Review: The Darkness Before Them by Matthew Ward

Political schemes, betrayal, and a desperate revolution can be found in this start to a fast-paced new fantasy series from Matthew Ward.

Synopsis

All is not well in the kingdom of Khalad. Ruled over by a king that cannot die, noble Fireblood houses vie for control while lower-class Cinderbloods work with no hope of advancement.

Kat has a score to settle. Left with her father’s debts and pursued by his creditors, all she needs is one big break before she can be free to live her life without fear. Her father left her with one gift. The power to speak to spirits and command them. In a world where the souls of the dead are trapped into serving the living, Kat’s gift might be enough to free her. But with Firebloods scheming for their own gains, will it tip the scales in her favour?

Review

I read Matthew Ward’s Legacy trilogy and absolutely loved it, so I was eager to start a new series set in a completely different world. I had to remind myself not to compare the two, especially because at first I found this a little harder to get stuck into. The world building is incredible and complex, which is both a strength and weakness. It makes the world and the characters feel real, but at first I was confused by the new terminology and political structure. I feel like the meaning of all the terms could have been explained better, but once I hit the twenty percent mark I was completely gripped and could not put it down. It really is worth the initial struggle.

There’s a lot of political scheming happening behind the scenes. The book is split between the perspective of Kat, and a soldier serving one of Khalad’s noble families. This split works really well and allows us to see more of the world. However, what you see isn’t always the truth, and I was genuinely taken by surprise when a big twist was revealed towards the end. All I’ll say is that Matthew Ward knows how to write absolutely horrible people and still make them compelling.

An unexpected aspect of the book was the use of sign language. In Khalad it’s not unusual to learn a form of sign language, though not everyone knows it. This element of world-building allows for the inclusion of a deaf character fairly easily, as at least some of the other characters can sign with her. I thought this was a really unique element of the world and one that I really appreciated, as it’s rare to see incidental inclusion of disabled characters without the story becoming a “disability book.” I also appreciate how there are LGBT relationships and these are completely normalised in the world.

The world is also fun because of how advanced technology is, at least compared with a lot of fantasy novels. There are trains, hand-held weapons that shoot flames, and flying ships. However it’s still very much a fantasy world and I still felt as though I was reading an alternate version of the past. The characters do move around from place to place and I enjoyed reading about the various cities and the cultures that exist within the world.

The end left me wanting more, in a good way. Luckily the second book has recently been released so I was able to pick it up right away. I won’t give anything away, but it starts with a bang.

The Darkness Before Them gets a solid 4 stars from me. I feel like the series has more to give us, and I wish that some aspects of the world-building had been explained with more clarity towards the start of the book. Overall though it was excellent and a worthy start to the series. I also recommend the audio version which was how I read this.

You can buy The Darkness Before Them on Amazon, at Waterstones, WHSmith, and Audible.