“If you’re looking for some gritty, dark fantasy that has very memorable characters and multiple epic battles, Retribution is the book you’re looking for”

Review by Rayleigh Setser

In the dark, cruel and ancient things stir.In the Guilded Age, ten-thousand years have passed since gods fought amongst mortals, and magic awoke within the lower races. Now, only a single immortal sits upon an ebony throne, an eternal king to watch over human lands as guilds populate cities and keep the peace.

Among these many guilds is the Adventurers’ Guild, populated by glorified mercenaries willing to take on any job in search of fame and fortune. Others, however, seek more personal rewards. Talon, his master slain, seeks vengeance upon the one responsible, letting nothing and no one stand in his way.

The first of many horrors will arise in the wake of his fury, his will and many others pushed to the brink as they try to stop a threat beyond their understanding.

I devoured this book! Retribution is a brilliantly written novel with multiple points of view that give the reader a sense of "all knowing" and yet every plot twist will still take you off-guard. There were so many instances where I was just in awe of the writing style because I felt like I knew everything about the characters and what they were doing, yet something still shocked me. Also, the frustration of seeing the characters all narrowly missing each other in the first half of the book was just flawless. I was so invested.

My reason for rating 4.5 stars instead of 5 is because the gore was a bit much. I had to set the book aside multiple times just because it either creeped me out or made me feel sick. It's definitely more on the horror-side of dark fantasy (which I typically don't read), however, I'm fairly certain that this is how the book is marketed, so it absolutely does what it set out to do.

Overall, if you're looking for some gritty, dark fantasy that has very memorable characters and multiple epic battles, Retribution is the book you're looking for.

Content Ratings:

8. Intense gore (action scenes take a bit of a morbid turn here with abnormal deaths that are detailed and prolonged; torture, war crimes, etc.)

0. None.

4. Mild cursing (commonplace h*lls, sh*ts, and d*mns” paired with British curse words like “Bloody”, etc.) 

Other Trigger/Content Notices:

Gore is very high, expect horror. No on-page spice or romance. I can’t remember cursing content and I didn’t make a note of curse words, but it seems like there was some mild cursing sprinkled throughout the book.

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