cpark2005 reviewed The Black Shriving by Phil Tucker
Review of 'The Black Shriving' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The Black Shriving is epic fantasy in the vein of Eddings and Brooks, with some Tad Williams sprinkled on for seasoning. Phil Tucker isn’t content to simply tell an interesting tale with high stakes, however. He sets these empire-shattering stakes in the midst of a brilliantly crafted and amazingly unique world that feels familiar in all the right ways while simultaneously offering fresh ideas.
I absolutely adore the world that Tucker has envisioned in these books. There are familiar pieces, certainly—knights, lords, ladies, pages—but these are set in a world where one must travel through Solar Gates in order to travel from one city/plane to another. This gets wrapped up in the religion of the world, as well. The dominate religious system believes that one’s soul ascends to the next plane when one dies and is reborn there, provided one’s behavior warrants it. Conversely, poor behavior might get one’s soul …
The Black Shriving is epic fantasy in the vein of Eddings and Brooks, with some Tad Williams sprinkled on for seasoning. Phil Tucker isn’t content to simply tell an interesting tale with high stakes, however. He sets these empire-shattering stakes in the midst of a brilliantly crafted and amazingly unique world that feels familiar in all the right ways while simultaneously offering fresh ideas.
I absolutely adore the world that Tucker has envisioned in these books. There are familiar pieces, certainly—knights, lords, ladies, pages—but these are set in a world where one must travel through Solar Gates in order to travel from one city/plane to another. This gets wrapped up in the religion of the world, as well. The dominate religious system believes that one’s soul ascends to the next plane when one dies and is reborn there, provided one’s behavior warrants it. Conversely, poor behavior might get one’s soul reincarnated one or more planes lower on the hierarchy. Wrapping the physical world building into the religious system is something that makes the whole setting feel both unique and authentic. In addition to the world build, Tucker has a way with writing action sequences that makes the fights leap off the page at you. They’re thrilling to read and keep you on the edge of your seat. The suspense of the battles is also aided by the fact that Tucker has really begun to flesh out his characters. I particularly enjoyed Audsley’s arc in this book, though there was growth on the part of each of the viewpoint characters. Finally—in terms of what I thoroughly enjoyed—this novel teases us with some tantalizing possibilities for the magic system. The concept of taint in magic could certainly be considered a trope after the Wheel of Time, but there are a lot of possibilities here and a lot going on. I can’t wait to see where Tucker takes things.
I have a couple criticisms. The first of those is that the pacing felt a bit slow for me in the early part of the novel, particularly in the second quarter of the novel. Things picked up again after the halfway point and rushed to a satisfying conclusion, but I felt like the second quarter had a different feel than the rest of the novel because of the slower pace. I also found it frustrating how the characters spend most of the story trying to hold to religious beliefs that don’t seem to align with what the actions they are currently taking. My issue with this was that none of the characters seemed to be particularly introspective regarding how their beliefs were obviously being revealed as false. This was partially alleviated during the endgame, but I just felt like Tucker could have added some interesting issues for his characters to wrestle with that would have helped us connect with them more.
Readers looking for their next big epic fantasy series should absolutely give the Chronicles of the Black Gate consideration. The Black Shriving is a great second entry for the series. Full of epic battles, important revelations, and characters striving against incredible odds, it quickly finds a comfortable place amongst one’s favorite epic reads.
4.0/5 stars.
5 – I loved this, couldn’t put it down, move it to the top of your TBR pile
4 – I really enjoyed this, add it to the TBR pile
3 – It was ok, depending on your preferences it may be worth your time
2 – I didn’t like this book, it has significant flaws and I can’t recommend it
1 – I loathe this book with a most loathsome loathing
