CHAINS OF THE HERETIC - Jeff Salyards


Chains of the Heretic is the third book in a trilogy - keeping alive my unfortunate streak of reading a later book in a series without having ever read the earlier books.

Captain Braylar Killcoin and his Jackal company have been sent to help the deposed emperor Thumarr recapture the throne. There are Imperial forces, however, intent on stopping the Jackals and Braylar's company will fight many battles in order to keep pressing on.  Unfortunately, they find themselves trapped in the Godveil, outnumbered, even for the Jackals.

Braylar resorts to using some obscure magic to help his company get past an insurmountable attack, only to come up against something even more terrifying.

For me, coming in on the last book in a trilogy, I found this to still be an accessible story.  The book manages to tell a complete story (it probably helps that this is the end of the trilogy) and I generally didn't realize that there was so much more to the story.  I did feel like there was a comfort about the characters that I wasn't in on and now I wish I had read the previous books to better make sense of the relationships.

I typically like these kinds of fantasy stories - I grew up referring to them as Sword & Sorcery books - and this definitely held my interest ... and at 500+ pages, that's pretty good.

Although I didn't mind it, I wouldn't recommend this as a stand-alone book.  Knowing now that this is the third book in a trilogy, I'd definitely recommend starting at the beginning and I hope to read the previous two books myself one day.

Looking for a good book? Chains of the Heretic by Jeff Salyards has all the makings of an epic sword & sorcery fantasy story, but as the final book in a trilogy, it is recommended to start at the beginning to really understand this group of characters and the world they inhabit.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

3 - 1/2 stars

* * * * * *

Chains of the Heretic

author: Jeff Salyards

series: Bloodsounder's Arc #3

publisher: Night Shade

ISBN: 9781597808132 

hardcover, 524 pages

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