An Affinity For Steel by Sam Sykes collects
The Aeons Gate Trilogy which includes
the three titles Tome Of The Undergates, Black Halo,
and the third book, The Skybound Sea. It also includes a very
short preview of the first book in a series that spins off and is titled The
City Stained Red.
This series is based on the premise that a group of
adventurers, all misfits (always misfits because rational people never do these
sorts of things) seek to retrieve a tome that can be used to access heaven or
hell. Having been hired to get the book and thus get paid very well, they just
have to find it and bring it back to their client. Of course, that means they
have to fight various demons and many other folks along the way. They also have
to prevent a demon queen from rising out of the ocean and turning everyone into
frog people. One really does not want to become part of the frog people.
The team consists of the swordsman (Lenk), the
archer (a Shict who is basically some sort of cross between a monkey and an
Elf), a barbarian (a six-foot-tall dragon man—and is exactly what it sounds
like), a wizard, a priestess, and a rogue. Featuring plenty of action and humor,
this series was quite good.
It did seem unnecessary long at times and repetitive
at points. It also suffers from the problem that a lot of the drama in the
series could have been avoided if people just talked to each other. This book
features a lot of POV changes, so, at times, it can be unclear whose
perspective the read has jumped into since the author choose not to make things
clear for the reader. All the characters have a unique way of talking and
thinking so usually one can figure it out on the fly, but it is a distracting
issue.
This series is primarily built on the themes of
faith, the price of memory, what is your purpose, where do you belong, and what
does it mean to be part of a people. The villains range from sympathetic to
absolute monsters in this engaging read. This is adult read with plenty of
violence and lots of death.
Overall, I enjoyed the series despite the above
noted flaws. Humor is major part of the book and that humor may not strike
every adult reader as funny. An Affinity For Steel by Sam Sykes is
a massive book of 1472 pages so it is a lengthy read.
An Affinity For
Steel (The Aeons Gate Trilogy)
Sam Sykes
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/contributor/sam-sykes/
Orbit Books (Hachette
Book Group)
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sam-sykes/an-affinity-for-steel/9780316309639/
June 2016
ISBN# 978-0-316-30963-9
Paperback
(available in eBook format)
1472 Pages
My copy came from the Central or Downtown Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2021
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