Review: The Servant by Justin Greer
Blurb:
Nearly a thousand years ago, the tyrant-sorcerer Mordechai betrayed his people, forged a weapon of darkness, and led an assault against the Middle Kingdoms to claim the throne of Reality. He slaughtered the defenders, broached the Shimmering Door, ascended to the Unseen Realm, and sought to make himself a god at the Heart of the World. Only at the last moment was he thwarted—by the sacrifice of a young woman, Lightbringer, who slew the Servant of Darkness and ended his terrible campaign.
But now evil stirs in ancient strongholds, and blood-rituals claim the lives of innocents throughout the cities of the world, and fearsome shadow-monsters have reappeared to feast upon the living. The Servant has been resurrected. His armies have grown. His power has swelled. And he has resumed his bloody war against the free world. Again he marches for the Shimmering Door and the Heart of the World; and now there are few who remain to stay his hand.
Only a young forest girl, Ashera Eldibara, has any hope of standing against Mordechai. She bears the Sword of Light, the fabled weapon of her predecessor, and its magic hums in her bones. Others stand at her side as protectors and guardians—a wizard, a warrior, and a huntress, each prepared to sacrifice all in the last desperate struggle against the Servant of Darkness.
But they are few, and Ashera is young and untrained, inexperienced in the ways of magic and warfare—and the monstrous armies that she faces are vast and powerful . . . and already hunting her.
Review:
First and foremost I want to thank Justin for getting me an advance copy of this book. At present there is now only one book by him I am yet to read, which will be rectified soon since they are all stellar and I cannot recommend them enough. Up to now, his previous works (the Garden Knight series) was a blend of fantasy and cozy elements that worked wonderfully. Justin is a master storyteller, so when I found out he was writing an epic fantasy I was on board from the jump.
The servant starts as most epic fantasies do; with a young protagonist way beyond their depth. Ashera is a girl from an idyllic town in the Silverfire, a woodland realm with all sorts of fairy-stories and their very own rendition of elven-fey folk. Alongside her is her faithful younger sister and a couple other kids with budding magic. And then one day, on their normal woodland adventures, telling stories as they go, Ashera is given a curious pendant she knows not the power of. Some time later, she is visited by a man foretelling of calamity offering her the very sword by which she can prevent it. Then tragedy hits.
The Silverfire comes under attack by servants of darkness, d’hamon sent from unreality to weave the will of the dark lord, vying to return to the mortal realm and claim it for himself. Thus begins Ashe’s epic adventure to run across the world and stop the agents of darkness while battling her own emotions as she loses loved ones along the way, uniting the people thought dead, people with powers beyond her comprehension. From there, I’ll leave the reader to go pick up a copy of the Servant when its out to see how the story unfolds.
This is, in my opinion, a love letter to classic fantasy. Justin sets up worlds that truly sing with life, steeping us into every facet of the story. From the woodland halls and villages, to the grand castles and keeps of the capitals of the world. Every aspect is displayed expertly, leaving the reader with a deep, vibrant world to explore.
The character work here is a joy to read. Ashe truly transforms from the front cover to the back, embarking on a journey also into herself as she navigates her new role in the saving of the world. The other characters, too, take on lives of their own, but none as interesting or beloved as Ashe. Though a few do come close, Ashera is, for me, the favorite for this story. We do also get another POV, though for less than 10% of the story I’d say, giving us some perspective into the enemy. While it was interesting, I think Ashera very comfortably takes the cake.
As is typical in most stories of this scale, it starts off quite slow then ramps up. While this might irk some readers who are less invested in stories of tremendous scope, the avid classic fantasy reader will undoubtedly find themselves right at home.
In case you couldn’t tell, I am a huge fan of Justin’s worldbuilding and writing style, and The Servant does not disappoint. It really hit on all fronts for me, and when it picked up, I simply could not put the book down.
As with all reviews, I try to highlight what did and did not work for me, with the ladder almost always being something very minor, otherwise I wouldn’t bother reading the book at all, let alone writing a review. Here, I don’t have much aside from the pacing to be expected from such a tremendous undertaking. The set up to pull off a story like The Servant has to be large, and as readers I think we need to understand that. Other than that, I was a bit confused about the inclusion of the second, more minor POV, but I have full confidence in Justin to make that POV’s story as important and impactful as Ashe’s in book two and beyond, which I am eagerly awaiting.
The Servant by Justin Greer is classic fantasy at its absolute finest, and, dare I say, the new hit classic fantasy of its generation. For fans of stories like The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E Feist, The Servant is an ode to the classics that cements itself amongst the best.
