Summary:
When he is hired as the champion of the noble Urwilar family, Verhan knows that his main job is to fight the other families’ champions to settle political disputes. What he doesn’t count on is the beautiful Mistress Morani, his sponsor’s daughter, as she puts him up against the most formidable opponents to prove his worth. As he struggles to win her favour, he lands in the middle of a secret war between the nobility and the criminal underground of a very dangerous city. Caught between these two opposing conspiracies, he finds that winning duels as a champion is the least of his problems.
Review:
City of the Seventh Moon by Antano Sparreboom is a quickly paced tale full of action, a bunch of political intrigue, and a smattering of mysteries. In such a short tome (around 300ish pages) there are plenty of things going on. I found the crux of this plot to be interesting and that’s not because of the political intrigue and constant backstabbing that we usually see in these types of stories, but rather in that the main character (and predominate POV) is a duelist/champion, not the stabber of said backs.
Verhan, the duelist, is an enigma for most of the story. He’s a badass fighter (who fights with a quarterstaff no less, I mean who doesn’t love a good quarterstaff whipping major butt?), fairly intelligent to the greater nobility game of betrayals, and an astute, albeit grudging mentor. I found Verhan to be both compelling and perplexing because of how close to the vest he plays his cards, aka his past. But when his past is finally revealed, it all made sense. I thoroughly enjoyed following his arc.
The other two main characters to discuss are siblings Tentar and Morani Urwilar. Tentar is the sterotypical (at least for most of the book) male heir who thinks he is better than he really is, smarter than he really is, and cooler than he really is. In reality, he is brash (he starts a fight countless times), an unwanted problem for his family (his sister basically shuns his help), and is nothing but a strong arm (fights like an uncouth barbarian in the ring). Until he befriends Verhan. Once Tentar comes down from his own lofty beliefs, he is actually a really fun character and his growth was my favorite of the story. Morani is quite the opposite. She is calculating, manipulative, and single-minded in her goal to make the Urwilar family strong. You never truly knew where Morani stood as the plot progressed and I liked that.
This book is chock full of action and fight scenes, and this is where Antano Sparreboom shines. Which is a good thing because a story about a duelist needs to have the fight scenes be top notch. Because there are so many fight scenes, the possibility of them becoming repetitive and rote can be high. Luckily, each duel is different than the last, especially as Verhan is pitted against better and better opponents. I really enjoyed the very martial art style of fighting Verhan uses, it is far more interesting than a regular sword v sword fight. It made the feints and parries far more visceral. Also, I need to shout out the fact that Verhan loses in this story and that is a smart choice because we get a lot of character moments post loss. That type of stuff is far more interesting than someone winning time after time.
The prose of this story is quite strong, not flowery with purpleness. As mentioned, the pace is really quick but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a number of quiet/intimate scenes between characters, which is very important for this type of story. The plot is very focused and never lulls or deviates, which, again, is a plus. If I had any gripes, it would be to have more scenes of Morani, maybe even as a POV because I thought she was very interesting and I’d like to see more (maybe this will happen in the sequels).
All in all, City of the Seventh Moon was a great read. One that is sure to ratchet up the action and tension in book 2. CotSM is also a contestant in the SPFBOX competition, so give this story some love and check it out!