I really enjoyed all the Spellslinger books and loved the character of Ferius so was really excited to get books all about her. But this was so hard to read, there was so much awfulness that I found it hard to keep reading and almost left it a few times.

I delighted to receive an ARC of this book and return to this fabulous world.
It wasn’t actually the story I was expecting but I absolutely devoured and loved every second, from its grim murderous beginning to the pure delight it turns into, if you are expecting the same as Spellsinger don’t , but you won’t be disappointed at all. This is a bit darker than the original books , but you should expect this as it’s covering trauma and abuse. But it it’s still full of warmth, wit and familiarity. Definitely read the spellsinger series first before you read this

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

If you’ve been pining after Castell’s Spellslinger series, this is the perfect antidote. It follows the backstory of Ferius Parfax – an initially grim tale of murder, revenge and rage that turns into a genuine delight when Durrell shows up. If you haven’t read the series, you can enjoy this prequel in its own right without going there first. If you have read them, no doubt you’ll enjoy Ferius’ story as much as I did.

I have absolutely loved the Spellslinger series by Sebastian de Castell, so I was more than excited to see that this prequel duology was being released. This takes place many years before the Spellslinger series, and tells the story of the childhood of Ferius Parfax, Kellen’s Argosi maetri, Starting from the age of seven, we follow Ferius’s journey towards becoming an Argosi, her interactions with Jan’tep mages, and her journey around the continent..
This is much darker than the Spellslinger series, starting with a series of rapid deaths and encompassing kidnap, torture, and references to genocide. Ouch,
De Castell has an excellent grasp of voice, and Ferius has a very distinctive narrative style. Seeing the cool, collected mentor as an angry, bewildered, and vengeful child into teenager is an entirely different aspect of a character I hugely enjoyed in her first appearances, and this book does a really interesting job of expanding on her history, her world, and her experiences.

Way of the Argosi is, however, lacking something of the charm of the Spellslinger series. Perhaps it was the absence of a wisecracking squirrel cat (although there was a scene with a butter biscuit heist) judgementally commenting on the actions of the main character, but I found I didn’t quite enjoy this as much as the original series.
That said, a book which isn’t quite as good as the Spellslinger series is still a very enjoyable book, so I thoroughly enjoyed this and will look out for the sequel with eager anticipation. The book is also augmented by beautiful illustrated cards which section the book into different Ways. Overall, a definite win.

Ferius was one of my favourite characters in the SPELLSLINGER series, a confident woman of secrets, a teacher with age and wisdom that could only have been gained from long (practical) experience. As soon as I heard that she was getting a book of her own, I knew I had to read it!

It was such a delight to return to this world, to see the origins of a beloved character. The world Ferius inhabits somehow managed to be even seedier than the one Kellen finds himself in. We get to see what took her into the path of the Argosi, and how she fought the rage. We get to see her learning the way, and why she teaches Kellen that way (despite knowing it to be VERY frustrating!)

It's not the story I was expecting from the hints given in the other books, being a fair bit darker, but with the same episodic nature of the books, the major plot of that act largely wrapping by the end, but with just enough left hanging to continue.

Ferius is a very unreliable narrator. At the start, there are discrepancies pointed out, uncertainties the attention is drawn to. They fade a little from prominence as the story goes on, but they're always there, niggling. Something isn't quite right. The way it was brought into and explained as part of the ending was a lot of fun.

I was a tad confused by the ending, not quite sure why the mage who helped them did. It was quite a pivotal thing, this woman switching sides, because the trick at the end only worked because she sided with them. Maybe I missed something, but it felt to me like there wasn't enough explanation so it came across as rather a deus ex machina.

First up – what order should you read these books in? Do you go for the original series first (if you haven’t read them already) or do you start with #0.5?

I personally feel like reading the original six books in the Spellslinger series and then reading this is probably a better time than doing it the other way around. While this does take place chronologically ahead of the original books there are a fair few references to peoples and places that aren’t explained in the kind of detail you get in the original series. I don’t think that it would spoil the original series that much (maybe book one?) but it just wouldn’t be the wisest course of action in my opinion.

If you have read the original series and you’re wondering if a re-read is necessary my gut says no – provided you have a good enough memory of the very basic politics and alliances that make up this world at the start of the first book. I do recommend rereading the series anyway because it’s a good time but I wouldn’t say it’s essentially particularly if you aren’t in the mood for a six book saga right now.

Prequels are always a bit interesting, I think it may have been Neil Gaiman who said that he doesn’t want to write prequels because they can’t really go anywhere – the characters can’t have their issues resolved by the end because we know they have issues in the original story. So I was cautious going into this – I thought it might be ok given that we were following a character who does kind of have her life together (for a given value) in the original series so maybe this would be ok?

I wouldn’t say I didn’t enjoy reading this book, it was certainly interesting to build on the knowledge we have of both Ferius Parfax and the Argosi in general – and getting additional backstory is always something that’s good to have. The book was well written and apart from one moment of ‘ooh maybe we could have found a different word for ‘spirit animal’ given that is a thing in the real world that is deeply misunderstood and appropriated’ it was a good story.

I think perhaps the fact that I had just re-read the entire series did this book a disservice. Because, at least in this installment of the prequel (there is at least one more coming) there just isn’t the humour that really sells the original books. I mean I understand why, we’re seeing this character in such an angry and traumatic time it would be odd if she were already wise cracking, but the original series manages to balance those darker moments with more humour and while either is fine on it’s own when you put them back to back it’s a little bit jarring.

Which makes this rather hard to review because, on it’s own, this is a good book, a good story with a good character but in the context of the wider series it just didn’t quite feel like this fit? I’ll be interested to see what the next installment is like and if it bridges the gap a little better but for the most part I was left with the feeling of ‘this is perfectly fine but I’m not sure why it needed to exist’. I think what I want more than anything is not Ferius Parfax’s backstory but just a spinoff where she gets to be amazing – because we know she gets there!

If you’re a huge fan of this series you’ll probably pick this up anyway and I think you’ll have a good time if you aren’t expecting a similar tone to Spellslinger. If you were on the fence about the series you might love this – if what you wanted was more grit and less grin? It’ll be more of a personal choice than anything else.

My rating: 3.5/5 stars (could very easily go up to a 4 if the second one fits in well)

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

The Way of the Argosi is out April 15th!

Way of the Argosi follows the backstory of Ferius Parfax, a character from the Spellslinger series - we follow her growing up and the start of her journey to become an Argosi. We start the book following her after her family has been murdered by Jan'Tep mages (fuelling Ferius' rage and hatred) then she gets taken in by a couple of knights, who teach her briefly before they unfortunately die, she then turns to the streets and joins a gang of thieves, before finally meeting Durral, an Argosi who endeavors to try and mentor her in the ways of the Argosi.

I really liked the mentor relationship Ferius had with Durral, in the Spellslinger series she is the mentor character so it was nice to see her take on the role of a trainee. Ferius is quite hot-headed and impatient with Durral's teaching style, but we slowly see her start to take the principals of the argosi on board. Durral was also a great character (I always love a wise older mentor type who loves dad jokes), and I did like the character of Ala'tris at the end but other than that there were no other stand-out charcaters. Ferius and Durral's senses of humour also played of each other really well.

There is quite a lot of philisophical discussion in the book, which I enjoyed and definitely made me think a bit, I really like the Argosi ways and seeing them more in action here was interesting.

I don't think this book added a whole lot to the world, Ferius is an enjoyable character to follow but ultimately it still felt like an add on to a series rather than a book in it's own merit. I do think the plot was engaging though and I think it's still worth reading, especially if you enjoyed the orginial series and/or liked Ferius as a character. I also appreciated how concise the book was, it didn't feel too short or too long and the adventures were fun to follow without becoming a drag.

Ferius has always been one of my favourite characters and getting to read this book has been a blast.
I absolutely love this series and the world it's set in and I've always wanted to follow Ferius as a main characters.

I really enjoyed her book, she's still amazing but it was so good to read about her journey and what she's been through, I absolutely loved reading about her.

I wouldn't recommend this as your introduction to the series but for sure recommend it of you want one more story in this world.

Ferius Parfax was one of my favourite characters in the SPELLSLINGER series so it's wonderful to have a prequel focused just on her. It's a little bit darker than the original series as so much of the subject matter is the exploration of trauma and abuse. But it has the author's trademark wit, warm characters, and even a brief appearance of a squirrel cat.

I think this could be read by both old and new fans of the series as it explains the world-building and magic system for those new to this world as well as including plenty of fun nods to the original series.

Review:

When Sebastian hit my TBR pile in 2014 it was as one of the most anticipated books of the year, and the Greatcoats series became one of my all time favourite series. So its very bemusing for me (still) that somehow i became distracted by life in 2017 and 2018 and missed the start of the SpellSlinger series and so fell behind and decided to shelve the series (while still collecting it) until it was done… Sebastian went one better than that for me (im sure he did it just for me…. just didnt realise it at the time) and released a prequel this year with Way of the Argosi and now he has me hooked again and i have a justified TBR pile reason to read the whole series.

Whilst the characters felt different and the place had changed and the back and forth banter of the greatcoats was no longer there, the underlying writing style and voice of the author, that had some entranced me was all still there and it was less that ten pages before i was hooked for good. The book at 384 pages should have been a couple of days of fun reading , but as it turned out it was one long solid stint and uncounted cups of tea in an utterly engrossing read.

Its impossible not to become emotionally attached to the lead character Ferius, to root for her survival, she has been hunted from childhood across the continent, abused, attacked, starved and near death and certainly a little crazy, she wants and needs revenge, yet into her life comes Durrel Brown, and a new way of looking at the world and what has happened to her, the changing perspectives were brilliantly done, the little plot redirections subtle and surprising, and the characters engaging, even the ones you wanted to hate. If the prequel is a masterpiece i cannot now wait to dive into the rest of the Spellslinger series….i Just need to get cracking because my most anticipated book of the year comes out from this master writer in Sept in the form of Play of Shadows

Hugely recommended

(Parm)