The Silverblood Promise by James Logan is a murder mystery set in a fantasy world with plenty of action and adventure. I'd say it would appeal to older teens and young adults.
The story follows Lucan Gardova. He is a sarcastic young man with a past he's bitter about. He's been spending his days drinking too much and gambling when he gets news of his father's murder. His father's last message to him sends him on an adventure in the foreign country of Saphrona.
I enjoyed the episodic feel of this story.
One adventure leads into another to an overarching story. There were times when I wished for more in certain areas with certain characters. Especially with characters like the Twice Crowned King and the faceless. I'm hoping sequels will have more of these.
Lucan as a character tends to run his mouth when he's under stress. Everything he goes through shapes him to be a better person than he starts out as. He steps up to help others and even when he doesn't have to
His relationship with Flea was really cute. He steps into a parental role with her and becomes very protective
I like the narrator. This audiobook especially the action sequences. It reminded me of listening to a sports broadcast.
I look forward to reading more of this series.
Thank you to Netgalley and McMillan Audio for this arc. This review was written voluntarily.

Swords, Sorcery, and Science

“Defeat the villain.
Save the city.
Free the prince.”

Thoughts💡
This was a fast paced and exciting adventure to solve a mysterious crime, I loved the story even if it took me a minute to appreciate Lukan. The side characters though, those ladies were epic, especially Flea and The Shadow Queen. And they all helped Lukan develop into an endearing character that I was rooting for by the end.
The plot was filled with magic, was fast paced, and loaded with a lot of the setbacks that the characters had to navigate. The city and its monsters gave me Stargate vibes (the OG movie); and the rich world building brought it alive. It made all the challenges and setbacks the characters faced exciting and tense.
The audio was a lot of fun to listen to because Brenock has a very deep voice with clear pronunciations and a fast pace. All of it combined to make some epic storytelling that I want more of.

Why It’s Fun
⚜️ Endearing Characters
⚜️ Epic Plot Twists & Challenges
⚜️ Very Cool Ancient Civilization
⚜️ Magic is Science and Science is Magic
⚜️ Badass, Accomplished Women Getting Shit Done, (and one very cool dude leading the charge)

✨Note:✨This is book one in the series, but comes to a nice conclusion that sets up the next book.

⚠️Content Warning⚠️
loss of a parent,violence, murder, blood, gore,🍺,🚬,💊, imprisonment, torture

Stats📊
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ ❌🌶️ (no romance)
Characters: 💙💙💙💙💙
Audio & Narrator: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Sci-fi Fantasy: swords & sorcery, mysterious crime, exiled son, chasing a legacy, wild adventure, rag tag team, ancient civilization, aliens and magic, monsters, political machinations, corruption
Third Person, Past Tense, Multi POV
(but mostly just the MC’s POV)

Wow! What a fantastic epic fantasy! If this is James Logan's debut novel, then sign me up for everything that he writes in the future!

In this book you are following Lukan, who makes a Silverblood Promise, that takes him on a journey to a far away city to complete his quest and satisfy his promise.

This book has everything I look for in a fantasy novel. It has an epic adventure, pirates, shady taverns, odd executions where a prisoner could survive, gambling dens, found family, clever characters, and of course, the writing is fantastic!

I thought this was very good 😄
I was fascinated with the ongoing mysteries and all the effort and questioning and sometimes action it took for the MC to figure out who was framing an innocent woman!🫨
Turned out, there was more to it than just her case and it ran deeper than he thought.
Love the dynamic between Lukan and his companion too! Their growing friendship was fun to read 😊
The book was slow at the beginning, but once the investigation starts rolling, it get more and more interesting! It reads very much like a historical fiction novel; one that takes place around the Papal Rome dark ages era. I happen to like historical fiction so I didn't mind haha
Overall, pretty good worldbuilding, characters I found myself rooting for, and interesting enough mystery and plot twists 👍👍

WOW. What a whirlwind. Upon reading this, I actually looked into the author, certain that he was a well accomplished, highly acclaimed, awarded, YADA YADA, individual. Only to find this to be his first book. I’m sorry… WHAT!?

This story was exquisitely written, beautifully realized. There is not a false note anywhere.

The main characters are compelling, and the only thing more enticing than this, may be the very real world that Logan has brought for us, out of the depths of his creativity. I’ve always felt that in some cases, an author is given a story that already exists, to put down on paper. This is one of those times. A+++++.

On the audiobook portion of this - audiobooks can be quite difficult to get into, let alone stay caught up with. Not the case here! I was excited the whole way through.

I was provided with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to the publishers and all involved in providing this!

One part murder mystery, one part epic fantasy, leads to a fun book. The story follows Lukan as he works his way through problems and meets interesting people along the way…without giving away too much.

I really enjoyed the world that was built and the twist and the turns of the story.

The audiobook was well read and the characters easy to identify, which is not always the case. I really enjoyed the narrator. The book starts a little slow, but the audiobook keeps you engaged.

I really enjoyed A Silverblood Promise. It was a nice change of pace for a high fantasy. There is not a romance plot to this book, and I loved that. I loved that the story stayed with Lukan and his trial to uncover his father's murder. Flea was my favorite character though. She is an honest, take no shit kind of kid. I am very interested to see where these characters take us but I am not happy I will have to wait forever for the second book.

This is a good fantasy book. Although the beginning was a little slow I warmed up to the characters and very much enjoyed Flea and Lukan's relationship.
The narrator did great with the voices, I loved the different accents and he made the book more enjoyable.
I had a hard time really digging into this book because it was a drunken males perspective in the beginning, which was a little difficult to enjoy. He soon proved himself on his hero adventure with his trusty, yet unexpected sidekick. The ending has a great set up for book two.
I would be interested in reading book 2 at this point. The ending was good and left me wanting more.
Thank you to the author and Macmillan Audio for the Access to this title for a review.

Unfortunately this was a dnf at 20%. I had really really high hopes for this and can see the authors potential but the main character was infuriating. Every single time he had to enact a plan or go talk to someone he would waffle back and forth and nearly chicken out entirely just for the plan to work exactly like he needed it.

The narrator was excellent however and I didnt have any trouble listening along and understanding what happened. I would love to listen to any other books narrated by them!

I think this could still be a very good book for most people and I think this author will do really well it's just not for me.

It started out a bit slow but after the premise is established, the story rolls out in a beautifully structured way; our protagonist's simple quest becomes a series of problems to be solved in order to achieve his own goal. The characters are well-drawn and, while there's nothing revolutionary, the world-building is solid. Overall, a delightful and entertaining fantasy. The audiobook narration was okay but would have benefited from more character voices.

This book suffered from too many side quests.

The idea for the story is fun and had so much potential. A young man, disgraced by a single moment of his entire life, finds his father was murdered. A cryptic note, written by his dying father in his own blood, starts a quest to find out why. The "why" is in a box in a vault no one can open except a condemned pirate in an inescapable prison.

I'm going to stop there and just say I'm already not liking this story. People don't do this. If his father had left a will with "Tell my son this when I die", fine, that's fine. If Dad had a letter in his desk with the son's name on it, ok, acceptable. But if something is THAT DAMN IMPORTANT, you don't keep it a secret and hope you don't have a stroke in your sleep. The drama is already annoyingly close to a soap opera.

So we're off to a stupid start, whatever. Next is an excellent scene that shows how well Logan can worldbuild. Our main character has a conversation with a deaf "mute" girl, and she hasn't been introduced. She's just in the mix and we roll with it, the pirate is believable, the threats of violence are scaled right and believable, honestly, just an excellent scene that shows the potential Logan brings to this story.

The book then proceeds to piss in my Cheerios by having our intrepid young swashbuckler run into every side quest like a D&D golden retriever chasing squirrels. I understand you have to set up a plot and then change something to build drama, but this is like a Spinal Tap of bait and switch, everything is cranked to 11.

The book is still well-written, Flea is an excellent character, most of the others are weak but whatever, the story is moving, it's fine, until the end. Logan, no, bad author. Really, the dying wish was for his son to open the box and find something so stupid it hurt my feelings? I'm trying to not spoil anything, but really?!?!

I want to read the sequel just to see how Logan evolves as a writer. And this book has so much potential, I hope he brings the 11 down to a 9 and I bet I love that book.

Guys, guys, guys!! This book was everything that I could have asked for and more! If Sherlock Holmes, Locke Lamora, and Sebastien de Castell’s stories all came together it would be this. Ancient forgotten civilizations, murder, magic, a young man out for justice, and found family. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

"You want to talk with me"....so good!!! This is a fantastic first book of a hopefully great series! Highly recommend this gem

Lukan has been running from his past ever since a dual went sideways and his family’s reputation was ruined. Upon hearing of his father’s murder and dying words, Lukan is pulled back into his past life and to the fabled city of Saphrona. Does Saphrona hold the answers or just danger, secrets and myth? Are the fables he was told as a youth really true?

This audiobook was perfect. The narration was spot on with great delivery and pacing. Very easy to listen to and easy to get sucked into the story — I listened for hours at a time while doing spring yard work and was bummed when I needed to stop!

The novel was also perfect. Lukan is a great protagonist with just the right motivation to tow the line between a calculated risk and danger. Flea is a perfect side kick and adds just the right amount of lightness and innocence to the story. She accents Lukan’s muted heroic personality well. I really enjoyed this novel in it’s entirety and am excited to get into book two (which is set up quite nicely at the end of this one). 5 stars.

Review based on a Advanced Audiobook provided by Macmillan Audio and NetGalley. Thank you!

A big thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan audio for this arc. This started out so promising with death by giant worm. You never really get to know Lukan, the main character which is a bummer because he seems like he probably is an interesting fellow. The main issue with this story is it’s one giant epic tale. It starts as a quest to find information from one woman and leads to about 13 spinoffs such that you even forget what started the series of events. The story does end with a bang by getting “the band back together”. The series has promise, I would just say the next book really needs more focus and less subplots.

4.25
What a promising debut! This tale is packed full of things that I love about this genre—heists, a mysterious inheritance, gladiator-style fights against alarming mythical beasts, a hidden criminal underworld, remnants of a dead civilization whose magic is far more advanced than anything contemporary, a very reluctant hero (total opposite of a chosen one trope), and, of course, found family. While there's nothing particularly groundbreaking, I was thoroughly entertained the entire time and grew to love this cast of characters.

Brenock O’Connor does a great job differentiating voices between the many different characters. I enjoyed his accents and cadence.

Lukan is the disgraced heir to a noble family whose life is turned upside down when his father is murdered and leaves him with a strange clue, written in his own blood. Untangling the mystery behind his murder leads Lukan on a wild string of adventures, full of unlikely enemies and allies. The end sets things up nicely for an exciting sequel that I am definitely anticipating! I have a feeling it could be ever better than book one!

Fantastic!!! I was gifted free copies of both the audio and physical book by the respective publishers. Thank you so much for the free copies Tor and Macmillan Audio.

I absolutely loved this novel. The pacing of the novel was absolutely spot on. I was never bored I was never in a dull spot. When you were coming down from one, epic reveal another one was building, which kept you extremely interested in the storyline and the plot. The world building and character development was definitely flowing throughout the entirety of the book. I never felt like I was having an info dump or being explained something by the characters too plainly. Everything was definitely show and not tell.

One of the things I like the most about this novel was while we had a current conflict surrounding the larger storyline you got us somewhat satisfying conclusion to the current conflict, but it also ended up further along the longer plot line that drew you into wanting the next book. I don't find that a lot of new authors do that well but James Logan did.

The side characters were interesting and definitely kept you ingrained into the novel. The magic was very, very interesting although I wish there had been more explanation of how that worked. But since this is a series, I assume that will be coming in later as well.

The Silverblood Promise is going to be such a hit, I can feel it!!

Lukan finds himself on a hunt to find his father’s killer after living years as a disgraced noble son. His travels take him to Sephrona, a city run by merchant princes and where any secret can be bought for the right price. He teams up with a scruffy young pickpocket named Flea and they get entangled in a world of magic and myths trying to find their way to the truth.

This is such an interesting adventure fantasy with a world that is extremely rich in characters and magic. It’s absolutely immersive and hard to put down! I think I would classify it as a little grim dark, but isn’t quite as depressing as some other entries in the genre. There’s an air of hope that follows Lukan and Flea along their journey, even when the future is looking quite bleak.

Sometimes there was a little bit too much of deus ex machina where Lukan miraculously gets saved but the adventure was so fun that it hardly mattered. It kind of became part of the charm. I will say though, that the set up was great for book 2 and I am absolutely hooked! Can’t wait to see what comes next.

This is a fun fantasy story where a ragtag bunch form some friendship and help resolve a great conflict. I loved the friendship between MMC and his little sidekick! Fun banter, a bit of a mystery to uncover and some interesting magic. I’d say you can safely read this as a standalone but you’ll be eager to continue on to see what kind of trouble this group gets into next!

First, I would like to thank Macmillan audio for this audiobook advanced copy.
This is a classic fantasy story, nothing really original about it, but this is a great interpretation of the classic revenge / mystery tale.
The world is fully developed without being too descriptive, the characters are fun too follow and work well together, the main mystery kept my interest going and the narrator is great.
The ending opens the possibility of a next book but this easily reads as a standalone.
I had a great time and would definitely recommend.