4 Stars for this gritty, grim fantasy

I just finished Fire Within and this is my review posted on Amazon and Goodreads.

The tale is told in a fantasy world that is dirty, grim and fully fleshed. It is not a happy story. There is no joy to be had for any of our protagonist with the threat to each present from first page to last but for very different reasons. The journey is a hard one and artfully written. The descriptive narrative is some of the best I have read and so evocative. The characters are flawed and interesting and none of them is safe!!

Did I enjoy it is always the first question I ask myself and the answer is, mostly. The reason is that every great story read is personal and in the mind of the reader. In my mind I did not particularly engage with any of the main characters, the story did not grab me as I was hoping and the principal threat was peripheral at best. This last though is intentional and I presume more will unfold in book two and beyond. This is I suspect is only the start of our journey through Morten W Simonsen’s marvellous world.

Will I read more? Absolutely and really that is all you need to know. I feel the surface is just scratched here and I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.

I have added a new menu for The Nine Kingdoms and I have moved the maps and Urak menus into this as sub menu’s – just a bit of house keeping to keep my main menu tidy.

Still very much a work in progress but I have added a section in Lore for Urakakule.

20th September – launch day for my website.