably wouldn't be in a hurry to grow up quickly either.As always, I love a good magic system. We get some hints of it here. From the very start the idea of magic is evil. The premise of the series revolves around it. I found myself wondering is magic really like the law and rumors say, or is that all a lie? For me that was the most interesting thing to find out. I still have a lot more questions about it however (and many theories) so I hope we get more answers in the next 2 novellas.Despite its short length, I thought Mr. Cole does a good job in setting up the world and building (an albeit very obvious) conflict that will likely carry the rest of the series forward. There are some pretty good supporting characters in the book along with Heloise that I thought rounded the story out well. In particular I liked her friend Basina and Basina's father. One of my major issues with his previous books was I didn't really like most of his characters, and I'm happy to see that wasn't the case here.Overall, I think this may be Mr. Cole's best offering so far, especially if you're not a fan of military fantasy. It's a dark story, but well written and I'm looking forward to seeing where he takes things next.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Upon witnessing the horrors wrought by the Order, the oppressive ruling authority, village girl Heloise begins to fight back in any way that she can. Author Myke Cole pivots from his usual military fantasy genre to deliver a solid first installment in a new epic fantasy trilogy.

I was impressed with how swiftly Cole orients the reader into a brand new world, a very important factor for a book of this size. I was immediately aware of the customs, religions, societal hierarchies, and just how high the stakes are.

My biggest issue was with the characterization of Heloise, the main character. She has a heart of gold but displays some incredibly poor decision making abilities. Most of the action in this novel is the direct result of Heloise acting recklessly. Hopefully this flaw gives her plenty of room to develop into the hero that she seems destined to become.

Overall, The Armored Saint is a fun, quick read that packs a lot in without feeling overstuffed. I plan to continue with this trilogy and see how it all plays out!

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Edit added 6/26/2020: Recently it's come to light that Myke Cole is a serial abuser and sexual harasser, and was so at the time I wrote this review. I did not know that at the time I wrote this since I don't move in the same spaces as his victims, but I'm leaving this note here now to say that, despite my high praise of this novel, I absolutely do not condone his behavior at any point in time, whether I was aware of it or not. Any of his books that I now have will not be reviewed on this blog. Review of any of his future work will depend upon whether he has demonstrated any actual, genuine change in his behavior going forward.

And then there is Heloise. On one hand, I find her mildly irritating, but on the other hand I also understand that my irritation comes from the fact that Heloise is still sixteen ??? a teenager. She reacts to things the way any young woman of that age would: on impulse, and according to her feelings, not her head. This leads her to do and say things that, in more ways than one, help to precipitate the events in the story???s climax. Those events break her, true, but they do not break her totally. That is something I find very interesting indeed ??? not least because this is clearly a grimdark story, and usually grimdark stories don???t leave much room for hope. And yet there it is, a small spark in Heloise???s spirit that continues to burn despite the growing dark. I am very much looking forward to seeing what becomes of her, and her altered circumstances change the world around her.