Scott's Take: An Affinity For Steel by Sam Sykes (The Aeons Gate Trilogy)

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