A step into a land and time when evil lived freely among us. As this team comes together to bring such a one to justice, they must learn to free themselves from emotion or risk their anger feeding the evil as it grows.

This book was interesting in it's premise but overall boring. I found it difficult to get attached to the characters and struggled to finish it. This does not mean it was bad, as I was in a partial reading slump while reading this. However, if this was a series, I do not think I'd continue the series if I was offered the next book. I look forward to what Scott Kirk does next.

Dnf 10%

That writing style.... let's say it's not for me to put it gently.
The cover looks amazing and the idea is cool but not for me with how it's written.

The Mad Trinkets was kind of dissatisfying for me. The story wasn’t overly original or very well developed and the characters weren’t endearing m. The overall premise was good it just wasn’t cohesive enough or original enough to really stand on its own. I had a hard time finishing the book I wanted to like it but I guess it just wasn’t for me. I don’t want to drag it down with my lackluster review but I just can’t give it more stars.

Stars: 2.5 out of 5

I honestly don't understand all the 5 stars ratings and raving reviews for this book. I didn't see complex characters or well-realized world. All I saw was gratuitous violence, oversexualization, and very wobbly worldbuilding.

My biggest pet peeve is the worldbuilding, actually. I am a firm believer that in fantasy, you either create your own world with its own geography, mythology and religions, or you use our world, but very carefully. Then it's called alternative history anyway. What we have in this book is a complete mess. It's set up in the fictional land of White Cloud, where two kings rule and an evil Hungry King had been defeated barely a year ago. Of him, we don't know much. He was a cannibal, maybe? He had magic, maybe? Who knows. We never get any details on him apart from a few mentions... There is a tall mountain, and a city at the border of a vast desert, and maybe evil metal that fell from the sky. With me so far? Okay. All that is good. All that paints an interesting and fictional world...

And then we get the mention of God and Jesus Christ and real places like Jerusalem. One of the characters is a Norsewoman... who carries a katana. No, seriously, a real Japanese katana... and was given a Japanese name.

So are we in our world or some kind of invented one? If we are in the real world, then where exactly is this land of White Cloud on the map of our world? When are these events taking place in reference to our present time? And if it's NOT our world, why mention a religion from our world? Especially since it has no influence on this story whatsoever? Why give your Viking woman a Japanese katana? Again, it isn't relevant to the story. All it does is kick me out of the story and irritates me, because I can only suspend my disbelief so far.

The characters are also nothing to write home about. All the women are good and righteous, even in their anger and thirst for vengeance. Other than that, we are not privy to their inner thoughts or desires. All men are overly sexualized pigs... apart from a few obviously good guys who somehow overcome their base nature by the end. Again, we aren't particularly privy to their thoughts either. 

By the end of the book, I sincerely couldn't care less for any of the characters. I skimmed the last 10% of the book just to get to the end of the story. This hasn't become a DNF only because I was almost at the end and I was too stubborn to quit. Honestly, won't recommend this.

PS: I received an advanced copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

THE MAD TRINKETS – by Cameron Scott Kirk

‘When a madman resurrects from the shadows to exact revenge upon the land of White Cloud, they must join forces with a deadly assassin and a mysterious knight to save its inhabitants—and then kill the king.’

I would describe THE MAD TRINKETS as a Dark Horror Fantasy seasoned with dashes of well-placed humor for balance. I LOVE Kirk’s writing style; the following dark opening lines and the cover art set the stage perfectly as we delve into Act One:

‘The gibbet creaked in the wind, its rusty iron squeak unhurried—for the dead are always unhurried. Creak, squeak. The metal cage and its corpse slowly rotated one way, then another, in the sharp breeze coming from the Western Sea.’

I LOVE a book that centers around strong women, the likes of Warrior Princess Brynhild Grimsdott, Rebecca Occitane, and Amal Muna. The following line describes one of them, the moment when the reader is first introduced to one of these women, though I won’t tell you who—Love This:

‘The king’s soldiers all stared at the girl, their fear showing. Suddenly, she was no longer a fragile child. Now, Death sat on her blood-spattered shoulder, sharpening his teeth.’

CW – Sexual Violence

Thank You, NetGalley and The Mage’s Lantern, LLC, for providing me with an eBook of THE MAD TRINKETS at the request of an honest review.

The writing is good but the story is not very new. Men's minds are corrupted by contact with an alien metal. Worst affected are those who wear the ornaments forged from the metal. Mad and powerful, they fight themselves and the world seeking to reign. I found it to be a big yawn and didn't finish.

In Cameron Scott Kirk's jaw-dropping, grim fantasy adventure, a warrior princess, a scholarly monk, and a vengeful girl must defeat a madman possessed by a soul-corrupting metal to save the land of White Cloud.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I could not get into this book. I tried a few times and each time felt like I was pushing myself to pick it up so I didn't enjoy it. The writing is very good, I will say that, but I think it was the wrong time for me to read a book this dark. The premise and cover are awesome, and I wish I loved it, but it just wasn't the case at this time.

*I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

4.2 stars.

I have to deeply thank NetGalley and The Mage’s Lantern (the publisher) for granting me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is an adult dark fantasy novel about Tristan de Merlon and a group of his former war comrades, who discovered a cave just before going back home that contained some strange trinkets that would later show strange powers on their bearers.

Even though this book is character driven, I thought the plot was nicely threaded and clearly showed the logic order of events even though we don’t only have current events, but also remembrances from some characters that would allow us to understand certain reasons or the logic for specific behaviours they portrayed. There was an initial confusion every time a memory started, but it was the same feeling as when a dream starts or you’ve just woken up and it takes you a couple of moments to adjust to the new reality and comprehend which one you’re in.

Characters, although some of them were somehow supernatural, were quite relatable. Most of them had their personalities ups and downs, which is generally true for people. We’re full of contradictions, at least in most cases, which makes us human. There’s good and bad, evil and purity in all of us; we decide where to focus each minute of our lives. Just one character stands out for pure goodness, which confirms the rule by showing there’s an exception.

The amount of characters could seem overwhelming, but I never felt lost or needed to go back to clarify some differences. They all expressed themselves in a particular way and you always knew who was talking, also having distinct personalities.

It would seem to much talk about our characters, but trust me, there’s a lot to say.

Some of them made me feel like reading A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, or watching the series. The curious aspect of this is that I was on a live interview with the author right when this book was released (yeap, I read it ages ago and hadn’t written the review because I was not ready yet to publish it on my channel) and he stated he has not even watched an episode of those series or read the books! I couldn’t believe that as I read. The similarities among some of his characters and some of those in GOT are shocking, so who knows where the inspiration came from.

Now, I just had an issue with this book, that I’m not yet sure it be such. The sense of humour was sexist and aggressive. I’m still not sure if this was linked to those who were negatively influenced by the trinkets -these made them turn evil and not care for others whatsoever- or if the author found it funny, which would worry me.

The writing style, in general, made things conversational -so, quick- or allowed the reader to vividly imagine the scenes. I actually had a constant sense of needing the film ASAP.

If you like cinematic dark fantasy that’s character driven but has a solid plot, this book is for you. I highly recommend it!

What can I say? When I first joined NetGallery I saw The Mad Trinkets and said what the hell let me see if I can get a free copy. Never would I have imagined myself diving into this dark fantasy. I thought this would be a cliche fantasy where the main protagonist gets betrayed, finds loyal companions and saves the day. Oh how wrong was I; I never expected to be reading about child murder, sexual violence and rape. If you are of the feint of heart then I would recommend trying something else. I won’t get into more detail since I don’t want to spoil this amazing ride. I will say this however, this book made an impact on me and I am on my way to buy a physical copy

I’m new to reading dark fantasy and this book is really making me enjoy the genre. It was written well and easy to get immersed in the story. I went in not sure what to expect and came out so glad I had the opportunity to read. Looking forward to future tales from the author.

Firstly I would like to thank Netgalley for providing a free, pre-release copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! I went into this with no idea what to expect. I quickly found myself completely engrossed in the world that Cameron created here. His writing style was flawless to me. Absolutely beautifully crafted prose, completely fleshed out characters (and there's a lot of them to flesh out), and world building that had me living in it.

A word of warning if you have not read any other reviews.. This book probably should have a trigger warning for almost everything!

You will have a good idea within the first 3 chapters. This is dark and descriptively gruesome.
There's Murder (including children), rape, sexual violence, chauvinism, general violence, and extreme language.
This does settle as we get more into the story, but it never really goes away.
Think Game of Thrones mixed with Lord of the Rings.

That said, all the above serves a vital purpose to the story, and this has to be one of the tightest stories I've read in a long time. It feels like the Author knew where this was going before he wrote it. Everything has it's place, every character has their place, and every Trinket has it's place.

I loved this book so much that I threw away my free review copy at 70% and bought the final book.

Look forward to seeing more novels from this very talented Author.

My feelings of “meh,” are a case of it’s not the book, it’s me.

Love the premise, didn’t love the execution.

We have lots of characters with a variety of motivations and subplots that, to me, give the book a disjointed feel.

I wasn’t a fan of the “power” men sought and were given over women (i.e. rape) as a major storyline regarding the trinkets. This confuses being a powerful male with being a misogynist (and rapist) with power. Literally dozens of other powers could’ve been infused in these trinkets. But, as I mentioned, this issue is about me, not the book.

I got about halfway through this book before deciding to give up.

If you can handle violent, gory and creepy fantasy, The Mad Trinkets is for you! While being a bit more graphic than I care for, it was still amazing. Of course, it is filled with magic and mystery but the mayhem is what makes it all work.

The story is told from several points of view. All the characters are wildly different from each other and have their own reasons for seeking the trinkets. It's a mad adventure that is worth joining!

The world building is awesome. The bleakness it conveys is perfect for the story themes. I hope that this is just the beginning and there will be more books to follow from this author.

I didn’t know what to expect when I went into this one. I was looking for something different and I certainly got that. After the first couple of chapters it felt as though I might have made a mistake but after giving it some more time, I was surprised and pleased by how much I ended up really enjoying this dark fantasy.

This was very well written and rather than pulling me into a lot of world building, this gave me some amazing characters. That was the initial hook for me before quickly becoming the story-line itself. This required a plot that could support such multi-layered characters and as the end grew closer, I began to worry it would leave me wanting. It did not. Once more it gave me something more than I was expecting.

While I didn’t love this one, it’s a story that will remain with me in the future rather than being dismissed as one of many.

19/25 (76%) 4 stars.
A highly entertaining, dark, gripping Grimdark fantasy with an amazing set of characters. If you are a fan of Joe Abercrombie or Mark Lawrence, this is definitely the book for you. If you are a fairy princess that wants to avoid murder, rape, and violence in fiction, this is not the book for you. Luckily, I'm not a fairy princess.

What's going on? Well, there's a bunch of warriors who manage to find some powerful artifacts during the war, get corrupted by them and then turn against each other. It's one part vendetta, one part high fantasy, one part mad backstabbing, and I loved that.

Kirk's characters are a mix of noble heroes - male and female - and ruthless monsters. Some are knights in shining armour, some are child-murdering bastards, some are something in between. The one thing that they all have in common is that they're all well-written. The perspective switches between them seamlessly, the pacing is outstanding, the atmosphere adequately dark - everything here is well done, except maybe the ending. It's not a bad ending, but some of it was a bit too over-the-top for me, too weird, too out of the blue. Everything else: Really well done.
----
Dialogue 4
Setting 4
Characters 4
Prose 4
Plot 3
----
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital advanced reading copy in return for an honest review.

The Mad Trinkets by Cameron Scott Kirk is a well-written fantasy that pulls you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end. The characters are amazing, with intriguing backstories—a story with something more than I was expecting.

Huge thanks to NetGalley, The Mage's Lantern and the author for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
---

The Mad Trinkets more than lives up to its title as a story full of mad magic, mystery and unpredictable twists!

Kirk has used possibly my absolute favourite strategy from those used by authors to catch readers off guard: giving away only the bare minimum in the blurb and bombarding us with some of the best storytelling we'll ever have the pleasure of experiencing.

The story is not for the faint-hearted (what with the copious blood and gore) but it certainly is a story worth reading again and again which is exactly what I plan to do.

Reading this feels like driving at insane speeds in dangerous terrain: there is constant excitement and tension. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for a unique and beautifully written story that will surely stand out from everything else you read this year!

Overall rating: 5/5 stars! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

If you are bothered by gore, strong language and sex scene don't read this book because it contains all this elements.
But it's also a very entertaining story that made me laugh and kept me hooked.
The world building is excellent, the characters are well written and there's plenty of humor.
Thoroughly enjoyed it and had a lot of fun.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine