Review: Shadow of a Dead God By Patrick Samphire

Blurb:

Fans of Jim Butcher and Scott Lynch will love this snarky fantasy mystery.

It was only supposed to be one little job - a simple curse-breaking for Mennik Thorn to pay back a favour to his oldest friend. But then it all blew up in his face. Now he's been framed for a murder he didn't commit.

So how is a second-rate mage, broke, traumatized, and with a habit of annoying the wrong people, supposed to prove his innocence when everyone believes he's guilty?

Mennik has no choice if he wants to get out of this: he is going to have to throw himself into the corrupt world of the city's high mages, a world he fled years ago. Faced by supernatural beasts, the mage-killing Ash Guard, and a ruthless, unknown adversary, it's going to take every trick Mennik can summon just to keep him and his friend alive.

But a new, dark power is rising in Agatos, and all that stands in its way is one damaged mage...

Third place in the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off 2020 (SPFBO6)

Finalist in the Book Bloggers' Book of the Year Award (BBNYA) 2021

Shortlisted for the Booknest Fantasy Award Best Self-published Novel 2020

Review:

This was a fun read. The story had practically all the ingredients I love to find in a fantasy saga. The storyline was gripping and moved fast at a breakneck pace - I binged the books back to back over two weekends. The world building was unorthodox with many novel elements and the plot was deep, with many tangents that converged in unexpected ways over multiple books. This is one of those stories that continue to defy your expectations at every turn. 

Coming to the characters, the focus of the story, as you might surmise from the series title, is Mennik Thorn - our mage for hire. Our immediately likeable protagonist is an unassuming mage who has given up a lot in life. He is content to take on odd jobs for clients, barely scraping by a living. But somehow, through twists of fate, he continues to get entangled in complex conspiracies among powerful players in the fictional city of Agatos. 

The book starts out with Mennik helping out a childhood friend, but the request that is initially presented as a simple task to break a curse devolves into a heist from one of the most powerful pages of the city. Through a chain of unfortunate events, this in turn, eventually leads up to them getting framed for murder. 

The city of Agatos, with its many flaws, many gods and many swindlers is beautifully described, and serves as a great backdrop for a story like this. While we don’t explore the world being built in depth just yet in this book, it serves as a great foundation for the other books to come in the series. In a city where crime runs rampant and the corrupt senate and city watch are happy to turn a blind eye as long as needs of the powerful are met, one needs to leverage every tool at their disposal to survive. Especially one like Mennik, who is neither content to align with one of the power players nor has an abundance of capital at his disposal.

‘Better overkill than be killed.’

What he does have though are friends like Benny and Sereh, who are colourful and interesting characters. And Mennik’s perpetual quest to do right by his friends is quite heartwarming. Even though these very same attempts often leave him bloody, beaten, and burdened with debts owed that will haunt him in the times to come. 

‘Benny went through locks like I went through a plate of cheese and olives after a long night’s ghost hunting.’

We explore the story from Mennik’s perspective. The monologue running perpetually in his mind is hilarious at times, and thought provoking at others. Mennik is not the most powerful mage, but is crafty and can maneuver through complex situations through esoteric combinations of fine control, deceit and bravado. He reminded me of Dresden and Alex Verus, and I found myself rooting for him from the get go.

While the storyline was quite innovative, I did feel that the plot of the first book hinged quite a bit on happenstance. Nevertheless, it had plenty of twists and turns and progressed at a pace that was not only enjoyable but left me wanting for more.

We will soon visit the next book in the series.