In the second installment of The Silent Gods series, Annev's journey continues as he searched for a way to remove the golden hand of Keos and gets more than he's bargained for. Prophesies, enemies and betrayals are constantly at the back of his mind as he struggles to protect himself and his friends. However, the story also follows Myjun and Kenton who want revenge against Annev, though they too must unwittingly play a part in the prophecy.

I've enjoyed reading this story quite a bit. Without giving too much away, the second book really shows the growth of each character, for better and for worse. Everyone has to make difficult decisions for what they believe is the for greater good. These moral decisions really make well rounded characters as sometimes I still loved the characters and other times I hated what they were doing, but understood their twisted logic none the less. We also get to follow more character's perspectives as Annev isn't the primary POV anymore. The plot, the magic system, the politics are so well thought out. I can't wait for the next book.

Thank you to the author, the publisher and netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This series continues to get better and better with each book.

After the events of the first I had no idea where the second book would go but this blew me away. The characters get more developed, the world more detailed, and the narrative more complex.

If you read and enjoyed the first, pick up and devour the second.

It is so difficult for me to find the words to encapsulate just how much I enjoyed MASTER ARTIFICER and what a pleasure it was to experience it for the three or four weeks that we spent together. There are certain books that you don't want to part with because they were just so darn fantastic. This was one of those that stayed with me and left quite an impression. What is it that made it such a superior read you ask? Bear with me and I will attempt to give you some of the exceptional things that might make you want to fast track this series to the top of your TBR.

First, the characters, which I just touched on briefly with the alternating viewpoints. Unlike Master of Sorrows, this books takes more time with the other characters in this story and it really helped elevate it in my opinion. No longer does Annev take up the majority of the spotlight. Although he is still an incredibly important character, it was nice to also experience a significant portion of the story get advanced through the eyes of Kenton and Myjun. It is doubly effective seeing as how the major conflict in this book primarily centers around the three of them so we get an up close and personal view of the drama that takes place. Everybody seems to want to kill Annev for their own reason and it was both funny in a way and also cool in that the tension is ramped up to DEFCON 1 the entire time. Anyway, I really enjoyed having the secondary characters fleshed out more and getting their own face time, so kudos to Justin Call for giving them more of a voice this time around.

The next thing that made this a stellar follow up for me is it is reeeeally dark. Being predictable is thankfully not one of Justin Call's many attributes, in fact quite the opposite. This story takes a decidedly dreary turn for the brutal and macabre, so if you have a weak stomach, read with your eyes closed. But in all seriousness, the characters face some violent and twisted stuff, mostly brought about by the various nasty gods and demigods who are pulling the strings by various means. If you like badass magic and sorcery, MASTER ARTIFICER will blow you away with some of the craziest unearthly and morbidly fantastic artifacts than you can handle! Justin has definitely stepped up his game immensely in book two and he's taking no prisoners with the magic system.

I'll just mention one more enjoyable aspect to avoid having this review almost match the length of the book itself. I touched on it in my brief comment about Master of Sorrows, and that is the brilliant writing that is so tight that it enables the story to flow from one scene to the next with zero lulls or clunkiness. I thought that the first book was a fabulous story but (and this is no slight to that book) MASTER ARTIFICER outdid it in many different areas and catapults this series into an absolute must read for every single fan of the genre.

Justin Call knocked on the door and introduced himself to the fantasy world with book one, but with MASTER ARTIFICER he kicks down the door, grabs us by the throat, and demands our undivided attention. I for one am happy to give it.

MASTER ARTIFICER - Justin T. Call
The Silent Gods Series - Book 2
Blackstone Publishing
ASIN: B08PG3GPMW
ISBN-10: 1-98259-179-X
ISBN-13: 978-1-98259-179-3
2021, May 18
Fantasy

The people of Luquatra follow different gods, and each god provides separate magics, but all magics lead to one of the three original gods, Keos. After a dispute with his two older sibling gods, Keos became the god of evil.

The main character, Annev de Breth, now wears the Hand of Keos, an artifact forged thousands of years ago by the god Keos. It is a dangerous weapon Annev cannot control. In the previous story, MASTER OF SORROWS, the Hand of Keos became attached to his partial arm, and while trying to protect his village mentor, he lost control of the Hand of Keo's. It immolated the academy where he lived and killed Myjun, the girl he loved. Now he searches for a way to remove it from his arm. He and a few friends have left the destroyed, anti-magic school in Chaenbalu. Titus, Therin, Fly, Sraon, Brayan, and he head for the city of Luquatra. The world they travel outside of Chaenbalu is a convoluted place where everyone must be judged with suspicion and doubt. A place where trouble and danger plague them, but they all continue to seek a new future. What Annev doesn't expect is that others from Chaenbalu survived and now they seek to kill him. To survive he must use his emerging magic in some ways he believes evil. Does this make him a monster or a survivor? Can he wear the Hand of Keos and have any morality or good left in him? How can he have the Hand of Keos removed or can he learn to master it? These are dilemmas he must face.

The dictionary defines an artificer as a deviser. Certainly, Annev will have to devise many ways to escape the dangerous situations he faces. THE MASTER ARTIFICER is a long story (94 chapters) with many characters filled with hatred, greed, and deadly magic inherited from their gods. Many scenes are filled with gore and blood, but if you enjoy ominous and danger-filled fantasy, you will enjoy this story.

Robin Lee

“We’re going to have a talk now,” Annev said, untying the rag around his neck. “I’m going to use magic to keep you alive… and we’ll see just how good I am at this torture thing.”

Synopsis: Leaving behind the smoldering wreckage of his childhood home, Annev seeks answers in the world outside. Will he manage to take the reins of his own fate and remove the deadly Hand of Keos, or will his destiny take a darker turn?

Who May Enjoy This Book:

-Grimdark junkies
-Fans of Epic Fantasy
-People who enjoy inversion of tropes

First, I would like to thank Justin T. Call, Blackstone Publishing, and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) in exchange for a fair and honest review: your efforts in making titles like this accessible to reviewers makes my life so much easier!

I was excited to get my hands on this one!

Book 1 of this series was thoroughly impressive given that it was a debut , and Call continues to impress with “Master Artificer”. I actually finished reading the story a few weeks back, but I wanted a little time to re-read certain portions, and to let everything sink in nicely. As you know, I try to give my reviews a little extra thought, and this can be complicated when you’re avoiding spoilers. Let’s discuss!

“Master Artificer” hits the ground running, beginning immediately after the events of “Master of Sorrows”. Our protagonist Annev and his friends must pick themselves up and leave behind the ruins of the only home they’ve ever known. Without giving anything away, there are three or four narrative points of view in this story (depending on how you look at it): first is what I call “Team Annev” (Annev, Titus, Therin, Fyn), then “Team Myjun” (Annev’s former love interest), and “Team Kenton” (Annev’s former friend). There is a deep connection between these three teams, both narratively and via a thread of prophecy which weaves its way throughout the series. This was a pleasant change from the first book, as it provides the reader with a much broader view of the world and its intricacies. One of the toughest things for me to reconcile in “Master of Sorrows” was the enormous emphasis on worldbuilding… while simultaneously spending the majority of the novel in a tiny community. It just felt wrong, and boy does this novel make up for it! “Master Artificer” kicks the doors down and opens up an enormous world for our thee disparate groups to explore and make trouble in.

Kenton’s chapters tend to focus on the character’s understanding of his life up to the present; geographically, he is more or less stationary compared to the other POV characters and so the attention to detail is turned inwards. Kenton’s motivations are fluid and, while focused primarily on revenge, his rationale is not entirely unsound. He has endured an enormous amount of trauma and, to his limited understanding, Annev is responsible for much of his hardship. What I liked is that as his understanding improves, he does not stubbornly insist on clinging to all of his previous beliefs. His motivations seem extremely simple, and they are, but Call manages to make this compelling. I SHOULDN’T feel any sympathy for Kenton… and yet I do. His heart aches for a normalcy he has never known, and in his own twisted way he is making do as best he can with the twisted education he was given.

Myjun, similarly, mourns the loss of “normalcy” she was provided with at the Academy. Unlike Kenton, however, she throws herself into the pit of despair and misplaced blame, becoming a true monster in the process. While I did my best to empathize with her (given all that she has lost), I had a much more difficult time relating to her single-mindedness. Frankly, I found her to be the least compelling of the characters, motivated purely by an utterly misplaced desire for “revenge”. In the few moments where this “hardness” fades and we are treated to a glimpse of the scared, vulnerable girl inside, I did feel some pity. Her path in the novel is not entirely of her own making, and she did succumb to some serious manipulation. I feel like much of her arc in this book was composed of exposition, and I am holding out hope for a much more significant “internal” development of her character later in the series. It’s not that she’s not interesting, but… I just can’t stop hating her. If that was your intention Mr. Call: bravo!

Annev’s journey of course is the narrative around which everything else is built around, and there is certainly a good deal of payoff over the course of the book. More than anyone else, Annev truly comes to understand the extent to which Chaenbalu brainwashed its inhabitants. This, to me, was one of the most important developments in “Master Artificer”. If you’ll recall from my review of Book 1, I was dismayed by the ridiculous policies and practices of the Academy. It turns out that this was with good reason, as Chaenbalu was basically managed like a cult. As you delve further into Call’s world with Annev and friends, you’ll see just how backwards and harmful the Academy was in comparison to everything else. This is not to say that the rest of the world is not without its problems: there is war, slavery, corruption, poverty… but there is also companionship, love, learning, and freedom. While those aspects of Book 1 rubbed me the wrong way, it’s because they were supposed to. By adding this contrast, it makes leaving Chaenbalu that much more enjoyable. It was a risky move in my opinion, but it clearly paid off when I was devouring the massively expanded setting. Annev gets to see just how wrong everything was, and his perception of the world around him is always seen through this filter. His “moral education” as I’ll call it is also quite captivating. As an inverted “chosen one” trope, the idea that he may break bad at any particular moment tends to lurk in the back of one’s thoughts as one reads through the “Annev chapters” (and I’ll tease you a little by saying there are definitely tastes of this in the book).

My critique of “Master of Sorrows” was mainly centered around the pacing of the story, and I feel that criticism still holds up to an extent in the sequel. Without giving much away, I felt that the main characters “progressed” far, far too fast in certain respects. It’s easy at times to forget that these are basically just kids (not young children, but still fairly young nonetheless), and yet they constantly find themselves at ease in positions of power, sneering in the faces of things that would terrify others. I just found it jarring at times because to me, their reactions and behaviors are what I would expect of heroes and adventurers at the end of their career, seasoned legends who would spit in the eye of Death. I’ve given it a great deal of thought, and I’ve concluded that this rapid escalation may be a simple matter of necessity. To me, “The Silent Gods” series resembles “The Wheel of Time” in a number of ways; Call, however, likely does not have the luxury of stretching things out to the extent that Jordan did. The Publishing industry is certainly a different beast than it was back then! I’m still very confident, however, that the pacing will start to feel right as the series continues ( Justin has advised me that the series is a tetralogy, so he’s got ample time). Overall it’s a small criticism, but one I feel I need to mention for the sake of a full and honest review!

There is so much that I could say about this tome (at over 900 pages it’s a bit of a beast!), but I’ll limit myself to saying it is a worthy successor to Book 1. Call has ironed out a lot of the kinks, and managed to turn some of the shot-term weaknesses of the first book into long-term narrative strengths for his series. “Master Artificer” comes out in May, and I wholeheartedly suggest you pick up that pre-order for the beautiful hardcover, as it’s absolutely worth it. Don’t sit out this series: “The Silent Gods” is a “Wheel of Time” for a new generation, a clever inversion of the hero’s journey set in a vivid, meticulously-crafted setting. Justin T. Call is an author to watch!

Happy reading!

I very much enjoyed Master Artificer, book 2 of The Silent Gods series, even though I read it without having read book 1 (Master of Sorrows). The book begins with a Story So far... which was a great help, but the author has also weaved enough backstory into the novel to make it a fun puzzle if, like me, you're the sort of person would reads a series out-of-order.

The prose is excellent and gripping. The plot is classic epic fantasy -- quests for revenge, mastery of skills, finding magical artifacts -- but the fascinating world keeps things engaging. The only time the book dragged for me was in the 10-20% range while the gang was assembling. I was ready to get on with the action. But that's a minor gripe.

There are many characters, all distinct with their interesting quirks and flaws. The magic system is great, and there there are excellent additional materials describing how it all works.

For me, the stand-out part of this book is the magical artifacts. I'm a gamer on the side, and at times I felt like I was engrossed in tuning my Path of Exile equipment (this is a good thing!)

Highly recommended as a huge epic fantasy in a world of fabulous magical artifacts.

Unfortunuarely this is not the type of book that'd sell in my store. I wish it was though. My store is weird.

This is the second installment of The Silent Gods series, following Master of Sorrows. Call continues his work in building a massively intricate world, appealing to all we love about the worlds of epic fantasy. Both the recap at the beginning of the novel and the details of the magic system and world-building elements at the end of the novel help readers to keep up or refresh their memory after the last novel!

While the initial novel focused much more on Annev and his home village, now we are thrown into the world, facing head-on much of what was only hinted at in the first novel. In a wonderfully complex and intricate world, we follow the lives and trials of Annev and his companions as they journey and discover a world outside their own village that they could never have imagined.

In my review for the previous book, I mentioned there was not rest - get ready for a similar ride, because not only can you not rest, you can rely on anyone either. With murky motives and questionable goals, the characters will keep you guessing and wanting to know more. Even more, Call's choice of epilogue teases us for the next book's adventures and will make the wait VERY hard indeed. This is an amazing epic fantasy that will leave you wanting more.

A long awaited sequel that deliver as good if not better than the first book. We continue our quest in this magnificent universe and God was it a lot of fun. If your like the first don't hesitate a second! I totally recommend it!

I was so excited to read this book after finishing Master of Sorrows that I periodically checked Netgalley to see if Master Artificer was added yet. Thankfully, I was approved and able to read for an honest review.

Where to begin? Trust absolutely no one because they will ruin you. This is a DARK origin story.
I really liked that the book started out with a refresher because the first book was published a little over a year ago and there was a lot to remember. There is also an appendix with details about the magic system, which is fun and helpful for understanding this expansive book universe.

The writing, tone, dialogue, etc is perfect. I love to hate characters and hate to love characters. Justin stabs me in the back about as much as Annev gets stabbed in the back or vice versa. I am completely invested in this series that I wish I didn’t find it until 3 years from now because I don’t know how I can wait for the next installments.

The world-building is MASSIVE, but so well done. There are 3 planes of existence, the physical realm, the shadow realm and the spirit realm. I enjoyed traveling between realms and the differences between each one. The magic system varies between gods, bloodline, etc, but it is also explained and so in depth that I love learning about it and look forward to learning more going over the appendix. The magical artifacts are also interesting and each one has a different use, how it fits to the person wielding it, what item the magic is embedded in or whatever is going on with the artifact is so intriguing that I would read an entire book about magical artifacts from this world alone. The information isn’t dumped in one section, but weaved throughout the story with questions, dialogue, memories, different POV’s and excerpts from journals, letters, etc. Everything ties together one way or another and nothing is really left hanging EXCEPT for the end of the book, which will allow it to flow into the next one.

I fell in love with the characters more in this book because they weren’t so naive, which is a sign of major growth and development. Myjun was actually my least favorite character at the end of the first book and now I love her and her POV was one of my favorites throughout. Seeing Annev descend into darkness is very fun, if not a little disturbing because things do get gruesome. There are many POV's, but I think that it worked well because the reader gets to see every side of the story and it eventually pieces together.

There are some scenes that were very disturbing, but worked well to move the plot forward and show why characters have or will change dramatically. It wasn’t unnecessary violence for the sake of violence.

The epilogue surprised me and it was perfect! I cannot WAIT to get the final copy and then each book after that. This book is long, which will frighten some, but it was full of action and intrigue, so you will not be disappointed.