I was initially nervous that this book was part of the Greatcoat series, but it stands well on its own! While I missed some earlier details, the rich lore and worldbuilding allowed me to dive right into the story.

I loved the plot that skillfully blends politics, fantasy, and mystery. Following Estevar as he faces challenges on a secluded isle was thrilling, and I grew to admire him as a character.

A delightful twist was the hilariously grumpy yet loyal mule who added humour to the story. Overall, I enjoyed every moment!

#FantasyReads #BookReview #Worldbuilding #CharacterDevelopment #PlotTwists #MustRead #BookLovers #ReadingCommunity #FantasyAdventure #GreatcoatSeries

I loved this one, as I have with the majority of De Castell's works. Its full of pithy dalogue, prickly characters and is overall a great time. Having read it cover to cover, its a very firm win for me, one that has resulted in its thrusting at customers multiple times over the past couple of months. A must read and great jumping off point for those who are new to Greatcoats as well as its seasoned readers

I am a huge fan of Sebastien's work, and the Greatcoats series is honestly banging. So I was most excited when I found out Estevar was getting his own book!

This is exactly what I hoped for and more. It's twisty, supernatural in the best way, slyly funny in a way only Sebastien does, and smart to boot. Yes, I miss our other Greatcoats cohorts, but honestly, Estevar deserves his own book. And space to mock Falcio in his head :D Plus he has the best steed one could ever wish for in Imperious. An excellent Mule! And with Caeda as his investigative sidekick and Greatcoat wannabe, we get something more akin to a supernatural murder mystery than the fantasy swashbuckler of the Greatcoats series. As I love a murder mystery I am more than happy about this!

I would say this is a little darker than Greatcoats, and definitely hints at where we may expect the Court of Shadows series to head. I am very excited about finding out more about that, which is good as Play of Shadows is sat on my shelf right now waiting... :D

5 stars. Read this. Read Greatcoats. Read Spellslinger. Thank me later!

DE Castell delivers other exciting and well plotted novelsthat kept me hook.
I'm late at the party because I wanted to read Crucible of Chaos and Play of Shadows one after the other.
Well plotted, full of surprises, gripping. A couple of novel that kept me reading and having fun
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I've not long discovered De Castell and really enjoyed the malevolent seven so I was really keen to read this. I did a slight gulp of fear when I found out that this was an extension of his Greatcoat series but thank goodness it works really well as a standalone. I feel there are some elements I'm missing out on, but the lore and world so easily woven into the narrative I wasn't lost and still really enjoyed this book.
I genuinely liked the plot; a mix of political, fantasy and mystery and loved seeing how the MC of Estevar's mind worked and how he solved the mystery of how the events on a cut off isle were happening. Estevar is a wonderful character and it was great to see how my opinion of him changed as the book progressed. Though the scene stealer in this book is a rather grumpy, yet fiercely loyal mule. There was great deal of humour in this book which I really liked.
This is a brilliant book that works well as a standalone, but has got my interest in the other novels in the series piqued.
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for providing an arc in return for an honest review.

4 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2024/03/11/crucible-of-chaos-of-sebastien-de-castell/
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Twisted Mystery Meets Dark Fantasy

I picked Crucible of Chaos up last year shortly before Christmas and I don’t think my frame of mind was in the right place for the bleakness of the setting so I put it down. I always intended to pick this one back up – the opening chapters were fantastic after all – it just took me a little longer than I’d planned.

As the story begins we meet Estevar Borros, a sword fighting magistrate and investigator of the supernatural. He’s making his way across a causeway to Isola Sombra where a towering abbey is literally in chaos. The monks seem to have gone crazy and talk of new Gods, demons and strange worship abounds. Can our investigator get to the bottom of these shenanigans.

I won’t really go into the plot because there lies the road of spoilers.

This is another clever murder mystery that brings the winning investigative style of one character into play and combines supernatural elements that quickly escalate into all out mayhem.

Estevar is an interesting character indeed. He’s sharp witted, sharper tongued and yet can turn on the charm when it benefits him. His mule, Imperious, is seriously the perfect sidekick – I loved that mule and I won’t deny that I felt more concern for his well-being than I did for any of the other characters.

So, the other characters. Well the monks have split into different factions. It is believed that new Gods are arising and nobody can agree on what exactly will come next. Some of the monks are taking a very militant stance, others have spiralled into drunken mania. And, the Abbot is dead – and yet refuses to stay buried. I liked Estevar, he’s a mash up of clever thinking and daring bluff. He’s not as young or fit as he once was and is hampered by a serious sword wound that he incurred before travelling to the island. I mean seriously – at points, I was thinking will you just give the man a break for goodness sake! He is joined on his investigation by a young woman who is determined to help and keen to learn, Caeda. I really liked her, she wriggled herself into my affections and there is, well, a double twist, coming your way with her involvement. I didn’t see either coming.

The setting for this one definitely plays really well into the story. People sometimes say that the setting is almost like another character and in this case that’s definitely true. A small island, battered by storm and sea, demons arising, tall windy towers, crypts beneath. It’s all wonderfully dark and menacing and creates the perfect atmosphere.

In terms of criticisms. Well, I think at first the darkness of the abbey was a little too much, also the pacing, after the initial causeway ‘incident’ dipped a little for me, although, as I already mentioned, I think some of that is due to my own mindset at the time.

What I can say is that once I picked this one back up I had no problem easily falling into the story. Indeed, the pace is totally ramped up for the finale and in fact becomes almost over the top daunting, you can’t see how these characters are going to get through these trials in one piece! And, I became fully absorbed by the overarching mystery and Estevar’s investigation.

Overall, this was a clever combination of fantasy and mystery. Dark and a bit brutal, wicked in parts, well written with a style that made me frequently smile. I look forward to reading more from the Court of Shadows series.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I really enjoyed this, loved being back in the world of the Greatcoats. So excited for Play of Shadows now.

I love Sebastian De Castell as an author, and I love him even more if we are talking about The Greatcoats, because this is one of my favorite series ever! And this book is set in the same world, so I just had to read it, simply as that. But I think that my enthusiasm wasn’t really my friend this time. Mind me, this is a good book, and I enjoyed it a lot but… but I did not love it as much as the first series, and that’s okay and also quite understandable because they are quite different books, and I know that I shouldn’t do comparison like that but, at the same time, not comparing the two was extremely hard, because not only the world is the same (this book took place a little bit after the end of the first series) but the MC often refer to Falcio (the MC of the other series) so… it was always on my mind! How could I not think about Falcio, with Kest and Brasti, when they (okay, only Falcio, but there is no Falcio without the other two so… moot point!) are mentioned here and there???

So yeah, my expectations weren’t really so helpful here, but things went well all the same. While The Greatcoats is more epic, more complex, and just different, Crucible of Chaos is a good mystery set in a fantasy setting. And sure, we are talking about a low fantasy setting, where more than magic at play we get to see theology (and De Castell and theology are a great combo, trust me on this), but still fantasy, and the mystery part is what moves the plot along. I had a lot of fun trying to follow Estevar around while he solved a mystery inside another bigger mystery. We have a killer to find, but we also have the mystery of what the hell is happening in the abbey. We have strange factions inside the abbey, Gods that are dead and Gods that are maybe not so dead, intriguing characters, and a brave mule.

Yes… a mule. Imperious here steals the scene, more than once. He is the best character in this story, and this book is worth a read only for him. Mind me, the characters as a whole are interesting. Estevar is a fine investigator and quite the exemplar of Greatcoat, I loved spending time with him, Caeda is intriguing, Brother Agneta and Mother Leogado are the kind of characters we need more around (because bad-ass old women are always worth meeting!) and Strigan has his moments too (sure, they are few and far between, but still…), but Imperious is just the best. Prove me wrong!

It seems like February is a good month for mystery/fantasy because this is the second pretty good one I have read. Sure, it is highly different from The Tainted Cup, they are almost opposite in a lot of ways, but I had a pretty good time with both of them, and here we have De Castell’s brand of humor carrying us through a bleak story, and I am so satisfied with it all! And since this is a sort of prequel, or prelude, to Play of Shadows I can’t wait to get that one started too!

I love all Sebastien de Castell’s Greatcoats books, though I confess I miss the characters from the first four-book sequence beginning with Traitor’s Blade (highly recommended). In this we meet a new character who appeared in the short stories contained in Tales of the Greatcoats, Estevar Borros, the broad-girthed, duel-fighting magistrate, and his faithful, if occasionally unlikely, mule, Imperious. (No, Sebastien, mules don’t cock their legs and pee like dogs, sorry.) Not remotely recovered from a near-fatal wound in a previous duel, Estevar is called to the holy island of Isola Sombra where the monks are splitting into factions and running mad. On arrival (after a journey that nearly kills him) he finds Venia, the abbot who summoned him, has been murdered, but won’t stay in his grave. There’s a rogue ex-priest and a girl who might or might not be dead, plus a whole host of demons, but who summoned them? At times the religious arguments get a bit abstruse, but stick with it. This is a complex case for Borros to figure out, so complex that it might kill him.

3.25/5 stars! This is long for a prequel, which was surprising to me. I was expecting more of a novella vibe, but this was a fully developed world full of characters with a great deal of depth. I liked the story and getting to spend some time with Estevar, but it felt too drawn out for me. Maybe because that was my expectation heading into it, but I think I would have preferred it as a novella.

I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review

Thanks to Net gallery for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

I’ll admit this was slow going but only because the musings took a while for me to digest. I’m not familiar with the greatcoats series but that didn’t seem to matter as the world was vividly explained via the musings of Estevar. I wasn’t expecting a murder mystery to be quite so fun but it reminded me of Sherlock and how interesting the deductions were.

Estevar was a delight, full of himself but not without reason. I would happily read several more books about his previous cases, if only to hear him come up with some more marvellous insults and to have everyone else take him down a peg or two.

If you like murder mysteries, philosophical musings and grumpy mules. I highly recommend.

Received arc from Quercus Books and Netgalley for honest read and review,this is my own personal review.
Sebastian stated he has written 16 books, and I for one have read them all, even all the shorts(I think!!).
This was another delve into the Greatcoats, and while Estevar has not been my favourite character, I as still enthralled and excited to read this one.
I was not disappointed, it still has the humour, charm and swashbuckling excitement I love and it showed another side to Estevar. He goes to help some monks who have got into a bit of a pickle, and he helps.with the supernatural element in this tale.
This has why I love about The Greatcoats(if you haven't read any you need to start right away!), It is fun, heartwarming and thoroughly great entertainment.
Cannot wait for where he takes us next.

I read this book as a stand-alone even though it is part of a Sebastien de Castell series. I wasn't impressed by it unfortunately. The main character is strong and I enjoyed his esoteric dialogues with himself but the story didn't keep me interested and engaged. Maybe it is better to read it as a companion book to the Court of Shadows series.

My special thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for my early copy.

Review: Crucible of Chaos by Sebastien de Castell published by Jo Fletcher books.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Estevar Borros is a Greatcoat one of the King's travelling magistrates and one who specialises in the supernatural. He is called to the abbey on Isola Sombra where some particularly unnatural events seem to have a occurred and a murder needs solving. There he discovers a lot more than he expects and with the assistance of an ornery mule named Imperious and a mysterious young lady he endeavours to get the bottom of a mystery that is more than he could have expected.

I loved the Greatcoats books and was excited to see a new book about a Greatcoat that didn’t play a prominent role in the originals. I was not disappointed.

The plot was well crafted and I loved seeing the investigation of Estevar play out through the book and through it discover the various factions on the island and how they factored into the investigation and the whodunit element of the book. It was quick paced and I never lost interest though I did find it somewhat predictable at points but it was always enjoyable.

I loved how easily the worldbuilding was shown through the interactions of the characters and the investigation and it was well done given that the majority of the book takes places on a small monastic island. You still got an idea of the kingdom and how the events of the earlier books affected the world as well as how they play into this book.

De Castell has created a wonderful character in Estevar Borros a rather ebullient, and loquacious individual whose mind is working all the time. He was such a joy to read and follow his adventure. The other characters in the book were all well written especially that of Imperious the mule who stole the show and is a quite fitting assistant to Estevar.

This was a fun read and would definitely recommend to anyone who has enjoyed The Greatcoats or a fantasy mystery.

My expectation for this book was slightly different- I was dreaming of a direct continuation of the Greatcoats series -and this is not that. It’s darker and not funny. It has the feel of The Name of the Rose (the film at least) but within the fantasy genre. . (A bit!) Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I love Castell's writing style and this is no exception. It's fun, it has a fantastic catalogue of insults, and the writing style has whimsy but also has depth and is almost poetic in its style of writing. This was almost a murder mystery, and I loved seeing our MC get down to business. He was witty, and intelligent and a really charming guy. Even with the whimsy there's still elements that really make you think and ponder and question your beliefs on what's going on. I really wanted to know what was happening and finished this book so fast I was impressed!
Definetely recommend if you like Castell's writing.. But I feel you'll get more out of it if you have read the other Great coats books, but you can still read this as a standalone

This author is an automatic buy for so many due to his style of prose and impressive characters . Let’s be honest I like others see his name and cannot wait to get my grubby hands on it ! If frank I didn’t even read the description and just wanted it but I feel I should point out it’s not perhaps the characters that readers are used to and I’m not even sure if the lead character will appeal to all as he’s well frankly not everyone’s idea of a hero . There is some humour incorporated here with an unlikely sidekick if I can call a mule that ? This does work as a standalone piece but reading previous books would certainly add much to understanding the world this author has created.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from NetGalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

Crucible of Chaos is a prequel series to Sebastien de Castell’s Greatcoats. However, this story features a new protagonist Estevar Borros one of the legendary sword-fighting magistrates known as the Greatcoats and the king's investigator of the supernatural. Estevar is headed to Isola Sombra for an investigation, into supernatural happenings. When he arrives at the abbey he finds the monks are seemingly insane and that he can trust no one, other than Imperious his trusted mule. The action never stops in this story, whether Estevar is working with an inquisitor, or figuring out why the abbot was carving sigils onto bodies. You don't need to read the Greatcoats series to read this. De Castell does an excellent job of making this a self-contained story. There is plenty of action, and Estevar is such a different character whose presence on the page is every bit as compelling as Falcio’s. This was a highly entertaining book with an action-packed story full of adventure.

My thanks to both NetGalley and Quercus books for an e-arc and an honest opinion.

It took me a while to completely warm to Estevar. He is a larger-than-life character, who is rather fond of pontificating and has opinions on everything. Furthermore, I felt that de Castell was trying just a bit too hard at times, particularly at the start of the story. Estevar is attempting a perilous crossing to the island where the abbey is situated, but he’s already nursing a nasty wound and is running a fever because it’s become infected. Some of the stunts that he subsequently manages to perform while carrying this wound, which keeps breaking open throughout the book, seriously stretched my credulity. In fact I was willing him to have the wretched wound magically healed on several occasions, because I became so fed up with it.

He is aging and fat, which I thought worked well. He didn’t need to also be carrying a serious wound on top of all that. I liked his mule, Imperious and I also loved the partnership between Estevar and mysterious young woman. The gothic horror vibe is well captured, with plenty of tension and vivid descriptions of the vandalised abbey. The outbursts of violence are well handled and I particularly enjoyed the nicely twisty plotting, as Estevar continues to uncover the events leading to the shocking breakdown of law and order within the abbey.

The climactic denouement works well – particularly as by this stage I’d become quite fond of Estevar, but wasn’t convinced he’d survive the investigation. During the final act, de Castell manages to wrap up all the plotpoints and mysterious happenings without either pushing the plot to ludicrous implausibility, or having the whole thing fall a bit flat. Recommended for fans of paranormal mysteries with a gothic horror edge. While I obtained an arc of Crucible of Chaos from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

There are no words to describe just how happy I am to return to Tristia. I absolutely loved the Greatcoats series and all their swashbuckling adventures and now there’s a new book to read. I am in heaven.

Crucible of Chaos follows Greatcoat Estevar Borros and his faithful donkey (how Don Quixote) as they investigate a supernatural occurrence on Isola Sombra. Along the way they meet an interesting cast of characters from a typical Tristian knight (you know if you’ve read the Greatcoats), weird monks and a mysterious young girl name Caeda, who wants to be his plucky assistant.

I had a great time reading Crucible of Chaos. I absolutely love de Castell’s writing, it’s a lot of fun. There’s a very mysterious air in this novel which made it all the more interesting to read. It has a lot to do with ghosts, demons and gods. It feels different to the Greatcoats but very similar at the same time. The story ties in nicely with some of the themes from the Greatcoats and expands on them.

Estevar was a joy to read and I adored him as the protagonist. His friendship with Caeda was so sweet and I loved every conversation they had together. It really helps cement the climax od the novel and helps everything come together.

Crucible of Chaos is a great continuation of the Greatcoats series and expands the world of Tristia. I love the new characters, the setting and the story but mostly I was just ecstatic to be back in Tristia. There are no crossover characters in this book but you get little snippets of how things are going for some people that you already know and love. It helps keep this story separate and new but also ties it into the larger mythos.

It has got me hyped for Play of Shadows. I can’t wait to read that now.