12 years have passed since we last saw Apion.. and by the authors own words they have been 12 bloody years..

The tone of the book is set from the start. Words that come to mind are Dark, Revenge & War

Apion and Nasir are looked in what looks like a never ending war between their opposing armies and from the start of the book you can tell Apion is currently on the losing side.. the borderlands of the empire look set to fall.. the Haga and his loyal men including my favourites from the previous book Sha, Blastares and Procopius stand in the way of the Seljuk army.

After a lot of bloodshed we see Apion summoned to Constantinople where we are introduced to a lot of new characters. The one I found interested me the most was Dederic a fellow solider, his character gains depth throughout the book, I love Apion don’t get me wrong but I absolutely loved Dederic.

The plot of the book surpassed any expectations I had. There’s so much crammed in to the book its crazy but nothing feels rushed or misplaced.

Now Apion along with his men are tasked to head into Syria and take the war to the Seljuks..and Nasir.

I don’t want to give away anything but Gordon manages to bring some conclusion to the whole Apion/Nasir revenge storyline while also leaving you on tenterhooks as to what will happen next. There are some big surprises in store for you lucky readers.

The author clearly knows his stuff, he fills you with so much background information throughout the book but I never felt bogged down.

If I was to think of anything I didn’t like it would only be that Sha, Blastares and Procopius don’t play as big a part in this book as I would have liked but saying that once you read the story you can tell why.. Gordon weaved such a good tale that these guys needed to take a step back in order to see the story develop.

This is such a good book and I can’t wait to get time to read the 3rd book! I highly recommend to check out Gordon’s work.

Gordon has quickly became a favorite author of mine and i'm excited to see what lies ahead