The Price of Fear by Miles Lyon
Overall Rating - 3.5
Emotional Impact Score - 3
Thought-Provoking Score - 2.5
Character Score - 3
Plot Score - 3
Worldbuilding Score - 4.5
Prose Score - 3
Because grief drowns reason.
I have… thoughts about this books. The book begins with an almost 1:1 Empire of the Vampire rip. Similar opening scene, similar premise. The singular thing this book has over Empire is the lack of Interview-style formatting. The magic system is genuinely good, I love where using magic has a physical consequence. The ‘Godless’ are given a magic and each of them have a corresponding physical component that they have to give up. Azrael kills people with a physical manifestation of fear and he has to give up his ability to feel anything.
That’s about the best part of this book, though. It’s marketed as a ‘dark gritty fantasy’ and… sure? I guess that’s true? There’s plenty of death and violence but it doesn’t make the world feel gritty and dark.
Thhe women in this book are a joke. The only time they’re included are to service men. Azrael is awful towards women. He only interacts with them if he gets something from them - whether that’s sex or for them to further his own power/goals.
There is also an obscene amount of hints and pokes about queerness. There’s almost an entire chapter in the latter half about how gross pegging is and how it makes the person receiving lesser than. On top of the bad women writing, it’s just another thing to add.
All in all - it was fine? I don’t really care to finish reading the series when they’re released. The best part of the book has been thoroughly explored (the magic).