Review: Servant Of A Dark God by John Brown

So I was thinking to myself the other day, I say, "Self! This blog is awesome and we do awesome things on it, but we can do even MORE awesome things if we put our minds to it!" 

So Self and I sat down and we seem to have to come to a pretty awesome conclusion.

I love to read; it's been a thriving, burning, some would say ridiculous passion for many, many years. And boy-howdy am I proud of it. I love it. I started young with that young about the snowman, and other such books, but it wasn't enough. Luckily, Pop got me hooked early; not on drugs, but something as equally addicting: Fantasy novels, and comic books. My gateway drugs were the Chronicles of Narnia, and old Red Circle characters such as The Comet, The Web, The Inferno, all of those guys. Both works are filled to the brim with classic tropes; Narnia for it's epic story, solid, unshakeable heroes and heroines, and fantastical items, people and creatures. The superheroes were powerful, defiant and laid down the law with their chiseled jaws. These led me to Archie Comics and Lord of the Rings, to Spider-man and Redwall and so on.

Until I hit Neil Gaiman and his novel, American Gods. Ho-lee Shit . . .

That's the book that turned me and my notion of fantasy on our heads. These could be dark places, filled with malevolent forces and tricksters, overflowing with mythos and legends, some past, some modern. From there, the door was opened and I devoured everything I could under this heading, this new type of fantasy. Some select among the bunch are The Sandman series, Wheel of Time series, A Song of Ice and Fire, Dark Tower series, Mistborn series, Name Of The Wind and so many, many more. 

And a new one to the fold, John Brown's, "Servant Of A Dark God."

Brown's book falls, in my opinion, under the heading of the aforementioned titles, as a dark fantasy, brimming with hidden lore, ancient power, old threats and new heroes. It is the first in a trilogy and I would say Brown does exceedingly well in crafting a tale of family, magic, duty and power.

Servant Of A Dark God follows Talen, a young Koramite farmer who lives with his family; Da, his brother Ke, sister River and cousin Nettle, who is a Mokaddian. They live peacefully and work hard to make a living, in a world where Koramites are looked down upon by Mokaddians, and must do what they can to please them. The plot begins when a local Koramite family is accused of Slethery which is the illegal use of lore (magic), usually to tamper with a thing's Fire, the accumulation of a person's living days, Soul or Body. A great hunt is mustered to catch the Sleth and their children; Talen and his family are drawn into the conflict and must come together, despite hidden secrets, and survive.

Meanwhile, an ancient evil has risen, one whose Mothers had once herded and cultivated humans for their Fire, and she intends to continue the tradition.

-SPOILERS ON STUN-

This is a good book. One of the better I've read this year. It's astonishing the amount of backstory and thought that went into crafting this book. John Brown is able to take a simplistic setting, a quiet opening of pants gone missing, and slowly introduce a world filled with magical rulers, evil gods, Fire and lore, and a beast made of stone and earth, more on him later.

One of the things I truly loved about the book, was the aspect of family. Introducing characters separate and then bringing them together is a tried and true approach to character development. Brown opting to follow the story through a tight-knit family, brought me into them instantly. Characterization is huge for me, in both my reading and what I write. As a family, the book already opened with the characters familiar with one another and I felt that connection right off the bat. 

Another thing that really impressed me was the magic system. I always respect an author for taking the time and consideration to craft and hone a really intricate but exciting magic system, something I am attempting right now. Two of those examples would be the three entirely different magic systems from Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn system (highly recommended), Allomany the first among them, and the incredibly scientific yet magical system of Sympathy from Patrick Rothfuss' Name Of The Wind. 

Brown's use of magic through the use of weaves, lore and especially Fire is complex and interesting, the surface barely being scratched in this first novel. We know men can multiply their natural abilities using Fire or special weaves, such as the dreadmen, but as shown through one of the Divines, or The Mother, there are things our heroes barely know of. Add that to the fact that men may be born with different abilities and we've yet to see what Talen may fully do, I am patiently impatient to see what there is to come.

Victor's Crown for the win, just saying.

One thing that I think Brown is missing at some points, is a lack of cohesion in some aspects of the government and hierarchy of the world, and some points in the story. I understand leaking out small details about the world over the course of the story, of course, you want to slowly engage the reader in your world, no worries. I felt at some points however, the action of the story, and the detail of the world somewhat muddled together and I became a tad lost as to why things were happening. I saw a bit of the same in the plot, where I became lost as some characters suddenly were elsewhere and I felt maybe some time could have been given to transitions, or maybe I did not notice it at first. Either way, both are fixable by either a quick look in the glossary in the back, or backtracking a few pages to catch yourself up; neither of which deter from the book in any significant way.

Lastly, I must say, Hunger has to be one of my favorite characters in the novel. A beast made of stone and earth, inhabited by a dead Divine, and possessing the soul of an anguished father, Hunger is one of the most dynamic characters of the novel. I applaud Brown's use of humanizing him; it was horrible to witness his realization about what happened to his, "family." Kudos sir!

-SPOILERS OFF-

Servant Of A Dark God is a successful novel for John Brown, and I wish him all the best in its sequel, Curse Of A Dark God due out sometime next year; I await it eagerly. Filled with ancient threats, family struggles, powerful magic and a giant beast of earth and stone, what's not to love? Do yourselves a favor and go pick up this book, you won't be disappointed.

4.5 Stars out of 5!

PS: I will be shortly posting this on Mr. Brown's Twitter, which is how I found out about the book. We've chatted back and forth a couple times, and he seems like a pretty swell guy. Hope he likes the review and that we can keep in touch!