When a minor YouTube celebrity announced his first book, having watched a few of his videos, I decided to give it a go, and it certainly managed to exceed my (admittedly low) expectations.

I found the first few chapters a little tough to get through. There’s a lot of telling and not very much showing, and the main character is made to talk to himself, like he was addressing the audience, leaving the fourth wall well and truly battered.

Once you get over the main character’s frequent expository self-talk, there is a lot to like. The setting is well thought out, and the world building is well done. The inspiration from Brandon Sanderson is hard to miss, but those fond of Sanderson, that is not a bad thing.

The main character is a bit of a conflicted mess. His quick mood swings from broken, repentant wretch to savage torturer and butcher strains credulity, and when his past evil deeds are discussed, it strains credulity. I found it neigh-impossible to think of the evil “Dayless” and the protagonist “Daylen” as the same person.

And then there’s all the sex talk. Puerile quotes like “Daylen was already sick of the blackened, unprovoked, and rather conspicuous erections he had been getting.” get a bit tiresome with repetition. You wonder why the author found the frequent penis-talk necessary to include, since it doesn’t really add anything to the story. And then there’s all the rape-talk. Most of the evil discussed in the book is centered on rape and rapists getting their comeuppance. And while rape is truly evil, it’s a little weird that it is such a focus of the story and murder, torture and genocide gets reduced to footnotes in comparison.

That all said, the story is engaging and the characters interesting. A good read, looking forward to reading the sequels. ( )

I am a bit biased toward this book, being a fan of the author's YouTube channels. That said, I think most can enjoy the story written here. The protagonist, Daylen, has a history that would put him as the antagonist in his youth. Now having been defeated and left to contemplate his crimes, Daylen waits for his end before a freak accident gives him a chance for redemption.

Brooks' world and characters feel alive with the little quirks in their actions, such as Ahrek's dad jokes or Cueseg's refusal to eat with utensils. Daylen can be melodramatic at times, but these moments aren't drawn out. Though largely fantastic, the setting has a slight sci-fi feel at times with some swashbuckling action thrown in for good measure. There are some heavy topics discussed in this book, but Shad doesn't make light of them.

Brooks has mentioned being a fan of Robert Jordan, and it shows. The world is varied with different peoples having distinct cultures and appearances. The interactions between characters of different backgrounds help explain why some characters are the way they are. The main weakness in the writing is the info dumps in the earlier chapters explaining how the magic works, notably Daylen's. While it is believable that Daylen would experiment with trial and error, these sections can be a bit tedious. These are kept in the beginning, and later explanations gain the benefits of having experienced users.

Overall a this is a fun book about the redemption of a fallen hero. Hopefully we get more stories in Everfall. ( )

It took me a while to understand the world and how it worked, but the story was quite good and turned out as I would have expected, so there is that. My son recommended this one and said that there is a GoFundMe project to film a short film of this story. ( )