**DISCLAIMER** I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My opinions on the book changed several times over the course of reading it but in the end it earns a four star rating and a hearty recommendation to fantasy readers.
Where to begin? Well probably the beginning. At first, I was put off by the book dropping me into its fantasy world with little explanation or detail. I spent the first 20% barely hanging on to the facts of what I did or didn't know. But after that initial discomfort, the story really hit its stride.
I've read that Alex Marshall is a pseudonym for a well established writer and I think that's obvious from the style of the prose, if not from the initial shell shock of the surroundings.
The book has so many things going for it, but instead of following the usual fantasy tropes, this book really turns things on its head. The characters are all over the ace sexually. There are no graphic scenes in that regard but the freeness and openness exhibited by the characters towards the subject don't follow the usual limited rule game of nobility. The story also doesn't take place in an otherworldly Europe. It's kind of like if A Song of Ice and Fire happened all across the sea rather than in the seven kingdoms. The locales are varied and non traditional.
The story essentially begins when a regiment of the Crown visits a mountain village and slaughters a town - except for the one person they were really sent there to kill. The person they were supposed to kill? Her name is Zosia and twenty years prior to her village being massacred, she and her five lieutenants (the Five Villains) brought war down on the Crown as they sought to usher in a more egalitarian rule.
The massacre brings Zosia out for revenge and we get to meet her five former villains along the way. Chevalaresse Singh, a cavalry captain with an impressive mustache (a woman), Bang-Ho, husband to a King, Hoartrap the Touch, a sorcerer, Fennec, a sneaky bastard; and lastly, my total favorite, Moroto, a former junkie with a chip on his shoulder.
The villains all find out their old Cobalt Company has been reformed without them and is taking on the Crown yet again. There are so many minor players and ulterior motives. The big payoff doesn't appear in this first book so I have to expect to read it later.
By the end I bought into the story big time. I'm excited to read the next installment because as you can expect like every good fantasy novel, there is going to be a sequel.
4/5 Stars.
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