Demon’s Reign: A Progression Fantasy Epic (The Bloodwood Saga Book 1)

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If you are a fresh face in fantasy, you may enjoy this, but to me it comes across as recycled, and not in a fun way. The third-born of a shamed family, Tarkosi’s lot in life is to spend his days as a worker, feeding temperamental lancewings under a harsh master. So, the demon in his head is the daughter of the king demon and she loves to tell him how all the humans are going to burn and be eaten and all this jazz.

People treating him like trash all his life because of a lie someone told, but he looks like he will rollover, and sacrifice himself like an idiot for them in the end. Estes and Galley absolutely nailed the fine balance between a well-choreographed battle versus an over-done bloodbath.In fact, in this world sexism doesn’t seem to exist at all with one of the highest ranking generals being a woman herself.

You wouldn’t think a book of this length would feel like it took hardly any time to read, but the creative world building captured my attention from the start, and the combination of interesting characters and a perfectly paced plot held it throughout, so that the hours of reading melted away unnoticed; something the amazing narration helped with, I'm sure. It’s a society that uses primogeniture, but where the head of state is a queen who passes that torch to a daughter. Princess Kaleah and her twin sister Cassie are met with so many trials that they must overcome as they are ‘daughters’ to the empress.

Even so, the sense of atmosphere and tension within these battles was great; I could perfectly imagine the smoke-filled air and the heat from the fire baking my skin like I was right there with Tarko trying my damnedest not to be struck down by demonfire atop the branches of a mile-high tree.

There are some other minor characters, like Hydeck, a pretentious turd you love to hate, and then we have my two favourite characters.I figured that if the lists take me in an unexpected direction the colours might be handy if they end against eachother. Same zenith of Halfords red over the black primer looks fine and with a Flesh-tearer Contrast Paint over the top to blend it all together.