“The Shadow Casket” and “The Ember Blade” are among the best fantasy books I’ve ever read — and I still can’t understand why no one seems to talk about them.
Book Review: “Toll the Hounds”
- Series: The Darkwater Legacy #2
- Author: Chris Wooding
- 832 pages, Hardcover, Gollancz
- First published February 16, 2023
- ASIN B09MTFDVM1
- Language English
- Available for e-readers in ePub, PDF, Audiobook
Plot
The story follows a group of characters devoted to preparing a rebellion.
In the first book, the resistance manages to obtain the Ember Blade, the legendary symbol of Ossian freedom. But the truth is that the long-awaited revolution feels further away than ever. Everyone wants freedom, yet they remain divided — and the path toward that dream is different for each of them.
The northern tribes are caught up in their own feuds, the Druids remain indifferent, the Saardi continue to suffer genocide at the hands of the Krodans, and ordinary people lack the strength to rise up. The Krodans relentlessly crush every attempt at rebellion, always on the heels of the Keepers of the Dawn. Their terrifying Dreadknights have no equal capable of standing against them — and their very presence spreads fear.
“And what is a revolution, if not a collection of small acts — waves made of millions of raindrops, a storm upon the lake?”
The atmosphere is hauntingly dark. Chris Wooding sustains a constant sense of threat throughout. The characters are hunted, attacked, wounded, and forced to endure loss after loss. Every time the author offers a spark of hope, he douses it with a torrential downpour. Everything feels hopeless.
The fate of the Saardi mirrors the horrors of the Nazi genocide, and the prison scenes evoke imagery of concentration camps — unforgettable and deeply unsettling. Wooding easily stands alongside Abercrombie and Erikson in terms of brutality and psychological weight.
The world is vast and sometimes disorienting — there’s no glossary or map, which only amplifies that sense of confusion.
On one side of the conflict stands Kroda, an empire of order and obedience where everyone has their assigned role. Women are homemakers, and men serve their faith and rulers without question.
“Freedom of expression was the root of chaos.”
On the other side are the free peoples, with Ossia at their center. Once as powerful as today’s Kroda, Ossia has fallen, now symbolizing freedom of thought and individuality — virtues that, paradoxically, became the cause of its downfall.
Interestingly, we also get the Krodan perspective. There is both good and evil on each side, and ordinary people are the true victims. Wooding even explores betrayal among the Ossians themselves, adding more emotional depth to the story.
Review
This book is a bloody journey filled with twists, death, betrayal, and war.
Chris Wooding doesn’t hesitate to kill — and does so with such detail that it provokes both grimaces and nightmares.
Eight hundred and fifty pages of relentless action and tension, through which we grow to know and love the characters. Wooding’s protagonists are complex and layered, with inner worlds that refuse to leave you indifferent. Their growth is tangible from the first to the last page.
And lest you think epic fantasy lacks a touch of romance — Wooding includes that, too. There’s youthful, innocent love, but also doomed love, lost forever.
The Shadow Casket strikes a perfect balance between bloodshed and humor — and Wooding handles that masterfully. Grub remains my favorite since our first encounter and doesn’t disappoint here either. The Skarl warrior continues to hand out nicknames and sharp-tongued wisdom at just the right moments.
“Grub raised the key he had used to lock the door, showed it to the boar, then hurled it down the corridor.
‘You’re about to become bacon,’ he told his opponent, mustering every ounce of petty malice he could.”
There’s hardly anything missing from this story — and it’s unlikely to leave my top-favorites list anytime soon.
“Heroes don’t always have to fight. They don’t even have to be the best at anything.
What do they do?
They don’t give up.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
A BAND OF REBELS.
A TRAITOR IN THEIR MIDST.
A REVOLUTION ABOUT TO BEGIN.
It’s been three years since Aren seized the Ember Blade. Three years since they struck the spark they hoped would ignite the revolution. But the flame has failed to catch. The Krodans have crushed Ossia in an iron grip of terror. The revolution seems further away than ever.
Far in the north, the Dawnwardens seek to unite the fractious clans of the Fell Folk and create a stronghold from which to retake their land. But even if they can overcome the danger of treachery from within, they still have to contend with the dreadknights. Only the druidess Vika can resist these near-unstoppable foes, and there’s only one of her.
But what if there was a weapon that could destroy the dreadknights? A weapon of such power it could turn the tide? A weapon that, if it fell into the wrong hands, might mean the end of all hope?
The Shadow Casket has returned from out of the past, and it will save or damn them all.
‘The Ember Blade is Lord of the Rings for the modern generation – an epic world full of history, depth and adventure’ Ed McDonald, author of Daughter of Redwinter
