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A review by thiscubed
Empire of Light by Alex Harrow
For those curious because goodreads doesn't have a page count, this book is 280 pages. 280 pages of a pretty great plot, well written characters, and enough violence to shake a stick at. There's also some explicit sex scenes but those are well written and not drawn out. They only total about 12 pages when you add up the different scenes. I appreciated the content warning in the beginning because this book does get pretty gruesome. I didn't really mind it at all, but I still appreciated the heads up.
So with so much violence you may be asking yourself what this book is about. Well, it's about an assassin for hire in a world where people have magic (called "voyance" in the book) and said magic will eventually kill you but also helps you heal? It's strange, but it works. Said assassin has a lover with magic (they call them voyants in the book) and the government is out to kill anyone with magic. As you might guess there's lots of political intrigue but it's more of an assassination plot than anything.
Anyway, it's pretty fucking good to be honest? I didn't feel like anything was gratuitous but I also didn't feel like anything was rushed. The pacing felt balanced between the action and the other non-action-y scenes.
Like I said before the characters were well fleshed out, especially the main character. You really get to learn why he does what he does and he does a lot of stupid shit. The other characters may not be as fleshed out but they never once felt like caricatures.
The romance in this book is also pretty great if I'm being completely honest. I'm not a huge fan of explicit sex scenes, but I didn't mind them too much because I liked the characters and understood their relationship dynamics. Also, I really liked what ended up happening at the end when it came to the romance plot.
My only real complaint is that I felt the world building could've been a bit better. We're dropped into a world that is supposed to be our own after presumably another world war, but despite seeming to be what would've been the US, everything has a French name? And people actually speak French when someone dies? I would've liked clarity on that. Also, it took me about 100 pages to get used to them using "hells" instead of "hell." It really bothered me initially, but as the story progressed I found myself caring about it less and less.
Overall, if you're okay with gruesome violence, explict and not necessarily vanilla sex scenes, then I would recommend this book.
So with so much violence you may be asking yourself what this book is about. Well, it's about an assassin for hire in a world where people have magic (called "voyance" in the book) and said magic will eventually kill you but also helps you heal? It's strange, but it works. Said assassin has a lover with magic (they call them voyants in the book) and the government is out to kill anyone with magic. As you might guess there's lots of political intrigue but it's more of an assassination plot than anything.
Anyway, it's pretty fucking good to be honest? I didn't feel like anything was gratuitous but I also didn't feel like anything was rushed. The pacing felt balanced between the action and the other non-action-y scenes.
Like I said before the characters were well fleshed out, especially the main character. You really get to learn why he does what he does and he does a lot of stupid shit. The other characters may not be as fleshed out but they never once felt like caricatures.
The romance in this book is also pretty great if I'm being completely honest. I'm not a huge fan of explicit sex scenes, but I didn't mind them too much because I liked the characters and understood their relationship dynamics. Also, I really liked what ended up happening at the end when it came to the romance plot.
My only real complaint is that I felt the world building could've been a bit better. We're dropped into a world that is supposed to be our own after presumably another world war, but despite seeming to be what would've been the US, everything has a French name? And people actually speak French when someone dies? I would've liked clarity on that. Also, it took me about 100 pages to get used to them using "hells" instead of "hell." It really bothered me initially, but as the story progressed I found myself caring about it less and less.
Overall, if you're okay with gruesome violence, explict and not necessarily vanilla sex scenes, then I would recommend this book.