Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

For a debut novel, I really enjoyed this. It felt safe and didn't do anything too unexpected or new to the genre, but it was enjoyable all the same. The world building was wonderful and the attention to detail and descriptions while often times heavy, were really well thought out and easy to visualize.

The pacing seemed a bit off, and it definitely at times felt longer than it needed to be and dragged a bit. I will say that a lot of the time, humor in fantasy books doesn't personally work for me, and here it was no exception. It felt like it was forced and trying to be witty just for the sake of it, but it honestly just made me cringe a bit. Maybe I am wrong here, but I thought the magic system could have been fleshed out a bit more and explained a bit better or more often, but I think that maybe it's just a simple and typical enough concept and I am just being greedy and wanting more.

Overall a really solid first book in a series and I am nearly positive that I will be continuing the series.

Unfortunately this was a DNF at the 20% mark. I tried my absolute best to just force myself to finish this but I simply couldn't get into the story. The first 10% is just two characters trying to get to know eachother which I found difficult to stick with when I had 0 interest in anything they said or did.

Along with the charaters, world building is something that absolutely has to be there and it jaut simly wasnt. As a reader I almost felt trapped when reading the intro on that boat. The only thing I was thinking is when is anything going to actually happen.

I think this book had alof promise but unfortunately just didn't hit the mark.

Bane of All Things by Leo Valiquette is the first book in the debut series ‘A Silence of Worlds’. It tells the story of Ryn Ruscroft and Josalind Aumbrae, banished to Dragon’s Claw Abbey, who incidentally meet on the same ship that takes them there. While at the Claw, these two awaken sinister forces that make them fugitives hunted by scores of people, including Ryn’s former commander. They soon discover that they are pawns in the hands of ancient things that area dying to wreak vengeance on those that have subdued them centuries ago. What happens once they awaken these forces and do they get to finish what they have inadvertently started is the premise of this book.

While the premise of this book was very intriguing and quite promising, it was very weak in its execution. The book read as if the author decided to pick up every trope that is quintessential to any epic fantasy series and use it in this book. For instance, the book had different worlds, different kinds of creatures, different languages and then a common language, a powerful object that was being sought, an evil being and a small team of people forming the only defense against the evil that is being perpetrated. Personally, I don’t think there is a problem with this but in this book, I felt that the author tried very hard to bring in so many elements that there was no room for development for each element.

World building is very crucial to any book in the fantasy genre and here the author does introduce us to different kinds of interesting worlds. While the author does try to describe different worlds, it lacks the depth that is usually seen in books from this genre. Here we are thrown into it without any preamble and have to wade our way through it almost blindly. Similarly, creatures are introduced in this book without any story regarding their creation or existence. It almost feels as if the author decided that the book needed to have a certain number of species and therefore introduced them.

The story arc in this book is very weak, despite the book having a wonderful plot premise. In lieu of creating a strong plot, the author has used formulaic events to push the plot forward. While this is acceptable at times, it irritates when the entire book is made up of unrelated, yet similar scenes enacted in different worlds or situations. It felt as if one is reading the same thing repeated in different words with only the background being different.

Similarly, there is no character arc that can be witnessed in this book. All characters repeat the same lines without growing or developing as they move through the book. Some leeway can be given considering that this is the first book of a series and therefore it emphasizes on introducing the various elements. However, where there is absolutely no difference whether you are reading the beginning or the end, it becomes quite difficult to appreciate and accept, even if it is a debut book.

Characters in this book are unidimensional and show no need to grow and change as the book progresses. In fact, there is no conflict in the minds of the characters, with the exception of Ryn Ruscroft and to some extent Josalind. However, even in their cases, the conflict doesn’t really endear one to them as it is quite repetitive and within the same boundaries as they started in the beginning of the story. Moreover, the romance between the lead pair seemed very contrived and created merely to tick a certain box in formulaic fantasy writing. The evil portrayed in this book is quite clichéd and doesn’t really inspire any feelings of awe or fear or even disgust.

The only emotion that one experiences while reading this book is a slight boredom and a sense of predictability, which makes it a dull experience. In fact, I felt no urge to finish this book, which is quite disappointing as I love this genre a lot. That said, I would like to read the next instalment in this series as I would love to know what happens next, with the hope that some of the flaws in this book will be corrected in the next one.

To sum up, if you are looking for something new in this genre, this book isn’t for you.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I was given a free copy of Bane of All Things by Leo Valiquette (author), Inkshares (publisher), and Net Galley to read and provide an honest review.

I would characterize Bane of All Things to be a flintlock epic fantasy.

This review will be spoiler free.

The story takes place in a setting like pre-industrialize Europe. Muskets, griffins, a sentient sword, and dragons are featured which comprise an interesting combination. Besides the muskets, griffins, and dragons, the setting is a version of what I have seen before in epic fantasy, but it does serve the story.

Magic is an important part of the story. It appears that a few characters, including the two main characters, can use magic because long-dead gods are using them as vessels or instruments. I think the antagonists are representatives of the church because they are pursuing people who may have been identified that could use magic.

Bane of All Things has two main characters: a young woman who has been identified as a witch and a disgraced military officer for the church. At the beginning of the story, they are being transported on a ship to an island. The woman is taken to the abbey which is protected by church military personnel including the disgraced officer. For the officer, the island is his last opportunity to make things right.

I could not connect with the main characters because each of them appeared to be one-dimensional and not interesting. I think that each of the main characters acted the same from the beginning through the end of the story. There are two significant minor characters, who travel with the main characters on their quest, that I thought were interesting and would have liked to see them feature more in the story. The minor characters are a woman and man, who are both in their sixties, and serves as foils for the main characters. The woman can use magic and heal others and the man is her guardian and uses a magic sword.

The biggest issue I had with novel is the story. I found it difficult to get into the beginning of the story because there are info dumps and I do not like reading them. I enjoyed, though, the part of the story that takes place on the island and learn a little bit of the main characters. I was intrigued with the relationship developing between the disgraced military officer and his commanding officer on the island and the relationship between woman and the abbess while the main characters were still on the island. I think I would have preferred if the entire story took place on the island and expand on the plot points that are featured in the part of the story.

After the main characters leave the island, I became less interested due to characters traveling from one locale to the next and I thought the story meandered and bogged down in the middle. When the characters are in a new locale, there are more info dumps and I started to skim the story.

The story meandering, info dumps, and not able to connect with the main characters impacted my enjoyment of the story.

I rate Bane of All Things 2.5 stars.

I would like to thank Mr. Valiquette, Inkshares, and Net Galley for the free E-ARC.

Didn't read anything about what this was about but just was curious I guess to find out. I think this one my favorite books that I have read this year. I feel quite happy after finishing this one. It's perfect but I think it was damn good. I liked the characters and didn't feel annoyed by them which is good because I usually find character that is rather annoying. I think you learn most about Ryn. The others hopefully will be featured more in the upcoming books to this series. The magic system you a learn little about but doesn't overwhelm you with facts about how everything works. Not the most interesting system though and no other system mentioned except getting power from the gods. Don't know if the Earthborn have any magic but maybe learn more about them later hopefully. There is some depth to this story that will have me thinking about it for awhile with how the author deals with faith and morality with his characters. This was a really good start to a series that I want to see how it develops in the upcoming books. Rather happy that I tried this book and hope the next one doesn't take to long to be done.
Thanks to the author and his publishers for putting out another good book. Rating of 4 to 4 and half stars for me.
Thanks to netgalley as always.

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher, for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Worldbuilding and lore is solid and deep.
Writing is incredible, I delighted in reading this.

I didn't find the story a slog to get through, but the religious aspects are a lot to take in, between what the Clerisy has lied about vs the truth of the world.

The way this ARC is set up is obnoxious as a reader. It's a continuous scroll, and being new to Netgalley I have no idea if this is a common feature of books here or if it's unique to Bane of All Things. Table of contents did not function on my device.
I was elated to find a glossary at the end of the book- would have loved the ability to flip between the map, the glossary and the text while reading

Video review linked below will be available on 12/03/2021

The Bane of All Things by Leo Valiquette 3.5 stars

Bane of All Things opens with a strong premise: many years after a war of gods and men destroyed countless lives and caused the founding of a new "religion" founded on the core belief that the gods were dead, forces work to both raise Xang, son of the Great Deceiver, and opposing forces to stop him. Our two main characters Ryn and Josalind find themselves unwittingly tangled in events much bigger than themselves.

This book feels like it is preparing to set up a very epic series and a lot of interesting history is presented early on. Unfortunately this does start to feel too much like random "info dumps" as we continue and get passages coming from a seer that don't seem to relate a whole lot to the story (and at no point in the first book, at least, is the source of these passages explained). Despite the info dumps, the history really is interesting and is used to start to take the fairly basic premise of mortals involved in the greater struggles of Gods and demigods into something a bit more unique. The Clerisy, a religious organization that for all intents and purposes runs the lands in the west, is another familiar trope in fantasy, but one that is given a different spin as the order is founded on Virtues and belief in Gods is considered heresy.

There are, however, quite a few things that most certainly were not unique and most certainly ring as heavily inspired by other books. The biggest example would be a certain sentient sword that is compelled to destroy evil (and use life around it to do so) which the reader can't help but immediately see as a version of Nightblood from Sanderson's Cosmere. The idea of an evil entity sealed away from the world as well brings thoughts of Jordan's Wheel of Time among many others. There's certainly nothing wrong with taking inspiration (or in this case heavy inspiration it would seem) from others (and by no means am I saying Valiquette copied anything), but it does put more onus on the author to then use some other unique, original elements to avoid the book becoming too familiar a story.

The uniqueness here definitely comes in the slowly growing cast of creatures we're exposed to. From grenlich to martichora to creatures of stone (and even a dragon!), Valiquette blends known fantasy creatures with unique ones very well to expand on the world and its inhabitants. These elements worked very well and hinted to much more that these various creatures may be involved in during the rest of the series. These along with our human characters are handled well, and the human characters (though leaning a bit too heavy in some cases on the found family and shared experiences tropes) form an interesting and complex group.

Overall the biggest thing that Bane of All Things show the reader is potential. There is quite a lot of action in this book and it is filled to the brim with as much plot as the author could fit into it. Honestly, it feels like a little too much was crammed in at some points, but overall it sets up a much bigger story to come. This book is very much still a set up book (despite having quite a lot more plot than most set up books) and the series has the potential to be great, though this book stays firmly in the "good, not great" realm for me.

This book is very solid and quite enjoyable, especially for a debut. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out to see where the author takes this series in the future.

A real great debut novel. A classical fantasy with magic swords, god like villains, dark magic and lots of adventure. The world building is very detailed, the characters well designed, and the danger escalating. The story is about a young soldier who decides to abandon his post in order to save a girl but also to save the world, by using a very dangerous weapon. The book is the first of a series and I can't wait to read the next one.

Thank you to the publisher Inkshares for the copy of this book!
So, I enjoyed this book, and I"m intrigued to see where the story goes. Let's break it down.
Characters: I enjoyed the four main characters for who they were. I wish there was more character development, but since this is the first in a series, I'm intrigued to see where the surviving characters goes not just the four main characters. Ryn and Josalind fell in love very quickly, and I wish that had more of a build up to feel less insta lovey.
Atmosphere: I can get a sense of the world in this novel, but I need more world building.
Writing: The writing was fine. I didn't have much complaints about it.
Plot: I feel like the plot could've been tightened up. I almost wish this was a little longer to spend some time at each of the locations our characters visited.
Intrigue: I'm less intrigued after the ending of the first book, but that's mainly because I'm not the biggest fan of these kinds of endings with book series. I'm more intrigued by the religious aspect and the history of the different religions.
Logic: I felt the book stayed within its own logic fairly well. Some more explanation of the gods in Josalind's head would have been good.
Enjoyment: All in all I enjoyed this book for what it was. Ended up giving this a 4 star rating.

I was intrigued by the book blurb, but this book just didn’t do it for me. It took some time before the story got at least a little bit interesting and the in between chapters that explained the background slowed the story further down. I did like the character of Josalind, but the other main character Ryn not so much. All in all the premise was promising, but it just didn’t deliver in the end.

( Thanks to the author and the publisher.)

To begin with, as you do, as I am, I have discovered that with age (still young tho, haven't even gotten a single white hair yet.) I am becoming a choosy reader.

Now to truly begin with, the first 30 percent of this book are really good.

Immediately the author manages to make me care about our MC. Make me intrigued about his past, and wonder what will happen next. I turned those pages like there was no tomorrow.

Josalind was a good character as well. While her mysterious circumstances were really compelling, I was more attached to Ryn.

Then the author started veering off from the path.

Passages of prose were getting to long with no hook in them. Motivations weren't sticking me to the page anymore. The book started to meander. I lost interest just before the Claw is attacked by Kara and Horgrim.

Finally a call to action. I was excited again.

Uh... Noh.

We're back to meandering again. Back to the occasional infodumps. At this point, I started to realise out of all these characters, none were truly in danger.

I happen to remember three events that can be easily characterised as Deus ex machinas. Or maybe even Gandalf's eagles.

Another thing I'd like to note here is that the book absolutely deserved a more... Heavy-handed editor. There were some parts where a more ruthless mind could've smoothed the pages better.

In terms of worldbuilding... We had lots. And mostly it was done well. Sure fantasy can't stay away from the occasional infodumps, but most were done well and did not jar me. I wondered about the world at large, imagined places mentioned and things described. So great job there.

Overall, the author has this handled well, with the exception that he truly needs his editor to be more tough with him, because there were even chapters where I was urged to skip, and could barely hold back.

Good book. (With complications.)

I want to start by thanking Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.
Based on the book blurb I had high hopes for this one, and unfortunately was let down.

An insufferable main character, bland cast, and generic story, there wasn't anything new offered, and the commentary on the books themes was surface level at best. Unfortunately, I was not the right reader for this book(however some of the issues go beyond my tastes). I didn't get what I was expecting based on the blurb.

I'll start by saying that there were quite a few elements of this book that were definitely not to my taste as a fantasy reader. So in some part my enjoyment was impacted by that, and I will try to keep my critique isolated to the things that I feel were simply done poorly in terms of storytelling rather than “I just personally don't like X”. So I do want to start with a section recommending this book to readers whose taste may lean towards what is offered here.

Readers who might enjoy Bane of All Things are those who are wanting that classic fantasy story with modern fantasy writing. This story very much falls into the good vs. evil plots (dark lords, legions of evil returning) that was a staple in classic fantasy. Valiquette's voice is decidedly modern, told in third person limited. So you get the world ending plot, with the intimate character POV. Also readers who like a lot of fantasy creatures and races will find those in this book. You're not just stuck with humans, and non-human encounters are frequent throughout the story. Finally readers who like getting details about the lore of the world will be pleased with the detailed history and religion that has been crafted here.

The main character Ryn was the biggest problem for me, for a few reasons.
First his crisis of faith and PTSD is depicted on a very surface level. He learns the church had lied in some big ways pretty early on, and the way the book builds on this is him thinking “another of the clerisys lies” as he encounters things throughout the plot. Similarly, the depiction of PTSD from a battle in his past is simply just written as “just like Sablewood”. These ideas weren't really built upon, but rather repeated.
Second, he becomes instantly infatuated with Josalind, and it only get worse throughout the book. I don't want to dig to much into this point but it is a long tired cliche in fantasy and was not my favorite to read yet again(it also wasn't executed well).

Finally the plot was repetitive. Once the stakes are established(pretty early on) they don't change, and after that the characters just cycle through events(escape/capture etc.) with the stakes remaining the same. The stakes escalated too quickly at the beginning then stagnated, and because of that I never had any concern that the protagonists might fail.

This part of the blurb was what got my attention “In the Four Kingdoms, the Holy Clerisy preaches that the gods are dead, and prayer is the path to Hell. Anyone who defies doctrine is punished for heresy. But blind faith can damn a soul as surely as betrayal.”
Based on that description I was expecting a much fresher take on religion in fantasy, and a critique at churches interpretation of divine doctrine. What I got was far more generic, with a critique that did not delve deeper than the idea that “the church lies”, and church leaders = bad. Some of that is my own expectations, and some is just underdeveloped ideas in the book.

I hate to be so harsh, but this one did not work for me. I will have more specifics in my Goodreads review and my Youtube review(which will be released closer to the release date for the book).

I knew nothing about this book or its author and I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a very enjoyable book that didn't try something new in fantasy, but it was well executed.

What I liked:
- The story gripped me and it is well written. Especially for a debut effort!
- The characters are relatable (even though some more background info would be appreciated) and especially the female characters are the most interesting and best written ones.
- The world is rich and full of nicely described creatures that we get to meet during the story.
- Finishing this book I am completely sold on reading the sequel and that's the most important thing for a forst book in a series.

What I didn't like:
- I felt that the book could be trimmed down some pages. Some back and forth between the characters felt a bit repetitive and it hurt the pacing of the book
- The story would benefit immensely from some extra humour. Only one character has some witty lines, but those are very rare and as a result the "fun factor" of the story took a hit.
- Some info dump in the form of small chapters with the voice of a fortuneteller, didn't feel organic and they mostly confused me.

I'm sure that mr Valiquette has even better things in store for the readers in his next books.
You can also find my review in Goodreads in the link below.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4100355400

Bane of All Things by Leo Valiquette

Full feature for this title will be posted at: @cattleboobooks on Instagram!

Quite interesting! I like the general setup and the intrigue. It has a je-ne-sais-quoi that made it original and unique in some way but I can't truly say what or why, but I enjoy it a lot and in the end that is the most important thing! Worth reading!