The Garden of Stones

Who in gods green earth is giving this less than 4 stars? This book was absolutely amazing. The authors prose was perfect for me. I really enjoyed how descriptive he was which I could see as being annoying but my imagination is never as good as the author so I appreciate letting me into his imagination.

The story basically is about a wealthy powerful man that wants to kill everyone above him to be supreme of the land. His daughter Mari is the most bad ass female character you'll ever read. She is the head warrior guard of the man her father wants to overthrow. She gets caught between familial loyalty and her oath before God. Indris is an elite warrior who is set on getting rid of Mari's father but he's also in love with Mari.

One of my favorite parts of this book are the cultures. You have 8 ft tall humanoid creatures that have heads of horses or lions. There are immortal creatures and humanoid creatures that can fly, etc.

The story has top tier character work with tons of politics and an extremely unique world. I 100% do not recommend listening to the audiobook. Not because the narrator is bad but because the story is so different from anything you've read with tons of characters and unfamiliar words that you are going to have to read slow and consult the glossary a bit, at least the first several chapters. I'll immediately be reading book 2 soon!

Barnes presents in The Garden of Stones a well developed, fully laid out world. The reader is catapulted into the conflict head first, and although those first few chapters are confusing, chaotic scenes of fighting between factions in a war we don't understand, it all makes sense soon enough.

At first, the cast of characters seems daunting. Names, species, factions, how will you keep it all straight? While Barnes' world is fully realized, it is a departure from the familiar. New nomenclatures are nothing new to fantasy readers, which is fortunate. But beneath the strange and new, the book really only focuses on three characters and those that orbit them. Indris, the warrior scholar and principal character. Corajidin, his rival in this book and all around mostly bad guy. Mari, daughter of Corajidin, torn between loyalty to her father and burgeoning feelings for Indris and the honor of her career.

All the while, Barnes paints a promise. There will be action, there will be intrigue, there will be cliff hangers that compel us to read further. I believe Barnes delivers on that promise in this book - the Garden of Stones was well worth the read.


Thanks to Amazon and Netgalley for the review copy of this book. It was provided in exchange for an honest review.