Sins of Empire by Brian McClellan

Author: Brian McClellan

Name of the book: Sins of Empire

Editorial: Orbit

Number of pages: 624 pages for Hardcover.

Publication date: March 7th, 2017

My Grade: 6.5/10

Summary: The young nation of Fatrasta is a turbulent place - a frontier destination for criminals, fortune-hunters, brave settlers, and sorcerers seeking relics of the past. Only the iron will of the lady chancellor and her secret police holds the capital city of Landfall together against the unrest of a suppressed population and the machinations of powerful empires. The insurrection that threatens Landfall must be purged with wile and force, a task which falls on the shoulders of a spy named Michel Bravis, convicted war hero Ben Styke, and Lady Vlora Flint, a mercenary general with a past as turbulent as Landfall's present. As loyalties are tested, revealed, and destroyed, a grim specter as old as time has been unearthed in this wild land and the people of Landfall will soon discover that rebellion is the least of their worries.

Full opinion: The book starts with some tiny scene of what is happening before all the action of this first book of the trilogy happens, and also it is like a let’s settle this thing after the events of the first trilogy, which it took place a few years before the story of this book takes place.

I enjoyed this book very much, it was well written, it developed the characters well enough, giving them the chance to grow and be bold instead o making them some stereotypical moves, which in every occasion is a point for me. But there were some aspects of the story that really bother me, maybe it is because I did not read the trilogy that sets this story up, but overall it was a pleasant reading.

I enjoyed most of the main characters and almost all of the secondary ones, but, spoiler alert, I hated the fact that Styke, who is an ex hero of war who went to prison afterwards, and the Lady Chancellor, who’s the Governor of the country/city, are siblings. Why did I not like this part of the story, maybe because it felt that all of them had to be somehow related, by past relationships, or by blood, and it felt kind of out of the blue and unnecessary, at least for me.

On the other side, I loved Styke, all of his chapters were really entertaining, and Vlora’s as well. Their interactions were funny in a way that how a semi friendship is born between a mercenary and an ex prisoner who also is an ex hero of war, who don’t have much in common between them but war and memories of old battles.

Another character that I loved was Michel, a Silver rose, like a cop, who latter on we know that is a spy for the other side of the story.

Sadly, the ending felt a bit rushed and I didn’t enjoy as much as I thought I would Stykes revenge on Fidelis Jes or Michel paper to protect the godstones, but overall the book, they were by far my favourites.

The city and the map is also nice touch to the story, it was easy to imagine the cities and in which part the story developed for how descriptive the author was and with the help of the map.

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