Review: The Source of Strife by Alex Arch

Blurb:

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Only stolen.

Mages feed on catalysts like Dinnie to enhance their spells, and since she’s the most formidable weapon alive, they will stop at nothing to control her. Even her parents, leaders of warring realms, wage a battle for her custody, imprisoning her to prevent the other from gaining the upper hand.

No more.

For the first time, Dinnie isn’t alone. With the help of Ghost, a glum deserter shackled to his past, she intends to flee this madness. But as they witness the horrors unleashed to retrieve her, one thing becomes clear: Her parents will never abandon their claim.

Death and destruction follow in Dinnie’s wake, and she must decide if her freedom is worth the cost.

With a unique magic system and engaging characters this epic fantasy with a dash of western is the perfect read for fans of Red Dead Redemption and Brian McLellan.

Review:

Oh boy, was this a fun book to read. Yes it’s been a while since my last review but I’m back now, I think. As for the book itself, I got drawn to it via the fact that like me, the author likes memes. That was also the first interaction we had. From there, I had a blast reading the book itself, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Before I get into the rest of the book, if I had to sell this novel to a western-loving fantasy enjoyer, I’d say this to them:

“Dinnie is a trophy passed back and forth between her warring parents, and that doesn’t change when she meets Ghost. But maybe it’s the last time? Care for more?”,

and like always, what is said there is but the tip of the iceberg, with Dinnie having the power to increase the power of all those who use magic as well as the fact that Ghost is a ball of trauma that is somehow rolling about and surviving after who knows what.

So first off we have the characters, Dinnie and Ghost. Dinnie is the daughter of two rulers, with an almost endless well of power within her that others can draw from. Which is why both her parents are waging war against each other over who can have her. It’s a bleak life for her, but when her father has her mothers own soldiers kidnap her, she embarks on a journey that will change her life forever. Meanwhile, Ghost shows up on behest from one of the traitors that “liberate” Dinnie, and his life, likewise, is changed, more or less. They both have excellent character development, and the character interaction between the two feels like Geralt and Ciri from the witcher but with a lot less swearing and a lot less blood. It works, unsurprisingly, well together.

Then, there’s the plot. And like most books, there’s the opening, hullabaloo and shenanigans, and then the end. But there’s enough there in that middle part that made it feel somewhat separate from other sci-fi and fantasy novels. The fact that Ghost has revolvers aside, the magic of the world alone, the source, is enough to create half of the chaos. The other half is created by the interest that the two kingdoms have in Dinnie, what with her apparently abundant well of power. That’s where the shenanigans get very interesting, since Dinnie wants to live a life free and meanwhile Ghost is just… vibing. Doing his thing. Being supportive at times, but other times being a nuisance. Fun times for the two. Earlier I mentioned Ghost uses guns. Which can be seen in the cover. But that’s the thing… everyone else just uses the source normally. Throughout the entirety of the plot, those weapons are just as an anomaly as the travel log that the two main characters have. Which just adds even more hullabaloo to the chaos. ‘Twas nice.

After that, well, we have the world building. And we have a map. It’s good, I like the magic system being a balance of systems. One generates magic, the source if you will, and the other takes. Plus add any and all elements to the list of those who can use the source as a weapon or defense. It gets wild real fast. Are you being hunted by a fireblasting source user or the gravitational source user? Your life might be safer if being hunted by the fire source user, believe it or not. Just need a lake and a boat. As for the map, we can clearly see the two kingdoms, the border and some more phenomena that are in line with source magic being too overused. In that regard, it already gives us a lot of information before we go into the story, and from there, a reference point to the long and twisted road that the two have

However, if I had to critique one thing, I’d have to say I wished it were longer, with more time spent in areas, and not just fleetingly hopping from place to place. Yet that opinion is my own, and in that regard, you’d have to read the novel yourself to see where I’m coming from, and only then could you either disagree or agree with me.

As always, thank you for reading this review if you’ve gotten this far, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read. If not, don’t fret, we have more reviews on the site for any genre imaginable, at least with the volume of reviews we have. As for where to start, feel free to follow this link to a random review on the site for a novel/novella. It might be your cup of tea, it might not. One never knows until they try.

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good noon and afternoon, good evening and good night.