Way of the Argosi

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

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)