Although this book is just recently released by Angry Robot, it has been out for a little while (self-published, I believe) and it has been on my radar to read. Being a fan of many of the Angry Robot line of books, this looked like a good time to give it a go.
There is a hidden treasure and the only man who knows where it is has been badly tortured, but manages to survive the overthrow of his kingdom. But now he needs that treasure and he hires a group of mercenaries to help him – but he doesn’t let them know too much, or what they might be about to face.
This is an interesting, and often fun, band of characters and there are some moments that made me chuckle out loud (“You look like a sack of dog’s testicles…And I don’t mean that in a nice way.”). But while there is a fair amount of humor (often dark humor), it can be a pretty graphic story as well. All in all…pretty much what you would expect from a ‘buddy-quest’ fantasy novel.
I was excited to go into this adventure – as I say, it’s been on my radar for a time – and was really looking forward to being taken away. But I wasn’t.
There’s nothing wrong with this book – it hits all the markers it should hit and has all the prescribed characters with a good level of gruffness and humor. But it never drew me in. I never attached myself to any of the characters. An epic story means nothing if you aren’t rooting for someone or for a specific outcome, and that was the case here.
Perhaps it’s because I just recently read a really awesome epic fantasy (also released by Angry Robot) and my expectations were too high, but any fiction book needs to draw in the reader somehow, and this just didn’t do it for me.
There’s enough here to that is good that I would try again with a follow-up novel (I may even given the audio book of this title a listen), but this one sits in the middle of the road for me.
Looking for a good book? Jen Williams’ A Copper Promise is an epic fantasy story with some admirable traits and tropes, but fails to really bring the reader into the story.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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The Copper Promise
author: Jen Williams
series: The Copper Cat #1
publisher: Angry Robot
ISBN: 0857665766
paperback, 448 pages
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