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Out of This World SFF is delighted to be one of the many blogs participating in Matthew Ward's THE DARKNESS BEFORE THEM Blog Tour! Officially released yesterday November 7th in the US, this is the opening book in Matthew's The Soulfire Saga - a brand new epic fantasy series following hot on the heels of his hugely successful Legacy Trilogy. If you'd like to know more about that series, you can check out my full reviews of Legacy of Ash, Legacy of Steel, and Legacy of Light.
Back Cover Blurb
The first in an exciting, action-packed new trilogy from epic fantasy author Matthew Ward, The Darkness Before Them introduces readers to a world ruled by a dangerous immortal king, where souls fuel magic, and a supernatural mist know as the Veil threatens to engulf the land.
These are dark times for the Kingdom of Khalad. As the magical mists of the Veil devour the land, the populace struggles beneath the rule of ruthless noble houses and their uncaring immortal king.
Kat doesn't care about any of that. A talented thief, she's pursuing one big score that will settle the debt that destroyed her family. No easy feat in a realm where indentured spirits hold vigil over every vault and treasure room. However, Kat has a unique talent: she can speak to those spirits, and even command them. And she has no qualms using her power to her advantage.
Kat's not a hero. She just wants to be free. To have her old life back. But as rebellion rekindles and the war for Khalad's future begins, everyone - Kat included - will have to pick a side.
Review
Matthew Ward has always written incredibly deep and well thought out epic fantasy. Much like George RR Martin and Steven Erikson his cast of characters is vast and there are many factions vying for supremacy. It's a big reason why I love his books, I know he's going to deliver an incredible story that goes well beyond the surface tropes of the genre. His latest book THE DARKNESS BEFORE THEM is no different and is a promising beginning to this brand new epic fantasy series.
I knew I was going to like this book from the jump because I'm a huge sucker for supernatural phenomena or entities in my fantasy reads. In this case that takes the form of The Veil, a mysterious mist that threatens to gradually engulf the entire kingdom and surrounding cities. That element alone had me hooked on the story immediately. But then throw in some incredibly cool characters and next level worldbuilding and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of THE DARKNESS BEFORE THEM.
One thing I admire about Ward's books are his ability to pen characters who aren't simply black and white. There is a great deal of nuance in the way they behave, their motivations, and their ability to evolve in their belief system. This is definitely present in this book as well and I can't tell you how much that significantly ups the investment with the reader. You can't ever write off any of his characters as "good" or "bad" because everything could change with them by the final book.
So many aspects of this compelling story had me completely focused on the plot to the detriment of everything and everyone around me. And the final few chapters really left me wanting more, which I hope won't be too long of a wait. Suffice to say, if you love well-drawn characters, tight dialogue, political maneuvering and strategy, and multi-layered storylines that are anything but superficial, then you should pick this one up right away. Good news, it's available to purchase right now! Oh and be sure to also check out all of Matthew Ward's other books as well. He's among my very favorite fantasy writers going today.
Rating:
Up next, Mathew Ward has been kind enough to share a special bonus excerpt from his brand new fantasy novel THE DARKNESS BEFORE THEM...
The elevator shuddered into its bay. Darravon hauled the gate open. ‘We need to make this fast. Someone’s bound to notice the elevator’s gone.’
Azra nodded at the short, straight stair leading to the roof. ‘Then you’d better secure the barge, hadn’t you? Keep it quiet. No shriekers and no screams.’
He shot her a look of pure poison and drew his dagger. ‘I’ll handle it.’
Skerrik in tow, an unhappy Darravon made for the stairs. Kat and Azra skirted the double spiral of the main stairwell and passed beneath the honeycomb archway of the vault approach. Storerooms filled wall to wall with impounded possessions passed away to either side.
‘Darravon’s about to have a seizure,’ said Kat.
Azra shrugged. ‘Let him. He provided the uniforms and the layout. Now he needs us far more than we need him.’
The muffled thud of a falling body whispered down the corridor, so quiet that Kat doubted she’d have noticed had she not been specifically listening out. Darravon indeed knew his business. The mooring house sentries were formality more than anything else, set to guard against the unlikely possibility of skelders scaling the temple’s outer walls. Likely they hadn’t even seen him coming.
The corridor widened out to a pillared hallway. Scores of alcoves yawned wide, half hidden in the shadows beneath vaulted windows. A skeletal koilos stood within each, arms folded across its black-robed chest and yoke-like collar, gilded letters embossed into each naked skull. Scraps of broken chain hung from ceremonial bands about their wrists, representations of the shackles of avarice that had sealed their fate. Misers, debtors and cozeners all, their penance was to guard in death that which had ruled them in life. A gentle probe confirmed that her stolen glyphs held no sway over these koilos. If they woke, it would get very nasty very quickly.
Kat shuddered and kept to the centre of the hall. Did a koilos know anything of the person they’d been or the slaves they’d become? Would she, if her turn came? Even the thought of being trapped behind those empty eyes, screaming as Alabastra made a puppet of her body …
Better to settle the debt and never know the truth.
The vault door stood three times Kat’s height, with dizzying golden curlicues etched into the polished stone. It was otherwise smooth, with neither lock nor hinges to mar the perfect surface.
Azra tossed her mask away and offered a brilliant smile. ‘Well, darling. This is it.’
Kat nodded and removed her own mask and gloves. Pressing her fingertips to the cold stone, she slipped into the spirit world. The flames of ifrîti filled the darkness, coiling and squeezing through a space that seemed entirely too small to contain them. Their thoughts pressed in, smothering, stifling.
‘There are so many,’ she whispered.
‘You can do this.’ Azra’s voice echoed through the blackness, indistinct and breathy. A dream in a place that was itself barely real. ‘Take your time.’
Drawing strength from the words, Kat examined the flames, probing their form and desires. A handful belonged to hestics similar to those that guarded the checkpoints below. Slowly, carefully she let them inspect her tattoo’s glyphs. They retreated, a measure of her claustrophobia fading alongside.
Encouraged, she examined anew those that remained, sifting them into a knot of dull, heavy motics, each responsible for one of the vault door’s heavy lockstones. They rumbled with displeasure, finding her soul-glyphs wanting, but in their voiceless complaint offered after-images of the design they sought.
Focusing her thoughts, Kat teased apart the glyphs on her outer forearm and rewove them line by line. She was rewarded by a chorus of dull, grinding rumbles as the motics retreated, drawing back the lockstones with them. The oldest of the ifrîti required the most cajoling – a last reknotting of a swirling nine-bladed cross that left her dizzy – but with a sigh like thunder it at last sank away.
Azra’s laughter pealed brightly through the spirit world. ‘You see? I knew you could do it!’
Dizziness fading, Kat re-emerged into the light of the living in time to see the vault door’s trailing edge slide away into the ceiling. A narrow archway beckoned.
A smile crawled unbidden across her face.
She’d done it. She’d actually done it.
So why was her stomach turning somersaults?
Azra hugged her. ‘What are we waiting for?’
She started for the threshold. Kat grabbed her arm. ‘Wait.’
She frowned. ‘What is it?’
‘I don’t …’ That was it. The emptiness at Javar’s mansion that hadn’t been emptiness at all but a koilos awaiting transgression. This sensation was the same. ‘There’s something else here.’
Kat closed her eyes and probed the vault anew, casting her frame of reference wider.
At last she saw it, a brooding, throbbing flame so black as to be invisible against the darkness. It permeated everything, suckling off the lesser ifrîti to feed its own roiling majesty.
‘There’s something else,’ she murmured again, not knowing if Azra heard her. ‘Something I’ve never seen before.’
The black flame was bound not only to the vault’s ifrîti but also to the ranks of koilos in the corridor approach. Maybe even to every other ifrît in the building. Dredging up the last of her failing tattoo’s power, Kat brushed the black flame’s edges. It hissed and recoiled from her glyphs, offering no clue as to what she might do to placate it.
That left instinct.
She worked slowly at first, halting at every disapproving growl, but faster and faster as her confidence grew. Through the spirit world’s suffocating murk she felt the winnowing of her tattoo’s fires. As it fell dark, the black flame burrowed through its defences, cold and leaden beneath her skin. Her hurried breaths scraped and scratched at lungs. Ice trickled through her thoughts as the blackness claimed her.
With a sick start, Kat realised it wasn’t a hestic at all.
It was a qalimîri, and it wanted her body for its own.
With a scream, she tore free of the spirit world, the qalimîri’s tendrils scattering like smoke into the light.
‘Kat?’ Azra crowded in, eyes welling with concern. ‘What is it? Talk to me!’
‘There’s … there’s a qalimîri on the threshold. It nearly had me.’ Gagging, Kat clenched chattering teeth, frantically rubbing warmth back into her limbs. She’d nearly ended up like that poor girl Marida wore. With utmost caution, she probed the threshold again. She felt only the dregs of the black flame. The qalimîri had retreated to its prism to lick its wounds, its connection to the other ifrîti severed. At least for the moment. ‘It’s gone now.’
Azra paled. ‘Blessed Nyssa. I thought archons banished those things, not kept them as pets.’
Kat snorted. ‘And discard something useful?’ Still shivering, she stumbled for the vault. ‘Come on. We’ve maybe a few minutes before the qalimîri recovers its courage. It won’t back down as easily next time.’
Before her nerve failed, Kat crossed the threshold into a shadow-cast space easily ten times the size of her room at Tellwind Manse. Drape-fronted cabinets waited in serried ranks on the thick carpet. She pulled back the curtain on the nearest. Octagonal crystal tetrams the size of her palm glimmered in the light of a lone lumani. Ten coins to a stack, six leather-packed stacks to each wooden crate. A dozen wooden crates snap-clasped and chained to a shelf. A king’s ransom, theirs for the taking once the locks were broken.
Azra laughed. ‘We’re rich!’
A high-pitched whine of a shrieker shot echoed down the passageway, a gargled scream on its heels.
About the Author
He's afflicted with an obsession for old places - castles, historic cities and the London Underground chief amongst them - and should probably cultivate more interests to help expand out his author biography. You can connect with author Matthew Ward and his book online via his Website, Twitter(X), Bluesky, Goodreads, Facebook, and Amazon.
And that concludes my stop on The Darkness Before Them blog tour! I hope that you enjoyed your visit. Please be sure to check out all of the other stops on this tour as each blogger bring something unique and special to their posts. And there are so many amazing blogs participating. I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to author Matthew Ward for allowing me to take part in this wonderful event. And thanks to all of you who continue to support this blog and my content. I appreciate every single one of you so much. Happy Reading!
-Nick
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