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Mike Brooks

The Black Coast: Book One of the God-King Chronicles Paperback – March 16, 2021

by Mike Brooks (Author)

38 ratings

Book 1 of 1: The God-King Chronicles

Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

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The start of an unmissable series filled with war-dragons, armoured knights, sea-faring raiders, dangerous magic and crowd-pleasing battle scenes.

War Dragons. Fearsome Raiders. A Daemonic Warlord on the Rise.

When the citizens of Black Keep see ships on the horizon, terror takes them because they know who is coming: for generations, the keep has been raided by the fearsome clanspeople of Tjakorsha. Saddling their war dragons, Black Keep's warriors rush to defend their home only to discover that the clanspeople have not come to pillage at all. Driven from their own land by a daemonic despot who prophesises the end of the world, the raiders come in search of a new home . . .
Meanwhile the wider continent of Narida is lurching toward war. Black Keep is about to be caught in the crossfire – if only its new mismatched society can survive.

The start of an unmissable fantasy series.

Print length

640 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Solaris
Publication date

March 16, 2021
Dimensions

5.06 x 1.5 x 7.81 inches
ISBN-10

1781088241
ISBN-13

978-1781088241
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From the Publisher

Review

“Any fan of epic fantasy will find something to love here.” -- Publishers Weekly, starred review ― Publishers Weekly

Named Amazon Editors' Pick for Best SFF - February 2021

About the Author

Mike Brooks is the author of The God-King Chronicles epic fantasy series, the Keiko series of grimy space-opera novels, and various works for Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint including RITES OF PASSAGE and BRUTAL KUNNIN. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, and moved to Nottingham to go to university when he was eighteen, where he still lives with his wife, cats, and snakes. He worked in the homelessness sector for fifteen years before going full-time as an author, plays guitar and sings in a punk band, and DJs wherever anyone will tolerate him. He is queer, and partially deaf (no, that occurred naturally, and a long time before the punk band).

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Product details

Publisher : Solaris; 1st edition (March 16, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 640 pages
ISBN-10 : 1781088241
ISBN-13 : 978-1781088241
Item Weight : 1 pounds
Dimensions : 5.06 x 1.5 x 7.81 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #84,750 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #384 in Military Fantasy (Books)
- #445 in Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy (Books)
- #1,390 in Coming of Age Fantasy

Customer Reviews:
38 ratings

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3 star		6%
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Anne Buehrle

Breaks many fantasy tropes

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2021

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I loved this book. From the introduction, where the reader learns that different cultures in this world have very different gender traditions, to the Raider ships landing not to conquer, but to settle, to the climactic battle where unusual alliances are formed.
I'm a long-time fan of Mike's books and this one did not disappoint. While some of the characters are well-formed, it's clear that we will learn more about many others. This is a complex, engaging story with hints of more to come and I can't wait!

Helpful

Plinko

Solid start

Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

Solid start to a series, impatient to see what happens next, which is about a high of praise as I can give.

Helpful

Jason S. Wrench

Good Book, Politically Heavy-Handed in Places

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2021

I want to thank the author and publisher of this book for the opportunity to read it prior to publication. Although I thank them for their generosity, my evaluation of this book is not influenced by that generosity.

The Black Coast (The God-King Chronicles, #1) is an epic fantasy tale that really is an interesting discussion on everything from sexuality and gender to class and cultural-collisions. As such, this isn't just a fantasy novel without teeth. The story in this book primarily examines the collision of two worlds when raiders from across the sea appear at the Black Keep, the southernmost part of Narida. At first, the Naridans of the Black Keep fear that the raiders have come once again to ransack their village. Instead, the raiders' Chief has brought them to the Black Keep to settle away from a warlord who has been taking over all of the clans where they are from.

The ruler of the Black Keep, Lord Asrel Blackcreek, decides the only option for dealing with the raiders is to fight them, even though this would mean his death, his sons' deaths, and the death of every man, woman, and child in the Black Keep. The Chief came under the banner of peace, but Lord Asrel's adopted son, Damien, believes that working with the Chief is the only way to save his life, his families' lives, and the lives of his people. So in a daring move, he goes against his father and older brother and has them both locked up as both the people of the Black Keep and the Raiders attempt to navigate the two cultures and the language barrier that exists between their people.

As if that's not enough, you have the gay king of Narida and his sister, who is really doing her best job to keep the country running smoothly. You have peasants in the north who are aligned with a family that has a different claim on the Naridan throne and The Golden who the raiders were running from in the first place.

Needless to say, this book has a lot dead bodies by the end of it and enough political intrigue and backstabbing for any reader.

Oh, and there are dragons. Different types of dragons. There are big giant dragons that people ride, rattle dragons that can be sort-of controlled and there are razor dragons who can gut someone. There are others, but those three are the main ones that really play prominently in this first book in the series.

So, that's a lot going on for a debut book in a new series.

As for an analysis of this book, again without giving away any spoilers, some of the discussion about gender at the beginning of the book was a bit confusing. I liked how the author tried to play with the idea of a society with so many interpretations of gender that they each had their own pronunciations and meanings, but I think this was a bit heavy-handed at the beginning instead of feeling natural. I felt the same thing with the class of the two cultures and their issues over same=sex love, marriage, and sexuality. Although the author included these elements to say something about our modern world, these elements just appeared heavy-handed. To the point where there was an unnecessary coming-out scene complete with tears and screaming and yelling.. I just didn't find this trope necessary and it actually takes you away from the story itself. I found the discussion of gender somewhat more natural, but still a bit heavy-handed.

Overall, I found the book highly enjoyable and easy to read.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Jody Gentian Bower

Promising beginning to a new fantasy epic

Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2021

In "The Black Coast," Mike Brooks sets out to create a vibrant world with disparate cultures and creatures. There are many threads to the tapestry, and this first book in the series necessarily has to take some time to establish the many different characters we're going to be following from place to place. Brooks also takes time to explain how the different cultures use language to refer to multiple genders, in one case, or a strict caste system in another. While many authors create worlds with such systems, they usually just suggest how the language works, as when Ursula Le Guin has an important person speak to a humble supplicant "as if to a great lord" to show respect, or Lois McMaster Bujold tells us that a Roknari speaker speaks to another person in the mode of student to master. Brooks goes them one better; he manipulates the English language with diacritical marks to indicate gender, and in his hierarchical society, the various speakers refer to themselves sometimes in third person, sometimes in first person, to indicate relationship to the person being addressed. I mention this to show how much WORK Brooks put into creating his world.

At first I tried to keep all the genders straight, but I realized after a while that it didn't matter . . . which may be the point. So I stopped worrying about the diacritical marks and just let the story take me. Brooks is an excellent writer, and the story is a real page-turner with plenty of action, but we also get to get inside the heads of the characters - minor ones as well as the major players. The locales are described in enough detail for us to visualize them.

My one complaint is that things move along too fast - in particular the merging of the Raider and Naridan cultures. I wished he'd made that whole bit into a prologue (if not an entire book!). It would have made more sense to me if the main book starts a year later, when the two cultures have had enough time to get used to each other and slowly grow to take on aspects of the other. As it is, this part of the story feels short-changed as Brooks moves all the pieces in place for the major conflict to come between his big bad villain, the Golden, and the Black Coast cultures. I would have liked more. But isn't that the mark of a good book, that people want more of it?

Also, his dragons! Brooks has rethought dragons in a novel and satisfying way.

Helpful

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Strong first entry to a unique series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 6, 2021

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Summary: The Black Coast by Mike Brooks is a great epic fantasy that focuses on a tense integration of two cultures, and delivers with style. It’s not perfect, but it shines through its characters and action.

-Recommended for those who like interesting cultures, and the deconstruction of cultural beliefs
-Not recommended for those who want non-stop action or a straight-forward good and evil tale
-Recommended for fans of R.J. Barker’s Boneships, and similar tales of optimism through hardship
-Not recommended if you are looking for beautiful or elaborate prose

Our two main viewpoint characters are Daimon & Saana, retrospectively leaders of the Black Keep and the Brown Eagle clan, as they try to integrate their peoples peacefully. Most other viewpoint characters stem off from these two, mostly antagonists, or those close to one of the pair. There are three more viewpoint characters – Rikkut, who is building reputation as he fights for the demon that cause Saana and her clan to leave their home; Tila the Naridan Princess and secret crime lord travelling to Alaba on a deadly mission; & Jeya a young urchin and thief in Alaba . The latter three viewpoints take up very little of the book, and only Rikkut’s storyline intersects with the main plot in this book.

I loved the primary plotline. There’s something incredibly cathartic about watching characters try so hard to fight past their own fears and prejudices for the betterment of everyone involved. The Naridan’s and the Brown Eagle clan have very different cultural norms. Naridan society is roughly feudal, and the noble culture feels closely related to that of the Samurai. The Brown Eagle clan feel more like Nordic raiders, although there may be a closer analogue that I’m not knowledgeable enough to have noticed. Most of the plot consists of Saana and Daimon having to deal with the consequences of their cultural integration.

As an example, early on, to Saana’s horror, a Naridan man gets overly touchy with one of her clansman (causing a fight). In Naridan culture, this is not a problem, other than the consent issue, but the raiders believe that homosexuality is unnatural. On the other hand, in Naridan culture, women have less rights than men, which is thought of as ridiculous in clan culture. Brooks takes a nuanced approach, and neither side get to hold the moral high ground as tempers flare and fade, and both cultures are enriched as they become aware of their own shortfalls.

Language plays a role in these books – in Narida, status is conveyed with purpose in their speech. A lord speaking to their people would refer to themselves as ‘this lord’, whereas he would say ‘this brother’ when talking to a sibling. In Alaba, while we see little of the consequences of it, inflection on pronouns denotes gender (on the page shown as accents) and there is distinction between high masculine, low masculine, high feminine, low feminine, genderless and the gender neutral formal, the latter of which is not a gender, merely a refusal to openly state their gender in a formal setting. All of this adds great extra flavour to the cultures.

There is very little magic in this book, with one particular exception, although it seems like the plot is setting up for more to be introduced in further volumes. The dragons mentioned are not your typical dragons, in a way that I loved. Honestly if I was a marketing team I would have leant into it, but it seems that it’s being kept intentionally mysterious until they appear on the page.

The prose is fine, but nothing special, and the plotlines of Tila and Jeya felt a little generic and out of place when compared to the main focus of the book. Neither really get much of a satisfying ending – which is a contrast to the main plot, which ends very solidly, in a place that left me wanting more, without me cursing the author.

There are some excellent duels to be found, for those who like them – I’m less in favour of detailed fight scenes than I once was, but the combat here is fast and visceral, with a genuine sense of danger, even for the protagonists.

In terms of characters, Saana is the standout, chief of her clan, single mother, who cares for her people and has a mean right hook. Daimon is perhaps a more traditional protagonist, being a young noble with a cold father, but he still has enough nuance to be interesting to follow. There are many good side characters too – especially Nalon, who used to be Naridan until he was captured by the raiders many years ago, and feels stuck in the middle; and Tsolga, the grandma caller who has Saana’s back and is on the lookout for a fourth husband. The antagonists felt somewhat weakly developed, but it didn’t detract much from the rest of the book.

Ultimately, I would heartily recommend this to most fantasy fans, with a few small caveats. The action is punchy, the characters are complex, and the story about two cultures trying to integrate is both entertaining and aspirational.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Great start

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

Great start, look forward to book 2

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