This book intrigued me when I first read the description, but while I read it I only grew confused. We were thrown into a world with little explanation and into a conflict with our background. I hate being overly critical of a book, but I wasn’t a fan. The writing was a little over done as well. There were descriptions that I believed were over done and confusing to say the least.
The combat though was written well and wow was there a lot of it. The ending was a little rushed and I didn’t get a sense of a true conclusion. While not horrible, it wasn’t great hence my 3*.
Thank you to Netgally and the author for sending me an E-ARC to read a review.

This is a book that is full of promise, but like an uncut gem, does need perhaps another round of editing and polishing in order to make it truly shine.

A Sanctum of Souls is set a few millennia after the death of the Gods of the Ascended Pantheon, and humans have found a way to fill the divine void with their own politics, infighting and aspirations. Unlike other worlds and books where the death of the Gods spells out an apocalypse for the people, in the world of Thearus, the world moved on. However, in the absence of the Ascended Pantheon, when two gods previously imprisoned are about to be unleashed on the world, there is nothing to stop the chaos they are about to unleash, barring the actions of a group of mismatched mortals who must juggle their own self interests against that of the world.

The concept by the author is certainly one that is an easy hook for any fantasy reader. In many stories, death of the gods leads to a downward spiral that culminates in the death of the universe, but here, it is not so. This sets up in your mind a truly grand story where mortals will face down – and perhaps even manage the impossible feat of killing – gods. For any fantasy genre fanatic, the hook is well and truly baited, and it’s easy to immediately dive into the book.

It’s clear from the get go that the author has a vast sprawling world in their mind for this story, filled with different cultures and religions. I’m not entirely sure of the inspirations for some of these cultures draw from, but I was put in mind of the Mongols and Arabic cultures, though I may be off base. Regardless, this is not the proto-typical medieval Europe setting, and it’s a wonderful thing to see. The bulk of the story does not take place over a great vast landscape, but we hear enough to know that the world outside the main story is vast and varied, and hopefully with the next instalments, Malone will be able to take the reader to these other cultures and show us his imagination and creativity. I wish the magical systems in play here got a little more exploration and explanation than they did on page, but once again, that may be something that Malone is holding in reserve for a future novel. For what we did see of the magic, the various branches of it did all appear to follow similar themes and constraints, so I do believe Malone has put thought into the magic system of this world.

For those of you who love diverse books, there is diversity of skin colour and a strong selection of women helming the story forward. I would note that most of these women do fall into the warrior woman role, but given the story, I will make the allowance for it. There are some small things I can note, but in general, I was pleasantly surprised to be reading and find a large cast of women, both in the foreground and the background, that were simply noted as being there, not for being extraordinary and exceptions to the rule, but just as a matter of course. It is refreshing indeed to find a book and a world wherein sexism appears to not even be a singular thought, and similarly, racism appears to not exist in this world. Though it did not seem diverse in sexual orientation, romance was most certainly not at the forefront of this book, so it remains to be seen if some of the representation will be found in later books.

The prose leans towards purple, with Malone seeming to quite enjoy describing the world to the reader. For someone who loves those descriptions, from the material of the halls to the silks that each character wears, this book is lush paradise. However, I did find it to get a little monotonous. Nearly every named character is treat to a full description, from their armour to the colours of the silks they were, and it becomes obvious quickly that these descriptions are not authorial shorthand for “pay attention, this character is important”. Similarly, nearly every hallway’s lighting is described, which adds to the length of the novel in a way that I felt was a bit superfluous, sometimes even slowing down pacing and taking back from the atmosphere Malone was building to describe something that felt like it added very minimally to the scene. While authors are often taught to show, and not tell, I don’t believe it means that the author has to authentically write down everything they picture within their mind. Undoubtedly, Malone has a vivid imagination, but the over description I think can get in the way of the story he is telling.

In example of something that really drew me out of the narrative, in one fight scene, the exact same descriptor (“midnight”, referring to the colour of a sect’s clothing) was used four times, all within a few sentences of one another. The same character is described as “(a) midnight robed warrior”, “midnight clad assassins”, “(a) midnight clad warrior” and has “hands of midnight” – by this time, it is well established that members of this sect are clad in black, and yet the notion is continually pushed to us. Sometimes, the wheel doesn’t need to be reimagined for it to be effective – not every descriptor must be elegant and lush. Sometimes, black can suffice, or in such a case as this, where the colour of clothing has been firmly established, the descriptor can be left alone a time or two, trusting in the reader to remember.

That’s not to say that all of Malone’s prose suffers. He was absolutely able to write some lines that felt poetic and evocative, with one of my stand out favourites being “it was the sound of death dogging them all, vengeance meted out by the violence of the blade”. But purple prose does have its drawbacks. For as lush and lovely as it can be, evoking moods and atmospheres that are hard to convey with simple description, sometimes, it merely confuses. Some of the descriptors here are like that – in a battle scene, twice the descriptor “bruised” is used, but not in reference to skin or injury. Instead, it is “bruised sparks” and “bruised smoke”, and I’m not sure what I am meant to picture. Perhaps a cloud of smoke mottled dark blue and purple, but as that’s the only description I have, there’s nothing else to use as a reference point. The author is clearly trying to be evocative and descriptive, and I do love that, but I also need to be able to understand what they are trying to show me in my mind. I don’t think any of this is a deal breaker, and again, I must argue that I truly believe that all of this could be easily fixed with another round of editing and polish. None of these issues are story breaking, none of them inherently hurt the novel, but it does leave room for the story to be improved.

For my further criticisms, I have a few, some minor, some a little more encompassing. There are a few different typos within the text, but nothing too major or overt. Once, the word “father” was used in place in “farther”, and there were a few instances of “fauna” being used when the entire paragraph around it referred to “flora”, or plant life. These are nothing that another round of editing wouldn’t pick up and fix, and that is something that I felt would have aided the novel greatly. There are some lines that when I read, I couldn’t help but think, “editing would have improved this”, because either my ability to understand what Malone was trying to convey was simply not up to task, or there was something missing. In example, the sentence, “lavender night, Korian mused, a poisonous flower commonly found in the venom that shared it’s namesake”, confused me greatly. Was Malone trying to convey that there was a poison concocted from the lavender night plant, and they both bore the same name? That seems the most logical, but the phrasing is so awkward that I had to read the sentence multiple times to grasp it. Venom, by definition, is something injected by an animal into prey, so a poison derived from a flower should ideally not be labelled as such, and a simpler way to phrase the same thought might have been “lavender night, [...], a deadly flower used to create the poison that shared its namesake”, changing little enough of the sentence but greatly improving its clarity.

Another example was this sentence, “A ruby satin blanket draped her from the knees down, falling upon great bovine hooves; the blanket was a matte gradient of black, building up to a pale cerulean”, to which I stared at the sentence for a good minute, trying to figure out if there was a second blanket, or somehow the blanket was black, blue and red, all at the same time. And in one other example, less related to description, but more related to exposition, in the first chapter, we have the narration recite what amounts to be a dictionary definition like translation of a foreign phrase. However, at this stage, the exact phrase we are learning of has not been mentioned in speech or even thought, making it feel a little like an obtrusive sidenote rather than a seamless piece of worldbuilding.

Again, I cannot overstate how much I think a lot of this could have been improved with a round of editing. What was longwinded in description could be shortened, what was confused in description could be clarified, and what felt like it stood out through rough integration into the text could be smoothed out. I don’t fault the author in this at all, because I understand the cost of editing, especially as an independent author, can be restrictive, but I merely want to emphasise my point that this book has good bones to it, a good solid core, that just needs a little finesse to it to make it truly shine.

My last notes and critiques come in the form of dialogue, pacing and a stylistic choice that the author used. For the stylistic choice, nearly every section of the book – chapter and chapter sections included – ended in the use of ellipses. I found this to be a little trite, taking away from the gravitas that a well used ellipse can evoke in the reader, but I am very aware that this choice may just not be for me, and others could enjoy it perfectly well. Dialogue I feel is also a bit of a stylistic choice, with it being very formal, even when the characters are not in formal settings. At first, I thought it was the author’s shorthand for world exposition, as characters will often refer to one another by full names and titles, but as the trend continued, I realised it was merely how the author wanted the characters to speak. If you are someone who enjoys more modern fantasy, the dialogue may come across as overly stiff and stilted to you, but to someone who enjoys the more classical fantasy, you may find the dialogue to be suited to you. This is all a manner of personal preference, and in full honesty, I myself am a fan of modern fantasy as opposed to more classical, so I will not make much more comment about the dialogue, understanding that I am probably not exactly the target audience and cannot give the best and most fair review of it.

And lastly, pacing. I feel like this is perhaps my most major criticism of the story, and though I do also think that editing could have smoothed out this rough edge of the story, I do think that addressing it might be a larger task than the others I’ve noted. The way that we are introduced to the Penitent Sanctuary, the way that the driving plot to this story is introduced, takes what I feel is far too long in set up before the pay off, to the point that I felt like the main plot of novel was only truly beginning to kick into effect in the last 40%. It means the first half of the novel feels slow, even though it is filled with action sequences, by the time you get to the end and really feel how the plot has weaved itself together. Without getting into spoilers, I felt that at least two or three of the nine characters who are part of the group could have easily found their way into the Penitent Sanctuary, and we would not have faced a significant loss from starting their story at that moment. What we learned as readers prior to that moment was nothing that could not have discovered through character narration and internal thought, and would have helped to create a forward drive in the narrative that to me, simply felt like it came too late. Related to this, but by 91% through the story, I also was at a loss for how one plotline felt simply... inconsequential. I didn’t see how the character’s plotline throughout the novel would tie into the end, so the chapters spent with that character felt like something from a different novel. Perhaps, this character and their plotline here is due to become important in another novel, but in this novel here, it felt extraneous.

Overall, there were problems with this novel, nothing that was too egregious, but things that could be improved by a little more time spent in editing and polishing. For a first outing by a debut indie author, I find A Sanctum of Swords to be impressive, with a vast world that is tremendously open for grand, epic stories, but the book itself can get a little bogged down from its lofty aspirations in the minutiae of description, purple prose and pacing issues. The bones are good and the story has potential, but it doesn’t quite come together as a finalised product with a neat bow. That all being said, I’d certainly love to keep an eye on Malone’s future as a writer and see what he produces in the future.

Thanks John......it was a pleasure reading your book

"A Sanctum of Swords" by John Malone is a compelling fantasy adventure that whisks readers away to a vivid and intricate world filled with magic, intrigue, and memorable characters. Malone's storytelling prowess shines through, as he weaves a captivating narrative that keeps you engaged from start to finish. With its rich world-building and well-crafted plot, this book is a must-read for fantasy enthusiasts. The story's blend of action, mystery, and heroism makes it an exciting and immersive journey that leaves readers eager for more.