*NEW RELEASE SPECIAL* Review of NETGALLEY arc Map’s Edge – Book 1 of The Tethered Citadel by David Hair #BrainfluffNETGALLEYbookreview #Map’sEdgebookreview

I have Mage’s Blood on my bookshelves and to my shame, I haven’t yet managed to get around to reading it. I will be making time for it now, though. This cover caught my eye and when I saw it was the co-author of the amazing Olympus trilogy – see my reviews of Athena’s Champion, Oracle’s War and Sacred Bride – I requested it and was delighted to get hold of an arc. I’m so glad I did!

BLURB: Dashryn Cowl has run out of places to hide. The erstwhile sorcerer of the Imperial College fled the Bolgravian Empire when his high-flying family fell from grace, but the tyrannical empire is still hunting for him. So when he gets his hands on a map showing a place outside the known lands rich in istariol, the mineral that fuels sorcery, he sees a way back to power. There’s only one problem: it means masquerading as an Imperial Cartomancer (an instant death sentence) and finding some dupes to help him mine the istariol in secret, no questions asked. But somehow, amid the dangers of the road (floods and avalanches, beasts, barbarians and monsters), a strange thing begins to happen: Dashryn starts to care about his ragtag followers and their strange odyssey into the ruins of an ancient forgotten civilisation…

REVIEW: Well, this is fun! I quickly got swept up in the story as Dashryn is having to deal with brutal invaders crashing into his home and demanding he treat an injured patient. He isn’t someone who wears his heart on his sleeve, but it doesn’t take long to discover his loathing of the Bolgravians, who are responsible for smashing his life apart. He also has a teenage daughter to keep safe…

I was immediately hooked and stayed that way. This story quickly gains momentum as most of a village uproots itself and goes on the road in search of sufficient riches to change everyone’s future. I stayed up reading this one far into the early morning, unable to tear myself away from the sheer tension and adventure. All sorts of things go wrong on the road, from broken wagon wheels, to thuggish mercenaries who think women are good for only two things – and no… conversing with them intelligently as equal human beings isn’t on that very short list.

Dashryn has his own reasons for wanting to earn a large sum of money – which he can’t do without a lot of help. And despite his apparent breezy, can-do demeanour, I liked him a whole lot more when he agonised over the inevitable deaths and did his level best to ensure casualties are kept to a minimum. I also like his rather spiky relationship with his teenage daughter, who is wanting more independence. I’ve read far too many fantasy books where teenagers are either completely beaten down by intolerant parents, or are simply far too sensibly compliant to be remotely true. While my grandmother was fond of telling me that when she was growing up, teenagers were far too busy trying to earn a wage and learn the ropes from older work colleagues, who weren’t tolerant of mistakes to be rebellious – I am sure that in this context, a motherless daughter would be seriously questioning her father’s decisions. Which she does…

There are a number of vividly drawn, memorable characters in this story, including a twisty mercenary leader, a Priestess who’d rather study than preach a sermon, and a shape-shifting bear. Over the space of the book, I grew involved in their trek to seek out a better life and thoroughly enjoyed the plot twists and various setbacks they endured. The denouement was very well handled – taking the plot suddenly in an unexpected direction and leaving me desperate to read more.

In short, this is a cracking fantasy adventure that I highly recommend to all fantasy fans and I very much look forward to reading the next book. While I obtained an arc of Map’s Edge via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10