This is copy of my review post on the amazon page of this book earlier in the year.

An engaging and intriguing debut novel from a new author I look forward to reading more of in the future. With a wonderful mix of classical fantasy elements in some places and thoughtful deconstructions of often unquestioned genre hallmarks in others.

The plot is simple but effective. I can see how someone could read the opening it and find it generic but the idea has become generic for a very good reason and its not long into the book before a very interesting development pulls the plot in a new direction. I won’t say more here but by the end the story has moved so far from it’s original starting point it feels like the somewhat formulaic opening is used deliberately to juxtapose against the ending.

The characters are very enjoyable to read and wildly varied. Between several points of view we’re given lot of information about the world, events of the story and what has already happened to bring the world to this point. While a good number of characters lean into certain well-trod archetypes none feel like stereotypes always having the personality to carry them through to being enjoyable. To me this shows a lot of thought from the author has gone into who the characters are when they’re not on the page and makes them feel like people making real decisions rather than necessary plot components. This is especially impressive given some of the more powerful magical characters could have fallen into that trap very easily.

A lot of the themes I took away from the book was around power and who should wield it. While certainly not an unknown topic to explore within fantasy the book seems very interested in how these ideas could intersect with a more high fantasy setting than I’ve seen before. With beings so powerful in some ways and utterly useless in others what it the right way to treat these imbalances? Is it better to hide power or display it openly? To make rules clear for everyone to know or hidden from all but the few to prevent ignorant dabbling? How does the history of the world effects people’s ideas of the answers to these questions?

And now we come to my favourite part of the book the world building. I’m always sucker for good world building an interesting idea or new twist on an old one can entertain me immensely and this book has those in spades. I’ve only read it once but I’m considering reading and making notes on this with so many great ideas peppered across the pages. What’s more most are delivered from characters rather than a narrator so idea of bias and mis-information creeps in which I always find more interesting. I doubt all the little questions I have about throwaway comments and the like will be answered in follow-up books but some probably will and I look forward to those answers plus many more questions besides.

In conclusion if you read a fair amount of fantasy Oathbound has a lot to offer, new ideas and new spins on old ones, a world full of life and depth and characters that are just a joy to spend time with. If you’re not that familiar with fantasy some of its idea might go over your head but there’s never a bad time to start learning and you could find much worse teachers out there. I’ll be awaiting the sequel with excitement and if you get a copy yourself I’m confident you will too.

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