Fantasy Ebook: Death's Angels by William King

Fantasy is a genre that is so dominated by Tolkien and spin offs from Middle Earth much of the time that it really is refreshing to read something a bit different.  Something without Elves, Dwarves and a Medieval setting.

Something with guns!

Guns and no armor?  This cant be a fantasy book!
Dude on the cover could be an elf though so maybe...

The setting for Death's Angels is a world in which humans were barbarians enslaved by demon gods and monsters until the Terrarchs arrived.  The Terrarchs came with dragons and powerful magic and conquered the humans, driving out the demons and stamping out their worship as well as any human sorcerers they could find.

The Terrarchs themselves are tall and elegant and came through a  portal fleeing a war that they were losing.   The Terrarchs have pointy ears but definitely aren't elves.  Magical, long lived, elegant.  Pointy ears.  Definitely not elves.  Yeah, I struggled there too but stick with me.

The actual book is set some time after the Terrarchs arrived and their Empire has split - the major kingdoms left now being Talorea and Sardea.  The Taloreans view humans as second class citizens but with rights, whereas the Sardeans consider them at best slaves.  Of course the two sides are at war and, you guessed it, they both use humans as their foot troops because the humans are so populous and keep expanding in numbers.

Rik is the main character in Death's Angels, a half breed soldier in the Talorean army.  Rik doesn't know who his father is, his mother was murdered when he was young, and prior to joining up he was a thief who worked closely with an old witch (magic being banned for humans this was particularly dangerous).  As a member of the Talorean army Rik is a Forager -  light infantry tasked with scouting and raiding the enemy rather than going into battle as a line infantryman -  so his past and skills make him a natural.

At the beginning of Death's Angels Rik and his unit are tasked with going into the mountains on the border of Talorea and capturing some hill tribesmen who have been raiding the local area.  These hill tribesmen are in league with a group of  sorcerers who have made a pact with demons in some mad attempt to overthrow the Terrarchs - even if it means bringing back the good old days of human sacrifice and subjugation by demons and monsters.

Whilst in the hills Rik finds the books of a powerful sorcerer which he steals, convincing his companions of their value if they can fence them to an underground human sorcerer whilst secretly wanting to read them himself.

This all leads to Rik gaining the attention of a powerful Terrarch sorcerer and beginning a series of adventures as she recruits him to be her agent...

I really enjoyed Death's Angels.

When I initially got the book from Amazon it was free - which was great - and I enjoyed it enough to buy the other books in the series.

Definitely worth checking out if you want something with a lot of action in a unique fantasy setting to read.

William King also has quite an interesting blog of his own that I have been reading for some time.  Check it out.