Table of Contents

A genre hybrid of western meets grimdark post-apocalyptic fantasy.
Can a path of blood lead to redemption?

Is redemption enough to amend a wayward world?
Morality and reality have shifted from their natural axis. Technology and ideology derive from the remnants of a world long dead and segregated by the monsters that now rule the seas.
Crow, a young ranch hand, is swept into an odyssey of redemption and revenge as he strives to hold back the ravages of fate and the urges born of a curse shared with his new mentor.
Callus, an exile struggling to find redemption whilst keeping his vampiric curse from tainting his new ward, pursues his prey across the sea.
The new world they discover reveals a tyrannical society fixated on their council’s ascension to godhood.

-Goodreads

Book Information

  • Title: Callus & Crow
  • Series: The Wayward World Chronicles #1
  • Author: D.B. Rook
  • Page Count: 312
  • Genre: Fantasy
  • Rating: 4.0/5.0
  • Date Read: August 9th, 2024

Opening Thoughts

Callus & Crow by D.B. Rook was our group buddy read selection for the month of August. I didn’t know too much going into this other than it looked a bit like a fantasy western style story. Before we get into specifics I will say none of our group were ready for this one. This was a very different type of story. I described it often as entertaining chaos and I stand by that. I did enjoy the second half of the story more than the first and I’ll point out some of the things that worked for me and others that didn’t.

Pacing

The pacing is probably my biggest struggle with Callus & Crow. The writing style of this one is probably going to be very polarizing with readers. The speed of the read was on the quicker side. However, the multiple points of view in each chapter and the additional odd anonymous view telling the story just didn’t work well for me. This was the beginning of the chaos for me. Other than that, I only noticed a handful of editing issues (typos). It seemed like fairly well polished book.

World Building

The world building was actually one of my favorite aspects. D.B.’s creative imagination is off the charts with this world. We had some readers drop off fairly early so they didn’t get to experience the wide range of this world. The scope of geography is on a grand scale. There is some unique magic and religion combinations along with some more traditional monster myths injected. I think one of the reasons this world connected so much with me is it reminded me a lot of a tabletop game called Malifaux. That game combines factions such as western and horrors among others. This is a very diverse world.

Character Development

The character development was also fairly good. As long as you can stick around and piece together the fragmented story telling. There is a good timeline with some good character arcs and there are a lot of characters to keep up with. Both storylines for Callus and Crow themselves was entertaining. Others such as Laz, Crave, Dolomon and Silk were also really good by the end. I still had some questions of things that were touched on with some characters in first book. I’m not sure if we will learn more as the series continues or not. I hope so though.

Roundup & Recommendation

In the end, I’m glad that I stuck with this one. I really felt the back half was put together better. I don’t know if this is an actual reality or I was just starting to get into the story and used to the author’s style of storytelling. The story starts out all over the place. I’ll say if you’re interested in any of the aspects of the characters or the world in the first half, stick with it. Things get really exciting, tense and dark in the back half for the finale.

I’d recommend this to readers who like a wild mix of fantasy that includes a bit of western theme, interesting creatures or monsters, religion and political intrigue and some really good found family and relationship ties. Let’s not forget the combinations of both revenge and redemption to be found in Callus & Crow.

Scoring

World Building 5/5
Pacing 3/5
Character Development 4/5

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Chad Barnard

Owner/Operator of The Hiking Reader Blog. Sharing thoughts on books and hiking trails and trying to find ways to continue to incorporate both hobbies together.

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