SERIES REVIEW | AGE OF TYRANNY | CAMERON JOHNSTON

SERIES REVIEW | AGE OF TYRANNY | CAMERON JOHNSTON

ABOUT THE BOOKS

THE TRAITOR GOD (BOOK #1)

A city threatened by unimaginable horrors must trust their most hated outcast, or lose everything, in this crushing epic fantasy debut.

 After ten years on the run, dodging daemons and debt, reviled magician Edrin Walker returns home to avenge the brutal murder of his friend. Lynas had uncovered a terrible secret, something that threatened to devour the entire city. He tried to warn the Arcanum, the sorcerers who rule the city. He failed. Lynas was skinned alive and Walker felt every cut. Now nothing will stop him from finding the murderer. Magi, mortals, daemons, and even the gods - Walker will burn them all if he has to. After all, it wouldn't be the first time he's killed a god...

THE GOD OF BROKEN THINGS (BOOK #2)

An outcast magician must risk his body and mind to save the world from horrifying demons, in the heart-pounding epic fantasy sequel to The Traitor God.

 Tyrant magus Edrin Walker destroyed the monster sent by the Skallgrim, but not before it laid waste to Setharis, and infested their magical elite with mind-controlling parasites. Edrin's own Gift to seize the minds of others was cracked by the strain of battle, and he barely survives the interrogation of a captured magus. There’s no time for recovery though: a Skallgrim army is marching on the mountain passes of the Clanhold. Edrin and a coterie of villains race to stop them, but the mountains are filled with gods, daemons, magic, and his hideous past. Walker must stop at nothing to win, even if that means losing his mind. Or worse…

REVIEW

Originally released in 2018 & 2019 by Angry Robot Books, this marks the debut of Cameron Johnston’s debut published novels.

Since then, he has released the brilliantly violent The Maleficent Seven, a gruesomely action-packed fantasy rendition of The Magnificent Seven (and not to be confused the similarly titled, but equally fun The Malevolent Seven by Sebastian De Castell) and the gender swapped fantasy Die Hard in a castle, The Last Shield.

The first book, The Traitor God introduces us to our main protagonist Edrin Walker, an itinerant mage who has been banished from his home town of Setharis. Now he spends his time picking up odd jobs and making sure his head is kept lower than low in case some deamon scent hounds get on his trail.

We are immediately thrown into the story as a party of barbarians attack the town that Edrin is currently residing in. In the midst of this, he receives a telepathic vision from his friend back in Setharis who has become the victim of a rogue mage who is killing other mages.

The murder of his friend drives him back to Setharis to wreak vengeance on the murderer. However, whilst investigating, Edrin soon stumbles onto something that will change his life forever, including a past that had been ripped from his mind. As the book progresses, we learn the secrets that Edrin has kept, even from himself and why he has a reputation that goes against the magical ruling council, the Arcanum.

The book is written in the first person, and we spend most of the time in Edrin’s head. Edrin is a typical anti hero who purports that he will go against everything but when the odds come against him, his massive streak of decency shines through, even if he doesn’t go about things in the way that you expect.

Whilst Edrin is a typical shit, going through life for his own selfish gain, he is full of charm and wit. In addition to this, Johnston populates his world with larger than life characters that you can’t help but like.

The book is frenetically paced, moving from one set piece to another until it reaches its totally over the top ending.

The world building tends to be on a need to know basis, but you get a good impression of the environment that the book is set in.

The second book, The God of Broken Things, begins about three months after the events of the first book.

In this book, things have changed for Edrin Walker. Whilst he still isn’t totally accepted due to his magical abilities, he is more accepted. In fact, he has become something of a hero. Even though he didn’t mean to be.

In this book, we see him hunting down the agents of the Scabarous, the alien threat that wants to crush human kind. Instead of being hated by the Arcanum, he finds that he is now an agent and is employed to maintain the safety of the land.

He is ordered to put together a coterie of agents to go to the lands of the clans in order to gain assistance to fight the Skallgrim, the barbarian invaders from the first book. Reluctant to go into the land of the clans, Edrin defies the orders of the Arcanum and puts together a ragtag group of criminals to accompany him.

This second book stays with some of the characters from the first book, but introduces us to some new characters, including Edwin’s grandmother, a fearsome druid of the clans who has plans for Edwin that he wants no part of thank you very much.

In this second book, Johnston has the time to slow the pace a little bit and we get to see some more character development.

Whilst, the book is slower in pace though, giving us time to get some world building and history of the world in which the story is sett in. Additionally, we get to learn more about Edwin’s past and where he actually came from.

Now whilst I enjoyed both books immensely, I do have a bit of a bit of criticism for this second book. Whilst there is some emotional development of the main character, there needed to be some variation in describing his emotions as the only way that he expressed his emotions was by grimacing.

This description of Edwin’s emotional state became increasingly irksome as I made my way through the story as I listened to the story read by Paul Woodson, who on the whole did the narration brilliantly. Except for his particular way of pronouncing the world grimace. Every time he did it, it grated on my nerves, and due to the fact that it was irritating the hell out of me, its use became more pronounced, and let me tell you it was used A LOT. To the point that I just thought that our hero spent most of his time gurning his way through the story.

However, this did not spoil my enjoyment of the book on the whole, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes a fast paced, action packed story. However, be warned, if you don’t like your fantasy filled with the F – bomb (Me personally? I love a bit of swearyness), then this may not be for you.