The Helm of Midnight

While I can appreciate the writing skill and the fascinating premise in, The Helm of Midnight, the first book in The Five Penalties series, it was a slower read for me which took me out of the action more than I would have liked.

“His will to kill might very well be ingrained in his echo.”

The first thing you notice when you hold The Helm in Midnight in your hands is the gorgeous cover art and tagline, “Evil Blooms in the Darkness.” The cover art combined with the saying gets you thinking about all sorts of intriguing ideas. To go along with the tag line, the author, Marina Lostetter described the story as The Silence of the labs meets Mistborn. Two of my favorite novels. The premise of the novel is certainly not far from that mashup. There is a lot of evil in this story combined with solid fantasy elements.

The story starts with a very detailed heist, a heist that goes somewhat off of the rails. Or did it? This fantasy story has the flavor of a police procedural. We are introduced to three protagonists in three different time frames. At first, this felt jarring, but Lostetter is an excellent storyteller and gave each of the protagonists' solid voices that made them easy to differentiate them from one another. Firstly, we have Krona, whose story takes place in the now. I found her to be the most interesting of the three people. She has a complex relationship with her sister De-Lia. Krona's profession is that of a Regulator who protects magical artifacts; this includes the magical death mask mentioned in the blurb. There is a lot to unpack for Krona's character, but mostly what I think of her are tenacity and intelligence. Essential aspects for someone who is in an investigative field. She is well written, and I enjoyed her sections of the story immensely.

Secondly, we have the character Melanie, and her chapters take place two years before Krona's chapters. I did not connect with Melanie as much as I would have liked. Much of her story I can't go into as it can be a bit spoilery, but she is an essential aspect of the overall narrative. Finally, the third point of view is that of Chabon himself. This is where Lostetter's skill at writing shines. He is freaking terrifying, evil personified. But, his character's darkness was familiar in that it resembled the malevolence of serial killers in history. I liked that. It allowed me to make some connections but also added a terrifying believability.

The darkness and violence in this story are executed very well. Wow. I enjoy dark fantasy and complex characters, so this was right up my alley on that front. There must have been a lot of research into the darkness and violence.

6.5/10

This book really felt endless to me, considering it is basically an episode of Fantasy Law & Order. Elements of it I loved - the magic is some of the coolest I've seen, the many different elements of it and the magical creatures in this book are awesome, and the main character, religion and the villain were well done. I didn't love the timeline switching but that could have just been an audio problem for me. But mostly I felt like the book could have been trimmed, the main plot did not need as much time as it was given and my attention kept waning. I found the resolution to the whole thing not as interesting as the time I spent with it was worth. I will read the second one, though.

Sometime before 25% I was thinking of quitting this one, but here's another time I'm glad I kept going. I loved this book and I think folks who want to see a unique magic system, like mystery and badass detectives, or like serial killer plots will enjoy it. Upon reflection, I think this did for me what the Legend of Sleepy Hollow does for me in terms of a rich, creepy atmosphere and storytelling. Because of the slow start for me, I'd probably rate it 4.5, because I devoured the remaining 75% and it was the perfect way to start my spooky reading month. Not sure if I'll round down or up.