A Tide of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan

Anthony Ryan returns to the world of his recent medieval Covenant of Steel fantasy series (The Pariah, The Martyr, The Traitor) with A Tide of Black Steel, the start of a new series known as the Age of Wrath. This new series takes place in a different part of Ryan’s world (the most northern part of the last series is the most southerly point on this book’s map) and twenty years after the events of the Covenant of Steel. While no knowledge of the previous series is strictly needed to enjoy this, there are plenty of call backs, references and character connections so that those familiar with the previous works will definitely get more out of this one.

While the Covenant of Steel series was a swords, horses and castles medieval-Europe style fantasy, the new series set in the North has a more Nordic and viking-era feel. With longboats, double headed axes and remote island communities. The ruling Ascarlians did make an appearance in the Covenant of Steel in a memorable battle that has more than one echo down into the current story. And that story revolves around four main characters – warrior brother and sister Felnir and Thera, a fisherman called Ruhlin who has particular abilities and Elvine a translator. The book opens when Ruhlin is captured by an invading force while the rest of his village is slain. As the impacts of this impending invasion are felt in the capital, Thera is sent to investigate while her disgraced brother is sent on a mission with Elvine to try and discover the location of an ancient treasure.

As always in Ryan’s books the story rattles along as mysteries are slowly revealed and there is plenty of well-handled action and violence, much of which involves maritime combat. And there is also a strain of the magical or at least uncanny – including Ruhlin’s powers and the way they are controlled, another character who has the power to control animals, and later some potentially magical weapons.

When the Covenant of Steel series ended it felt as if Ryan had more story under his belt for this world and it characters. But the direction he has gone in is surprising, introducing a whole new set of characters in a mostly new locale and problems far removed from the concerns of the previous series. But by tying some of the events and characters into those previous books it feels like all of a piece. This is the first book in a series so it is safe to say that none of the stories or threads that start here quite comes together by the shocking, cliffhanger-filled end to Book One. But having read Ryan’s previous works, readers can be in no doubt that they are in good hands in terms of the ways in which the plot will twist and come together over the following two volumes.

A Tide of Black Steel by Anthony Ryan

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8.0/10