The House of Cats and Gulls by Stephen Deas: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The House of Cats and Gulls by Stephen Deas

The House of Cats and Gulls, the second book in the Dominion series, continues where the first left. Myla returns to her hometown to face her past before it can destroy the lives of her own and her found family. Orien, the mage, follows her to Deephaven—and has an inexplicable relationship with her. Worried for her, he calls Fings and Seth there too to save her.

Fings sees this as an opportunity to find his long-lost brother and Seth is about to face death for his forbidden magic, so it’s a timely request. For Fings, things are straightforward: rescue Myla and find his brother. For Seth, it’s a chance to learn more about the forbidden magic. Myla learns that others don’t value her self-sacrifice as much as she does, her family included. And it turns out Orien isn’t there for Myla after all.

This was at its heart Myla’s book. She was the reason everyone came to Deephaven and it was her need to set things straight that drove most of the plot. It was therefore unfortunate, that I didn’t feel that plotline at all. No matter what she did or didn’t do, she came across as single-minded and selfish. The people she wanted to save didn’t seem worth saving.

Seth’s path was more interesting, even if he kept making same stupid mistakes again and again, unleashing something he shouldn’t have. In the end, it was his book too, setting the stage for the next one. But my favourite was once again Fings. He’s resourceful, clever and loyal. Things didn’t go quite as he hoped, but he kept going, no matter what it took.

I liked this book maybe better than the first one. The plot was good, and it wasn’t filled with unnecessary stories of the empire’s past. The ending was open enough to make me want to read the next book too.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Moonsteel Crown by Stephen Deas: review

4/5 stars on Goodreads

The Moonsteel Crown by Stephen Deas

The Moonsteel Crown is the first book in Stephen Deas’s new fantasy trilogy, Dominion. It’s set in the town of Varr in the empire of Aria that is struggling with a succession crisis and a bitterly cold winter. Of the two, only the latter has some meaning to the main characters.

The book description made me expect a fairly standard fantasy plot where the lowest of the earth end up becoming kingmakers. And while it sort of turns out that way in the end, that’s not what the book is about at all.

A group of thieves steal the emperor’s crown; accidentally, it seems at first. But instead of putting it back where they found it, they hide it. Naturally there are people who want it back and they know exactly who to come after. Why is that? Does someone in their group know more than they’ve let on? The thieves’ boss has started a war with a rivalling gang, but is that random either, or is the other group after the crown too? Meanwhile, the thieves themselves disagree on the best course of action, until the only way to save their lives is to give the crown back. But nothing is as straightforward as that.

The book has three main characters with their own point of view chapters. Seth is a former novice priest expelled from his church for blasphemy—or sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. He’s bitter and adrift, and he makes poor choices because of it. And then he gets his hands into texts that push him on a path of forbidden death magic. But is he in control of the magic, or does it control him? The book ends before we get the answer, but we’ll likely follow that story in the upcoming books.

Myla is a warrior monk who has also been expelled from her order. She’s excellent with her swords and quite deadly—and on the run. But her past is catching up with her, and it threatens the lives of the thieves with whom she has found a new home. So will she fight for them, or return home and face her past?

And then there is Fings, the greatest thief in Varr. He’s the one who does the actual stealing, and he isn’t exactly happy with being manoeuvred to doing it, especially when it puts his mother and sisters in peril. But as the forces who want the crown back press on them, he agrees with Myla that the crown must be returned—only he has an ace in his sleeve. He was my favourite of the three with his cunning plans and superstitious beliefs.

This book took a long time to get going. The characters were vague and difficult to get a hang of. A lot of space was devoted to the myths and history of Aria that didn’t really have anything to do with the plot. The reasons for Seth’s and Myla’s downfalls with their respective orders were hoarded like gold, but they turned out to be so mundane that the revelations were disappointing. It wasn’t until after the half point that I began to see what the book was about, and where it was going—and then it didn’t go there. At all. The latter half was as exciting and interesting as the first was dull, and it saved the book. The end was satisfying and complete, but it left enough questions open to lure the reader into continuing with the series.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.