Review: Blood and Empire by James Maxwell

Disclaimer: I received an advanced reader copy of this novel through NetGalley.

At this point, being a series is almost a requirement for the fantasy genre. It’s difficult to find a standalone book at all. For the most part, that’s fine and I can understand it. Authors spend a long time building their worlds and figuring them out that it feels a little wasteful to just do one book. However, the issue with a series is that some can take some time to get really good and the first in the series ends up feeling like an extended prologue.

This is the case for Blood and Empire by James Maxwell. It’s the first in The Gateway Saga and is centered around the Eternal Empire and its control of magical gateways that allow people to traverse great distances quickly. It has everything you need for an epic fantasy series: magic, nobles, and intrigue. There are multiple characters from different places and socioeconomic backgrounds who are becoming big players in the grand story.

Much of the book is concerned with putting characters into the places that they need to be for the story to really start ramping up, and for most of the read I wondered whether that was necessary. As the beginning of a series, I’m intrigued. It has enough going for it that I might read the next one just to see what happens, but as a single novel it just feels a little flat. There’s a few minor gripes that affected the enjoyment for me. Many of the characters are referred to by their full names regularly, which starts to feel a little silly after the fifth time, and some of the dialogue can be on the nose. It would have been nice to see characters communicating through subtext and things not said.

As a fantasy novel, Blood and Empire is fine, and for anyone who is just looking for an interesting fantasy world, it will fit the bill. I think it has something going for it, and anyone who is able to look past the flaws and appreciate the story as it is will enjoy it.

Book Details

Author: James MaxwellLength: 349 PagesGenre: FantasyBlood and Empire releases March 11th see jamesmaxwell.com for details.