Blurb:

Welcome to the Five Isles, where war has come in the name of the invading army of Sør Sevier, a merciless host driven by the prophetic fervor of the Angel Prince, Aeros, toward the last unconquered kingdom of Gul Kana. Yet Gault, one of the elite Knights Archaic of Sør Sevier, is growing disillusioned by the crusade he is at the vanguard of just as it embarks on his Lord Aeros’ greatest triumph.

While the eldest son of the fallen king of Gul Kana now reigns in ever increasing paranoid isolationism, his two sisters seek their own paths. Jondralyn, the older sister, renowned for her beauty, only desires to prove her worth as a warrior, while Tala, the younger sister, has uncovered a secret that may not only destroy her family but the entire kingdom. Then there’s Hawkwood, the assassin sent to kill Jondralyn who has instead fallen in love with her and trains her in his deadly art. All are led further into dangerous conspiracies within the court.

And hidden at the edge of Gul Kana is Nail, the orphan taken by the enigmatic Shawcroft to the remote whaling village of Gallows Haven, a young man who may hold the link to the salvation of the entire Five Isles.

You may think you know this story, but everyone is not who they seem, nor do they fit the roles you expect. Durfee has created an epic fantasy full of hope in a world based on lies.

Review:

The Forgetting Moon is the first in the Five Warrior Angels trilogy by Brian Lee Durfee, and boy does it deliver the goods!

This story has the intricate world building and magically enhanced weapons usually found in a John Gwynne book, the religious overtones and the five ‘chosen ones’ theme I felt held similarities to Daniel T. Jackson’s Illborn, the political intrigue of Game of Thrones, and the dark and gritty writing of a Joe Abercombie novel, all in one!

Before you read any further, you should know that this book is dark, and I mean ‘chop a man into little pieces, shove a knife into his open wound to act as hands and place him alive into a box’ kind of dark… If that’s not your thing, I totally understand, and perhaps this book isn’t for you, but if it is, then you’re in for a treat!

I loved this book. It does have quite a steep learning curve, and it does throw a lot of heavy descriptions at you early on. This usually does deter me as I prefer to learn by experiencing the story rather than being told a bunch of information, but here, I found the information to not only be necessary, but very interesting. Fortunately, once most of the info is given, the story goes at a very fast pace and from then on, it’s a pure character driven tale. 

The characters in this story feel extremely realistic and well thought out. Each POV character has their own inner voice and their own cast of interesting side characters which I found were all unique and I came to care for each of them. What Durfee does different to most other books I read, is he makes the characters not actually very heroic, but rather leaves room for them to grow and leave the questions about their character and capabilities open to explore in the next two volumes. For me, this worked really well, as I didn’t particularly love any character, but I can see myself wanting to love them in future books, and also hating others. Nail, arguably the main character in the story, is pretty useless in book 1, but I found myself rooting for him anyway and genuinely excited about his potential, and that is what Durfee does really well, he foreshadows and makes you NEED to know how these character’s journeys end.

Beer Mug (dog) was my favourite character by far, but I swear to Laijon Brian, if you kill this pup after all of that, me and you are going to have words! 

If you love your classic books with elves (Valle), dwarves, orcs (Oghuls), Mermaids and you like your books long and full of gritty detail, then I highly recommend checking this one out!