Changes

The Celestial Church has all but eliminated the old pagan ways, ruling the people with an iron hand. Demonic gheists terrorise the land, hunted by the warriors of the inquisition, yet it's the battling factions within the Church and age-old hatreds between north and south that tear the land apart. Malcolm Blakley, a hero of the Reaver War, seeks to end the conflict between men, yet it falls to his son Ian and huntress Gwen Adair, to stop the killing before it tears the land apart – fighting mad gods, inquisitor priests, holy knights, and noble houses in battles of prejudice, politics, and power…

Tim Akers has written in fantasy genres before – having previously written a steampunk noir trilogy called ''The Burn Cycle''. This is his first step into the world of epic, heroic fantasy – think ''Lord of the Rings'' and the ''Wheel of Time''. New fantasy books seem to be coming out every day at the moment (which is a wonderful thing for me), but does mean that new fantasy series have to impress in order to do well, and bring something new to a genre with extremely well -established characters, tropes, and situations.

Thankfully then, ''The Pagan Night'' is an extremely good read – written in such a way that commands the reader to keep turning the pages. Ian and Gwen especially are entertaining companions for the reader, and there was certainly an appeal to setting out on an adventure with them. The worldbuilding too, is very strong – the cover and some of the names do initially suggest that this may be a series set in the 'generic Celtic fantasy world' that so often shows up in fantasy novels, but there is a rich history to be mined in future novels, and the supernatural elements too are intriguing, and I hope this will be explored well in the further two books of the trilogy.

Over allOverall, this is a strong start – although I feel the next two books in the series need to be truly outstanding in order to make this series that will fly off the shelves. I will, however, be more than happy to visit this world again, and thanks to the publishers for the copy.

For further reading, I would recommend [[Promise of Blood (Powder Mage Trilogy) by Brian McClellan]]. Incredible world -building, characters who capture both the imagination and the heart, and staggeringly scary foes. We think you might also enjoy [[Infernal by Mark De Jager]].