The Assassin of Malcoze by Bryan Asher

Blurb:

An aging mercenary struggles to find meaning while chasing a contract many believe is a lie.
The King's daughter toils with a life changing decision to follow her family's path, or forge a new one.
A young boy possesses a power no one has seen since the Kingdom's greatest nemesis. Behind them sits an assassin lurking in the shadows, who will unwittingly unite them all.

A heroic adventure of self-discovery and bravery evoking classic pulp tales like Conan and Elric, with a mix of modern fantasy through its perspective and character development. This is a novel you will race through to finish, and immediately wish to read again. In addition to the incredible cover art, are several beautiful illustrations inside the book from Lithuanian artist Emilis Januškevič.

Review:

Worldcon, 2025. So many different people I ran into there. One of whom is Bryan Asher. Then, on my flight back, I packed several books to read, including two of Asher's novels. Now, I do know I have other books that I need to get to, I’m just alternating between those I have to review and those I don’t. This is one I don’t have to review, but considering how I still more or less remember the story a few days later, and that it was one of three that I read on an intercontinental flight, I thought to myself, “Why not review it?”

If I had to sell this novel to someone, I’d give them this sentence:

“Three fates, each one different to the next, dance unknowingly in tune, with a shadowy hand slowly bringing them together, for good or for bad.”,

before unapologetically launching into an explanation of the various characters, the general gist of the world, and everything else.

First, the three characters mentioned in the blurb. The aging mercenary struggling to find meaning while chasing a contract many believe to be a lie? He learns throughout the story that there is more to that contract than there appears, and is willing to put aside his reservations about the monarchy to go to the source of whatever is going on.

Then, there’s the princess who is somewhere in the process of becoming Two Face and flipping a coin to choose her fate, since both her own interests and her family's interests pull her so tightly. What about her? Well, she slowly grows more and more into the role she wants to play, even if some people might get mad at her.

After that, there’s the kid who is able to use the Malcozeian ability far more greatly than practically everyone but the former prodigal son who turned into Vader after one vacation. How is he impacted as fate navigates him to a destination he is unaware of? Well, he grows in character, and is forced to acknowledge that sooner or later, everyone will know of his ability to manipulate the Malcozeain ability far beyond what was thought capable.
Finally, there’s the assassin. For all intents and purposes, he’s the main villain and doesn’t really change much at all, except more irate over things not going the way he thought they would.

After that, we have the plot. Like all books, it goes on some twists and turns, with it starting to make sense after some time. However, there is no clear connection between all the characters, and they’re all more or less separated from each other by a long mile, and some know more than others about what is happening in regards to the assassin.

Lastly, we have the world building. Malcoze is just one of the kingdoms in the intercontinental realms, yet it has a somewhat centralish role to play, mostly to the people in that kingdom being very particular about their magic and birds. Their magic? One is manipulating minerals to create things, the other is a forcefield of the body that can be used as a shield or a weapon. So, of course, their magic is a way of life and everyone is more or less used to it. Unless one happens to be from somewhere that has never seen it, with legends being their only source of knowledge about how Malcozeian magic works.

If I had to critique one thing about this book is that it was too short (Yes, I say that a lot), and more time could’ve been spent on fleshing some of the characters out a bit more. Now, they are already fleshed out for this story, but even more could’ve been added or said. However that is my own critique, each person has their own way of viewing it, RAFO.

As always, if you’ve made it this far into the review, thank you for reading it, and I hope I’ve helped add another book to the ever growing TBR pile or your next read. If not, don’t fret, there are plenty of reviews on the SFF Insiders page, and this link will lead you to a review that may or may not be in the same fantasy category, you never know until you check it out.
Wherever you are reading this, have a wonderful good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!