For better or worse, The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath felt like a mix of Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I cannot say the characterizations and world-building was as engaging and intricately designed like these two, but if you are fan of these two series, I think The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath is working taking a try. Who knows, you might enjoy it more than I did.

This book was super unique and some how managed to incorporate some sci fi elements. It did feel a little heavily influenced by already existing franchises (I’m looking at you LoTR) which unfortunately I struggled to see past.

This is a new and refreshing addition to the fantasy novel genre. A little slow to start mostly due to a confusing array of ling, history, mystery, and theology of the story. Even at the end I had some questions regarding the backdrop of the world and its flavors. Moments of poetry and brilliance in the diction are there to find and to capture the imagination.
Full review on my YouTube channel.

This was a solid opening to a fantasy trilogy with a lot of complicated world building and solid characters.

It also told a contained story with a single arc completed, and while the ending does leave a lot of things open, if you were so inclined you could definitely just read book one.

The world is detailed and the writing kept me guessing - I did need to concentrate on this read, worried I'd miss key details if I didn't take everything in.

I'm looking forward to reading book two. My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really great debut novel from Ian Green, and I definitely enjoyed this journey of a read!
I found it to be a super refreshing quest of a novel, and I couldn’t help but root(loudly) for Flore on her quest to save her daughter.
It was super descriptive and had a little something for everyone. The world building was very comprehensive and I can’t wait to delve back into the realm the author created here.
4 ⭐️‘s.

Talk about epic fantasy! This is one heck of a debut from author Ian Green.

Monsters come with the storms...strange orbs hover in the sky and steal children away...different races must band together...fighters like Flore' and skein-weavers like her quiet poet husband are called up to fight against the growing dangers.

I absolutely loved the intricate worldbuilding, well-developed characters, and the details of their interactions.
I can't wait to read the next in this new series!

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for the ARC.

Sadly, I didn't enjoy this book like I was hoping. The book was VERY descriptive in places that didn't need to be. In my opinion, it could of been made a lot shorter than it is. I have a hardcopy of this book from a subscription box, but I don't think I will be keeping it.

Beautifully written story with solid character development. The combination of emotional and action scenes propelled this book along. I look forward to more from this author. Heck of a debut.

What a debut novel this is... there's quite simply just so much in this book and there's something for everyone too! It's about friendship, camaraderie, a mother's love whilst simultaneously being about hunting down kidnappers and killing those dastardly goblins.

There was something about Green's writing which made me feel like I was reading an epic set in somewhere akin to Tatooine due to the world-building and magic system. I have to admit at first it felt a bit daunting and I wasn't sure I could keep up and take it all in.

The multiple points of view narration worked really well in driving the plot forward and building intrigue interspersed with both real human emotional moments and action-packed fight scenes.

It was also really refreshing to read a fantasy novel where the protagonist is both a mother and married. They're usually 15 and on the biggest adventure of all time and it sometimes doesn't quite marry up. Whereas Green has give Floré a sense of purpose which keeps pushing her forward and there is something about her which makes you root for her.

I don't think this will be everyone's cup of tea but there was just something about the Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath for me which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This is the first book I read by this author and I think it was excellent.
It's gripping, entertaining and poignant.
You cannot help rooting for Flora and her quest to save her daughter.
Excellent world building and character development, good storytelling.
Can't wait to read another book by this author.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I'm really sad to say this, but The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath didn't work for me.

I want to take a moment to appreciate the cover and the font choice, because it attracted to me this book so much. I was also really interested in the storm and magic described in the blurb so I ripped through the book. One of the first things I noticed was the Scottish place names and dialect, so I got excited to see all the places I could spot. I really liked those additions. I would say that for a fantasy novel I wish more had been done with it. If you're creating fantasy words for things you could have thrown in a little more to build up your language. It just felt weirdly jarring to see all this perfect speech with no dialect apart from the occasional wee thrown in.

I struggled with how little expansion the world building got. Or more accurately, how weirdly placed the world building was in to the story. A world building concept, like the three types of magic users, would be named and used for 2/3s of the book with no explanation about the difference and just the barest context to figure out they're distinct peoples and enough information to guess at why for one of the three types. And then around 200 pages in it gets explained just because a new character asks about the difference? That happened with a few different things and a fair few others didn't get any explanation at all. I know you don't need everything spelled out and I certainly managed to make guesses based on context for most of it. But the amount of things left to figure out by yourself makes the story harder to follow and get invested in.

I didn't enjoy this one and can't see myself picking up any sequels.

What a fantastic fantasy book!

This book follows Flore as she is on a mission to save her daughter. There's monsters, mayhem, unlikely allies and tons of action! I really liked the writing- it flowed really well, and although there was a ton of world-building, it is to be expected for a first book in the series and I loved it so much! The made up curse words made me laugh, and overall I felt so many emotions reading this story. It truly touches your heart seeing what Flore goes through to save her beloved daughter. The pacing was fantastic and I can't wait to read more by this author! The cover is stunning and I hope to get my hands on a physical copy soon.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-arc!

"The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath" pretty much has everything you'd expect from a fantasy book (gods, monsters, action, etc.), and far more than you'd expect from a debut author. Above everything is one woman's quest to rescue her daughter, and it was hard not to become too emotionally invested in General Floré's journey - in fact, I've started using "rotstorm" as a curse word. I hope we get to return to this world (and the author's great writing!) at some point in the not-too-distant future.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH comes up the epic fantasy in the vein of classic fantasy! This is the sort of stuff I grew up on and am always on the look out for modern versions that dispense with the misogyny and racism that's "just a part of the world because of when it was written." This book fits absolutely into the modern "classic" epic fantasy. It's a joy to find books like this.

It has gods and monsters and a big bad to defeat. Magic and warriors and a quest-like central goal. The main character has a supporting cast drawn from various cultures and walks of life, drawn together by the shared goal of stopping the big bad.

The best description for the feel of THE GAUNTLET AND THE FIST BENEATH is chaos. Pure, unadulterated chaos - the sort you expect in D&D, where anything can and will happen. It's done in such a way that the seeming lack of magic rules (find the pattern, and go) and the proliferation of monsters really works, giving the book a frenetic urgency. Because it leans into the chaos, it manages to ride it rather than fall into a confusing mess despite the interludes in the past and the jumping around between characters spread across the continent.

This "revelling in chaos" feel comes across in the imaginative world too. There are these massive purple storms (rotstorms) that "seed" goblins and other creatures in the ground where lightning strike. Once they're formed in the "seed," they break forth to eat and kill, and generally cause problems. It was such a fun idea.

You can tell that, though this is the author's first novel, he's worked on short fiction and works for radio before. The chapters are really long, and have quite an episodic feel - catching up with a variety of story lines and pushing forwards toward a small in-chapter goal.

It's a really strong debut, and the start of a trilogy that I look forward to continuing.

While the descripion of this book really sounded like something I was going to love, in the end I felt kind of meh about it. There were so many things described in minute detail, that I felt like it was taking me forever to get through the story. Its told in dual timelines, and the one from the past really didn't interest me at all, and I mostly skimmed or skipped right over them.. I did love the characters though.. they are what really pushed me to finish the story. I just really needed to know if Flore ever found her daughter, or if Cuss get reunited with his brother.

This book is definitely more high fantasy than I normally read, so I think most of the issues I had are things that wouldn't bother other people. So if the synopsis sounds interesting, and you enjoy high fantasy books you should definitely check this one out.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc.

Rating 2.5

I am so happy to finally be done with this book. It took me over two weeks to finish—which is a long time for me. It’s way too descriptive in a lot of areas. I swear, every time someone saw a goblin, it was described in detail. Every. Time. However, there’s also the opposite of too many descriptions. Various words weren’t truly described at all. You could kind of glean a meaning out of context, but nothing was for certain (unless I totally missed it). This book had potential with the main storyline. There were different bits and perspectives that I felt weren’t really needed, but the baseline was solid. Floré, Janos, and Petron really held the story together. Theirs were the bits that I actually looked forward to reading. Unfortunately, there is just too much noise everywhere else. Of course, the story ended on a cliffhanger; I am doubting ill read the next book.

A classic style fantasy with all my favourite tropes and a cast of unforgettable characters. Very much looking forward to the sequel.

Just finished Ian Green's (@ianiangreen) debut novel "The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath." Shit escalated from real peaceful to "I'mma beat you to death and then drink tea."

Reasons to read:
-The world building happens gradually so the map is super handy when things expand.
-Animist gods are always cool (big ass wolf or bear as your diety? Sign me up)
-Honestly you can see the reason the antagonists are doing what they are... But you are still going to clip them.
-Artollen straight up tells people "I'm fretting my daughter back and if you get in my way *points at her certificate of badassery*
-Lizard person rage
-Character introductions surprised me because I was half convinced someone from a flashback was dead.

Cons
-It is the start of a series so you have to wait for more.
-Bring some beverages to pour out for the people met along the way.
-Some folks go unpunched.

Eyes sharp, blades sharper.

Ian Green has done a fantastic job world building and creating a unique magic system in The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath. I enjoyed reading about Floré, the flashbacks to her time in training and later, as she leads Yselda and Cuss on a quest to rescue her daughter and Petron and to fight the Ferron Empire.

I admit I was a little confused with the magic system initially but it all falls into place eventually and the ending has me intrigued to read the next installment. I was surprised that this had sci-fi elements strewn throughout which brought a different perspective to fantasy that I'm not used to but I actually found myself really enjoying.

Thank you to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for the opportunity to read The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath.

What really impressed me about The Gauntlet and the Fist Beneath was the characters, there’s a real heart put into these characters, particularly Flore the captain and mother and the 3 cadets, Yselda, Cuss and Petron, There is a really strong female voice in this book, something which you don’t find often enough in male written fantasy, or rather women are too typically just one thing. Flore is warrior, she’s brave, she’s a badass with gauntlets, she’s considered a legend, but she’s also a mother, a wife and is maternal and caring to her cadets. As a protagonist she has a range that makes you enjoy every scene she’s in.
Then there’s the cadets, aged between 13-15, brothers Petron and Cuss, while apart in the story, tell a beautiful story of love and family, and Yselda that of a young woman trying to find her way. Essentially these 3 are children forced into an adult situation and yet there’s a very clever line between showing their innocence and bravery and they you feel the, grow on the page. You really root for these characters, they’re incredibly endearing.
The only minor criticism is that occasionally elements are introduced quite long before they are properly explained, for example Ashbringer or the principles of Skein and the tattoos - the former character’s narrative was a little confusing and out of the blue before she was properly explained and interacted with the main characters. It’s a minor criticism though because you catch up with yourself eventually and it may just be that I personally need more help!

This is a wonderful debut with exquisite world building and action scenes, beautiful writing and all with characters you fall in love with. Thank you NetGalley for the review copy, I look forward to the next instalment