#SPFBO5 Book Review - A SEA OF BROKEN GLASS by Sonya M. Black

(Title: A Sea of Broken Glass / Author: Sonya M. Black / Publisher: Self-Published / Publication Date: March, 2019)


A SEA OF BROKEN GLASS opens with the main character Ris barely escaping execution for practicing witchcraft at the hands of a corrupt and vile Inquisitor.  Aided by two Paladins of Light named Bran and Michel, she is quickly secreted away by her protectors and transported to a place of safety, or so they believe.  

Many are looking for Ris as she represents the last vessel of the Lady, the ancient savior and creator born from The Bastion of Light.  The Lady needs Ris if she hopes to once again save the world and keep her vessel from being corrupted.  But the Darkness also seeks Ris for its own gains and has deployed various agents in the hopes of capturing Ris and tainting her magic, thus controlling the world and plunging it into an age of despair and anguish.

Ris is saddled with the unenviable task of trying to free the Lady from the bonds of Darkness so that she may hopefully restore balance again to the world.  But to do so she must first battle all likes of demons and evil minions who hunt her from one border of the continent to the next.  Coupled with that is the realization that the taint of the darkness is spreading across the land bringing plague and war in its wake.  It soon becomes a battle against time and powerful enemies for Ris and her fellow protectors of Light, where the fate of the world is anything but certain and the motivations of some of the main players are very much in question.

This book was a joy to read and I devoured it in just about a week even though it's just short of 400 pages in length.  I simply loved the elements of witchcraft and the Victorian-esque setting that almost bordered on Steampunk at times.  Reading it, I couldn't help but make comparisons to Mary Wells' Death of the Necromancer and Paula Volsky's The Grand Ellipse (Two favorites of mine), but this is also a book that has its own unique story to tell, and it's a very good one at that.  

The chapters alternate viewpoints between four characters whose stories and actions move the plot forward in their own particular way.  Although there are four viewpoints, it is obvious that the main character is Ris and she is the one that I felt the most connected to and invested in as a reader.  Without giving away too much, let's just say that she is put through a lot of duress throughout the book and the strength of her character and force of will is really on full display.  Likewise, the other viewpoint characters Bran, Michel, and Aeron were fleshed out very well and gave a depth to the story that I thought worked extremely well and enhanced the experience.

In closing, A SEA OF BROKEN GLASS was such a delight to read and I recommend it to anyone who likes their fantasy with a bit of Victorian flair, witchery, and a timeless light vs dark, good vs evil plot line.  The characters and world-building really sucked me into this wonderful dark fantasy read.  I look forward to the second book in Sonya M. Black's The Lady & The Darkness series with much anticipation.

(My Rating: 7.8/10)