Grandson of legendary hero Eskil Orc-breaker, Haskell wants to leave his current life to follow in his grandfather’s steps. With no patience for the conventional method, he hastily assembles an adventuring party.

“I may be destined for the Nine Hells, but this world is a hell you all richly deserve.”

Haskell starts the adventure with a pouch full of coins he stole from his father. It was a lot of money since it was his (successful merchant) family’s savings. It was frustrating watching our protagonist throw money away. After seeing it rapidly dwindling he appears to have learned, but then he goes and bets it all. I’m all for arrogant bastards, but this one needed a wake-up slap.

While this book is about Haskell, he is overshadowed by Froba, a much more interesting character with multiple POV chapters. It was the first time I had an issue with too much head-hopping, between these two and other POVs. Characters were introduced that will have a stronger presence in future installments as some reveals near the end indicate.

On this matter, I believe there are too many characters and they kinda blend together. Not all contribute to the story, making them forgettable. For the most part, I thought of Haskell’s team as “a party of idiots, two kids, and Zinzi”.

The set-up promised a grimdark story, with grasping lines like this one:

While it is grim indeed, it felt a little out of place with a low-stakes plot.

It also had some pacing trouble. Problems solve way too fast to have a dramatic weight or make you worry about the fate of the characters. The tension was almost non-existent and deaths feel inconsequential.

For me, this first book in an unnamed series fell short. It was slow-paced and still felt rushed on some matters. I’m disappointed with all these issues because this story had SO MUCH POTENTIAL. I liked the writing style and the clear D&D elements.