Traitor’s Blade (Greatcoats #1) by Sebastien de Castell – A Book Review

Blurb:

The King is dead, the Greatcoats have been disbanded and Falcio Val Mond and fellow magistrates Kest and Brasti have been reduced to working as bodyguards for a nobleman who refuses to pay them. Things could be worse – their employer could be lying dead on the floor while the three of them are forced to watch as the killer plants evidence framing them for the murder. Oh, wait, that’s exactly what’s happening…
A royal conspiracy is about to unfold in the most corrupt city in the world and it could mean the ruin of everything Falcio, Kest and Brasti have fought for. If the trio want to unwind the conspiracy, save innocents and reunite the Greatcoats, they’ll have to do it with nothing but the tattered coats on their backs and the swords in their hands, because these days every noble is a tyrant, every knight is a thug and the only thing you can really trust is a traitor’s blade.

Author: Sebastien de Castell

Publisher: Jo Fletcher Books

Release Date: 10/02/2014

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 384

My Chosen Format: Kindle

My Rating of ‘Traitor’s Blade’: 5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon UK, Amazon US, Book Depository

 

Review:

The cover for Traitor’s blade is pretty darn awesome. I always expect a book with a good cover to be just as good between the covers. That’s right folk, I’m happy to judge a book by the cover. Traitor’s Blade did not disappoint. I was originally interested by the series after seeing it on a couple of blogs. That, and the overwhelming love for the Greatcoats that a fellow blogger has, Mel from meltotheany, spurred me on to download it on my kindle.

I am not normally a stupidly fast reader, but I had this book finished in a couple of days. From the first page to the last I found myself hooked. The world was built well, despite not showing a great deal of it. The characters were fleshed out nicely and there was a wide array of them to flesh out. I had characters I loved, characters I felt genuinely sorry for and, more importantly, villains that I wanted to stick with the pointy end of a sword myself (that’s the first law of the sword, don’t you know).

The Greatcoats (well, the three the book focuses on, there are a great deal more of them), the king’s travelling magisters, are essentially the Three Musketeers if the Musketeers lived in a time where gods, saints, and magic were real things that could physically harm or help you.

The story is told from the perspective of Falcio Val Mond First Cantor of the Greatcoats but, unlike most stories written in first person, it isn’t actually penned by Falcio. It’s penned by a priest who has the magical ability to know everything about a person (that isn’t really a spoiler as it tells you in the first couple of pages). This means that you never truly know if Falcio will live or die as, in theory, that priest will be needing to tell of his death at some point.

Sebastien de Castell’s writing style is what hooks you first. There’s a lot of humour in his writing, perhaps more so than action. It keeps you burning through the pages as it’s ridiculously easy reading. He also has a habit of keeping the reader on the edge of their seat. In me, because of his writing style and storytelling skills, de Castell has found a fan for life.

I look forward to exploring more of the Greatcoats’ world and the wide cast of characters that is sure to inhabit it.

If I was to say a slight negative, it is that sometimes the continuity could be a tad better. One instance being where a character is knocked out. Much is said about him being unconscious. Yet he’s up a second later without any mention of him coming to. It’s only a small niggle and, considering the story is being told from Falcio’s viewpoint, I just assume that he didn’t see the character get back up and into the swing of things.

Other than that, the only negative for me was that I did not discover this series sooner. And that I have a bit more on my TBR list to get through before I can dive into the second book 😦

My verdict is that you should buy this book. Buy it now! It’s a fantastic read and one that any fantasy fan would kick themselves for not reading sooner than they eventually do.