Book Review: Servant of a Dark God by John Brown

Overall Rating: 4 stars (Really Liked It!)

I’m coming to the party kind of late on this one. Servant of a Dark God made its debut two years ago. The sequel, Curse of a Dark God, is in the works.

I met John Brown at LTUE when he did a presentation titled “How do Get and Develop Killer Story Ideas”. It was, to this date, one of the most helpful writing presentations I’ve seen. But back to his BOOK:

Servant of a Dark God is an Epic Fantasy, with quite a few Dark-Fantasy elements. It follows several character viewpoints, my favorite of which is Hunger; a kind of anti-hero composed of dirt, roots and multiple souls. Talen is the most frequent viewpoint; a young man raised with prejudice against Sleth (unofficial magic users), who begins to find out that his family has a long history of… Slething? Slethnessmanship?

The book is a fantastic read, and moves along quickly. There is never a moment in the book where something isn’t moving, or something isn’t at risk. Some of the familiar Epic Fantasy tropes are there, such as the young protagonist with undiscovered power. They provide an easy way to root yourself into the book, so you can hold tight when John twists them on their head.

I love a good Epic Fantasy once in a while, and John Brown delivers. Fantastic debut!

Content

Age: Marketed to Adults

Language: Nope.

Violence: Yes.

Sex: Mentioned. A conversation between two teenage boys. (Come on, we know teenage boys…)