I was offered an ARC of The Mad Trinkets from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s Dungeons & Dragons meets The Lord of the Rings with a little bit of the raunchiness thrown in from A Game of Thrones.

This book easy to dive into. I appreciated how the author introduced the characters and their trinkets without giving too much away. It allowed you to ease into the story and it’s various characters without knowing how it would end. In retrospect, I don’t believe there was a single character that I didn’t enjoy reading about; however, Brynhild- “the princess”- was my favorite character of all, especially when interacting with Christopher- “the assassin”.

My only complaint about the book was the apparent need for so much rape and violence against women. I understand the book was centered on a time where this was prevalent, but did one of the trinkets truly need to be a phallus that propagated this behavior? I think not.

*Copy provided by Netgalley and The Mage's Lantern in exchange for an honest review*

First, I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for allowing me to read this book before release date. I would like to state that I really enjoyed this story. It is a nice standalone, with some cool plot twists, a lot of action and darkness. It should be noted that it has TW for violence, sexual assault, deformities, diseases, gore in general, war, loss of a family member, to name a few. It is not a light book, I would describe it as grim dark fantasy and, as per usual in these kinds of books, it stands to its name. The topics approached are harsh.

That said, its pacing is fast and the plot is interesting to follow. All of our characters end up being somewhat grey characters, and so even more interesting, in my opinion, since almost all of them do "bad" things for different reasons. I loved how character motivations were portrayed on page and how it made them more relatable, even when doing something aggressive or destructive.

However, I have to give this book three stars, since it does suffer from a little bit of what I like to call plot convenience. I felt like, even though the plot was interesting and we want to see it develop, there is also the problem of things appearing to have no consequences and the magic system considered appear to have no rules whatsoever, allowing for God Ex-Machina moments that leave me a bit unsatisfied. I wish more grim consequences and more stakes were put in front of our characters, and that not everything was resolved with a nice flick of page.

Even so, if you like grim dark fantasy, with a real cool cast of characters that give life to an intense plot, then I do recommend you pick it up, since it is enjoyable and fast to read.

This is a bold epic of a tale with quite a few storylines woven into one. It’s not my typical genre read and the violence and military themes were more than I had anticipated. It’s a very action filled fantasy with questing and avarice. I found the descriptions very vivid. The ending was upbeat and cheerful. A solid read for anyone who likes military/ royal themes in their fantasy.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an ARC of The Mad Trinkets by Cameron Scott Kirk in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It was a little confusing at the beginning when all the characters and different perspectives were being introduced, but I got over it. It’s a little gory in places, but if you’re okay with that then this is the book for you.

DNF'd @ 15%

I went into The Mad Trinkets by Cameron Scott Kirk with no expectations. I'm usually fine with grimdark fantasy, but you know what I just couldn't handle this one. It was just too much for me and I wasn't interested in continuing on with this one. The first few chapters really set the tone, and I wasn't here for it, in this case.

"The Mad Trinkets" opens up with death, violence, and sexual violence. If this doesn't deter you, then you may enjoy this novel as these themes are recurrent throughout the story.

Throughout the first half of the novel, five trinkets are introduced- small pieces of metal made into necklaces that give the wearer randomized supernatural powers. Each wearer/main character is rejuvenated and gets additional different abilities, which aren't known until the the person wearing the trinket figures it out. The kicker though? Wearing the trinkets will slowly make the wearer go mad, desiring power and often causing death and destruction to achieve it.

Most violence in novels doesn't bother me, but this was gratuitous. One trinket is "phallus shaped," so of course, the man that wears it has a fascination with his own d***. A whole character devoted to this power, with added sexual assault, did not add much to the story.

I thought of this as an old-fashioned European fantasy as I read it. Travelers on the road, kings, knights, peasants, serving girls with big boobs... that kind of thing. One of the first characters introduced is based off of Vikings- every description of her was basically Brienne from Game of Thrones. She was one of the stronger characters throughout the whole story, and I enjoyed traveling with her throughout the land of White Cloud.
... and then there were Maoris. As in, they are actually called Maoris, have the Maori greeting of hongi, and traditional Maori tattoos. As I write this review, it occurs to me that the author could be from New Zealand.... but within a fantasy world, having a real cultural group represented felt really out of place.

As a three-star review, I felt that many parts of this story were strong. I enjoyed many of the characters, and I thought the author weaved the stories of each of these characters together really well. Parts of the story dragged, but other parts were fast-paced and interesting and made up for it. As mentioned above, if you start this book and enjoy the first few chapters, then this book continues in the same way and will be an enjoyable read. If you don't enjoy the first few chapters, then the book is probably worth skipping.

Thank you Netgalley and The Mage's Lantern for an advanced copy of this e-book. "The Mad Trinkets" will be released on Sept 07, 2021- check out the author's website at https://www.themageslantern.com for a pre-release event with author Cameron Scott Kirk on September 6th!

Synopsis

Five otherworldly metal trinkets. Six former brothers in arms, one a madman who will stop at nothing to use the power of the trinkets to wreak his vengeance upon the land.

When the renowned warrior Brynhild Grimsdotter and her biographer, William Barding, rescue a young girl chased down by King Bruwaert’s men, they find that the girl’s murdered father gave to her a trinket of colour-changing metal. They follow the girl in her quest to confront the king and avenge her father’s death.

The girl’s trinket is one of five that were forged in the monastery of the Ulfur monks using an otherworldly metal that struck the earth in a meteorite. The trinkets imbue their wielder with great power but there is a heavy price. The metal seeps into the wielder’s soul and they face a slow descent into madness and violence.

Now Tristan Drogos de Merlon, bereaved of his family, plague-wracked, and former marshal of the soldiers, is collecting the trinkets and building an army to exact his vengeance upon the world, and no-one is safe from the fires of his wrath.

Review

*Places trinket around neck. The metal shimmers and changes colour as my typing speed increases.*

Dear reader, the descent into madness is slow and sure when the power of the trinket flows into its wielder. I myself felt as if I were slipping under the trinket’s spell as I read The Mad Trinkets.

Honestly I’m not quite sure what I expected from the book, so the absolutely brutal first three chapters floored me for my dithering. Within three pages a man is brutally hanged and sliced open for a trinket, while the ghost of the little girl he had purported to have murdered watches the real killer get away; not before the killer gets an erection from the power surge of his ill-begotten trinket.

That opening really sets the dark and unsettling tone, which scarcely lets up. I knew this would be dark but this is unashamedly grim-very-freaking-dark. Cameron Scott Kirk hails the horrible and there is a real talent to his writing in that, despite my problem with some of the subject matter I’ll get to later, had me hooked by the plot and pacing.

But wait, you may have thought, didn’t you mention the character above got an erection? Yes, and over the course of the story he’s not alone. The Mad Trinkets does a lot of things right but there are dicks EVERYWHERE in this book: dudes popping power boners, dicks bursting into flame, death by dick, a literal dick trinket that gives the wearer super dick powers, … what could have been a real popcorn read becomes bogged down in places by its own interpretation of power; to become powerful in this book direct the male genitalia. There are other expressions of power that could and should have been used, at least for greater variation than this.

Now that I’ve mentioned my bone of contention, I have to praise the book for its characters. Boasting a number of shifting narrative perspectives, Kirk delights with Tristan Drogos de Merlon (the malevolently happy chappy on the book cover), who is one moment a tragic fallen hero, the next a deliciously unhinged Vincent Price/Lucien Lachance mashup. He steals the show among a cast of characters who similarly go from anti-heroes to repugnant evil doers from chapter to chapter. I’m unsure if I’m supposed to root for these trinket wearers or not but this was exactly the book’s appeal. It kept me reading on and on. The non-evil main characters contributed to the story well but ultimately had little bearing on Tristan’s quest to obtain all of the trinkets and godhood.

As for the trinkets themselves, I really loved the power and the corruptive influence they had on the bearers. The magic system is solid and suitably gruesome (the scene with the blood whip in particular is stunningly macabre). The descriptions of the trinkets made me want one of my own even though the dangers are vividly clear.

The Mad Trinkets is a definite page turner. The strength of the magic system and the scenery-chewing evil cult of Tristan Drogos de Merlon carries the book beyond its penile flaws and I would recommend it to anyone who feels in the mood for a dark and unsettling time.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
I loved this so much!
I loved all the characters and I couldn't put it down!
I finished the book in 2 days!
I highly recommend everyone read this book!

This book was very enjoyable and I would recommend it be read. It is definitely for more mature readers. After a very rough and confusing start, the story finally came together and flowed well. Our hero's were well defined and the antagonists were quite evil.

The Mad Trinkets was a descriptive fantasy that I think fans of RPGs would love. There were a lot of characters who all came together and joined forces despite all being motivated by different reasons. The book was dark and contained pretty gruesome scenes, both due to gore, violence, or both combined with sex, so beware if that kind of thing gets to you. I thought the writing was gripping and descriptive.
I rated it 3 stars because I felt like it was too much.. I like fantasy quite a bit, but I felt the roles of everyone felt like they could have been pulled straight from an RPG game like DnD or something and I felt there was little bit of a lack of depth as a result. I play a lot of RPG board games and this book reminded more of that experience vs other fantasy books I've enjoyed, like it was trying too hard? Still, I loved the writing despite the straightforwardness of the plot.

You know that feeling when you are at the end of a great book and you are not ready for it to end….Imagine that feeling starting from the very first chapter. Thoroughly entertaining with non-stop mayhem!

Author, Cameron Scott Kirk, weaves a masterpiece with “The Mad Trinkets” in a remarkable, articulate, eloquent way. Not only do I plan to re-read, I plan to seek out a physical copy of this book! Readers will have a strong desire for the mayhem to continue and I anxiously await such news!

A sincere thank you to NetGalley for providing me an advance copy (ARC) of this book in exchange for an honest review. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read this tale and leave my review voluntarily.

A strong piece of fantasy fiction (though I couldn't quite get on board with the idea of being scared of things continually referred to as "trinkets"). This wasn't quite as dark of a book as I suspected it might be, but I found it engrossing nonetheless.

Word of warning, there are a heap of characters in this book, with shifting POVs. So if you're reading it in fits and starts, you might get a little lost on who's who at first. (Thankfully the key players wear trinket necklaces in different shapes.) However, there is a mid-point flashback to the discovery of the trinkets that helps to put all of these characters into context.

While this book is filled to the brim with male characters and their POV, there are some powerful ladies in this story too (I would have loved a whole book from Brynhild's viewpoint or about her, period). I felt a bit like the ladies' POVs got lost in the mix, but I appreciated the attempt at gender balance. (Word of warning, there is sexual violence in this story perpetrated on nameless prostitutes and characters "offscreen" as well as attempted once on one of these lead female characters.)

This book had excellent world-building, and I found the politics of the warfare easy to follow. My only beef with the story was at times it felt a little bit slow. There are numerous action scenes and the story is well constructed, but the chapters themselves lack the "I gotta find out what happens next!" factor that makes a book compulsively readable. If you're engrossed in the story like I was, you'll find it a smooth read, but it didn't feel like a true page turner to me (A small quibble, in the grand scheme of things.)

Overall a very original, well-written story. I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Not what I expected - dark, some horror and gore, funny at times.

This book has strong, multi layered characters who are at times naive, power driven, smart, funny.

The fantasy is told from several points of view and after I fell into the rhythm of switching between the characters perception, really absorbing.

Not a fantasy story for the faint of heart as there are some scary, violent sections. But, if that isn't an issue for you, this is a great read.

The Mad Trinkets is not your standard fantasy fare and is unlike anything I’ve read for quite some time. It’s dark and tumultuous and the author has really brought together a collection of characters that can only be described as broken in some way or other. Certain characters are quite disagreeable, and yet oddly seductive in the way a spider sucking the life force from its victim is something you can’t really look away from. And it’s really the characters where The Mad Trinkets shines. There is a moral complexity here where one can occasionally sympathize with the antagonists, and cringe at the actions of the so-called heroes, and in that respect a dollop of realism is added to events, which I have always enjoyed even in fantasy.

Without giving away spoilers, the character arcs intertwine and each character becomes part of something larger than him or herself and while this is not new in fiction, I did enjoy the gradual reveals and how each plot line intersects with another.

Overall, it was just an absorbing ride and I found myself immersed in the world of White Cloud, and that’s all I really want in my books.

If you are interested in well written grimdark with complex characters and both rich internal and external worlds, then The Mad Trinkets is for you.

This book had me twisting in my chair, cheering, laughing, and was just overall a fun read. The violence is graphic and there are strong sexual themes, so consider carefully if you are sensitive to these topics. I was taken right to the edge of my discomfort but stuck it out, and the payoff was worth it and made sense in the end.

The story is told from multiple POVs, and each character is beautifully written. We are introduced to several characters early in the book who eventually come together to stop Tristan, a former soldier who is trying to build an army superpowered with metal trinkets. The metal affects everyone differently, and the powers are unpredictable and fun (a blood whip!). One of the most interesting and disturbing characters was Jeremiah, an ancient monk Tristan uses to help him find more of the metal.

The author’s writing is lovely and clever. I felt some sentences were written with a wink to the reader but didn’t take me out of the experience. The worldbuilding is fully fleshed out with interesting history about White Cloud which adds to the understanding of the metal’s origin.

Overall, I recommend if you like fantasy with horror elements. It’s violent and dark. This is one of my top books I’ve read this year. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this work of uncompromising grimdark. It is well-written and has a really original concept, and a number of central characters who range in moral character from the benign to the truly unpleasant, and who are all essential to the drive of the narrative, something that you realize when you get deep into the story. Among these interesting characters are monks of both the pious and cursed varieties, kings and men-at-arms, and a battle-hardened princess. The action takes place over a wide range of geographic locations, and builds to a satisfying climax. I would recommend this work for anyone who is tired of the same-old tired fantasy quest narratives, loves grimdark fiction, and enjoys good writing. I can’t wait to read what Mr Kirk comes up with next.

I found this work by Cameron Kirk to be thoroughly entertaining. The story flowed effortlessly from chapter to chapter with a wonderfully descriptive vocabulary, bringing the reader into each character’s personality and surrounding imagery in such a colourful way. I’d love to see this book made into a film….so much sorcery, skullduggery and gore! Bring on the next installment Mr Kirk.