Tome Of The Undergates

Another one of those grimdarks that borrows heavily from the Joe Abercrombie style of it. But, perhaps a bit much of it. If you like your world bleak and dirty and  your heroes complex and violent, you'll enjoy this tale.The problem is that it's a world that's all to dark and the characters all to gray. It's a world without any sort of redemption at all. The characters are all unhappy and completely dislike each other which is not necessary a rare thing in a grimdark book, but there's very little to empathize with as a reader. While it's fine and dandy to create a dark world with dark characters, there needs to be something for the reader to emphasis with. Other books that feature bleak unhappy heroes -- such as Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy or Richard Morgan's A Land Fit for Heroes, are also books with a lot of darkness and unhappiness -- but there's still something to root for in their heroes or quest. With Sam Sykes work, there is almost nothing to like with his characters. Still, if you are on the prowl for subversive grimdark gone too far, with decent writing, and a world ending plot to thwart, with grim heroes thrown together out of necessity, this book does deliver on that premise.