Seeds of War

I can really respect the ambition in this one. We start in medias res, an approach that I think does work well here. We are introduced to Gimlore, a sometime gangster, sometime mayor like figure taking an aggressive negotiation stance with the emissary of a powerful empire seeking to come in on their business, on a newly raised continent. The mysteries behind this newly raised continent are central to the plot here, through the accidental creator, the secret powers unlocked by it and the various people competing over it.

The story is told from three primary POVs - the aforementioned gangster/major Gimlore, a conman claiming he is god called Orberesis, and a feared mercenary captain called upon to protect the settlement called Rednow. The characters are certainly interesting and varied. I loved Orberesis in particular, the man suffering from chronic pain trying to find a cure, accidentally having raised a continent using a magical gem starts faking being a god in order to try and find that cure. His duplicity is central to a lot of the goings on, even if his Machiavellian designs may not be matched by his actual wits. Writing such an egotist character without them becoming either obnoxious or a caricature is certainly an art and the author has succeeded here. Rednow and Gimlore are more sympathetic characters and whilst both have a certain greyness to them (neither being adverse to a bit of murder) they are in the more classically heroic mold.

The story has some clear influences as well. I can definitely see some Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven stylings here, with a mercenary company called in to protect a town. That being said there are some strange plot choices at times. The courtly intrigue with the king and the nobles does not quite logically work, especially with the apparent ability of the king to execute them all without any real repercussions. The prose took a while to flow. There is a certain disjointedness to a lot of the novel for me, some of the dialogue patterns not coming across naturally.

Nonetheless I still quite enjoyed this novel and whilst a little unpolished in places it shows a lot of potential

This was good!!

After a little bit of a slow start, I really liked how this progressed.

The 3 character POVs were all very different and interesting to follow, especially Gimlore, and I enjoyed how they came together later in the story.

The magic of the smokesmiths was quite unique and I liked how it could be used when someone was near death.

I switched to the audiobook about half way through and really enjoyed the narration by Adriel Brant so definitely recommend.