Rating: 9.5/10

I enjoyed reading Soukeeper very much, as there were just so many different aspects of this book that appealed to me. From the characters, to the dialogue, to the writing style, there was just so much to enjoy about the book. This is my first David Dalglish book, and I immediately added his previous releases to my TBR (seriously, go check my Goodreads).

My favorite part of this book is the character set. The story contains many interesting characters, both human and non-human, that carried me through the book and kept my interest. There is Devin, the main protagonist, the Soulkeeper-cum-warrior who has dedicated his life to the people and is not going to stop just because some Gods and their minions have decided to return. Tommy is Devin’s brother-in-law, and he plays the role of mage in the book – having discovered powerful magic exists in their new reality. Adria is Devin’s sister, and she is a Mindkeeper. Also a member of the order, but her job is as someone who comforts and heals people in their time of need. Adria plays an important role, too, as she realizes she can now heal people instantaneously. This is a kind of traditional trio of heroes (Warrior, Mage, Healer), which the author uses as a base to build the remaining characters.

Our heroes meet some friends along the way, as well, that add to the personality of the team, my favorite being Jacaranda. After Devin rescues her from dire circumstances she becomes part of the squad, and she is such a firecracker. Her boisterous personality brings a ton of joy and fun to the team, and she becomes incredibly important.

In addition, there are monsters. So many monsters: Giant owls, man-eating plants, faeries, and many more. Even dragons make a cameo. Add in Gods and Demigods, one of which is a murderous sociopath bent on the destruction of the human race, and this is a character set that cannot be beat. I love how diverse and interesting the characters are.

While this amazing set of characters is the base of the story, the writing is what carries the book from there. I loved David Dalglishes’ writing style; it felt so smooth and effortless. One word flowed so easily to the next, making the book so easy to read (and hard to put down). The descriptions were great, and I felt really immersed into this world. Dialogue was on point, as well, and I cannot remember thinking one time that something a character said awkward or out of place. The story is full of great plot devices that move the story along, too, that I never really questioned any of the characters’ actions. I love writing that grabs ahold of me and keeps me interested immersed in the story; David Dalglish has provided that in Soulkeeper.

One more big positive is the ending of the book: it was enthralling. Not only does it wrap up this book rather nicely, but the best part of it is that it sets up the next book to be even more epic. As much as I liked Soulkeeper, I love even more the fact that it looks to be the precursor to a story that is going to get bigger, deeper, and better. That feeling of anticipation is a major plus, and I cannot wait to read Ravencaller (Book 2 in The Soulkeepers series).

The only thing that kept it from a perfect score is that I am unsure if the God-Demigod relationship to this world is fully explained. This actually happens often with books where all-powerful beings are involved: they do not always act like all-powerful beings, and without a full explanation of that it remains a bit of a mystery to me. This is not a big enough flaw to make a huge difference to me, as the rest of the story was just so good.

Soukeeper is so good, y’all. I love just about everything about it: the characters, the writing, the plot, the ending. The longing it created that will last until I read the next book in the series is real. I highly recommend this book for all fans of fantasy.

Thank goodness for David Dalglish. Thank goodness for a writer with such a depth of imagination; for the wildly creative systems of magic he creates; for his vivid and haunting settings; for his masterful plotting and artful twists which are, always, "surprising but inevitable". Thank goodness for a male writer who makes his female main character strong.

Soulkeeper is the first book in a new adult fantasy series, specifically called The Keepers. The reader is immediately introduced to our main protagonist Devin Eveson, a Soulkeeper who is apart of the Keeping Church, worshippers of the Three Sisters, basically goddesses. Devin has many responsibilities as a Soulkeeper. He’s a bit of everything honestly. A Priest, a healer, aiding people in their time of need, even officiating marriages! but he's also packing some heat and carries a sword & a gun with him for when he means business!

This is one of those books that kept growing on me the further I got into it. Don't get me wrong, it truly starts strong, and I was hooked FROM PAGE ONE. But Dalglish put this story together in such a way that I went through many different levels of enjoying it!

The need fully arises almost straight away.

Devin gets tasked to travel to a village rumored to have a disease spreading amongst the population and it becomes very clear there is a darker act at play. This first section of the book is very fast-paced and SO fun to read. I don't really know why I immediately assumed Devin to being the only POV when multiple POV's are fairly common in fantasies so it didn't become too much of a surprise when Dalglish brings in multiple POVs later in the story. I was intrigued by the plot, amused by the jokes, shocked by the violence, surprised by the twists, impressed by the quality of writing, and most definitely sad when it all ended.

It saddens me to acknowledge the fact that I could not manage to finish reading Soulkeeper: this story started in a very promising way and maybe it created too many expectations from that beginning, leading me on the path to disappointment. This is NOT a bad book in any way, I want to make this clear up front, only it's not a book that agrees with me. Sometimes it happens…

Devin Eveson is a Soulkeeper, a mix between a warrior and a priest called to solve dire emergencies all over the Cradle, the realm where the story is set, and to dispatch the souls of the deceased toward the heavens. As we meet him, he has just reached a village where a terrible plague with an inexorable fatality rate is decimating the people. The plague is only one of the terrifying portents happening all over the Cradle: a flood of unstoppable black water brings decay to the buildings and crops it flows over, and turns the people caught in it into something resembling ferocious zombies; creatures of the wild, like wolves, attack unwary travelers and show the ability to speak, expressing malicious intent; mountains move threatening anything on their path, and mythical creatures, that so far were relegated to the realm of fantasy, make themselves known.

Even in the city of Londheim, Devin's home base, things are looking bleak, indeed: the looming mountain at its door is the first sign of the changing times, but other clues show that is only the beginning. The roof gargoyles become night predators seeking human flesh, and gigantic owls fall from the skies on careless citizens, but the most terrible fiend comes in the guise of Janus, a twisted creature who names himself "artist", one who carves his works not in stone or wood, but using human flesh that it transforms and twists with cruel delight.

Thankfully, there is a sort of balance to all these dire omens: some people find themselves able to wield magic, which for some gifted individuals turns into the ability to heal the most cruel injuries or the most lethal illnesses: it's a sign that the three Goddesses who watch over the cradle still battle in favor of humanity as the old evil that was never truly vanquished tries to reassert its hold on the world.

All these elements should have been enough to keep me glued to the book and read on in a compulsive manner, but unfortunately the pacing of the story proved to be somewhat uneven, alternating moments of high dramatic suspense with others where lightness rules, but the transitions did not feel quite smooth and I often found myself wondering where the story truly wanted to go or what its overall tone was meant to be. While it's true that it's quite impossible to maintain a constant sense of impending dread and that some "breathing room" is necessary in the flow of a story, I confess I found it quite impossible to accept, for example, the juxtaposition of Janus' brutality, whose depiction often had me reeling in horror, with the airy demeanor of Tesmarie, an onyx fairy who strongly reminded me of Disney's Tinkerbell, or the wordless, Baby-Groot-cuteness of Puffy, a flame creature who Devin meets on his travels.

Other elements are presented but never fully fleshed: a prime example of this is offered by the Soulless, people who are born - as the word indicates - without a soul, and therefore incapable of independent thought or will. These unfortunates are either employed as cheap labor in factories or, much worse, used as playthings by the more depraved elements of society. One of the manifestations of the changing times is the return of the soul to many - if not all - of the soulless, with what could have been an interesting character exploration, since a Soulless is one of the people we encounter in the course of the story and she finds herself suddenly able to exercise her own will for the first time in her life. Once again, though, this character's journey of discovery feels far too superficial to be truly interesting, or poignant - or maybe once again I set my expectations too high to be happy with what I read.

Once I started skipping through the novel in search of the true "meat" of this story, which proved quite elusive to me, I realized that my interest kept diminishing and I could not hope to find any true connection with either the book or the characters, and even though I was already at seventy percent through I decided to give up, not without a hint of regret for what felt like an unfulfilled promise.