The book was well written, but i found it a bit derivative and there wasn't anything there o pull me in and want to read more. I've read other books by the author before and enjoyed them, but this one wasn't really for me at all. I just didn't come away with anything original in plot, world building or characters that resonated with me.

Not sure if it was me or the book, but I didn't enjoy The Black Coast as much as I thought I would. The storyline was great and the pacing was perfect but everything else kind of fell flat for me.

It was still a wonderfully told story, but I'm just not interested in seeing where it goes.

I have always loved book by this author. He has never disappointed when it comes to telling a great story, and this was no exception. I can't wait to read more in this series.

DNF at 17%. I tried to get into it several different times. I couldn't get past the way this book was written. It just wasn't for me.

What a great, dark brutal workd! Loved the multiple POVs. Action was breathtaking. The worldbuilding was done very good. Cant wait to reread and to read the sequel

I understand that this is the beginning of a series, but I assert nevertheless that, at 650 pages, there were way too many unresolved points. That said, I enjoyed most of the book despite myself, so.

It's been a while since I have read any new High Fantasy and any time that I do, it always reminds me of being young when this was pretty much the only genre that I would read. I would've enjoyed this one then as much as I did now, though! It's a great first installment with a large scope of world-building - there are many narrators here, from across the lands. There are tinges of magic - the Golden, dragons (who seem to come in many formats and more as animal replacements instead of horses, dogs, etc) and plenty of intrigue across the plots. The societies, with their various social mores, echo some of our own - with a range of Narida's more traditional knight/serf feudal styling - though with the acceptance of same sex pairings, the gender of the Alabans is even more fluid and yet women have the most rights amongst the island dwelling raiders who forbid any gender fluidity - needless to say, this adds an interesting dynamic to the plots!

I do think that the cast size and some of the language styling may alienate some readers, but the pacing, plot and strength of the characters themselves really helps to overcome this. I definitely found myself picking this one up at every opportunity. Some characters shine more than others - the Blackcreek characters in particular were amongst my favorites (along with the Brown Eagle clan), and while some turns of the plot are more predictable than others, there are still some surprises along the way. It's entertaining and though I wanted more dragons, I am really interested to see where the rest of the books will go and I hope that the wait isn't too long! This one ends at a satisfying point -= there's plenty of set-up for the sequel, which I am definitely looking forward to reading!

This is a very enjoyable book. It has some ideas that I haven't seen before. There are dragons, but they are not like the traditional dragons in fantasy. A group of people flees their homeland to escape a new threat, but in the process encounters many other problems that they must overcome or be killed.

I admit, I started this book, got about 40-50 pages in and set it aside. It wasn't capturing me at the time and it might be because I had a couple other books going and this one needed my attention from the start. I tried again a few weeks later and devoted all my attention to it and found I was thoroughly engrossed! Proof that sometimes a good book maybe isn't a good book at the moment, but worth returning to.

This is the beginning of an epic fantasy tale and the 2 main characters are great - Saana, a female clan chief, and Daimon, a Lord of Black Keep. Each of these leaders head very different societies with different languages and beliefs - one primarily farmers, the other fishermen; one believes you can love whomever you want, whichever sex, the other finds that unnatural; one is set up as a feudal society with birthrights, and one is more fluid with the leader selected, etc. The tension arises when these two VERY different societies have to figure out how to live together in order to survive.

Along the way we're treated to a badass woman leading her clan to a new home, her daughter who becomes a dragon 'whisperer', a young lord who tries to do what's right even though it breaks every rule of his territory, dragons, battles, friendships, new loyalties, and so much more. The layers in the world building are amazing.

That being said - those names. Sheesh, what I wouldn't give for a John or Jane! :) Between all the place names and the weird people names, I truly couldn't keep up. Luckily the 3-4 main characters had somewhat easy/recognizable combinations of letters - the others....I just had to let it go and go with the flow. I have to say I don't really enjoy books where the place & people names are so difficult, especially when there's so many characters. Luckily I forged ahead on this one because it was totally worth it. (a map of the area would have been helpful at the front/back of the book)

There's also a side storyline that I found a bit confusing and didn't enjoy it when that storyline inserted itself into the main plot. I imagine it will play more of a part in the next of the series.

Definitely recommended if you're a fantasy reader - lots of action, good world building, and some really good characters.

This was a wonderful first installment in a series and a unique take on two cultures trying to get along rather than taking over one another. I greatly enjoyed this and I'm looking forward to the next!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for a honest review.

I did enjoy this book. I loved the plot and the story that was being told. I felt that the multiple POV between characters was a little confusing at moments but did help tie the story together. At times the story was a little slow moving which made the timeline for me a little unclear. Overall I did like the story and characters of this novel.

The Black Coast // by Mike Brooks

The Black Coast is one of those books that all of a sudden popped up all over Twitter as my favorite SFF reviewers started to get their hands on it. Of course, I didn't want to be left out so I made sure to get in on the action as well. I'm really glad I did because even though it wasn't entirely perfect for me, it still had some very interesting aspects to it that I'm excited to explore more when the series continues.

The biggest thing that stands out about this book is the attention to detail when it came to the different cultures that we were introduced to. After reading an article about the world-building by the author himself, I realized that the big goal for this book for him was to write those different cultures with varying language structures that could be used in the English language but would be easy to tell apart from each other without having to resort to borrowing words from other languages or making up an entirely new one. One people, the Tjakorshi, use English the way we are used to ourselves. The Naridans, who feel strongly about identifying their own roles in relation to the people they are interacting with, do not use the personal pronouns "I" and "me." That in itself did not bother me so much but rather that someone would refer to themselves as "this man" but then in the same sentence use "we" as well. It didn't feel inclusive of themselves but rather as if they were talking about a man separate from the group referred to as we. This also though made a little more sense after reading the above mentioned article. The most interesting language device for me though was how he decided to distinguish between different genders in the city of Kiburu ce Alaba. The use of diacritics allows people to identify themselves on a spectrum of gender (or as non agender) or to keep their identity to themselves if they so wish. I don't want to take too much space to talk about the use of language here but this is definitely something I very much enjoyed once I thought about and evaluated it more in relation to the story itself.

Something else that was different about this story was the focus on finding similarities in each other's cultures and trying to live together in peace rather than conquering and destroying each other. While I wasn't 100% happy with its execution, it stills was a nice change of pace compared to a lot of other books lately. In some areas, this took away a little bit from the believability, for example when a previously much feared person showed a lot of unexpected mercy. Don't get me wrong. There is still a lot of violence in this book. We are after all talking about nations full of warriors and soldiers. But it really was nice to see an author attempt to reach a goal of unity rather conquest for once.

These two things really propelled the story forward for me and kept me glued to the pages. But there were a couple of things that I felt would've benefitted from some more fine-tuning. A language example that has nothing to do with the cultural differences but rather is something that probably stood out to me because English is my second language: Saana's speech patterns felt inconsistent. Most of the time, it is obvious that the Naridan language is new to her by the simple sentence structures she uses, but every once in a while she would use much more complicated words and sentence structures that stood out in a big contrast. In the same vein, for the most part, the languages felt like they often do in fantasy books: while not necessary medieval, definitely still older. Here and there though, very modern phrases found their way into the book, which just didn't seem to fit well. The dialogue overall felt a little choppy. It didn't always flow as well as it could have and it sometimes seemed to hinder the characters more than help. Their conversations really pulled me out of the story a few times, both due to their flow as well as their word choices.

The author tried to cover a lot of different things in his book. Some are popular fantasy genre-related things, such as dragons and honor, while others were current issues in our own society, such as LGBTQIA+ rights and gender identity. All of these are things I enjoy reading about but I felt as if they were covered mostly superficially and that it was more important to get them in there at all rather than explore their importance more deeply. I also sometimes felt that their priorities were a little... off? Two of the main characters seemed to enjoy arguing over little things while ignoring the big glaring issues that would've helped them prepare their peoples more for upcoming conflict. What I did find awesome though was that there wasn't one nation that was accepting of all kinds of people and therefore portrayed as "the best" out of the three. Each country had something they were accepting of but also biased against, showing that nobody is perfect and that there are things to learn for everybody.

Overall, I am really glad to have read this book. It took me a couple of days to really get my thoughts together. Reading up on the author's process also helped put things into perspective for me. It makes me want to look into more authors' writing processes because there are probably more things I have missed that may influence my opinion of their works. Contrary to popular belief, we reviewers aren't perfect either (I kid I kid). I do want to take this moment to point out though that I don't consider myself a member of the LGBTQIA+ community so take my opinion on those aspects of this book with a grain of salt. The plot for this book is really intriguing. The author has shown that he puts a lot of thought into his work and I am looking forward to see what he presents to us in the next book of this series!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Black Coast is an incredibly well written immersive epic fantasy and the first book in the God-King Chronicles series by Mike Brooks. Released 16th March 2021 (in NA, UK release was earlier) by Rebellion on their Solaris imprint, it's a satisfyingly substantial 670 pages (print edition) and is available in paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.

This is a classic brick of a fantasy with detailed world building, sea-raiders, political war, armoured knights and battle dragons. Frankly the author had me at battle-dragons. Instead of concentrating on massively detailed battle scenes (there are enough to satisfy but not too many), the author shows groups of people trying to cooperate to stave off disaster for both societies instead of warring with one another to the detriment of everyone. The characters are varied and three dimensional. It is classic epic fantasy and the author's voice and the solid world building are refreshingly satisfying to read. I savored this one over several sittings. It's complex, it's immersive, it's very well written and it's not at all derivative.

Four and a half stars. I am eagerly looking forward to the next books in the series. Full of an impressive amount of fantasy bad-assery. I heartily recommend it to fans of epic fantasy in the general area of Brandon Sanderson, Joseph Malik, and Joe Abercrombie but with glimmers of something all its own which I enjoyed so much.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This book is amazing. The world building was amazing. The cultures created were amazing. The story was, I think you can guess, amazing. I loved this book. It started off a bit slow as I learned the world and characters. I wasn't sure where things were going, and the clip of history at the beginning didn't give a good idea of what followed. In retrospect it was very helpful, but when I read it at first it didn't mean anything yet. Once I got into the story I was hooked.

The book follows multiple characters but the most compelling are Saana the leader of the Brown Eagle clan, Daimon a lord of Black Keep. Saana leads her Tjakorshi clan across the ocean to Black Keep in Narida where in the past they have raided and pillage. This time they want to settle and build a new home. Daimon seeing the great numbers of the Tjakorshi and knowing they could easily take over the village by force he lets them in. The two cultures are every different and this leads to conflicts neither can predict.

This book does included some LGBTQ aspects. The biggest of which is that in Aalba their language denotes how one identifies, high female, low female, not male or female, high male, low male. It is an interesting addition to the culture and the confusion those from outside experience is very real.

The Black Coast has all the action and the in-betweens that make a great story. I found myself talking out loud as I was reading. It was a bit slow at first but once I got into it I couldn't put it down. I can't wait for the next book to be release. I'm really looking forward to seeing what happens next. I've already recommended the book to a few people and I know I'll keep recommending it.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars. Wow! This kind of reminded me of Brandon Sanderson with the detailed and unique world building. It also kind of reminded me of Game of Thrones with the numerous POVs. Unlike GoT, however, all the characters here were memorable and easily distinguishable! Most of all, this book was exciting: a good combination of plot, characters, intrigue, and action. I loved the cross-cultural interactions and the resulting conflicts and betterment of both sides. I also quite enjoyed the concept of multiple genders (high and low masculine and feminine and neutral) and how that was represented in the language. Very creative! I will definitely be on the lookout for book 2.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

Wow. Thank you so much to NetGalley and to Rebellion Publishing for allowing me to read a copy of this book. This is the best fantasy book that I've read in a really long time. I fell in love with Saana, who is by far my favorite character. A bad-ass warrior mom who sets sail with her clan to find a place they can settle and get away from a crazy demon. She's got heart and fire and is someone who I could see myself being friends with. And Daimon - courageous in the face of a father who seems pretty horrible. Kudos to him for making some unpopular decisions and standing up for what he felt was right.

There are technically three storylines occurring in the book and I can't wait to see what happens in the next installment as there are very clear cliffhangers for two of them. The demon is pretty peeved so I imagine it's going to be epic.

This was a solid fantasy and I was truly invested in the character's lives. Also, did I mention there are dragons? You can't go wrong!

Book #1 in the God-King Chronicles, an absolutely epic fantasy read that is so much more! Two nations who are former enemies must join together to find peace for their peoples while preparing to defend their homes and families against the conquerors of one of the nations. This book is epic, it's not a weekender read. Mike Brooks is unfamiliar to me but with this story, he won't stay unfamiliar long. He has built a world, the nations and their people all while keeping the story moving at a good pace, a feat not many could maintain for 700 pages. It's going to be exciting to see how this series moves forward.

4.5 stars***
I loved this book; the characters, plot, everything. I was easily entranced and entertained and wished I had more time to read recently so I could have finished it sooner. The only issue I found was remembering names of both characters and places, and their importance to the story. I was easily puzzled and it took me a while to sort through my confusion in order to comprehend the chapters. Additionally, the several POV's did not help. I enjoyed them but at the end of this novel there were a few stories that hadn't been addressed in a while, and almost forgotten about. I am confident the next books in this series will make sense of loose ends and I wait hungrily.

This is a solid start to a series. I’ll caveat that with there are many disparate story lines to keep track of. But there is a main one that we follow, Daimon and Saana. Daimon is the adopted son of a sar (nobility). Saana is the chief of a clan of Tjakorsha (normally known as raiders). But Saana and her clan are running from something much worse that has taken over the Tjakorsha and are just looking for a place to settle. Daimon and Saana must work together to try to get their disparate cultures to work together so they can all survive. The additional POVs that are in the book seem to be more of a setup for the rest of the series, and are in other parts of the world. They were interesting to help with world building, but it was a little jarring going from chapters of Daimon and Saana to the princess playing the role of crime boss. This book does a fantastic job of creating multiple cultures and how they clash. From the people of Black Keep and the Tjakorsha, but also the ultra-poor and rich of a far-flung city. It explores relationships, identity and character development. I can’t wait to see where this series goes.

DNF at 64%

While I did not finish this book I have a lot of thoughts on it and mostly good ones — the reason for the DNF is a product of my realizing I just don’t care enough and surgery messed up my reading.

Black Coast has a handful of really compelling characters though not all of the cast is super developed and a dynamic I loved was snuffed out pretty quick. Overall there is only one character I was really interested in personally and that isn’t enough for me.

Dragons are more like feathered dinosaurs — but still very much dragons — and I loved that. The other amazing thing about this book is the way language is handled. The author was able to effectively convey nuances within these languages and develop the characters all while using English and no meaningless-to-the-reader made up words.

As far as the plot you’re always left interested in what happens next, but the narrative appears to be needing a bit of clean up. We have a couple POVS who are two sides to the same coin and read so smooth in contrast. And then we have a couple others who have yet to feel like they fit more than halfway through. Maybe this changes by the end, but for the first half it doesn’t work.

All in all this one isn’t for me but it doesn’t read as a bad book. I just couldn’t be bothered mostly due to life circumstances. I recommend checking it out for yourself.