Krystle Matar's Legacy of the Brightwash is a book I've slept on for too long, but I'm glad I finally read it.
It's increasingly hard to find good fantasy reads these days, as it almost seems that I've exhausted the trove of good ones, only now struggling through the genre's dregs. So, it makes me happy when, once in a while, I stumble upon good recommendations such as this.
Legacy of the Brightwash is a dark fantasy story mainly told from the eyes of Tashue, a war hero turned cop of a Dominion that uses the supernatural talents of a special category of its populace to power its steam industry.
All is well in Tashue's city until the day the corpse of a youth washes up on the banks of the Brightwash. What happens afterward is a chain of grim events, each more significant than the last, that will shake Tashue's formerly unwavering faith in his government and the law.
And, what will he do, caught between his desire to free his son from the Rift, a cornerstone of the institution he helped build, and the proddings of the elite seeking to use him for political gain, even as revelation after revelation makes him question everything he stands for?
Legacy of the Brightwash is a delightfully written, grimdark, steampunk story with a surprisingly well-written romance subplot.
Dark fantasy isn't typically synonymous with dewy-eyed characters, but the author cleverly positions this element as a much-welcome backstory alongside the expectedly tenuous and grim main plot.
It's all so brilliantly done!
The romance between Tashue Blackwood and Stella Whiterock aside, the story is quite engrossing for the first half of the book until things slow for a bit before the climax in the final few chapters. That's not bad pacing, in my opinion, but I felt that there was more than enough going on for the author to weave the threads of intrigue as thickly from start to finish without slowing down the intensity.
Still, it's a great read!
The author's writing style is dialogue rather than narrative-heavy, which, coupled with the relatively simple writing style, makes for a very easy read, especially with the mushier scenes.
There are also a number of interesting secondary characters, even if I feel that we ought to have seen more of Ismael Saeati.
As good as Legacy of the Brightwash is, you get the feeling the closer you come to the end of the read that everything in the book is but a teaser of more exciting things to come in the next book.
I'll certainly be reading it!
