Summary:
“He ran like the monster he was. And the smoke followed.”
GIMLORE is a single mother and war veteran turned crime boss set on protecting her family and her town.
ORBERESIS is a petty thief pretending to be God to protect a terrible secret.
REDNOW is the world’s most feared mercenary, but his best days are behind him and there’s one job left to do.
In a world of dangerous monsters and devastating smoke magic, the seeds of war are being planted. Allies must be treasured and enemies defeated.
The Smokesmiths is a gritty epic fantasy series with a harsh world of smoke magic, alien creatures and ancient secrets where characters do their best to come out on top. Peace will not last.
Review:
The word ambitious gets tossed around a lot when talking about debuts. And this is one of those times where it is going to be thrown around. Seeds of War by João F. Silva is one of the most ambitious debuts I’ve read. Large in scope, high in stakes, and grand in its trappings, Seeds of War takes three characters that at first couldn’t seem more different and wraps them into a tale of greed, identity, and faith.
As far as the POV characters, I was particularly intrigued by Oberesis, a former character who stumbled upon a miraculous red orb and is now being hailed by many as “god, himself.” The maneuvering of his entourage and interactions in court were high points of the story for me.
In another kingdom the aged mercenary, Rednow, was equally compelling as he struggled with old age, being scammed, and choosing his successor while in the land of a people with a singularly unique culture.
I was a bit cooler on Gilmore, the de facto mayor of her settlement in the new continent made by Oberesis, as a lot of her POV seemed to be focusing on the exploits of others or the task at hand. However, Gimlore becomes inextricably linked to the fate of the others at the end of this story.
The things I enjoyed about this book were the main conflicts and the absolutely massive scale of the plot. I was reminded of the Trials of Ashmount by John Palladino, another dark fantasy debut with a global level of conflict. I enjoyed learning about the inner workings of the kingdoms and the cultural peculiarities of each region.
And though I’m notedly apathetic towards hard magic systems, I did find this one interesting. There seems to be a lot to explore and potential depth that made it easy to engage with and never felt overwrought. Smokesmiths can use burning herbs to augment their power at the sacrifice of the health of their lungs. A neat conceit and one I have never seen before.
As a whole, the worldbuilding was also excellent and provided interesting contrast for the characters as they maneuvered around the world and each other to get what they desired. The book’s pace is slower at the beginning as we get used to this world and its features, but makes up for it as we continue and get to understand the flow of things.
As for what didn’t work for me, it comes down to two things.
There were times I felt like the characters acted out of character or things went from nuanced to explicit too easily. I mainly felt this way about the forming of friendships at the end. It felt a bit too easy considering the lack of trust there was pages ago. Now, I could be over-critical here because there seems to be somewhat of a time gap, but it did feel a tad inconsistent.
The last thing that wasn’t necessarily a break for me, but is something I would be careful of as far as content warning is sexual slavery and horrific language surrounding the collection of slaves. I will say that the author doesn’t condone this behavior, but it was against my tastes as a reader, and in particular, the sexual dynamics on display were all ones that had massive power disparities (though I can think of one or two exceptions that are mentioned offhandedly). There was quite a bit of detail, but only for two scenes.
Overall, this is a great debut and shows a lot of skill, understanding, and balance. I can confidently rate this 4 stars and believe that future installments will rise to the occasion and potentially surpass this one.