A huge thank you to Aria & Aries (Head of Zeus,) and NetGalley for the provision of the e-arc of The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath, the debut fantasy novel by Ian Green, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath begins with introduction to Floré Artollens, her husband Jonas and their daughter Marta as they live their peaceful country life, on a day that Floré, the local sergeant must leave to investigate a local issue. All appears peaceful and normal, but this peace is soon be shattered by the appearance of mysterious orbs in the sky. Floré finds herself facing the loss of everything that is dear to her including the death of her husband and the kidnapping of her daughter.

From this point forward the story explodes, Floré’s backstory is brought to the fore and the world that we are introduced to as a quiet, pleasant and beautiful environment is transformed into a landscape of bitter war, magic, conjuring and curses. The world building is very well constructed, including definition of the Gods that rule and fight and the small gods, and demons, but it is also paced to impact on view point as you read…I’m not going to share any more here, spoilers! The rules and structure of the magic system itself are also very interesting, and you aren’t force fed an a to z from the start, Green makes efforts to drip feed this as relevant throughout the story.

As a debut novel, this story in itself is absolutely fantastic and I for one will definitely be up for reading the sequel. However, there were a few points that niggled – the introduction of Ashbringer is a little too piecemeal and for my tastes maybe a little too early in the story; greater impact may have been achieved by introducing her at the key stage of the story.

I did feel that the pace of the story jolted from slow and steady into a gallop and remained at that point for the remainder of the book, with the exception of a couple of jolting stops, but for me it definitely added to the sense of urgency and need that Floré had to rescue her kidnapped daughter.

There is a lot to be said for this book and if you only pick it up for the world-building and magic system Green has created then you are in for a treat. I suspect that this book is just the first layer of the onion skin of this world and personally, I can’t wait to read more.

“She gripped herself hard on each arm. The hard layer was there, the layer she had worked so long to put away. Callousness, a brutality borne of necessity, a willingness to break and be broken to do what must be done…”

The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath, the debut fantasy novel of Ian Green, tells the story of Flore a Sergeant in the Forrest Watch who is enjoying the peaceful life. Flore must come to confront her past and the person she used to be when the appearance of mysterious orbs in the sky shatter the peace she has cultivated. In order to save what she lost Flore must become the person she thought she had left behind.

Flore Artollens previous commander describes her better in words then I can in this review. “When a hard job needs doing…you need a soldier who will work until the job is done. Artollen will put on her gauntlets and she will keep us safe, if she must kill Lothals ghost itself”. Flore is a fabulous lead character in this story and I loved reading her scenes. I found it a shame that this book includes multiple viewpoints because of how much I enjoyed her story and her development. Jonas Skein Wreck was another one of my favourite characters to read about.

This debut novel is not without some issues. I did find that there were some pacing issues in the first and second act of the story. Often I found the story jumping around a little too much to multiple points of view some of which didn’t seem relevant or contribute much to the story’s progression. I found fault with the character Ashbringer who gains her own small viewpoint twice within the first 70% of the novel which breaks the reader from the flow of the story up to that point. She makes a major entrance in Act 3 and I believe that would have been a perfect meeting point for this character that wouldn’t feel jarring.

Green has created a very interesting world and magic system within The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath. I really enjoyed reading about the rise of the Ferron Empire, dominating the world to their fall as the people of Ferron are punished by the god Anshuka. A punishment that leads to the creation of the Rotstorm and the motivation that drives the villain of the story. The Skein is a really interesting magic system to read about and just when you think you begin to understand the pattern Green demonstrates that you are really just skimming the surface of how magic can be used in this world.

Pacing issues in the first and second act of The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath are a little jarring but the story certainly finds its footing during act 3 that leads us to a satisfying conclusion and sets the stage for future visits to the world created by Green.