Book Review of The Sapphire Altar by David Dalglish

   

Name of Book: The Sapphire Altar

Author: David Dalglish 

ISBN: 978-0-7595-5712-3

Publisher: Orbit 

Part of a Series: Vagrant gods 

Type of book: fantasy, religion, secrets, gods and goddesses, savior, war, conquer, colonization, history 

Year it was published: 2023

Summary:

In this epic fantasy from a bestselling author, a usurped prince must master the magic of shadows in order to reclaim his kingdom and his people.

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Cyrus wants out. Trained to be an assassin in order to oust the invading Empire from his kingdom, Cyrus is now worried the price of his vengeance is too high. His old master has been keeping too many secrets to be trusted. And the mask he wears to hide his true identity and become the legendary "Vagrant" has started whispering to him in the dark. But the fight isn't over and the Empire has sent its full force to bear upon Cyrus's floundering revolution. He'll have to decide once and for all whether to become the thing he fears or lose the country he loves.

Characters:

So main characters include Vagrant, aka Prince Cyrus who is trying to free his home from the Everlorn Empire. Quite recently Cyrus learns a lot of ugly truths about his family history as well as about the mask he wears (please address these parts in third book dear author!) While the first book focused a lot on Cyrus' character growth, this one focused more on Keles, Stasia and Mari as well as Arn. Keles acted as a possible love interest for Cyrus in the first book. In the second one there is complexity because of her loss of faith in the goddess as well as learning family history regarding her origins. Stasia also had a character arc and she had to deal with vulnerability as well as love. Mari, Stasia's younger sister was also forced to confront a lot of secrets regarding their heritage and things their father kept and keeps from them. What I enjoyed when it comes to characters is getting to know Arn because we get to go deeply inside to learn his history as well as complexity and a lot of questions are answered about him. All in all a magical and satisfying read. 

Theme: 

What is the question of godhood and religion? 

Plot:

The story is from third person narrative from multiple points of view, one point of view per chapter. While the first one set up the story and the world, THE SAPPHIRE ALTAR dares to go farther and bring us the complex questions of gods and religions as well as how to make things right. I honestly couldn't help but compare this novel to the modern era discussions, and I feel that its pretty vital for everyone to read it. The novel is very character oriented where the author goes deeply into each and every character that populate the pages; There is plenty of action and battle scenes and there is also plenty of questions of towards the end. Yes, its definitely a true gem. Also, its pretty necessary to read the first novel before reading this one. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

N/A
Opinion:

For me the first book is best described as diamond in the rough. The second one, however, blew me out of the water and then some! The questions and criticism I had with first book were directly addressed in the second book. ( I have to wonder if the author has read reviews of the first book and addressed the issues the readers had in here...) I am definitely looking forward to the last book in the series which promised to be even more spectacular than this one. 

This was given for review

5 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)